Monday, August 8, 2011

Climbing

If you click on the picture you will get a bigger view of the face
of the Rock of Cashel.  You will also see on the left the older boy
that we saw climbing the face.
Watching the Rock was a diversion as we boarded the bus and waited for our driver.   I was one of many that spotted the brick that surrounded  what looks like a door arch, with no door of course.  Between the rocks and brick we all thought it was quite steep to try to climb.   What had all of us captivated after a little while was two boys  who were climbing the Rock's face that day.  (I did capture the older boy here on the left of my picture.)  Personally, I was more than a little nervous for these young fellows who scaled the rocks toward the summit like small mountain goats so skillfully and slowly.  

I have wondered since then....did their mother (mothers?) know where they were?  And that gave me thought of my own boys when they were growing up.  

I wonder how many times they did frightening things I didn't know about.  Which added to my personal consternation.  And then a thought came to me - how many angel hands must support our children all the places they go as they climb toward adulthood?

Thursday, August 4, 2011

A World of Music at your Finger-tips

I have always been a rather odd duck when it comes to what I like whether it be in music, or in electronic gadgets.  I'm not quite a geek, though I certainly would love to be considered one, but I have to say I am certainly enamored with the techie gadgets we have today!  Especially if they can give me a plethora of music at my fingertips!

For years I have been looking for a way to get good radio reception in my own personal valley on the West coast of Michigan.  We get only a few radio stations in clearly, and the reception goes from a solid wall of white noise to an occasional piece of music with a huge amount of static!  So that's when I went on a hunt beyond a good radio station and definitely more than listening to my small CD library as well.  After looking around for months in local stores and even online I was really totally frustrated!

I didn't want that expensive satellite radio for the car or home, I just wanted to be able to get lovely classical and Celtic music - all the time of course!  I don't ask for something simple or easy do I?

My search continued for what seemed to be years, but was only really a few months until I finally discovered something I thought I'd never find.  An internet radio.  Getting the stations online from all over the world has really turned into quite a bonus, too!  I mean who wouldn't want to wake to, say a station from Ireland or England and enjoy their fantastic way of looking at the world?  For me there is nothing like waking to good classical music and add to that that British way of speaking and I was hooked.

There are a few glitches that are a definite problem but nothing that someone who loves a challenge to finally get the ability to enjoy great music of any kind as clear as if the it were being piped from the next room.

Since I got my internet radio I've discovered quite a few stations of classical, Celtic as well as other types music theme stations.  My favorites today is a station in mid-England which is fabulous to listen to for the music and their really fun commercials. There's also a station in Ireland with some of the best Celtic music I've heard.  Add to that the fact that I'm listening to a well known Boston station (WGBH!), as well as one in D.C. and New York City and you are truly  getting the feel for what I'm now enjoying with my internet radio!  For me, it was not only the best choice, it was the only choice.

Who knew you could get fabulous reception for almost any station you'd ever want to listen too.