Charlie Puth National Anthem – The Song, The Bone, and More

Undoubtedly, when anyone mentions a Super Bowl National Anthem performance, Whitney Houston’s name comes up. I think it’s safe to say she’s got the #1 fan favorite but…

Enter Charlie Puth. And I found out Kenny G was playing sax on the performance?? I mean, what the!! I kinda love that he got no close-up shot and I’m going to assume that was his request. Just a man playing an instrument he’s mastered for the honor of the country, no recognition needed. But back to Charlie. I don’t know all the technicalities of what singers can do with their voice so I’ll just say this as a music listener…

Goodness gracious.

His choices for when to make a run or which notes to use on any particular phrase, just wow. It was understated yet built up to a crescendo topped off with the flyover by 8 aircraft from the Air Force and Navy. The two larger jets are B-1B Lancers– Bombers in the line of the stealth bomber and the B-52 bomber. The B-1B is known as “The Bone” because B-1, when written out or spoken, looks and sort of sounds like Bone.

With Charlie and the timing of the flyover, the camera work, the orchestra with Kenny G (and was that Matthew Gray Gubler conducting??), I’m giving this Super Bowl National Anthem performance a 10/10 and I’ll say it’s the best of my adult life, too. I don’t want to ruffle any feathers but it gave me goosebumps and *might* stick with me even more than Whitney’s. I’ll end with a laugh, check out this guy’s minor notes he’d recommend to Charlie, just a few tweaks to take his performance to the top.

-Out of the Wilderness

Good Will Dunkin’ Commercial Has A Flaw

The Super Bowl has come and gone. Football as we know it this season is over. I’m not crying, you’re crying. Dunkin’ Donuts wants us to turn that frown upside down in a commercial that aired during the game between the Patriots and Seahawks. Take a look to see if you can find a technical flaw.

OK, I might have misled you on purpose. The ad itself is a nod to TV shows we love from the 1990s. Friends, Seinfeld, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Family Matters, A Different World, and Cheers (mostly airing in the 1980s but we’ll let it slide). It’s the YouTube description that has the gigantic flaw. Take a look…

Last time I checked, television shows can’t win an Oscar for “Best Picture” because that award is for film and on top of that, the award is given out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In other words, not anything to do with TV shows. The award a TV show might earn is an Emmy which doesn’t have a “Best Picture” category.

There’s still time for Dunkin’ to correct their mistake. In fact, changing a YouTube video description takes all of 5 seconds for any employee who isn’t on a…

-Out of the Wilderness

Almost at the eleventh hour… A water heater installation story

The Water Heater Install. I live full time in a 26-foot travel trailer with a recently-diagnosed leaky hot water heater. To replace it, I ordered a tankless water heater and planned to DIY the installation. Of course, all the YouTube videos and blog posts said the it was a cinch. No problemo, they said. Just do this and that and you’ll be up and running, they said. What they DIDN’T say is that it’s tuff.

Just One Win. I’d worked on it for two afternoons and the entire third day. On the fourth day, my dad (who had been out of town) got up to speed and was ready to help. For the better part of the morning and afternoon, we were able to figure out what wasn’t working and around 6pm we called it quits for the day. By all intents and purposes, I was cooked. The one win I wanted for the day– even something small– wasn’t happening. Another cold night (having to shut off the propane heat) with no water. My dad and I would get back to it the next morning.

The Eleventh Hour. Dictionary.com defines the eleventh hour as “the last possible moment for doing something.” This is where I was mentally. Ready to give up, reset, send the unit back and get something different, something easier. Let the clock strike midnight or just give me a crow bar so I can bash something. It’s 6pm. My dad and I went indoors and my brother-in-law was nearby so I gave him a quick recap. He put his shoes on and said he wanted to take a look. This was at 7pm. Three hours later–we’ll call it the tenth hour– a breakthrough. Not only did I have running water again, THE HOT WATER WAS WORKING!

Huge. By trial and error, my bro-in-law and I got power to the unit, propane gas hooked up to it, and everything was running as if it was all no problemo, just do this and that and you’ll be up and running. 😵‍💫 It’s hard to appreciate having running water, having hot water, until you’ve had neither for 3 or 4 days. As I write today’s post, I’m as grateful as can be. I know some of you out there have tons of experience with appliances and whatnot and are probably thinking that I need to calm down. Alls I did was get a water heater working. But let me have this moment of joy! It’s a huge win at a time when I was a kitten’s whisker away from giving up completely.

-Out of the Wilderness

How did I end up here?

Remember yesterday when I was excited about my new tankless water heater? Most of that joy has trickled out and now I’m left with 17 new tasks. The good news is that the original problem has ben solved– My water heater was leaking and now there’s no water in the camper…

At all.

Like, I have no water. When I was hoping for a dry camper, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind. I can’t get any water out of any faucet because the dadgum RV control panel in the camper has no power to it. It’s been this way for 3 days and I’m on day 5 of not having hot water. Fun times, right? You know those situations where you whisper to yourself, wow I’m glad it’s not me… I guess I whispered that one too many times because now I’m in a situation most people wouldn’t want to be in and it’s double tuff because I don’t know how to make everything right. Well, short of spending more money by hiring an expert to come out and get the new water heater working. Costs are adding up and so are the frustrations but hopefully I’ll make progress today so I can go to bed with at least one win for the day.

Fish or cut bait. Another option lurking in the back of my mind is to cut bait… Admit what I’m doing isn’t working, abandon the plan, start over, and go in a different direction. I’m not there quite yet but with every failed attempt, I’m one piece of dry, old squid closer.

-Out of the Wilderness

I was going to write an amazing post today…

…but you know when you start those projects that lead to another project and then another project and you can’t finish the original project because to do that, you need to do the other projects first? That’s the story of my life right now with a new tankless water heater in my travel trailer. Don’t get me wrong, I’m heating up with excitement to have hot water again— or just water at all– but I keep running into road blocks and now I’m about to go on my 2nd trip to Ace Hardware. Pray for me, I would love for this to be my last trip to Ace today. Darn it, I was going to write a post that would’ve changed your life.

-Out of the Wilderness