Random goodness in the rain

Jesse came into the kitchen, bouncing, asking us to guess what he just did.

"I blogged!" he announced, before we had a chance to guess. I read his post, a list of random things, and was inspired to do my own. We've had some heavy rain the past few days and lots of driving to do to get to violin and archery classes. These gray, tired days can hide the good stuff, if I'm not careful.

We watched the documentary about the wire walker who danced and played on a tiny cable strung between the twin towers in the 70's. Called simply Man on Wire, it just won the academy award for best documentary. It combines the wire walker's present day thoughts about his wire walking journey with home movies and media footage of he and his team back in the day. Philippe Petit's dream of making that World Trade Center walk began when he was a boy in a dentist's office, reading in a newspaper about the plans for the building of the towers. What power there is in a long-held dream, when accompanied by some crazy good friends and passionate preparation.

We finished reading The Island of the Blue Dolphins yesterday and watched Escape to Witch Mountain the other night. I remembered liking both a lot as a child. The book traveled better through time than the movie. Gillen has declared that it's his favorite book ever.

Having had a few weeks of lessons now, Jesse had been feeling frustrated that his instrument, the violin, sounded so drastically different from that he'd heard in the Manheim Steamroller concert. But yesterday both he and Gillen were feeling very musical and were awe-struck by their new ability to actually play something close to a song, not just notes.

All is well; I'm ready for spring.