The idea (and it is a crazy idea, I’ll grant you that) is to post a video of Abbott life every day for a year, starting January 1st. Daily uploads was the original idea, through weekly episodes might be more realistic. But still, it’d be quite the undertaking. We’d limit ourselves to no more than a 30 seconds of footage a day, on average, so that the whole year on film would be no longer than, say, Lawrence of Arabia.

Apparently there are already people on YouTube doing something similar (Internet Killed Television is apparently the most famous example, though I’d never heard of it ’til today). So this would not be unique. Except for the fact that it’d be Abbott-infused.

Not sure what to make of my own concept. “Blogworthy?” Or just self-absorbed?* Let us know what you think in the comments.

* This project would be as much for personal family history as anything.

I am fortunate enough to have a very nice viola on loan from a bluegrass friend. It’s been very fun to play with. The video above is the poignant one; next is the contrast piece:

Details on the songs

Look Up, Look Down That Lonesome Road is an old folk song I learned from a Watson Family album. I have cross-tuned the viola to CGCG (normally it’s CGDA, five steps lower than the violin’s GDAE).

Walk on Boy I also learned from Doc Watson. This is such a fun one to play… every time it comes out a little different because I get different ideas, and make different mistakes that I “get to” incorporate into the song.

These were filmed on our “white wall” because it was nighttime and that room had lights all set up already.

The unedited CNN story (nothing special, really) can be found here.

*What doesn’t go good with food?**

**Watching a birth?

And here’s the story behind the video, and why I was happy to watch it again after having dropped the routine for a few months…

This past spring, I turned a friend on to GTD, and she jumped in with both feet. Hearing how much she was enjoying the process inspired me to have another go at it—”it” being, simply put, to keep track of all my projects, obligations, to-dos, etc., in some external “system” where they can be stored, tracked, and managed.

Since I last wrote about my adventures in implementing GTD nearly two years ago, I’ve had many ups and downs with the GTD approach. I had some big successes because of it, but the system always seemed to fall apart for some reason, and I had some long periods of apathy toward the whole thing. It’s definitely “easier” to just “let it all hang loose” and not keep track of everything. But it has it’s downsides too; it’s harder to keep focus and direction, you get nagging feelings of “forgetting something,” you feel more scattered and disorganized… sometimes you don’t know what to do with ideas, other than just implement them, which may not be the best idea at a given moment. So, now that I had a friend starting fresh with GTD, I thought I’d have a fresh start at GTD as well.

Key to my success in this most recent round of GTD has been the morning routine, where I basically review everything on my plate. Having such a grounding routine at the very start of the day put me on the right course for the rest of the day. It was wonderful!

And then, I went to teach at kids’ music camps during the summer. Alaska for one and a half weeks, Hawaii for three weeks… both experiences were wonderful, and left me refreshed and inspired, but by the time I was back home in September, I was starting over from scratch with no daily rhythms to fall back on. And no morning routine.

Since then, frustration at my renewed scatteredness and lack of focus has been building inside of me. I’ve tried reimplementing GTD, but it hasn’t “stuck.” Just then, I came across this video that I made four months ago (which I hadn’t gotten around to blogging yet) and thought, “Yes! That’s what I’ve been missing!” So I thought I’d finally blog it now. And tomorrow, I’ll start my new morning routine.

(Apologies for the likely double-digit Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level score of this post.)

Blues Stay Away From Me from Kyle Abbott on Vimeo.

I’ve always encouraged the boys to eat and enjoy as much junk food as possible while they are young enough to enjoy it without consequences. Of course, as advice for daily living there would be adverse consequences; no so for occasional ‘occasions’. Now I’ve got to keep such ‘occasions’ rare; gone are the days of youth when I could bake a couple of pecan pies and eat them in one sitting. So, boys, enjoy it while you can. And I’ll join in occasionally.

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009.

[click any image to make it larger]

I was in our front room, drafting an email, when I heard terrific noise from the street. It was the unmistakable sound of a car collision. I lept from my computer to the open window to seek out the source. As I was jumping up, my first thought was, “Gosh, what a terrible parker,” but then the sound of an engine at high RPM registered in my brain. This was something more.

I should pause the story to mention something. You know how the human body releases a surge of adrenaline when faced with a potentially fight-or-flight situation? Not only do heart and breathing rates increase, but a flood of other physiological changes manifest, including heightened senses, blood vessel dilation, and inhibition of the digestive system. Well, another fascinating reaction to certain stressful situations is that the brain “speeds up”—which is why you hear people say “everything was in slow motion” or “so many thoughts went through my head all at once.” Well, I was flushed with adrenaline, which explains the amount of thinking I was able to pack into about ten seconds.

When I reached the window, I looked up the street about 100 feet and could see an SUV plowing into the car in front of it and stubbornly pushing it down the street. I was reminded of an incident many years ago, where someone suffered a stroke as they were pulling out of a parking space; blue smoke was everywhere as the sedan pushed into the car in front of it, moving very slowly. A brave neighbor pulled the person out and stopped the car. I wondered if something similar was happening here.

This is the car that was hit first. (It, in turn, hit the car in front of it.)

I was about to leave the window and rush outside, but then the SUV changed course. It veered left, running across the street, narrowly missing a parked car on the other side. It then jumped the curb, plowing through a two-foot brick-and-dirt wall like it was a sand castle.

And it kept going, glancing off the next house’s porch… and flying straight toward my late grandmother’s house. I contemplated the fact that if it had enough momentum to launch itself over that wall, perhaps it could take down part of the house. I’ve seen pictures of that kind of thing happening. But the dirt in the front garden was so soft that once the SUV landed, it just skidded forward a couple feet (destroying the banister on the front steps) and sank into the dirt. It was done.

I think my first thought after that was, “call 911.” Either that or, “Is there any way this thing could catch fire?” Either way, it wasn’t going to explode, and I saw that two bystanders were already dialing their cell phones.

My next thought was, “Camera?” And I almost got it, but somehow that felt irresponsible. I felt like I should rush out there—but then again, the folks in the next house (who lost their fence) were already on the scene, and I had already determined that the danger was past. It was quite a dilemma, and I went back and forth for all of three seconds (which was a long time in my super-man state, remember).

By this time, Mama walked into the room, and I briefly explained the situation on my way out the door.

Just think; Papa sometimes gardens right here in the evening. What a chilling thought.

The folks in the gray house (412 Lincoln) offered to help the driver, but she climbed out, insisting she was OK and to leave her alone. Then she walked away, clearly freaking out and in shock.

And thus began an hour and a half of the whole neighborhood gathering around, talking and sharing information or theories as to what happened.

Several minutes after the accident, a neighbor pointed out that the car was still on, so I carefully climbed around the hood to turn it off. The rear wheels were still spinning in a cavity of dirt. Opening the driver-side door, I reached around the airbag, found the key, turned off the car, and then took a few seconds to soak in as many visual details of the interior as I could.

On the floor, I could see two colorful, slip-on women’s shoes. The right one was lodged between the accelerator and the center column. Ah ha!

I later learned that she started accelerating a block up the street, pushing that first car forward about 30 feet. I figure she hit it at such a high speed that her airbag had doubtlessly been deployed, rendering her car uncontrollable as it careened across the street and into our yard(s).

This is why everyone should have auto insurance.

Following is a video showing the scene and the removal of the SUV.

[Gotta go to the web site to watch the video, guys!]

Hope you enjoyed the series!

[Gotta go to the web site to watch the video, guys!]

Watch the conclusion here.

Continue the adventure: Part Two