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I'm curious--what happens if you put the top three search engine terms of the week in your blog post title?  I'll let you know.



Another chapter in the 'what-it's-like-to-be-disabled' book--the last one was "What It's Like to Ask the Government for Money".  This one is "What It's Like to Ask Your Family for Money".

I am soooo lucky I have a nice family.

My husband is working part-time and I'm not working at all.  I've been looking and looking for work I can do online for...let's see now...off and on for my entire adult life.  But this time I might have actually found something.  One of my future blog posts might actually be an endorsement.  Or a condemnation.  We'll just have to wait and see.  But not to worry, I didn't give anybody my debit card number or anything.

So....the bills have started to pile up, and then the phone company called.  And then suddenly our phone service was shut off.  So I had to pay the bill first, with the mortgage money.  Then I had to call my mother and ask for money to pay the mortgage.

What's worrisome is that this is just the beginning.  I can only hope more money starts to come in soon.



Meanwhile, one of my children (aren't they all too old for this now?) has Not. Wanted. To. Do. Her. Schoolwork. Lately.  This is a whole other chapter in some other book.  Sometimes it comes and goes.  The attitude.  But let me tell you, it's not pretty when a pre-teen decides to go upstairs and do a fair imitation of an air raid siren for a quarter of an hour, during which I was quite grateful to have an upstairs.



And, after beating my imaginary head against an imaginary wall for weeks, I've think my second composition (another mazurka, of course--I'm obsessed) is finally making progress.  And now I'm wondering--why is it that a G goes with a C chord, but if you put an F with it (at the same time) it doesn't--now it goes with a G chord.

I've wondered something like this before--during the Song of the Volga Boatmen in John Thompson's Kindergarten book.  Really.  I like John Thompson a lot.  I think he's underrated as a composer.

Anyway, back to those boatmen--the song is played all in a scale from A below middle C to F above.  No G.  And the lack of a G is critical.  This song is played all in the scale of C, but it's really in A minor.  A G# would mark it as A minor, but there isn't any.  So how do we know it's really in A minor?  It just sounds like it--when you listen to it, it's screamingly obvious that it's in a minor key.  But it could be in C.  It even starts on C.            C - A - D - A          B - C - A - D - A.          B - C - F - E - D - C - A - D - D - A.  There isn't any accompaniment.  This is a kindergarten book, after all.

You're not still reading this, are you?  You should be very proud of yourself.  Or slightly worried.

Anyway, I think it has something to do with that second note.  It starts with C, which could be going anywhere, but when you add the A it sounds like it's starting an A minor chord.  But even after the third note, it's easy to take the song into a major key.  It's still possible after the fourth note, too.  Maybe it's the way that fourth note is emphasized--the way each musical phrase ends on A.

Okay, I'm done talking about music now.  I'm going to go play some more.  See ya!