Some people have wondered if your humble bloggist has a brain. That has been the source of much scientific controversy. Well, as a public service, I have decided to settle the matter by having an MRI done on my head. Unfortunately, I will not have a definite answer until next Tuesday or so, but there should be an answer. I’m hoping to get a copy of the MRI – I do not know if that is possible, but how cool would it be to have a picture of your own (still theoretical) brain?

I learned a few things about MRIs:
1) The magnetic field is so strong, they took an x-ray of my eyes to make sure there were no metal shavings in them from my days of working in a garage. Apparently if you have metal in your eyes, you can be blinded.
2) I was allowed to keep my gold wedding band on, since gold is not magnetic.
3) The MRI tech was very nice, and she was quite possibly younger than me (how did THAT happen?).
4) MRI machines are REALLY loud inside (they give you earplugs).
5) It is VERY important not to move your head (for the image quality, I assume).
6) You are asked to keep your eyes closed the whole time. I presume this is to prevent claustrophobia for imitating a torpedo about to be launched.
7) It takes quite awhile to image – it was about 10 minutes without dye and about 5 minutes with dye. That is a long time not to move your head.
8) The dye they inject you with will NOT turn you into a raging green super-powered being. What good is medicine nowadays, anyway?

The MRI is a precautionary diagnostic to make sure the headaches I have been having for the last few months are just headaches (caused by lousy eating and bad sleep habits?).

If I get a copy of pictures of my brain (or pictures showing an “out to lunch” sign), I’ll post them here.

Emma decided to help Mer with grading papers. Or, maybe she heard that Auntie Jo might be coming to town and hid.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST finally came to the $1 theater. It’s even showing on two screens. I hope to finally get to see it. For ONE dollar.

On Saturday, I met up with nine guys from church, and we raked leaves in the yard of a house-bound man. I am not a big fan of raking, and I rarely do it, but it was a good cause and with ten of us, we knocked the yard out in about two hours, in spite of two rain breaks. I had to leave after an hour-and-a-half so I could get home in time to go to Kent for the free music workshops, which turned out to be next Saturday (good thing I checked online before we went up to Kent).

To show how sad I am about physical labor, 1) my arms are sore today, and 2) I got blisters on both hands through work gloves. THAT is when you know you have a soft-hand kind of job.

Saturday evening, Mer and I went to Actors’ Summit Theater (where we have season tickets) to see Shaw’s Arms and the Man. For those who remember, Mer and I saw Too True to be Good  (by Shaw) last summer, which we did not like. This was a chance for me to like Shaw again. I was not disappointed. Arms and the Man was funny and thoughtful. Shaw managed to poke fun at love, class, and war without beating you over the head, and he created an interesting plot and interesting characters to boot. Actors’ Summit did a great job staging the play (as they always do). Mer said she saw a review where the critic preferred the Actors’ Summit production over the Shaw Festival’s own version of the play. I thought the acting was great all around, but the main male lead had a great stage presence – he stumbled on a line or two, but was a compelling character. The play runs for another week, so if you are local to NE Ohio, I recommend getting out and seeing it (and those in Mrs. Riordan’s classes get extra credit for doing so!).

On Wednesday, Mer and I got to go out with our friends Zach and Londa. We were going to see David Wilcox on the opening night of the Kent State Folk Festival. We decided to grab some food before the concert, so Zach suggested going to Chipotle. I had heard of Chipotle before, but had never been. A friend of mine described it as “the Subway of Mexican food,” which was pretty accurate. They take the same idea as Subway (you tell them how to assemble it), and apply it to burritos. It was quite good. I suspect a quick-burrito place across the street from Kent State does very well.

After Chipotle, we went to Starbucks, where I remembered I was boycotting them (because they sure seem to be violating labor law to me), so I watched Zach and Londa get various coffee-related drinks, which we took to the Kent Stage. At the Kent Stage, I was able to get a hot chocolate, so I was quite happy.

The show for the evening was David Wilcox, but there was an opening act of two women playing guitars. Not only could they play well, but they had great harmony. Mer will remember their names for me – I’ll have her add it later [will do:  VA Dare, I think].

David had a great show. He sang for over two hours without taking a break. His storytelling was both funny and meaningful, and he appeared to be having a great time on stage (he laughed a lot). He did many of his more spiritual songs (like “Farthest Shore” and “That’s What the Lonely is For“) while still throwing in some funny stuff (like “The Waffle House Tango“). It was a very fun evening, AND it was on a Wednesday. Talk about being wild – out past 11:00 on a school night!

It is currently 38 degrees and cloudy and a Sunday. The cats very much have the right idea…

The only slight problem is now there is no room for ME on the couch.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, Mer and I have carved pumpkins for eleven years now. Here are the 2006 editions.

Mer came up with a very nice Shakespeare, while I carved the second in my Christian pumpkin series.

Saturday evening, Mer and I got to go to the wonderful Kent Stage to see John Gorka in concert. John has a great deep baritone voice, plays a mean guitar, and has clever and thoughtful vocals. He also has a good stage presence – he is funny and relaxed and is not afraid to interact with the audience quite a bit. Check out these songs (open with Quicktime) – Land of the Bottom Line (a song about surrendering freedom for security), Raven in the Storm (a song that creates a creepy mood), Let Them In (a song about WW2 soldiers that were killed), and People My Age (a song about getting old and fat). The concert was almost two hours long, and it was great.

Mer and I hung out in the lobby to get to meet John, who was supposed to come out after a few minutes (and he did). What was surreal about waiting was that the street outside the venue was the main place for Kent State students to show off their Halloween costumes. There was an endless stream of young folks in costume roaming up and down both sides of the street. My clear favorite was a guy in a Fred Flintstone costume. In his car. In his foot-powered car. What an awesome costume. It was just a little weird to come out of a concert that was mostly full of 30-somethings and older, and come out into a world of semi-sober costumed college students. I *really* wish I had had my camera.  [Mer’s note – semi-sober and semi-costumed; maybe it’s just as well you didn’t have your camera!]

Folk music is great. I have been a folk nut for about 18 years now, and I have been going to folk concerts for much of that time. Oddly, NE Ohio is a hub of folk music. I get to see as much (or more) folk music here as I did in Chicago. My guess is that 1) Ohio is on the way to everywhere for artists who drive, and 2) WKSU’s folk program is highly regarded. So, we get lots of good folk music coming our way. In fact, the 40th annual Kent State Folk Festival is coming up in two weeks. My favorite part of the Kent State Folk Festival is the **free** workshops that are given on the Saturday of the festival. You can choose what workshop you want to go to, and you can be in a small room with good artists who want to explain what they do. It is much fun.

I love folk music for many reasons. I find the music more interesting than most pop music. The lyrics are usually thoughtful (or at least funny). The instrumentation is great, and the artists care about their art. They obviously want to make a living, but they are not making millions playing music – they really do it because they love it. I also love that folk concerts allow you to be up close and personal – at most concerts I am usually less than 50 feet from the performer. I love that intimacy. I can watch them play the instruments and wonder how they get that much sound out of the instruments. Many of the performers make themselves available before or after the show, or during intermissions. I also love the variety of folk music – it has roots in many cultures. My favorite folk music is heavily Celtic influenced, but I have seen or heard great African music, Klezmer bands, Russian music and more. Folk music has a great diversity in it. Ironically, my least favorite folk music is the “popular” folk music of the 60s – I tend to find it a little irritating (singing slightly off key seems to have been “in” in the 60s). I also prefer songs about people to general protest songs. Give me a good song about farming or breaking up or sailing or escaping the British or wrestling with God or factory work or music or friends or dancing.

It is kind of an odd phenomenon to go and see live music. Why pay $20 to see Gorka, when for $15 I can get a CD and listen whenever I want? I’m not sure. I like having “date nights” with Meredith, so that is part of it. I like getting to see how artists play the instruments, so that is part of it. I like being part of the experience – there is something fun about live music – it is organic. Sometimes the performer will explain why a song was written, and that is enlightening. You often can see the personality of the singer. You get to support them in what they do – I’m pretty sure that they make much of their living by performing concerts. Economically, it does not make perfect sense to go see live music instead of buying CDs, but there you have it. I love live music, and I’ll keep going. I recommend it to you, even if you are a poor college student. Go to music on campus if you can’t afford to go to hear more established artists. Expose yourself to new music (especially if it is free or cheap). You might find music you fall in love with.

Gorka was much fun. I’m looking forward to him coming back in April. Folk music is great, and I love that it comes to me. Folk on, dude!

What weird weather Saturday. We had sun, then rain, then wind, then hail, then it all repeated several times during the day. We had rain that was horizontal with winds over 50 mph. Our neighbor had a pine tree fall over. I like extreme weather – it feels wild. I usually like being inside when it is happening. I was mostly in during the weird weather – I did get caught in the rain during a few errands. The weather mosly cleared up for the evening (much to the delight of the Halloween folks).

Our friends Matt and Liz came over this weekend for our Halloween/All Saint’s Day/All Hallow’s Eve/Harvest Festival/Fall Party. Matt and Liz are among the most educated of the folks that will still associate with me – Liz is a lawyer (and former CVCA Latin teacher), and Matt is a dissertation away from a PhD in English. Matt is way-out-there smart – he taught Latin at CVCA for two years, knows more theology in his arm than I ever will, and is getting durn smart in English. Matt reminds me very much of my father-in-law, Dale. He can quote Milton, Shakespeare, the church fathers, Homer, and more. This makes Matt’s fascination with monster trucks, motorcycles, and Johnny Cash unexpected and much fun. (Note: I am not saying that monster truck folks can’t be interested in Milton – I just think it is unusual. Also, anyone that reminds me of Dale does not remind me of monster trucks.) So, Matt was very excited to learn that this year’s corn maze at Maize Valley Farms was Bigfoot-themed (this helped make up for the pain of missing the Nascar-themed maze two years ago). In honor of the occasion, Matt wore his “Official Redneck” hat. I expect this picture of Matt and Bigfoot will end up next to his wedding photos.

It was a very nice day – sunny and in the mid-50s. We got to Maize Valley just as they were shooting the much-coveted Pumpkin Cannon. I had missed it the last two years, so I was happy to get to see it. They were shooting it initially at a junk car, and then they put it at a 45-degree angle and shot for distance. I have no good sense of how far the pumpkins went, but I would term it as “far.”

After seeing the pumpkin cannon, I clearly needed to sit down, so we took the hay ride. In past years, the hay ride took you to the pumpkin patch to pick out your pumpkin. They moved the pumpkin patch, so this year the hay ride was an end in itself. We had a nice ride and chatted. They fired the cannon while we were down range from it, but we could never find the pumpkins in the sky, so we were not able to watch them.

After the ride, we went and looked at the farm animals. For fans of Travels With My Donkey, here is a gratuitous picture for you.

After the animals came the serious business of getting pumpkins. Carving pumpkins is the only holiday tradition that Mer and I have – this will be year 11 of carving pumpkins (for those doing the math, we did indeed have 2 illegitimate pumpkins before we were married). Getting the right pumpkin is important, and thus you can understand Mer’s happiness at finding her pumpkin. Matt and Liz each claimed to have not carved pumpkins in about 15 years! I tried not to judge them too harshly for this, and I was pleased at the thought that went into their selecting pumpkins. Oddly, they both ended up with green pumpkins. I look forward to seeing what they carve (we were not able to carve our pumpkins this weekend because of time constraints, but Matt and Liz promised to carve them and send pictures along).

Included in admission was the Bigfoot-shaped corn maze, but these things are more fun in the dark, so we headed the three miles back home for chili, rolls, and peanut-butter chocloate cake provided by the Hartville Kitchen. You are probably starting to get the idea that this kind of evening is very much my speed, and you would be right – good food, good company, nice weather, ambling about a field, and projectile gourds. Life is good.

After supper, I talked about carving pumpkins, but Mer pointed out that we might run out of time for the corn maze, so we headed out. I love corn mazes – there is simple fun in wandering around lost in the dark, in corn. Maize Valley also has a popular haunted corn maze, which we did not do. However, it adds to the fun to be wandering around in your corn maze and hear a chainsaw followed by screams from the haunted maze.

Our maze looked promising. The corn was really high – about 7+ feet tall. It adds considerably to the experience if you cannot see over the corn. We wandered into the maze, following Liz’s lead. She soon stated that as a lawyer, she merely advised, so someone else would have to make decisions. The first slight hitch of the maze was that one section we came to was under about 2 or 3 inches of water. We decided to go another way – no great harm there. The object of this maze was to find a bell in the maze and ring it. We heard it every once in awhile, but not very often. After being in the maze a short while, we did hear it nearby. We went in the direction of the sound, and saw the bell. One slight irritation I have in corn mazes is that people trample the corn down to make their own paths. The place we saw the bell was at the end of one of these unofficial paths. If the corn was still standing, we would have been five feet from the bell and not been able to see it or get to it. As it was, it seemed a little silly to pretend we had not seen it. That, combined with the water in the maze, convinced us to ring the bell and exit the maze. Ringing the bell was a challenge – the bell was about nine feet off the ground, and the pull rope had come off and was lying on the ground. I picked it up, and managed to loop it around the pull arm. I got one ring out of the bell when the rope jammed in the pivot point and jammed the bell. Then, trying to fix that, I pulled the pull-rope off again. Smooth. Still, I did get it back on for one more ring. We were only in the maze for about 15 minutes, but there is always next year.

We did run into two guys who were carrying a spotlight flashlight – it was probably the brightest flashlight I have ever seen. It took several seconds to stop glowing when the guy holding it turned it off. Neat.

On the way out, we passed the entrance to the haunted maze. They had a  cool pumpkin there that made me think of Sonotmu (thinking he would like it). There was no wussy candle in this pumpkin – it had a real fire in it! It was pretty darn creepy and cool.

Once we got back to where we had parked, we spent several minutes looking up at the stars. It was a clear evening, and Matt and Liz do not get to see stars often (they live in Akron where it is not dark enough to see many stars). We got to see a shooting star. We discovered that we know almost nothing about the stars – we did find the Big Dipper, but could not agree on where the North Star was (later, I looked it up and it was not very high in the sky, which was not really where we were looking).

So, we ended the evening back at our house, where we chatted some more (after I looked up some stars and planets using Stellarium). Matt and Liz had to take off to let their dog (Charlie) out. It was a pretty great evening.