It’s past my bedtime on a chilly, wet evening here in the Corn Belt.  For the last three hours, I’ve been fiddling with the WP Link Directory, a WordPress plugin that I want to use to manage the hundreds of links that I have on my various Web sites.  It almost works, but I still have to fix a few problems with it so that someone other than me will actually be able to see and use those links.  Ah, the devil is always in the details, isn’t he?

I’m listening to a charming rendition of “Across the Wide Missouri” by the Kingston Trio.  It’s a bittersweet song, to be sure, and the ‘Trio gives it the respect it deserves.  I first became intimately acquainted with that haunting folk song, also known as “Oh Shenandoah,” when I sang a barbershop harmony arrangement of it at the Illinois District Academy of Harmony.  Good old IDAH has clearly seen better days, but perhaps they’ll return someday.  That sight-singing of the arrangement in the notoriously difficult baritone baritone part and harmonizing with the other three voice parts was during a time that was itself bittersweet.  That was back in the day when I was on the receiving end of a stunning one-two punch: some serious shit had just earlier hit the fan, followed by some painful memories of childhood abuse I had endured outside my family that rocked my world.

Nevertheless, as always, I was resilient; I kept going.

For anyone who might not know where the Corn Belt in the USA is located, a map appears below.

The Corn Belt, highlighted in red

Public domain map courtesy of The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin, modified (by • Benc • 00:30, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)) to highlight regions.