There Is Water

I managed to install new capacitors in my trusty iMac's logic board (the Apple equivalent of a motherboard) this weekend. There were 28 of them in total. It took me around 15 hours or so. That's right. Most people are out doing stuff on the weekends. As for me...I stayed home, so I could bang my head against the wall while trying not to burn myself with a soldering iron. (I'm not a nerd.) This operation was much more complicated than I expected. After spending two hours pulling everything out of my computer (and I mean ev-er-y-thing), I was almost regretting my decision to make this repair. There were bits and pieces of my Mac all over the place. (Short recap here: About four or five months ago, my iMac went down for the count. Fortunately, I have an external backup. Unfortunately, all my music programs are on that computer, which means I haven't composed in a very long time. When the computer went down, I had just started a piece for wind ensemble, so that's been setting unfinished all this time. Anyway, repair bill was around $500-$600. Why? New Logic board. Why? One bad capacitor. That's right. I said one cheap little capacitor. Apparently, this is a common problem with the capacitors used in my computer, so I decided to replace all 28. The capacitors were about a buck each, so the penny pincher in me was incredibly excited.) After reinstalling everything and latching my computer back together, it was time for the big test. I plugged it in and pushed power (halfway expecting it to blowup), and my computer made that loud "BING!" sound that says, "Hey. Look at me! I'm starting up!" Yay! We'll see what happens. I did a lot of googling before and during this little procedure, but there were still quite a few things I had to wing. I'm going to keep a close eye on it. If all seems well, I'll post some tips here, just in case someone else out there is crazy enough to attempt brain surgery on their computer.

My Independence Day began at the Oklahoma State Capital where I attended the Sooner Tea Party. I wasn't sure what to expect. I know tons of people that are disgusted with what's going on in this nation, yet none of them were planning to go to a Tea Party. I have to admit that my drive to the capital building was full of anxiety and wonder. Like I said, I know lots of people that should have gone but wouldn't. They all had their reasons: fear, too busy, didn't want to look like a 1960's hippy, etc. I kept thinking, "What if it just turns out to be me and a couple of crazy people walking up and down the steps of the capital building holding up those cliche protest signs?" There are very few things sillier than a three-person protest. Upon arriving I realized that I had no reason to be nervous. There were close to 5,000 patriotic Americans there. I didn't see any crazy people, which was nice. There were entire families, lots of American flags, and tons of friendly folks eager to talk about their passion for American freedom. I'm excited to see more and more people leaving their apathy behind. It's not too late to save this country. It's quite simple really. You just have to vote for the right people. If you have a representative that finds it necessary to misrepresent his/her constituency, it's time to put someone else in that office. If that person fails to do the job, vote him/her out next time around as well. Eventually, someone's going to get the hint. Overall, stop worrying about the economy. We're letting that distract us away from the real issue: Freedom. What good is an economy if you don't have freedom?! What good is money if you don't have freedom?! My grandparents tell me amazing stories of four-hour horse and carriage rides to "town." They talk about their first Model-T Ford and how the world has changed over the past 90 years. America: If we're not careful, we're going to be explaining what freedom was like to our grandchildren. We can do something about this. I don't want to live with the burden of knowing that my generation dropped the ball. After over 200 years, we were the ones that willingly gave up our hard-earned freedom.

Anyway, that was just the beginning of my 4th of July. I spent the rest of the day with my amazing family. As for the evening's entertainment ...well, it rained. ...and it rained...and it rained.






Finally, we had a break and a chance for the featured presentation. You see. My family has a thing for putting on our own fireworks show, and we recently added a new tradition. We call it the redneck firework. (Please do not attempt this. Please.) Anyway, I caught it on video this year, and here it is for your viewing pleasure.



Unfortunately, we had a sudden down pour before the grand finally. I suppose we'll have to wait until New Year's Eve for that one. I hope everyone had a great Independence Day!

You're probably thinking this is the sad result of this women not taking the "new anti-aging miracle pill," Resveratrol.




















Not so. Here's her before picture. Yep. She's just as shocked as you are.