Today, I find him channeling his inner cat
Udate: The vet called, his bloodwork looks good “for an old guy,” so we can keep him on the anti-inflammatory/analgesic she prescribed. It seems to be helping.
Keep taking your best naps, Max!
Photos from Max’s first trip in the new coach. Monday after we got back, he was having real issues walking, but I later found out he’d had a couple of burrs in his paw. Took him to the vet on Tuesday, and she confirmed stiffness in his joints, so he’s on a pain reliever/anti-inflammatory to help keep him comfortable. It’s working.
She talked about “long term” quality of life, and when I asked what the definition of “long term,” she confirmed it was less than a year, more than likely.
Which is sad.
But, in looking at his original posts on the Cocker Spaniel Rescue of Austin/San Antonio site, they thought he was around 6 in June of 2014, which means he might be 15, which is old for a cocker; their average life span is 12-14 years. For a dog with all teh problems, he’s done remarkably well.
I’m grateful we’ve been able to offer him something he didn’t have for the first six years of his life; a real forever home.
8 years!
Guest post: Whitney. Our first adoption from Cocker Spaniel Rescue of Austin/San Antonio. Shhhhh…
She’s trying to focus.
8 Years ago today – happy Meet Ya day, Max. I’m not 100% sure he was 100% sure about us, but I reckon it’s worked out OK.
Shhh…I’z napin dad…
Iz hungri…
I thought this was super interesting.
As the Big Band era jazz trumpeter Cootie Williams once reportedly joked about swing, “Describe it? I’d rather tackle Einstein’s theory.”
Fittingly, physicists now think they’ve got an answer to the secret of swing — and it all has to do with subtle nuances in the timing of soloists.
Several years ago, I read about a study that showed that people tend not to listen to new music as they got older.
The peak age for discovering new music, the [Deezer] results suggested, was 24. This is when 75% of respondents said they listened to 10 or more new tracks a week, and 64% said they sought out five new artists per month. After this, though, it seems people’s ability to keep up with music trends peters off.
Why we stop discovering new music around age 30
https://www.businessinsider.com/why-we-stop-discovering-new-music-around-age-30-2018-6?op=1
I was curious what “new” music I’d been listening to over the last decade and a half I’ve been tracking it, so I did a little analysis, looking at artists that I hadn’t listened to the years before; counting the raw number of new artists, and then noting the new artists that had 75 or more plays.
| Year | New Artists | New Obsessions | Notes |
| 2022 | 551 | Breadth, no depth | |
| 2021 | 175 | Larkin Poe, Rura | Blues, and a new Celtic band |
| 2020 | 339 | Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings | Great R&B |
| 2019 | 491 | Tyler Childers, Bothy Band, Lunasa, Dervish | Lots of Celtic this year |
| 2018 | 367 | Cachao | From the Complete Cuban Jam Sessions |
| 2017 | 615 | Tom Eaton | New Age; great Tai Chi music |
| 2016 | 398 | Savages, Early Rise, Baroness, Device, Godsmack, Die Antwoord | Experimentation with heavier rock than usual. And Die Antwoord. What can we say about Yolandi and Ninja? |
| 2015 | 386 | Lou Donaldson, Ike Quebec, Kenny Burrell, Donald Byrd, Jimmy Smith, John Renbourn, Brian Blade | This was the year I created my Blue Note Records playlists. |
| 2014 | 287 | Martin Denny | Exotica |
| 2013 | 235 | Civil Wars | Folk |
| 2012 | 420 | Luciana Souza | Latin vocal jazz |
| 2011 | 256 | ||
| 2010 | 58 | ||
| 2009 | 214 | ||
| 2008 | 223 | Jay Farrar, Alejandro Escovedo, Iron & Wine/Calexico | Folk/Americana |
I reckon one could argue that none of this counts as new music, since most of the genres were not unknown to me. But my dalliances with Metal in 2016, Irish Traditional music in 2019, Exotica in 2014 and Blue Note Records in 2015 were, by and large, new sounds for me. Certainly I would argue that this shows a willingness to expand beyond the Journey, Foreigner and Styx of my formative years.
Notes about the raw data: This analysis was done from the 300,000 record dataset of my music listening habits, going back to 2007. I have removed duplicate tracks from that day I accidentally played REO Speedwagon’s “High in Fidelity” 18 times in a row, or the two days worth of Wilco when I turned off the amp, but Spotify was still churning through the playlist on my PC. I’ve also normalized artist names, so that Pat Metheny Group, Pat Metheny and Pat Metheny and John Scofield are rolled up as Path Metheney.