Raggin' Piano Boogie

HIS SPIRIT LIVES ON! ... BONER, THE PIANO DOG ... November 27, 1994 ... February 20, 2010

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August 31, 2012

Living in the present moment I am feeling more at peace with life than I have in a long while. It feels like the relief I have been looking for all year. No one is bothering me. Maybe because I am not bothering anyone? More time with relief is needed so lets hope... right now nothing stops me from giving all I need to myself. After doing some work today and then visiting with some friends, tonight Mo and I laid on a deck in a lounge chair staring at the full moon as it drifted across the sky through the trees. Often I have written about full moon periods through this journey. Tonight for the first time the moon felt celebratory. Mo laid on my stomach in total peace. As I massaged him behind the ears his eyes began to roll into the back of his head. It makes me almost laugh when that happens because my... first impulse is to feel a little gross, scary and its wierd while he... is impulsing himself into a state of complete nirvana.

August 30, 2012

Being away from people is good for me right now. When I was young my entire being was filled with a desperate need and desire for the opposite of being away from anything. Mo gives me total companionship. There is no feeling of Labor Day weekend, a holiday coming up. I phoned two friends to say hello. We met and stayed with them while on the journey. Afterwards, I realized that I had just talked with people from opposite ends on the northern hemisphere... Newfoundland and Alaska. China will be next.

August 29, 2012

I want to keep the focus on the next leg of the journey which is China... now or never. There is an enormous about of fear to work through. With fear that holds me back on many levels all the while knowing that I wrongly identify with the idea of fear and am just doing the best that I can... the first that comes to mind is how I was taught as a child that the people of China are less than... poor, dangerous, the enemy in some way, stay away from them, dirty, unintelligent, they will eat your dog, desperate. China was used as the most significant example as who I/we am not... and what I/we do not want to be like. I am not an individual I am a representative not of God but of family, religion, country and we must stick together... "under god" because we are on God's side and he is on our side. If the ship goes down... go with it. God will reward you when your dead. Chinese people are weird looking, scary... run away! "Those poor starving people in China, Eat your dinner!" I asked "Why are they starving?" The answer was, "because they are not us, they don't believe in God, don't ask questions and do what I tell you to do or else!" Or else what? Ha...

Now I know that was all about corrupt thinking. So anyway, concerning specifically my Chinese people fear... it came from government fueled by a few greedy people with money... using fear on my parents to create power and control... to manipulate more money into their own personal pockets. The same thing happens on both sides of the fence. My parents did what they were told and then they told it to me. Those at the top of the pyramid governing socially and religiously could never be wrong. They reached the top, they must be right. Listen to them, they know, they have money... do I not want to have what they have?

People are people. They think and behave in both wrong and correct ways at all levels of operation and no... I do not want to be at the top with six Mercedes Benz in my garage. One will do fine along with six good friends to ride around in it with me. The essence of a people is a person and the essence of a person is spirit and I believe only with good spirit. I realize this is a difficult concept to grasp with all the negative propaganda everywhere. This is why I want to continue to operate as a person and not a commercial, political, organizational machine... as part of a "people" because... for me that translates into relating with people basically using control, manipulation or fear. I am interested in relating with persons individually for fun. I stand a better chance of enjoying life that way.

August 28, 2012

Traveling

We said goodbye to my friends Bonnie and Dave and began driving west. On the way I stopped at a produce stand to get some of the season's last Maryland peaches and some fresh vegetables. Also, always I want to support local business. I met two fun people, the guy who has owned the stand for over thirty years and a woman named Cynthia. We had a time of joy with the Traveling Piano. Cynthia got onto the piano and I played some Ragtime for them. I'm very grateful for the fun people we have been meeting on this journey and if I was politically correct would say I am also grateful for the idiots in some way! Ha, I've never enjoyed being politically correct. I really do not want to focus on people who do not see what others give only what they get. They are always jealous people and usually also "takers" and you may know I often write about people who send emails of support but I do not think I ever mentioned (I must have somewhere in almost seven years) ...nasty emails. Those kind usually wreak of a weak nature, people who do not want anyone to experience anything different from themselves which usually is a hellish life. Those senders are always... there has never been an exception... anonymous. As in... can we talk cowardly? Ha, they do also make me laugh (really) because I was that way during a time in my life. Still, I have a tendency to lash out and put my own frustrations onto something or someone else. My entire life used to revolve around one bad apple in a bunch. Those bad apples are still annoying and hurtful but thank god I am now held together by the whole bunch... and I'll never let go, I hope. Also, I've said this at least a hundreds times. One do-good person for me outweighs a thousand do-nothing people. And now that I'm thinking about it... 1-do-good = 1000 do-nothings and maybe about 5 do-bad people. :)

August 27, 2012

Fort Smallwood Park and Around, Maryland

Taking the truck in for an alignment today felt like going into the hospital for yet another operation. How many can I handle? The fact that it was sunny helped. The auto shop people had good attitude that helped and they took the truck in with no appointment. They were going to charge me seventy five bucks but one of the hub caps broke when they took it off so the job was discounted by twenty bucks the cost of a new cheap set. Across the street I went and got a cheap set for forty bucks and then down the road I found a place named Shoreline that works with boat, auto and awning canvas. I immediately connected with the retired past owner/dad of over fifty years named Ty who looked twenty years younger than his age. His spirit was clean. Ha, thats the way for me to describe him. He is a musician as well as the people working at the place and both his sons. One son owns the place and the other is soon going to China for the third time, this time for possible musical business. Ty was upfront about the cost for fixing my tarp snap, he reinforced two corners, stitched up a hole and gave me about thirty bucks worth of waterproofing liquid... the cost was zero. He was just in the position to do it, wanted to and so he did. He offered it completely naturally there was no feeling of need with the giving all around. We were talking about how many people do not know how good it feels to give simply for the sake of giving. Is he my kind of guy or what??? Yes!

I could tell he knew his business unlike anyone I ever talked to concerning canvas and upholstery. I've talked to many people through the years. Having just had this tarp made last year... no one told me ...not... to treat it with any waterproofing for the first few years because that would make the tarp actually leak due to the chemical/material interaction. So that is why everything now gets wet when it rains. There is no solution. I may try to waterproof the inside of the tarp. Would that make it worse?

I wrote online last night... Traveling Piano = Pasadena, Maryland ...to let people know where we are. I was not in a good space when I posted but then everything changed this morning when I read... "keep going", "your room is about ready to stay in" (friends on the west coast building an addition onto their house), "you getting close" (friends who have offered to host us an hour away here in the east) all with everyone having no idea that I was going through issues of stopping the journey and issues with staying in different places... I found that interesting along with today's going smoothly with the auto shop and tarp repair and meeting my kind of people. It felt like validation and reassurance. An email also came through today from someone I had met in Tuscon that gave me a reality check. "Danny, you are tearing yourself up with worry,anxiety, exuastion. Do what makes you happy RIGHT NOW REST. there is nothing like home or there is nothing like adventure....you just cannot do it all." Wow, that was "Danny Speak" for me to chew on all day. :)

To the local park with my friends Bonnie and Dave for some pictures. It is difficult to communicate what happened simply. I could feel an uncomfortable energy. After a short while I realized we were there four years ago and had an encounter with a park ranger. I was dealing with Bonnie's paranoia (ha, thats my perspective) about rules and regulations of where I can park and play for pictures. A tightly ruled park, ugh. One of the rangers I could feel was following us but also waved each time we passed him. I could feel he knew us. Once we found our spot he pulled up to tell us the rules and between Bonnie, Me and the Ranger... it just got weirdly defensive and disarming at the same time. He remembered us from four years ago even though we were only there for only five minutes and never got to play. He remembered Traveling Piano dog Boner's name as he was with me at the time. He still has the flyer I had given him but has never visited this website. I began to ask him questions about himself and he was quite an interesting guy. We both knew our "like" energy drew us together again. He is a poet and just wrote some haiku verse yesterday. I just wrote in yesterdays blog entry about haiku and Bonnie's book of it. So anyway, he left us alone and we started to have some fun encounters with different people. I created music with the sunset over the Chesapeake bay in front of me while from behind, trees full of locust and birds created a magnificent chorus for accompaniment. We got lots of pictures!

August 26, 2012

Anne Arundel County, Maryland

It rained all day. There is a puddle of water in the back of the Traveling Piano, in the tarp covering it outside and... thats the way it is. Tomorrow I must find an auto shop to get the truck aligned. It is time to decide wether this journey is going to end, or if raising money to keep it going would be possible (failed miserably in the past and I have little desire to do it again) or just keep going until I am penniless. The friends I am staying with Bonnie and Dave are really giving me a welcomed feeling and I need the feeling of security that comes with that. I am feeling too unsettled especially in the living situation department. I want to stop traveling for a while. To rent a place would limit bigtime any future options for the journey. Staying with someone... well, I just need to feel like I have my own space. While creating music on Bonnie's piano tonight Mo was looking for a spot to be... the top of the piano had stuff on it. He ended up sitting next to me on the seat. Bonnie who's photography I fully love and enjoy... took our picture. She has created many projects for her artful being. The Traveling Piano is in a published book of hers named Defining Ourselves and another recently published book is full of pictures with haiku verse which I had never heard of. It is a Japanese form of poetry. Check out her website Bonnie Schupp Photography Dave retired as top reporter, editor for the Baltimore Sun newspaper but still works once in a while with his own projects. He has a blog called The Real Muck. I studied some Chinese language for a short while today.

August 25, 2012

Pasadena, Maryland

There is nothing like going to visit with a friend while feeling like a monster. My mood, it was bad and the three hour drive I don't remember any of it. (probably a good thing) Rain held off until I arrived. Once I saw my friends Bonnie and Dave I came alive. They went out to a literary reading and I fell asleep for four hours. They knew I wasn't in the best of places in my head from reading the blog. Their loving, welcoming spirits brought me into the present moment. I needed that. Everything is ok and secure in the "now." I like it that way. This blog, I write about both my ups and downs and hope it does not come off as constant flip flopping but hey if I flip flop so be it. Just don't call me bipolar or manic depressive that would be inappropriate. A little crazy... maybe. But smart, productive crazy and not insane, ha.

August 24, 2012

Bristol, Pennsylvania

Life can be such a challenge for me sometimes. Clarity... the empowerment and inspiration I give in the moment while I am having an interaction with someone and the Traveling Piano, I always feel totally alive. To empower and inspire myself... ha, but for the grace of God. This blog, the priority purpose is to show my life, a life for whatever it is worth. It is personal. I'm getting tired and don't know what to do. Of course that last sentence is a trap and I know it. it is a perception and I know it. I can choose something else and I know it. Blah, blah, blah. I want to stop and settle down around people but not with people and I do not know if that would be a good choice or not. Not having my own space, a comfortable space, secure where I do not need to worry about when I move on, how I keep it up, etc... no more sleeping on cellar floors, being in other people's clutter, small cramped spaces. Ha, I have been so fortunate in the past although having sold my house for this journey was such a good thing. There is no way I would have been able to keep up with its needs physically. Keeping up with everything now-a-days mentally, physically and emotionally is effort. I want to pass through into the next life gracefully. Back when... on this blog somewhere over and over I talk about being physically healthy. It is a must. Something needs to happen, in a good way I might add. No more life lessons in a hard way please. Also, I want to get the journey pictures all done. That is a must. I want to stop moving around from place to place but do not know how to do it. Today I stopped at an auto mechanic who helped me out with the truck a few years back. I was looking for someone in the area to help with my tarp snaps. The guy remembered me and asked how my new dog was working out. Last time I was in Bristol was about four years ago. A trio of young kids got into the truck and we all created a birthday video greeting for their great uncle. Tomorrow, Maryland... to stay with some friends I met about five years ago. Want to settle down... want to settle down... want to settle down today. Tomorrow, maybe I won't feel that way. Here's a good one... a frigin' mouse, we had a Tom and Jerry chase battle last night in the garage. That little mother fucker got into my truck and had a time with the back of my truck seat during the night. It now looks partly like a fur coat. Today I purchased some yum yum's for that mouse. Ha, anyone who reads this blog knows I have a history with mice!

August 23, 2012

Levittown, Pennsylvania

It was brought to my attention that one Traveling Piano tire was balder than bald. So out we went looking for a new tire which lead to some questions about turning the Traveling Piano into a four wheel drive for China which would mean the piano being two feet higher which would be too high for Mo or me to jump into and people would not be able to reach Mo to pet him. I wonder if hydraulics could be used to lower the truck to the ground when it stops, The next stop was to find a solution for the tarp screws that keep popping off. Half of that problem was solved.

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Then people began to stop by the truck before we left. One lady, "hey, you used to play beautiful music on the river, I haven't seen you in years!" While driving on the road people again were giving me a high five. A toyota dealer salesman asked me to stop at the dealership so his boss could meet me. The boss respectfully came out for a minute and I gave him a flyer printed in Spanish. I'm sure he was thinking, "What the, what The..." All in all it was a fun day. I was going to go to the seashore or park for sunset but everything seems to be taking more time these days.

August 22, 2012

A Lake In Pennsylvania

Mo... it feels like I haven't mentioned our relationship on the blog lately and he is the most enjoyable and important part of my life. At least four times everyday I say out loud how grateful I am for his being in my life and tell him how much I love him. It just happens as naturally as can be. Usually he is at my side. When I am working sometimes he goes off on his own for awhile just to be alone. The companionship he provides becomes more significant everyday. So, enough of that... before the sunset we drove to the local dog park and lake where there is a good spot to create music. Of course we met some people but in particular a guy named Bill came up to tell me how much he enjoyed, how amazing the flow of music was while he sat far away down the lake taking pictures of the sunset.

I must admit I was looking for someone to come up and give me some significant feedback, it has been awhile. I do not look for it or want to incite it but I do want to know the experience is being shared. It is nice to hear every once in a while. Back at where I am staying I am working to stay in the "now." Mo helps with this... not to worry about the fact that I must move on again in a few days. I've been watching television while uploading pictures and the usual filing and writing this etc... after just finishing watching three episodes of Wife Swap... ha, I did get some good laughs in especially the episode of the Beverly Hills looks are everything verses a rural country Texas farm. I was thinking, I've stayed with that type of people, I stayed with that kind of family, I've stayed with that kind of thinking... ridiculous, funny and interesting, there are so many different life styles and ways to live.

August 21, 2012

Tyler Park, Pennsylvania

What to do, what to do... at 5:30 pm we headed to Tyler Park an old favorite sunset spot. We met a guy, a truck driver for a movie being shot in the park. Wow, I so very often meet people with lives and stories far greater than mine! He is almost forty, had always been a drifter and knows everywhere. He was even in Sitka, Alaska which as you may know has a special place in my heart. We were there almost a year ago with the the Traveling Piano. We talked allot about pot, the medicinal properties of it and how now-a-days the growing of it has turned into a science, being incarcerated, how to get food and money from churches... ha, we had a good time. No church ever gave ME money! Ha, maybe I should ask and see what happens... Along with several other people I met two sisters who live one block over from my old house which is a half hour away from the park we were in. They lived in my neighborhood for their whole lives, the entire time I lived there (at least 20 years) and we never met. Our meeting today was crazy!

Whenever I see or think of a sunset anymore I think of Arizona. Hopefully, I can create new memories that will match those of a few months ago. Creating music at Gates Pass outside of Tucson during sunset as well as the magically spontaneous and synchronistic experiences I had with people well, it might be my all time favorite Traveling Piano spot. Being in Tyler Park today was an act of coming full circle once again. It seems... I think I have been here every year of the journey so far. The spot in of itself feels like "home." The piano having a roof over its head in a garage at night I realized today is major quality of life for me. Every time I have to take the tarp off and put it on with the snaps busting up more and more, seeing the torn canvas, knowing it will have to sit out in the weather again soon, it all just reminds me of how everything is getting old and falling apart. Here now for the next few days I just open the garage door, drive it out to play, return... drive it into the garage and close the door. Oh my God you would not believe how nice that is!!!

August 20, 2012

Falls Township, Pennsylvania

Today I ate a tomato that grows in a husk that you peel off. It was more tart than sweet. The neighbors with the fig tree are growing them. It was a beautiful day and I wanted to relax so Mo and I drove to the park. He played with some dogs, we went for a nice long walk around a large lake, I created and recorded music as joggers passed. A young guy stopped and jumped onto the piano for some fun... Here we are staying in a large clean space somewhat like my old house in familiar surroundings with familiar things all around and we are all by ourselves. While watching television on a large screen, enjoying musical bands I've never seen on late night television shows... The last place Mo and I stayed was in a small cabin with only my small computer screen to watch video or anything else... I was thinking how I enjoy large space. Missing my old life and the comforts that I let go of... I thunk I would be used to it by now or not feel a need for old creature comforts... not to mention the security I once had of a place to settle into at night and not have to think about looking for a place next week or a month from now. I forget everything else all the time why not that? Ha, I just thought about sex... haven't forgot about that or the yearnings for that every once in a while either.

As the home base in West Virginia we have used may be slipping away the desire and yearnings for a secure home base... want. I been feeling the need strongly since the beginning of the year and do not want to become preoccupied with the thoughts because the journey is still most important for my life. There are always places to stay but I need "one" that is comfortable in my style of comfort and where I can stay as long as I want. It feels like I need a place where I can have the space to create space in my head... to manifest the Traveling Piano in China. One hundred percent of what finances I have left from the sale of my home four years ago will be needed for the rest of the journey. I suppose it would be good to mention that this journey dictates an agenda of fun, friendship, and respect with musical empowerment and inspiration at no cost, with no commercial, organizational or political affiliation, fees or solicitation. It is a life style that demands faith in fun and is all about relationship. Of course I wish people would contribute financially but only for the sake of giving. I am not interested in donations or money because of need so therefore... there is very little contribution! Hahaha... Giving for the sake of giving, contribution, participation, being part of... thats where its at!

August 19, 2012

North of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

As I said goodbye to my great nieces and nephews, with each one I hugged and told them I loved them. Each time I let go, impulsively I went to hug Mo... did not want to let go of the love. I know what it feels like to love and be loved in return and then for the love to move forward. From what I have been taught my mind says it is gone, lost... but love never dies it changes form. There is nothing to lose in life because life is an illusion, a wonderful illusion if I so choose. A neighbor wanted for me to meet her friend today but she cancelled the plans. While driving out of the neighborhood to meet other friends I stopped to see Jim and Karen the owners of the local fig tree I talked about a few days earlier. (to pick some of them up to eat of course) They jumped onto the Traveling Piano with their grandson. The fig tree was Jim's father now passed and it came from his grandfather etc...

Having stewardship of the tree is important to him as were all the trees and plants from my family house. My possessions (what little I now have) and stewardships (Mo, the journey and truck) mean a great deal to me. Mo and I ended up along the Delaware River on a grassy lawn where I had been with Boner in 2006. I created music, hung out with friends and musically explored with locals. The biggest dog to date, a Great Pyrenees jumped onto the top of the piano with Mo for a picture. As my niece and her family are now gone I experience a huge contrast from fast, chaotic living back to slow, peaceful easy living... in a sense. I find that neither is better or worse. A persons inner spirit can create and balance both for life. Sort of the best of all worlds. For me life tends to be one or the other... all or nothing and that way of being just does not work.

August 18, 2012

Yardley, Pennsylvania

The kids are wondering how I can sleep so late. They cannot get the concept of my going to bed early in the morning after I do my picture, music and blog work. While I was having my morning coffee, it was not quite noon yet... my niece phoned and thought her friend at the library would enjoy meeting us. The day began. Then I hooked up with my friend Ruthanne and her family who I have not seen for five years. After that, other people along the way... back to the house where a bunch of crazy kids jumped onto the Traveling Piano with musical instruments. It took Mo about one second to jump off the piano after they began to play. He was like, "What the hell are those sounds?"

There is something interesting I discovered a few days ago that I want to write down. My stereotyping of who people are, or what they are about... from what they look like physically is fading and it feels very good. The realization for myself was this... all good looking people look the same. There is not very much variety of what I perceive as "hot" or "good looking". A person is either good looking or not. Ugly people look uniquely ugly. There is an amazing amount of ways that I can perceive a person as physically ugly. When I was at an amusement park the other day at first there was an impulsive thought of how ugly most of the people were. And then I became conscious of what I thought was ugly about them. And then I started to like whatever I saw as ugly. I was enjoying different people's ugly body parts, shapes and sizes.

Maybe it was because they were all clean, smiling and friendly people. I found myself enjoying the spirits of the people I saw first and foremost. From my experience to date on this journey ugly people are just as intelligent, rich, poor, savvy to life, successful and loving as beautiful people and the same goes for all opposite qualities. At the park I began to love the physical gross out factors of the people I saw. Their unique ugly thin ankles, crooked arms, faces that look like something to run away from... I began to love the ugliness. I realized that everything about a person physically is what makes their spirit unique. Variety is the spice of life for me definitely! I love spirit and I love variety and the spices that day were the body parts. Ha!

August 17, 2012

Bucks County, Pennsylvania

We mostly hung around the house today. Mo is sticking close to my side, the kids are wearing him out! The neighborhood I am in is a 2012 version of the 1950's television show "Leave it to Beaver." It really is unique in my experience, a thriving American community here in the United States... the only difference from the 1950's can be found in the diversity of ethnic backgrounds still... everyone keeps their properties the same clean and tidy. Shane, Ryan and I took off for a skateboard park where I could create some music, they could skate and there is a dog park there. On the way I stopped to get some zucchini from a neighbors small cardboard table sitting on their lawn. A dollar a bag for fresh garden vegetables. I like the idea, want to support it but am becoming suspicious because it is the third such stand I've come across with the same sign that looks commercially printed?

A family in a car stopped by while we were getting some vegetables and randomly asked to take a picture of me on the Traveling Piano and so I sort of forced them to get on so I could get a picture of them on the Traveling Piano. They were visiting the area for a ninetieth birthday party. Had I not been so inappropriately dressed I would have driven with them to give the party some music. At the park the security guard jumped on while she was talking on her cell phone and we did an entire Traveling Piano segment (what I do with everyone) while she talked on the phone. It was kind of weirdly funny. Mo remembered the dog park from a year ago and I remembered how insane the dog owners were last time. They were even more insane this time and the dogs don't play. There are a lot of whacky dog owners I hope I'm not one of them. I don't think so because Mo plays with all kinds of dogs and people. He's never met one he does not like. Me on the other hand...

August 15, 2012

Fallsington, Pennsylvania

A blue car I saw on the roadway the other day will not leave my mind. It was all blue. Inside and out it was blue. The steering wheel was blue, the dashboard ... no accents or boarders everything... blue. I liked it allot. Also, I saw my doctor today for an exam. Eighty five years old and still sharp as a pin he said I was fine and only gained a pound this year. I've been holding steady even with all the self flagellation I write concerning my weight on this blog. What am I doing back in this area of the world again? I originally asked him if he would give me the exam for free and he said that of course he would. I ended up paying him anyway. I wasn't looking for a free exam I was looking to know that he would help me if I needed it without cost. I have twenty two great nieces and nephews from just one brother. I've never met most of them and probably never will as I am not in relationship with just about all of my family but today i did have two new ones on the Traveling Piano. I've been showing the kids how to explore with simple sounds... not that there is anything wrong with complexity.

I am going to rant because... I can. I'm willing to bet that 99.9% of cops speed both on and off the job. Also, if a cop is stopped in plain clothes for speeding... unless there is a vendetta going on he will not be fined because he is a "brother." That is just plain wrong. One more thing... it really pisses me off that police departments pay police to look for trouble. The idea of looking for trouble in order to protect and serve is nothing more than a joke. Has trouble ever stopped from this kind of thinking? Anyone who thinks that is an acceptable way of living, they are just plain wrong. (unless your a kingpin in a police state or have access to their influence) Police using their job to make money off the communities they are paid to serve... that is corrupt behavior. What is all this about? Ha, I was driving down Route 95 watching the state police having fun screwing people. About five miles before the city line... two state cops sitting in the grass looking like they are bullshitting together... a mile further down the road another cop sits hiding up on an overpass bridge with a speed gun pointing at potential feed. The next mile another cop. There can't be any more right? Is there nothing else to do to get paid? The last mile immediately before the city line where they will no longer have jurisdiction... the main cop screws its prey. Five cops looking for trouble with the misuse of law and order empowerment to make money. Ugh, anger. Being on the road throughout the country I see it everywhere and it is disgusting. Me... I never speed. The Traveling Piano won't go fast enough to speed. I am dangerous because I keep to the speed limit... too slow for most drivers.

August 15, 2012

Allentown, Pennsylvania

Alyssa, my oldest great niece now uses the spare bedroom I used in the past so I discovered the cellar which has a fold out couch. It is cooler and quieter. The couch itself is large enough to use as a bed so I tried it but ending up in the middle of the night on the hard rugged floor. Surprisingly, I slept better there. The only reason I can think of why, was from being exhausted. At eight in the morning which always feels like four in the morning to me... my great nephew Shane came down, kicked me in the back and said, "Get up we were all going to Dorney Park." I opened my eyes to see four young kids staring down on me. Dorney Park is an amusement/water theme park about an hour and a half away. My niece Heather had free tickets. With three great nieces and two great nephews we headed off. My feet are hurting really bad, it was sunny, hot and humid when we left and I did not know what I was going to do with Mo in the truck all day along along with the threat of rain in the afternoon and... my having absolutely no interest in waiting an hour in line for a thirty second roller coaster ride... we headed off. My goal was to flow. Wow, what a flow today was! Before we left a neighbor of Heathers came over with a bowl of figs. Have you ever had a fig? I never really knew what they were except for the fig tree thing and fig newton cookies which I have always had an uncomfortable feeling about for some reason. Figs are an amazing fruit, they are way above delicious, a true delicacy... I found out!

We had to get to the park just as the gates opened as Heather could not waste a moment. This woman is interesting to say the least. Her energy level is over the top and all for the good of life. I waited with her son Shane for the rides he was too short to get on and watched my niece have the time of her life. She looked like she was having more fun than the kids were having. We rode roller coasters and water rides all day. There was very little rain... the parking lot security staff found Mo and kept him company making sure his water bowl was filled and had ice in it. On one of my trips to the truck to make sure he was ok I thought, "Before there was not that much water in the bowl, strange" and then I found out. We also found a tree to park under for shade. I refused to allow my hurting feet, more than I can ever remember, to stop the flow and I walked all day! There is no surprise about all this. I call it (now for the first time) "Journey Energy." It gets better. Just going with the flow and not letting fear or threat of any kind of trouble ruin the day... my first thought when we entered the park was... clean, diverse attendees, healthy environment. Next, for the entire day there was no more than a two minute wait to get on any ride!!! I wished I had my camera with me but it would have gotten in the way and I didn't feel like bringing it into the "flow."

We walked past an old wood roller coaster and an amazingly clear vision came back to me. "I think I was on this roller coaster before." I was drawn right to it and it had to be the first ride of the day. It felt amazingly nostalgic. As the moments wore on I realized that I had been to this park before. I've known about Dorney Park all my life but thought I had never visited. My family did when I was less than ten years old something like forty seven years ago! I remembered this was the first amusement park I ever been to. I remembered this wooden roller coaster... one of the oldest in the world was my first roller coaster ride ever. I remembered how a road went right by it and the entrance was in front of it. The entrance area was changed just last year. I began to see all the old rides... the Whip, Tilt-A-Whirl, Scrambler, etc... My favorite ride today was a newer one called Meteor where you sit face-to-face... a thrill ride that loops people forward and backward giving the sensation of an inverted coaster loop. What fun it was to watch other people's smiling, thrilled, screaming faces in front of me. Ha, I was reminded of the experience people have with the Traveling Piano. The ride was so smooth and I think the inverted feel was exactly in place with my dyslexic heart.

On another trip back to check on Mo I passed a large family from Mexico now living in North Philadelphia. They were having a tailgate dinner. I mentioned to a little girl as I passed that the food looked really great and they must be enjoying it. It was about to rain as I got into the truck to sit with Mo and they were in front of me across the road. Within two minutes they came over and invited me to join them offering delicious macaroni egg salad, chicken and soda. Nothing... sends my happy emotions higher then a gesture such as this... nothing. It means everything to me. Sharing, giving, contributing for the sake of it all. How interesting that the Traveling Piano has been both to their part of Mexico and just last month played near their home in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It began to rain harder but rain or not... I had to pull the cover off the truck and play some music for them. I thought, "You played in the rain when you used to work for money and if it gets bad enough just put a fan into the piano later to dry it out." No worries and there was no way I was not going to do it. After that the entire security staff of like seven people appeared and we all had a time. One more interesting note for me. Having no idea until yesterday that I might be in an amusement park today... just last week I read a book that I had been carrying around since I began this journey in 2006... The Five People You Meet In Heaven. It is about a guy who works his whole life in an amusement park.

August 14, 2012

West Virginia and Pennsylvania

So I got off my butt, cleaned and packed away the place we were staying in and headed east to the Philadelphia area once again! On the way out of Berkeley Springs I stopped to say goodbye to my friend Dawn and on the street some guy I think his name was Jeffery walked by from Washington. He was just too interested so I had to take off the tarp and let him have a go at the piano. He is an accomplished classical performer and played the third movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Loved... it was a treat. After that two other guys got on one named Seth who had never tried a piano before. It took just a little effort to let go and let journey verses I'm packed ready to go gotta get going. Let me tell you it was worth it! These guys gave me a lot of life, a lot of energy and it was all good. The ride to Philly was about four and a half hours an easy but boring ride when I think of where I've been in the last year. We are staying with my niece and her family for a few days. I chicken'd out with a default stay over, ha.

I think with age I may be starting to get a little like, "want to spend as much time as possible with people I am close to" but it is so important for my life to continue reaching out for new friends and watch the tendency to find a comfort zone and melt away into it. As it got dark but I felt a need to create some music. We drove over to a school parking lot for just something like ten minutes which was enough. My niece is still getting used to the new me. Her association with my music is of up, energetic, fast and manic Ragtime Boogie performing from the old days. Now my music tends to be very Zen but she still wants to clap when I'm done. I tell people if I share something verbally soft and intimate would you clap when I finish? I want to teach people that I am talking to them with my spirit not performing, entertaining or looking for musical validation. I realize often they have a need to respond. We are all learning, eh? When my great nephews began to play at first they began to copy me with musical exploration but it only took about two minutes for them to fall into their default banging away at the keys... which is ok too. Mo... poor guy, the kids in the neighborhood tortured and tired him out with so much playing that after a half hour he wouldn't go outside and when they tried to pull him he would not leave my side! Hahaha...

August 13, 2012

West Virginia

August 12, 2012

West Virginia

Just taking it easy practicing doing nothing... getting my head ready to move out for a week at least. Sent the people I met yesterday in the park their pictures online... I'll be heading east to stay with some friends and family who I feel comfortable with but... it feels a little like I should go meet and stay with some new people so I don't get out of practice. I'm out of practice concerning staying with strangers... who am I trying to kid. Once I stop doing anything and then start again... it is always like the first time. My dream now is to have a comfortable place that I don't need to take care of for a few months where I can securely chill out, a place of my own. It has been really nice here for almost a month but there's always the nag of people coming to vacation in it like now and then I have to gather everything up, put my stuff away, put theirs back out, clean, etc... People reading this probably wonder what the hell is going on? Does he have a place does or not... does he own stuff or not... does he have places to go, will he go, when, how... hahaha, I'm driving myself crazy. Its all good. Want to focus on getting to China with no distractions. I used to be in analysis and complain to my therapist about not being able to think with distracting noises outside his office dooe. He would say, "practice keeping your focus by continuing to talk with the distractions."

August 11, 2012

West Virginia

I was a delightfully bad boy today. First I did some more getting ready to leave and then I was hanging out and had an impulse to go create some music and take Mo for a walk in the park. It really was a beautiful day. Did that, met some people, thought about how the China endeavor truly... it is now or never. My "chops' ability to play technically is getting worse and worse. Thats because I play less and less and also age factors in there for sure. So, I need to enjoy creating music as I do as much as possible. Not before its too late, simply while I still can. Back at where I am staying I watched "fourteen" episodes of the television show Weeds. (on my computer) It felt so wrong and irresponsible to do but I really, really enjoyed doing it. So... was it so wrong? Just like with the journey when I get to work I always make up for lost time, the same it true for the opposite. Ha

August 10, 2012

West Virginia

It has been raining here for the last few days. It is taking me longer and longer to get going back on the road each time I stop for even a short period of time. (where-with-all) More clarity is coming around with China like... I know I want to take the Traveling Piano, Mo and Myself to the western regions, meet people and with the world... share nature through pictures like posted below from the internet. More than share, I want to have the experience... period! Ha, it is a natural course of action after that... to want to share it. The same is true for every human being at their core who is conscious, aware and not needy. As far as this journey... I have zero personal neediness!

August 09, 2012

West Virginia

Here is some weirdness. I must get out of here in a few days because people are going to use the place for a week. I so much do not want to leave. Now I have to pack up my stuff, stop the little comfortable routine I started, leave the internet I just paid for... I don't want to create more work for myself with the journey with more pictures... I'm not ready, caught up... I'm still posting peoples pictures from last year, etc... It seems impossible to become complacent, something always happens. I want to stop for a while longer (a long while longer) than I have already stopped! Ha, ain't gonna happen. So where to go? I have six places off the top of my head and with four I feel a little pressure because friends have been waiting for me to visit. Such a problem to have, eh? Ha... staying with anyone is a problem... I'm burnt out from the last four years of staying in different places with different people. Ready for this? While curiously looking up where I was today four years ago because I just remembered the Olympics are happening and I was trying to get to China for the last Olympics... I saw that four years ago today I left my house forever! It was four years ago... I became home free. That is a good thing, right? Right... Gratitude... "Keep It Going Danny."

Maybe I should stop talking about China again... because four years ago I attached myself to other people's fears and chicken'd out as a result. Most people say, "No,no,no don't do it!" Looking back it was meant to be. What about now? The less people I talk to about it the better. Just like the less information about how it will happen I know, the better. Just do it. Let me tell you why for example... "They are going to eat your dog!" I get that allot. People are serious about it. Like they never ate pork... Hey, what about Arnold the pig? I'll bet everyone who has said, 'they will eat your dog" has eaten pork. What about Mr. Ed the horse, or Bambi the deer? Ok, lets not go there. People are crazy and they can easily drive me crazy if I lose my focus of... Fun, Friendship and Respect. In any case... I work to live a faith based life not a fear based life. A person cannot live both at the same time. Faith in what? Fun. Wanna see something fun? Click on the "2008 Canada, House Sale" link to the left of this page and then... click on "Tour Log August, 2008" then scroll down to August 9th. Fun! Still going...

August 08, 2012

West Virginia

The bugs here are eating through my clothes. I washed a bunch when I first got here. Went to put on a nice, clean undershirt today only to find some kind of buggy critter in the fold and little holes in the fabric. No kidding... in only a couple of weeks, life here in the hardcore woods, it is what it is. Mo and I went to the park for some exercise and the trail I could not even begin to climb when we first got here... did the whole thing. Guess I'm getting some energy together maybe because I contacted Mike from his online Chinese With Mike language learning website and he phoned me. He is my kind of teacher for sure! After the hike I pulled the tarp off the piano to find that I left the equipment power button on the last time I created music. The batteries were drained bigtime. The truck will need a long drive to recharge the equipment which I hope will work because it was never left unattended for such a length of time with the power buttons on.

After studying Chinese for hours I ended up watching a documentary on Utube of the Indonesian tsunami in 2004 which I have had an unusual interest in and hope I do not dream about it. Interesting to me, the first thing to happen after Mike contacted me was an impulse to eat an apple and then I cried with appreciation for my dream asking for God to help me accept and let the next leg of this journey to China happen because... I could not handle the emotion in that moment... of the possibility. The next impulse was to want more, need more help, attention, whatever. I would like to have the feeling of embracing where I am in the process... accepting the enjoyment of that in of itself and with gratitude. More work needs to be done with that awareness.

August 07, 2012

West Virginia

I was practicing the use of chopsticks. It was all about "slow down" "take your time" "you can get this" "you'll lose weight eating little pieces at a time like this" ...then I learned how to use them as a shovel and then impatience took over and I just used my fingers to shove large amounts of food from the bowl into my mouth but... I did stick with the polite Chinese custom of finishing every little morsel from the bowl. All day I immersed myself in Chinese language video and pictures. Heaven Lake in Urumqi, China... must go with the Traveling Piano! Short impulses of fear when they come up... I have no time for. The impulses come from knowing too much. The less I know about how it all will happen the better but I must prepare by doing things that make me "feel" good, as secure as possible and excited about it all because thats the way life works, eh?

August 06, 2012

West Virginia

Why does it take me so long to do anything? Stupid question... thats not even fact but thats what I think and how it often seems to be. If an answer is needed the answer is... because "It is what it is." I have manifested some unique creations for my world and they are unique because they processed as they needed to be processed. My job is to do the best I can do and enjoy the process... period. If my process turns out to be lengthy so be it. If it is my process... it needs to be on my terms. I can feel upcoming vibrations from other people in reading that statement!

Also, why has it been so difficult and troublesome and why go through so much angst, anxiety, pressure, indecision etc... to get what I want in this world? That is a long story. This blog has been telling it from the start. Still, today its all about the internet. It is good to be where I am yet be able to stay connected to the world through the internet. The biggest thing about it for me is when I have a question on my mind that comes up like... "ok, I have steel cut oats what do I do with them I can't remember." No matter how much I try to file information I can never find it when I need it. There is no one to call and ask in my brain. Without internet I had to put it on the list of things to look up when I drive into town to get internet. Now I just jump on line put the question in the search engine get the answer and I'm done... don't have to think about it anymore, remember anything, do anything and I can move onto the next task. Ahhh.... nice because all that kind of stuff gets stuck in my brain consciously trying not to forget... because thats my process! Today it was about what mushrooms I can eat... they have been growing everywhere around me outside. Even with the info I got... too chicken, don't feel secure enough to eat those wild thingys oh, but I want to!

August 05, 2012

West Virginia

A wonderful thing happened today. After Tyler and his friends left a guy came to install internet where I am staying. Even though I am not here full time (actually for more than a year last time) internet and this place has been an ongoing issue since the journey began. No one lives here, family members come for short vacations several times a year. Until now there has been no decent service in the area. I paid for it and that was a torturous decision but... I did it, finally. Everything that I have left in money, energy, spirit must go into doing this China dream that has been on my brain. I can now focus better and double task for things that need to get done with the journey. It will be so much better than sitting curbside in the truck getting internet from a coffee shop or at the local park lodge where the service goes down every half hour. Researching how to "China" everything a bit... while looking at and listening to language online... my on going filing and uploading to the website, communication, etc... I can now find something humorous on Utube to watch everyday. I have no television and to laugh as much as possible has been very important for this journey. I'll now save an hour travel each day to use the internet, it will save on gas money, it will save on wear and tear with the truck on dirty stone roads. There are now a new set of challenges to deal with like exercise and not needing to go out as much which may lead to less piano playing and sharing but... such is life for now. I must leave before two weeks because more family is coming to stay but the internet will be here when I get back! Thank ye, thank ye, thank ye. The service guy works a mandatory seventy hours a week doing his job. Here he was on Sunday helping me out. It rained on and off all day and between showers he jumped onto the piano for a second before leaving. It feels sureal to sit here in the chair I use and just upload this blog from here. Its like a dream.

August 04, 2012

Berkeley Springs, West Virginia

I have been watching myself with fascination... my creative process in action. Always I have thought of mind and spirit in co-creation... and now I see how my mind creates thoughts and then emotionally through spirit... the thoughts manifest depending on how much attention I give to them and also how much grace I can imagine through my faith in spirit.

Clearly, I look physically, mentally and spiritually for familiarity in life through a sense of order... something I have strived for intensely throughout my life but have felt little of. Most of the order I have created has been useless. Like "To Do" lists... ha! A sense of order for me emotionally extends into a sense of security, validation and reassurance. I work to creatively propel myself into new experiences because that is what I enjoy in life... new experiences. Having order is necessary on some level to accomplish goals but I have a tendency towards too much order which leads to... too much familiarity that leads to stagnant complacency ending in a mindless nothingness, a void a black hole. Some of the greatest people ever to live have made their accomplishments through order. I make mine for better or worse through feeling. Discipline is a whole other issue.

This is where China comes into the picture once again. I can see throughout my life how a visit to China has been manifesting. Much of it has been written about in this blog. I know practically nothing about China and have no reason to care about the country but something deep down in my soul has been urging me to go there. Along with the idea of having fun in meeting new people, creating friendships through relationship and the respect that comes through inclusiveness... music has been the main catalyst for a common ground and now I am finding much more. Why have I wanted to go to the rural areas in the west more than the eastern urban areas? What the hell is an ever growing Buddhist connection ever since Traveling Piano Dog Boner died all about? As far as Tibet goes... I did not know where it was located until a few days ago. Why would I care? Why do I say I am willing to die in the process of getting to China or being there?

To write this is not easy believe me... but it is the truth. I am discovering that China is home. Maybe from a past life, maybe for the future, maybe for just a short while. My mind says the thoughts about "going home" help make the idea less fearful, more enjoyable, it gives a sense of reason... order for my life, a path. The soul of my spirit says " Just do it." Mo and I had fun in the center of Berkeley Springs today. Along with tourists and locals... Tyler and his friends staying at the cabin stopped by and then later we all headed for some pizza.

August 03, 2012

West Virginia

I really hope I'm not losing my mind and need a reality check. It has always been a priority for me to only know things that happen... after they happen... so that I do not end up making up stuff and assuming incorrectly. It is dangerous territory when I think I know why anything is happening but here goes anyway. I had to get to the park today to connect with specific people. I did not know that fact (as it seems) until afterwards. Thats simply it. Tyler and his friends went out. I tried to stay and work and be without people and then I just had to go create some music for myself. At the most convenient spot by the (vortex) park lake I began to create very simple musical notes for myself as a couple pulled up in their car. I silently begged for no one to be around. They were curious. I asked them if they wanted to try out the piano. They said no. As I continued they parked to listen. It felt very much like they were not hearing what they wanted to hear (conventional piano music) and I began to use the experience as an exercise in continuing to create music for myself without allowing any distraction. This was not easy to do. They drove off. Another car pulled up... mom, dad, kids and dog. Dad was a musician, played the piano and I really enjoyed them all. Mo was playing with their dog for a short while but got tired fast from the humidity.

Shortly after the sunset another group showed up. They were ecstatic. So happens I met them in this park almost to the day four years ago. They were thinking about the Traveling Piano as they drove in and there we were! Mike, the dad began to tell of our past meeting in great detail, how they are on the blog, how much fun we had and how we connected... ahh, it was great! Their parents were celebrating something like their fifty second wedding anniversary and a birthday in their seventies from Saint Louis, Missouri. (one of my favorite places to visit) Of course we all had to meet and they looked so classic and wonderful, real in every way my favorite type of people without question. Nothing gives me more joy than interacting with down home, down to earth type people. I have been going mushroom crazy, they are everywhere in all shapes, sizes, colors, textures... it killing me not knowing which one's I can eat... or get high from... which I've never done but would like to, but most likely never will...

August 02, 2012

West Virginia

In the past a long, long time ago when I read a persons blog with whom I wanted to be interested in... once I would find something that made me uncomfortable or too "different" out of my comfort zone... I would run away from it. Now I am finding myself writing that kind of stuff and wondering if people are running away! I've written several times in this blog how a hummingbird will often come to visit me. In a cabin during a snow storm in Colorado, (that was the first time) ...in the dessert recently in Tucson, Alaska... many places always it comes to me. I never look for it or happen to see it. While I am sitting by a window, under a porch or by a screen door is when it comes up to me and hovers for a spell. Here in West Virginia it happened again. I now realized it is the spirit of my close friend Gertrude who passed away at age ninety many years ago. She had a special kinship with hummingbirds and once gave me a beautiful porcelain one that I held close to my heart. I have been looking for a rational reason as to why I have been having this experience. Is my reason rational?

My friend Cindy who's mother is Pat who owns the place where we are staying... Cindy phoned me to say she mixed her days up and Tyler her son will be arriving with about five or six friends to have a vacation for about four days and they will be arriving in... less than an hour. Oh my God was I not ready for that! Luckily two girls came along to temper the situation because I was a little concerned with the thought of six nineteen, twenty-ish year old guys here to party... in this small cleaned space... Ha, nothing to worry about. One of those super friendly little Mexican dogs came along. Of course with Mo the two of them hit it off from the start and... Mo found a new bed partner with Tyler in the recliner for the night. I'm hoping to not cramp this groups style of being together. I remember when I did not want to let go of being able to hang with any age group. Officially, I have accepted that I am now grey, fat and balding. Tyler turned me onto... have you ever hear of frozen macaroni and cheese in pockets of dough to get microwaved... made me think of that commercial catch phrase "got milk"... got greasy, buttery, starch?

August 01, 2012

West Virginia

After just hanging around yesterday, driving into town for internet and then racing away from a major rain storm by running the truck harder and faster than I should have, the fastest yet... back to where I am staying to get it covered... after that I sat meandering with thoughts, read some emails of my friend Patty's recent journey to Brazil for her son's wedding, filed pictures... finally I got to bed after four in the morning. Waking at two in the afternoon today I felt a little like, "where am I and what am I doing." When I sleep too much I remember the ends of dreams probably because I am semi conscious. Rarely are they not disturbing in some way. Today was no exception. Sweet dreams? Ha, today someones hand had been cut off and was put on the table in front of me. No drama about it, empathy was involved. Anyway, onward... there are many places I want to travel to in the world with the Traveling Piano... like Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, Africa. First and foremost China I think must be next. Oh, God. It has been written about in length through this blog. I try not to think about why because I know down at the core it is because I am drawn... with the interest that the people in the rural areas of China would enjoy my music and what I have to offer more than anyone else. Ha, it is all about me. This fact about China entered my mind back when I first began to play Ragtime and Boogie Woogie when I was seventeen years old and then again in a stronger and truer sense when I began creating my own music thirty three years later during the second year into this journey. I try not to think about what could come from it all (this journey as a whole) and I really do not like to be compared to other people on epic journeys of their own. The personal spins along with the people's spins who report on them are very limiting. Why do I want to be unique and why do I even give a shit what other people do or think about me and my journey? I suppose it is because I know we are all interconnected as... and... in spirit. I am not interested in spin I am interested in living in spirit... "being" and part of a connection through enjoyment in service within and without the world.

Limiting thoughts such as fragility in everyway with the truck its equipment and my health mentally, emotionally and especially in a physical sense and need for support in everyway... ahh, limiting thoughts want an "into" with my spirit wholeheartedly using fear, desperation, imprisonment, lack of resources for survival, death, pulverization, seperation, outcasted... Ha!!!!!!!! I'm not ready yet but soon I will be... to do something. Maybe it will be to simply die! Ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For now, I just want to enjoy my present moments. There is no rush. Almost a year ago I was in the Yukon state of Canada heading towards the Top of the World Highway in Alaska. It seems almost impossible to imagine myself in China with the Traveling Piano truck and Mo. I was never good at meditation or visual practices etc... When I try to imagine riding through the deserts and rural towns of Mexico or back and forth across the United States, throughout Canada, across Newfoundland to the most eastern tip of the northern hemisphere and through the four corners of Alaska as well as the islands off its coast... I cannot imagine any pictures of that in my head! Still... and I already did it. Whats with that picture? Where is my visual imagination pictures? I made one for the blog today. It sort of came from my imagination along with when I was in California and someones personal China blog pic from the internet. Luckily, I have everything I already did in reality in pictures because I would never believe it all if I did not have some type of proof for myself. That feels crazy but it is true.