Verbal

Seasons

Floating...

Drifting...

Mud crutches

A young robert zimmerman once said, 'you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.' Even earlier, he also said, 'a hard rain's a-gonna fall.' Essentially, zimmy's treatise was this; rain will come and your beloved meteorologist cannot be trusted to tell you exactly when that will be.

I don't believe i'm putting words in the mouth of dylan.

Maybe i'm speculating only slightly, but when i woke up on tuesday morning and decided to take the family on a trip to brown county state park, i hung a whole lot of hope on the accuracy of my local weather forecasters.

This is not the face nor hair of a man thinking rationally nor realistically.

After a drizzly drive south and a scenic picnic from the confines of our car, the whole family took a hike down our favorite stream. Despite the light rain there ain't alotta water flowin over the limestone.

After a brief turkey chasing excursion, we moseyed on into the hustlin, bustlin town of nashville for a couple of homemade waffle cones. We continued on our stroll and happened upon this quaint destination...

Haunted wedding chapel or theater of the dead?Just minutes from continuing our journey homeward, we stumbled upon what might be the single greatest find of our travels this week outside the sausage wagon in bargersville...

Ol' jonesie's really trying to sell it with that tagline.

We decided to take their word for it.

Chill cuz

Olivia made her first trip to the mighty fort of wayne last weekend.

Not only was this her first journey to her mother's homeland, but it was also her first overnighter outside the rockey home since her departure from the hospital of her birth. Upon arrival, she was greeted with a portrait rendered by her cousin megan (girlfriend really nailed those bright blue peepers, eh?).

As one can tell, olivia and megan enjoyed some endearing nonverbal exchanges...

Megan's brother kyle is completely enamored by olivia - particularly her little feet. He'll just sit and look at her and laugh and point out the bubbles she makes. He seems just as infatuated with her as anyone. He held olivia's attention fairly well too. Perhaps it was the canine costume which he paraded around in for the better part of the evening.

Our girl's already up to just under nine pounds. After a decent night of eating and falling swiftly back to sleep, so far today there has been very little keeping her satisfied. We do believe a growth spurt is on its way. She just cannot get enough to eat.

Here's what baby girl's been rockin out to today...

We got some things to get done.

They are as follows:
-Lick this logo
-Help a sister out
-Make a modest buck
-Take a chill pill
-Ride the dragon

Holler if you feel me.

Pumpkin patch particulars

Tuesday morning (approximately 10:00 am, which is actually quite early for us these days) we skipped town with our friends chris, amy and bella to the booming metropolis of trafalgar, indiana. Trafalgar is the home of one Apple Works, an immaculate apple orchard which features a country store, petting zoo, super slide, bamboo maze, pumpkin patch, disco parlor, iced cream farm, monkey-go-round and a salad bar. They have a wonderful balsamic vinegar.

These dudes are serious about their snacks.

The final destination during our Apple Works visit was the pumpkin patch. Apparently, there's been a shortage of hay what with the economy and all. Therefore, we were left hayrideless to find our own way down the twisted gravel road which ended at the fabled patch of gourds. Fortunately, from in the distance, a gigantic, apparently angry pumpkin called us forth to gather up his kin for our own.

Olivia had a decidedly delightful time as she searched high and low for the perfect pumpkin to take home with her. She could not contain her shrieks of absolute joy from erupting uncontrollably. It was an incredibly emotional traipse through this particular patch of pumpkins.

proper.

Diapers of diamonds

This weekend began entertaining the fantasy that our little olivia had produced a diaper full of diamonds. This happened to be untrue as we discovered those tiny diamonds were merely beads of super absorbent polymer commonly found in diapers. Miranda of course thought that olivia's pee had crystallized overnight, but i knew instead that our little girl was a diamond producing phenom.

Nope.

Just polymer.

On saturday morning, i had the joy of playing a completely acoustic, unamplified set of songs at the indieana handicraft exchange. It was fun to get out and play again while visiting friends and making new ones. I also got to sit in on harmonica with the half step sisters on their rendition of bobby dylan's 'you ain't goin nowhere'. Delightful time. Thanks to all who came out and showed support and bought some sweet handmade stuff.

In other baby news: Olivia is still adorable.

Today's tasks:
-mind the mustard room
-rock some chili and some d. johnston
-looooong walk
-explore other options for producing diamonds internally
-poop

You do the same.

The following is a paid political advertisement

How was our night you ask? Tacos by roscoe's and a small reunion of former stonegate personnel made it mighty fine indeed. A triple shout out to our girl wendy!

Late nights are when olivia gets to chill with daddy. And by chill I mean chug a couple ounces of soy peppered with a healthy dose of burps and bellyaches. It's hard to resist when she burns a hole through your soul with those baby blues. Consider my heart fondue.

Activity for the home viewers:
Congratulations to mr. andrew who was the only participant and therefore by default the winner of the last create-your-own-adventure montage. His winnings were not, however, unmerited. His story will be published in a future post. Mrs. fields is waiting for you sir.

Here's this weeks create-your-own-adventure montage. The winner receives a surprise. Step up to the plate y'all and tell us what's goin on in this series of dramatic photographs...

We interupt your regularly scheduled blog posting for this important bulletin:

Don't forget to come out to the second annual indieana handicraft exchange at the harrison center for the arts in downtown indianapolis this friday and saturday. Your own joel rockey will be sharing a set of handmade songs, tee shirts and digital music discs on saturday morning at 11:15 am. The harrison center for the arts is located on the corner of 16th and delaware in beautiful downtown indy.

Later in the evening, my pal katie basbagill has an opening reception for a showing of her photographic work at B-Java. More live tunes.

In other news:

Just over the horizon is the fabled return of a rockey home companion's beloved podcast known affectionately as the aural supplement. To satisfy your appetites in the following days, I will be posting links to previous episodes for downloading and trading with your friends.

Podcast Archive: Episode 9:
The ground grows colder by the hour as we construct our masks and ask to devour the candy corn cobs turning to dust in the wake of Autumn's final gust. Chilled to the bone, guest host Senor Hector LaVeta tempts the recesses of your ears with hallowed tones of excitable stones being thrown in the dark of night.

MP3 Download: Episode 9

Cheers!