This week, I’ll celebrate my 13th wedding anniversary. I will also be celebrating the reconnecting with the music scene. Are these a coincidence? No way. They’re part of a divine master plan that will come to pass if I can just get out of the way.
I'm Ken Boone and this is my podcast, “MUCH MORE TO SAY”. This show is a production of the Descant MMG Podcast Network. Episodes are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. Show Notes for this episode can be found on our website, muchmore2say.weebly.com. That’s MUCH MORE (the number 2) SAY.WEEBLY.COM. And now, on with the show: In my intro, I forgot to mention that this Wednesday also marks 14 years to the day that I first made contact Celia, the woman I was lucky enough to marry. In fact, we got married exactly one year after the day we first made contact. We jokingly tell people that we met at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, NC. That’s just a harmless little fib. The truth is that our first contact was made online, on Friday February 19, 2010. At the time, admitting to online dating was not as popular as it is today. It's now the most popular way to meet your potential soulmate. In fact, in 2023, nearly 400 million people are using online dating sites to meet people. Roughly 21%, or 84 million users are from the United States. We met for coffee two days after our initial contact, on Sunday, February 21, 2010, at the Starbucks on Gilead Road in Huntersville, NC. I was so nervous that it took me nearly one hour to get there from my home. Normally, that trip takes ten minutes to make. The staff patiently waited as we talked for almost three hours. I could have shown my appreciation by at least helping them close the place. I would have gladly mopped the floor or taken out the trash. But they just smiled and wished us a good night. That week, Celia invited me to accompany her to the church where she served as Music Director. I accepted and was blown away by how well she sang and played the piano. I wanted to join her on stage, something I have not wanted to do in over twenty years. I knew most of the hymns that were sung that day, so I was able to add a bass voice to the congregation. Unfortunately, my range has shrunk so much that singing tenor is permanently out of the question. As we moved along through the years, Celia and I began making music together. She didn’t just give me permission to do more than just listen to her sing and play, she encouraged me to join in on the fun. So, at first, I would fat-finger my way through the songs, somehow convincing the audience that I was serviceable. Early on in my rediscovery stage, I wanted to put together a band consisting of singers as well as instrumentalists. Along with Celia and me on keys, I wanted a bassist, guitarist, percussionist, and some vocalists. That’s the lineup I used in my prior life, so it was familiar. Celia had an even better idea. She suggested that we make it a duo consisting of just the two of us. It took me getting turned down by several musicians to agree to try it her way. And, as is mostly the case, she was correct. It was during this period that I swapped playing piano for the electric bass. That proved to be a good move that was long overdue. With the help of some YouTube videos, I was able to go from zero to playing publicly in only eight weeks. On occasion, we were joined by other musicians, but I admit that I preferred it to be just Celia and me on stage. And that seemed to be the preference of everyone else since we kept getting calls to play across the Carolinas. While it was a lot of fun getting paid to play, I enjoyed that each gig was followed by date night. Sometimes we would eat out at a restaurant while other times we would visit a grocery store and raid their bakery section. But either way, we would be hanging out together. Life soon got in the way of our music. As many of you already know, Celia had to undergo two hip replacement surgeries. The second came with complications that forced her to be hospitalized more than she would have liked. And as you may also recall, I was recently hospitalized twice in the past four years. The first time was for Congestive Heart Failure, while the second time was for a gastrointestinal bleed. Both situations were scary and set me back both physically and emotionally but are now under control. And through it all, we have continued with our dating rituals. Parting Shots Although we haven’t been inside of that Starbucks shop since our first date, we still drive past it several times a week. That’s because it’s directly across the street from my cardiologist, my nephrologist, Celia’s pharmacy, and three of our favorite grocery stores, as well as a short walk from one of our banks. In other words, it sits in the center of our quaint and quiet little life in the middle of suburbia, USA. Because we still do frugal quite well, Celia and I will probably just exchange cards and have lunch at our new favorite diner in town. Of course, we will hit the closest grocery store to raid both the bakery and the candy aisle. And that’s okay since we have gym memberships. While Celia loves flowers, there are some that she’s allergic to. All I need is to get her the wrong kind, or the right kind sprayed with the wrong preservatives, and have her sneezing for hours on end. That would make me feel horrible. On our first date, I told Celia that we would be together for at least fifty years. Starting from when we first met, we’ve been together for fourteen years. So that means that I must live to be 102 years old to make my prediction come true. So, how do I get to be a centenarian? I must eat healthy, exercise, and continue to take my medications as prescribed. Doing those things will help to physically keep me going. But what about my emotion and spiritual needs? The two things that come to mind to keep me holistically healthy both involve my wife, Celia. And they are to keep dating as well as to keep making music together. We’ve got the dating part down under control. Now all we need to do is to go into the front room of the house, shake off the rust, and start playing. Taking a couple of paying gigs wouldn’t hurt either. Today's Quote “Music keeps you eternally young. It just does. What I love about it now is touring without the guilt. Now it’s like nothing is being held back. You get to eat mashed potatoes with both hands instead of one. It’s fantastic.” Garth Brooks – American Country Music Superstar
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About the HostKenneth E. Boone, Sr. is a writer, podcaster, music lover, sports enthusiast, and retired accountant. Archives
May 2024
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