Hello, It's Me

     So...what's up? I'm just sitting here in a pile of rust that I recently shook off. I started Sound Mind nine years ago as a vehicle to force myself to write on a regular schedule. The end goal, I suppose, was to write a book based on this blog. I could probably write a book about why that has not happened. Working titles would be "Failure is an Option" or "I Sit on a Throne of Excuses". In fairness to myself, a lot of shit has gone down since my last post six years ago. At that time, we were trying to buy a new house and sell our existing house. Then my mother-in-law died and my wife had to manage her estate right in the middle of buying our house and moving. In addition, I had recently changed locations for my job, which disrupted my writing schedule. Previously, I had been driving 45 minutes each way to work. This was the perfect amount of time to listen to a CD during each commute. It also afforded me some time alone with my thoughts to come up with "takes" for Sound Mind. Now, I have a 10 minute drive which equates to about 7 Guided by Voices songs or one RUSH song. 

     Once my writing routine was broken, I rarely thought about Sound Mind. The only thing that reminded me was when the Rock Hall would announce their nominees and inductees. I would think to myself, "Maybe I should post my opinions about these inductees. Ten people expect me to rant about the Rock Hall Foundation." I couldn't bring myself to do it, though. I didn't want Sound Mind to be reduced to a Rock Hall blog. The founding premise of Sound Mind was to preserve my music collection after I die. Turns out, that is an outdated and insane premise. As the great John Hodgman has said many times, "People like what they like". No amount of blogging will make my wife want to hang onto RUSH's debut LP on the Moon Records label. She already wants me to sell it. I don't have much of a relationship with my daughters from my first marriage. As far as I know, they have never read Sound Mind and don't care about my records. The same goes for my teenage kids who live under my roof. My daughter spends her free time at horse barns and my son is only interested in sports and video games. They listen to music when it's on, but they have no curiosity or independent interest in it. Bottom line, my wife will keep her music and the rest will probably be sold off. A few years ago, I began cataloging my collection on Discogs to make it easier for her to deal with. Hopefully I live long enough to grade all my records and make sure I have all the pressings correct. I really had no idea how many different pressings there were of random April Wine albums. 

     So, you may be asking yourself, "Why is Tom bothering with this post after six years of radio silence?" Fair question. I don't know myself. I am at a point in my life where I needed to start writing again. I have been close a couple times in the past six years. When my sister died of cancer, I went through the whole life is short thing, but my inner critic squelched the desire to write. The same thing happened last year when Neil Peart died. Despite all his motivational lyrics, I couldn't bring myself to stare at the blank page. Today, I was able to dismiss the voices in my head and put some words on the page. Maybe I will take up Sound Mind again. Maybe I will give it a reboot with a different premise. Maybe this is a farewell transmission for Sound Mind. In retrospect, Sound Mind was simply a platform to evangelize about music and bands that I love. So, while I work this out, pardon the rust. Peace.