Dean Nester: Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

Climb Time!

In a list of... "The right things to do with your kids", Can I add...   Take them rock climbing!  

Oh man last night was fun.  Stephanie and I took the boys to "Climb-Time" in Indianapolis ($12 for 1.5 hrs) and it was such a blast to watch them take off and climb away.  They ran around this gym like kids in a candy store climbing everything they could find.  It had just the element of danger they had been looking for.  And it flat exhausting for them.  

Having trouble with the kids sleeping, take them rock climbing and "boom" they will crash out!

Fun Times

Dean

One cool "River Tooth"

"Acoustic Grin" we called ourselves and just the other day I had a friend in the office and I started telling some stories about the good ol' day of traveling and makings some cool Acoustic music with  Todd Burkholder.  I played a few songs on the CD and took on a big smile reminiscent of some of the good times we had.  Our music had something amazing about it!  To this day it still stands out in my mind like a river tooth that never quite gets worn down by the rushing waters.  We need to keep it up...  He's an amazing friend and we stay in touch, (Here's a photo of he and I leading worship in Raleigh NC Last year) but not as much as we should.  

Happy, Arlin Queens Day, and a real rough worship project is all we have in the audio world as far as recordings to show for our time together.  I dream quite a bit about spending more time with Todd and piecing together some kind of recording that really does our music some justice...

 but so little time and the prejudices  of others seems to conspire to keep us apart. 

Maybe some day. 

Todd has put out a solo project called "Scaffolding" that is really good stuff.  If you'd like a copy of it just let me know.  

Acoustic Set this Sunday.

My friends and I trimmed the band down to 4 players and we rolled things out in an intimate "Acoustic" Set. It was real cool to hear the voices of a great choir of parishioners. Chris and I had a great strum feel on the guitars as if you could tell that he and I have spent quite a few weeks playing music together. It was good stuff all around. At times I missed the drums, but more than anything I felt real cozy in this trimmed down tone. Blake added some nice fills on the electric guitar, and Becky brought the kind of female vocals that makes me smile.

Good times indeed.
If you were around, let me know how this week's music sat with you.

dean

A new day and an old story! THE GURU'S CAT

One morning the guru's cat followed him to meeting and began walking among the disciples. Well this became a distraction for the disciples at worship, so he ordered that the cat be tied during worship.

Weeks go by and the same thing happens. The Guru's cat would follow him to meeting and his disciples would tether the cat to a pole, so as not to distract the disciples during meeting.

Years go by and eventually the guru's cat dies. We'll the disciples couldn't handle it, so they replaced the guru's cat with one of their own and they began to tie the cat at each meeting, so as not to distract the disciples during the meeting.

Well years and years go by and eventually the Guru dies.

Centuries later learned treatises were written on the liturgical significance of tying up a cat during worship.

(Give me your thoughts)
Dean

For more stories on the ride check out Brad's Blog

Brad's blog

This is a great account of the ride with many more photos.

dean

A great ride, but it's good to be home!

It's great to be home and all is well. I must say that VA and WV are so fantastically beautiful. Brad Bodin and I had a great run in the final 3 days. We rode the back roads to the back roads. After riding 1750 miles hitting 8 states, I shut the bike in my garage for the night. Maybe I'll get a chance to head back out again sometime soon.

Some highlights of the trip were...

Catching a Guy Clark concert in Asheville. (What a great show!)
Eating at BoJangles & having southerners start conversations with me.
Worshipping at Journey Church in Huntersville.
Fighting a racoon in Southern Indiana
One Lane Gravel infested roads in WV for miles.
Brad getting busted for doing stunts in Pulaski Va
Seeing lots of family & friends.
Mingling with WV natives...