30 Year Reunion

I played music back in my 20's. I lived in Roseburg, Oregon for about 9 years and had played country/country-rock/southern-rock in clubs around the Northwest for most of that time, playing 5-6 nights a week. The original name of the band was "Homegrown", but at one point, we wanted to cut a record. We were told that we had to change the name of the band because there were several bands in the region with the same name. After many weeks of soliciting ideas from friends, family and fans, we finally came up with the name, "D. Lee Bruce". It was a combination of middle names of the band members. The band soon went through some changes, morphing into a 5-piece, including a keyboard player. It was in 1984 that I left the music scene, moved north to Washington and went another direction in my life. Then, in 2006, I had the opportunity to re-connect with dear friends in Roseburg. Since that time, we have all stayed in contact with each other and re-kindled wonderful friendships. This coming August, we will be getting together again to play at a rock festival (of sorts) in Oakridge, Oregon. It will be the first time in 30 years that the whole band has played on stage together!!!! (The end result will be a 6-piece band, consisting of drums, bass guitar, rhythm guitar, 2 lead guitars and keyboards...and EVERYONE sings,too!). This is a video of some practice time we had over the weekend of May 16, 2010 down in Roseburg. It shows only 4 songs out of about a 2-hour set that we will be playing at Oakridge. The only member missing at this practice was our original lead guitarist, who lives in Hawaii. He will be here, though, in August with his family. I hope you enjoy this little tidbit of DLB revisited.....

It's Been Awhile....

It's been awhile since I last posted, so here's an update on life around here...

I have most of my vegetable garden in...radishes, strawberries and cherry tomatoes on the deck, and Walla-Walla sweet onions and garlic in the ground. The only thing left is 3 rows of carrots. The weather since planting has been "iffy" at best, so I'll have to watch the tomatoes closely. (As of this post, though, it is sunny and the forecast calls for nice days over the weekend).

Several other projects on tap for the summer, too. Some picket fence repair is needed in the front yard, bathroom painting, hopefully an addition to the patio, roof repair (several shingles lost during the past few wind storms). Plus, normal yard/garden maintenance.

All that, PLUS I have a 30-year band reunion coming up in August. Back in my 20's, I played in a band, professionally. We played country/country-rock/southern-rock/originals in clubs around the Northwest for about 9 years. I left music in 1985, then had the opportunity to reconnect with the rest of the band in 2008. The drummer has stayed in music the whole time, having played in several different bands. About 5 years ago, he helped organize a rock festival in Oakridge, Oregon, and every August since then, he has played with his current band, and several other bands have been asked to play. It is called the "Just Us" Festival....meaning that the event is primarily designed for musicians to gather together and just have alot of fun playing and jamming with each other. Over the years, the festival has attracted a larger and larger audience, too.
Anyway, on top of all the household chores and projects I have lined up, I have also been practicing for the festival. I had to buy some new equipment, as I sold most all of it back in '85.
Each of us has a set of CD's with the songs we will play in August (taken from past live recordings of the band). So, we are all practicing on our own, until we can spend a few days prior to the festival to rehearse. In the meantime, I am going down to Oregon for a few days this month to jam a little bit with the guys. (all, except one of the guitarists who lives in Hawaii....he will be there in August).

My dogs, Boone and Sadie are doing fine. This summer, Boone will turn 12 and Sadie will be 10 years old! (They certainly don't act that old, though!) Boone has a condition called Megaesophagus. Basically, the muscles in his esophagus don't push the food into his stomach like they should, so he eats sitting up vertically (so gravity will pull the food and water down), then he remains upright for another 10 minutes to finish the process. I am in the process of building a special chair for him, called a Bailey's Chair. It is, in essence, a padded vertical box that he can sit in while eating and digesting, so that I won't have to manually hold him up to the kitchen counter, and prop him up with a pillow on the couch (like I am currently doing, and have done 3 times a day since January). When I go to Oregon, I will board the dogs at my vet, so his staff will need a crash-course on how to feed my "special child"!
I am still driving a city bus in Everett, Washington (it will be 12 years in October). Best gig I ever had! I meet lots of interesting people, and work with some of the nicest folks I've known.
My grown children are spread out all over, and I don't get to see them as much as I'd like to, but I try to keep in touch. I have several grandchildren who are busy with sports and school. My son, Joe, is running for Congress in Mississippi. (You can follow his progress at joetegerdine.com)
Life is good. People are wonderful. Time to go to work......

WEATHERSHIFT

This is a time-lapse video clip consisting of 755 individual frames, each one being a 10-second exposure. The time frame is from 3:30 a.m. - 6:00 a.m. on March 23. The view is looking northeast. Notice how the clouds seem to "turn tail and run" from the approaching sunrise?????

(2-1/2 hours in 10 seconds!!!)

AuroraCam

Spring and Fall are usually considered Aurora season. For reasons not completely understood, the Northern Lights are active during the equinoxes. I have a camera set up to watch for any aurora activity. This clip is a time-lapse of the northern sky between 11:30 p.m. on March 18 and 6:00 a.m. on March 19. No aurora activity, but an interesting movie, anyway.....

(6 1/2 hours in 18 seconds!)

No Geriatric Invalid Here.....

For those of you who may have gotten the impression that my (almost) 12 year-old male Daschund, Boone is becoming a geriatric invalid, here's proof that the old guy can still keep up with his younger (10 year old) sister, Sadie....almost.....

Feeding Boone

Ahhhh, the things we do for our kids!

Back around the first of the year, my male Daschund, Boone was diagnosed with Megaesophagus. It is a condition in which the muscles of the esophagus don't function properly to push the food and water into the stomach. This video gives you an idea what is involved in the process of feeding Boone and why.....(we do this 3 times a day).

Night Moves

Here is the overnight video sequence from Feb. 22-23. This consists of 2,800 individual 10-second exposures, processed and speeded up (for convenience). The sequence ends as the sky begins to brighten around 6 a.m.. Enjoy....

ISS CHASES ENDEAVOUR

At 5:52 a.m. on Sunday February 21, the International Space Station and shuttle Endeavour passed over the northwest United States. After Endeavour undocked from ISS, it pulled ahead of the Station in preparation for it's re-entry and landing back on Earth.

This 18-frame sequence shows the two spacecraft in the southeast sky...

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

The International Space Station passes over Meadowcreek Park Observatory at 5:04 a.m. on February 19. This image was taken while shuttle Endeavour was still docked to ISS.

Mars!!!!!

On Monday night, February 8, the weather here in Marysville cooperated long enough for me to fire up the ol' 10-inch telescope and get some great video of Mars (which, by the way, I broadcasted LIVE on USTREAM). Scattered clouds blocked the view periodically, but there were some extended clear skies around 9 p.m., until the fog finally rolled in. The northern polar cap can easily be seen, as well as some of the darker land formations. This video is about 4 minutes long, but don't feel obligated to watch the whole thing.....it's just Mars.....

STS-130 (Endeavour) Launch

Shuttle Endeavour (STS-130) successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center at 4:14 a.m. EST Monday on it's mission to the International Space Station.

You can follow the progress of the mission from the STS-130 link under the MISSION UPDATES section on my website.....

New WeatherCam

I have added a new view to my USTREAM arsenal. An extreme wide-angle view, looking east. My USTREAM 24-hour broadcast can be seen at
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mpocam

I hope you enjoy it.

LIVE Broadcast of the Moon

Sorry I haven't blogged for quite awhile. Been busy with other stuff. I've been broadcasting LIVE on USTREAM lately....different views from around here, and my dogs, Boone and Sadie occasionally. The other night, I connected my camera to my Meade ETX-125 telescope and broadcasted some views of the Moon. Here is a sample of that little endeavor.....

To view my LIVE broadcasts, go to:

www.ustream.tv/channel/mpocam