29--FFA

I love my small country town. I love that on the drive home just now, I interrupted someone who emerged from his front yard into the road and launched his crossing without looking either way. Then when he did realize my car was coming, he lurched to a stop and glared at me as I drove past, no doubt berating my insolence at driving a car on a road he's obviously about to walk on.

I love that at night there are 14 gazillion stars overhead. I distinctly remember that the big city I lived in not so long ago couldn't afford more that a dozen stars at a time, and sometimes the ones I counted at first glance turned out to be planes circling the international airport. I love that my little town has an airport where the strip is overgrown with grass and flowers and I take my dog there to run.

Sure, life is slower here, but if you're looking for what I'm looking for, that's a good thing.

I'm puzzled, though, because I keep hearing from people who live in this town how it's not the place to be. I hear from so many that the only thing to look for in this town is an exit. Take one and keep going. With little or no encouragement, I've had residents launch tirades, full-fledged diatribes on what is wrong with this town. I got tired of hearing what's wrong with this town so I started asking a different question: "What right with this town?"

Sheridan, founded in 1880, home to 5, 580 residents.

I met Roy Whitman today. He's actually from the next town over, Willamina. He's the Agricultural Science & Technology Instructor at the local high school. We had a beer together and he had just started telling me about his Christmas project when I realized that's why I know his name... just last Saturday Meredith told me about this teacher who has his class pack food and care packages for families in need at Christmas.

Preparations continue for Jonah's fundraiser on the 27th. The band is rehearsing again on Friday night. I think Tammy will be back from California by then, so this will be her first rehearsal with us. So far it's been the rhythm section and two vocals. The other two vocals are Tammy and Liana. That reminds me, Liana's in San Francisco to audition for American Idol tomorrow. Good luck, little sister!

You know, there are things that I have to be grateful for and say thank you to God about. Like someone just out of the blue gave me a $50 gift card last week. I'm short on money because of reduced hours at work, and this guy would have no way of knowing my situation, but he just said to me, "I've had this in my pocket a while and I think I'm supposed to give it to you."

Little things like that just brighten my day and also make me feel like I am hearing and following my path as designed.

Lots of appointments tomorrow. I'm signing off now.

Truth, I still haven't gotten that bassline for you. I'll listen to your tune while I work on other stuff tomorrow so hopefully, I'll hear something and be able to record it for you on Friday.