Julia's Ninieth Birthday Reception

Touch Down

Off work all week I've had alot of down time to help with my mother-in-law's birthday reception held this Sunday, getting the house ready for out of town cousin-in-law's I've never met before. They're from Mooreland, Oklahoma. I Wikied the place, a thriving metropolis of 1,190 souls located near the pan handle, tornado alley. They would've felt right at home if they arrived last night.

Louisville got hit last night with a few, one of which came damn close to us. I thought for a while that we wouldn't have to pay to have our backyard tree brought down after all. It was a nail biter. A few horse barns were demolished on the backside of Churchill Downs. The horse owners arrived to find horses wandering around like nothing happened. If you believed the news we had five tornados briefly touch down, all F1's and F-2's.

On the lounge by the pool today looking at the panorama of cumulus float by near the horizon while reading the thoughts of Harry Angstrom. I haven't read any John Updike since college. Love his style. Quote from Harry Angstrom in 'Rabbit Is Rich' ... "All in all this is the happiest fucking country the world has ever seen."

Van The Man

I was rooting around looking for CD's to change out my in the stereo in my truck. I came across a Van Morrison CD he put out in '83. I was at a party back then and the host had the latest Van Morrison album 'Inarticulate Speech of The Heart'. It wasn't opened yet. We pealed off the plastic and put it on the turntable.

Wow...I remember thinking this was the best music I've ever heard...I was at a loss for words.
I bought the album the next day and played it so much I wore it out.

Van Morrison 'Higher Than The World'  1983

Well Smell

Last night we were piddling around in the gardens and I smelled a very familiar smell.

"Do you smell something?"
"Yeah, it smells weird."
"Smells like marijuana to me."

It was the pungent sweet smell of weed and it lasted all evening long. Whoever was smoking it must've rolled up a baled size joint.

The Nerve

I lost some of my majesty about three weeks ago in a storm but I'm still capable, mighty, and can still see a fur piece, nodding in the wind to all my cousins.

When the sun made it's way three quarters around the great arc a man pulled in the black stripe and barry met him and they walked back to look up at me from all angles. The man would look up and write something on a paper and look up again, pointing at me.

The man and barry talked for awhile and then he left, leaving barry the paper he was writing on. I guess he was writing a book report about me. barry gave me a wistful look, then went back inside the house where my shadow casts long across the top.

Wah Wah

This post is for the purposes of bitching, whining, and moaning only.

First of all, part of the our backyard maple tree blew down. It crushed our deck, privacy fence, totalled wife's car, and messed up the front of my truck. We received a mega check in the mail from our home owners insurance yesterday and of course our premiums will most likely increase dramatically, as well as the car insurance. They're all blood suckers. You just can't win.

I'll have to do the repair/replace work myself 'cause lord knows any contractor will try and gouge us for every cent we have and do shoddy work to boot. I'll replace the wood deck with the synthetic Trex. I read where the Trex stuff is heavier than treated lumber..figures. Of course I'll pay through the nose for that stuff. My mother said don't work too hard or else I'll have another heart attack...you watch, it'll probably happen.

And if I have a heart attack there's another major price tag for a hospital stay. I pay buckets of money out my miserable salary for health insurance and what do I get? I'll tell ya what I get, I get iffy care from iffy nurses. The last hospital nurse I had on the 3rd shift had that glassy eyed high as a kite look. I was scared to death of her. I tell ya, I don't get any respect.

George Harrison  'Wah Wah'  1970.

Medication

Every morning I take all my pills.
I take a:

Statin
Beta Blocker
Blood pressure pill
Nitro pill
Aspirin
Plavix (Slick 50)
Multi-Vitamin

I then rattle off to work.

Son Volt   'Medication'   2005.

Precious Lord, Take My Hand

We sang this song in church this morning and I looked at the bottom of the page and it read, Words and Music by Thomas A. Dorsey. I immediately thought of the big band leader of the '40's but, after some research, I found that there was another Dorsey.

He was known as "the father of black gospel music" and was at one time so closely associated with the field that songs written in the new style were sometimes known as "dorseys." Earlier in his life he was a leading blues pianist known as Georgia Tom.

His first wife died in childbirth in 1932. Two days later the child, a son, also died. In his grief, he wrote his most famous of all gospel songs, "Precious Lord, Take My Hand"


Some guy on Youtube -- 'Precious Lord, Take My Hand'.



Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, let me stand
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home

When my way grows drear
Precious Lord linger near
When my life is almost gone
Hear my cry, hear my call
Hold my hand lest I fall
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home

When the darkness appears
And the night draws near
And the day is past and gone
At the river I stand
Guide my feet, hold my hand
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home

Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, let me stand
I'm tired, I'm weak, I'm lone
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home

Storm Damage

We had a storm blow through last night and we heard a whoooomp while lying in bed. About a third of our backyard maple came down and damaged our cars, crushed part of the deck, and damaged part of the fence. We were lucky in that it could have been much worse.

Tristan in The Talent Show

Tristan loves to watch Michael Jackson dancing videos, copying every move. Once he heard that his elementary school was having a talent show that was it...he had to be in it. He auditioned for the teacher and the rest is history.

Spring Fashion for the Well Dressed Detective

The Back Side of Churchill Downs

Friends invited us to a tour of the backside of Churchill Downs given by Elliot Shelton, a horse trainer and thoroughbred farm manager. He trained Derby also rans and one Derby winner, Super Saver.

Since it's less than a week before the Derby there was more of a crowd than usual; groomers, exersize riders, trainers, the media, and a class of future jockey's lead by Chris McCarron.

Racing thoroughbreds are exhilarating to see in person. They're huge, agile, beautiful animals. They each have their own personality.

This is Shackleford, one of the favorites to win the Derby

A Monday on Frankfort Avenue

My wife and I took an antique lamp to have re-brassed to H & D Brass today. H & D Brass is on Frankfort Avenue, a narrow road close to downtown Louisville on which train tracks run parallel along side of the street. On the other side of Frankfort are small shops, remodelled old homes, and restaurants. I supposed you could call it gentrified.

Back in the 80's I lived off Frankfort Avenue in an apartment complex called Belleau Wood. There was a famous WWI battle which took place at Belleau Wood along the Marne River in France in 1918. The apartments looked nothing like a battle field, but it was heavily wooded. Go figure.

We parked outside H & D Brass and I took the antique lamp out of the back seat. Wife said don't dare get hit by a car, it might break the lamp. We ordered a new globe and chimney and left the lamp there to be re-brassed. I asked the guy how old he thought the lamp was and he said around the turn of the century...maybe 1918...from France...along the Marne River.

On the way home we stopped at this place called Bluegrass Burgers to eat. There were a couple of women there al freso-ing and one was breast feeding her baby. We went inside and ordered and wife asked me if I wanted to eat outside. I said sure. The baby was done at the milk bar. The other woman had a baby too. We started talking with them and they were both mid-wives who worked mainly in a Amish community across the river in Indiana.

Photos and a Song From Easterland



      Marvin Gaye  'Wholy Holy'  1971

I Saw Smoky One Night

The other night 'Nightline' was interviewing Smoky Robinson and they asked who was his favorite musical artist and he didn't hesitate at all and said Marvin Gaye. Smoky said he still listens to Gaye's most popular album 'What's Going On'. He went on to say that Marvin Gaye was way ahead of his time in music and lyrics.

I couldn't agree more. His music is timeless and sounds as good today...maybe better.

Marvin Gaye 'Mercy Mercy Me' from the 'What's Going On' album. 1971

Synchronicity for Everybody

I was at work this past Saturday and I got to thinking about this guy my wife and I used to talk to at our old gym. Since we switched gym membership a couple of years ago we haven't seen him since.

Jerry was very funny and witty in a very dry sort of way and it took awhile to know just how funny and unique he was. Whenever we saw him we knew that working out would take a back seat to standing around yaking and having a few yuks. As I was sitting at the Gate One post I got to thinking he would join the gym we go to now and that I would surely see him soon bopping around the weights, plugged into his ipod. I miss the guy.

When I got home wife was putting away the groceries.

"You wouldn't believe who I saw at the grocery!"
"Jerry from the old gym?"
"HOW DID YOU KNOW!"
"'Cause I was just thinking about him today at work. Is he still going to Fitness 19?"
"No! He told me he just joined our gym!"

That doesn't happen often, but it does happen....the synchronicity. It happens to everybody.

The New Room

It used to be a wide hallway we just walked through. We've working on it off and on since February. All that's left is the new couch and chair due in a couple of months.... oh, and new flat screen and sound system.

We broke down and had the wallpaper hung by a professional....one woman who did it in six hours.

Design, color, and concept by wife. labor by bb.

Girly Girl

Hailee was over for Mimi to syle her hair for a cheerleader banquet. Her new dress, shoes, and  new hairstyle for the occasion. Unbelievably, she'll be eleven years old on May eleventh.

To Buy or Not to Buy

Steely Dan is coming to Louisville in August and if I don't buy tickets soon it will sell out. This is torture for me. I haven't been to a concert in a long time and Steely Dan was and is one of my favorite bands. I called my brother to see if he wanted to go. He hasn't called me back yet...the brat.                                   

They're playing at The Louisville Palace. The Palace exhibits a Spanish Baroque motif with arcades, balconies and turrets. Cobalt blue, bursts of red and gold indirectly light all of the niches, coves and entrances. Above is a curved, vaulted ceiling with 139 sculptures of the faces of historical figures. The actual theater room inside The Palace is heavily ornamented and displays an imitation nighttime sky on the ceiling.

The theater is two stories with a floor and a balcony. Both floors contain bars that run the width of the building behind the theater, separated by a grand lobby of intricate art and architecture.

Its uncommon appearance has made it a popular venue for musicians to record live performances. I wonder if they're recording this concert.



Steely Dan 'Slang of Ages'  2003.

Let me put it this way doll
And I know it's getting late
I can tell from the planes of your face
That you're from out of state
But here in the Willows now here's the deal
Tomorrow's for squares -- tonight's for real

Drop me off in Groovetime
Do you hear the Slang of Ages
Show me how it's done

Now did you say you were from the Netherlands
Or was that "Netherworld"?
If you grew up in Amsterdam
Then I'm the Duke of Earl
These tabs look iffy -- you say they're good
Let's roll with the homeys -- knock on wood

Drop me off in Groovetime
Soothe me with the Slang of Ages
Show me where I turn

Are you all part of the Dreaming
Or the end of my life so far?
Or something half way in between
You oughta know
Hey -- where'd she go?
Damn -- she skipped dimensions
Was it something that I said?
Or something I was thinking
When she opened up my head?
Let me make it right baby -- never mind how
There's a crazy little place I know called "Be There Now"

Drop me off in Groovetime
Do you hear the Slang of Ages
Show me how it's done
Drop me off in Groovetime
Soothe me with the Slang of Ages
This is where I turn

Woof!

I felt more sluggish than usual rolling out of bed Monday. I chaulked it up to wife and I working in the yard and garden spring cleaning most of the day Sunday. I stumbled into the kitchen to put water on for coffee and by then I knew something was skulking around in my veins, making me feel sick as a dog. I felt as if I had the hangover from hell.

Allergies, I thought. The days are getting warmer and I was practically wallering around in the lawn and garden yesterday. After struggling to eat a bowl of shredded wheat and finishing my coffee I started feeling nauseous. I hit the couch and slept off and on for four hours.

Wife woke me and commanded me to make a doctor's appointment. Walter doesn't come into the office on Mondays so I hauled my sorry ass to an urgent care place. I've been to this place a few times but they always have me fill out the Emancipation Proclamation of confidentiality agreement. I could care less if the whole world knew I was sick today.

They show me to the same room I've been in before to sit and wait for the doctor. He finally makes his appearance and introduces himself as Dr. Smith. I mentally bet his first name is John. He asked a bunch of questions and nurse comes in and wants a sample of snot from both nostrils. She leaves with the snot rockets and it seems like forever before Smith comes back.

You have the flu. The Flu? I haven't had the flu since I was the little kid. I take flu shots almost every year. It must be the Roederer Correctional Complex Hong Cong Crud. He gives me Tamilflu and phenergan for the nausea. He also gives me hydrocodone for the head and body aches. That's kinda overdoing it.

I fill the prescriptions and sleep the rest of the day. I call in to work and tell them I won't be in the next couple of days and I choke down a slice of toast for dinner and sleep in the guest bedroom. Wife gives me a wave good-night. My right shoulder bursitis decides to act up and I can't sleep. I'm glad I filled the hydrocodone script and take one. I know from experience Ibruprofen won't touch this pain.

I've been having alot of dreams lately. My brother and I are back at U of K and the whole campus is partying for spring break. It was like Daytona beach converged on the campus and Brad and I were going from bar to bar, drunk as hell. That's all I remember.

I don't how Tamilflu works but it does the trick and today I feel almost back to my ornery self. I've forgotten how bad influenza can make you feel. I tell ya...I was sick as a dog.

Winter's Bone

We watched "Winter's Bone" a couple of weeks ago. It's a small independent film (my favorite kind of film) and starred Jennifer Lawrence who was a Oscar nominee for best actress. I liked it alot and so did my wife which kind of surprised me.

One Eyed Bill

My grandfather would occasionally take cattle to be slaughtered for meat. The man he would take the cattle to was known to me as 'one eyed Bill' because that's what my grandfather called him. He wore an eye patch and since I was a little kid this intrigued me to no end. I remember grandfather telling me not to ask him why he had only one eye and where his other eye was. Of course my grandfather called him Bill when talking business with him.

I was around ten years old on my first trip to the slaughter house. I remember grandfather telling me that if I didn't want to watch, that it was okay and I could do something else around town while one eyed Bill did his work. I felt a mixture of excitement and dread but I wanted to see it.

I was seated in a chair to the side of the cement killing floor, a floor drain in the middle. I heard grandfather's truck backing up outside. The animal was stumbled out in a small pen made of wooden slats from floor to ceiling in the corner of the room. The animal somehow sensed something terrible was about to happen and was thrashing about, it's eyes wide and darting around so that you could see the whites.

I felt my face getting flush and my heart was pounding as one eyed Bill suddenly pulled a rifle up, holding it like a pistol with one hand. He was pushing a lever with his other hand that somehow squeezed the cow against the wall, making it easier for a clean shot to the head.

The rifle made a pop and the cow dropped. He opened the gate and pulled it's now lifeless body out in the middle of the killing floor. I felt a mixture of revulsion and fascination. My grandfather was now in the room leaning against the wall smoking. I could feel him watching me. Blood was coming out of the animal's mouth and ears.

One eyed Bill cut the cow's throat and blood gushed out finding the floor drain. He gutted it with a large machete like knife, cutting out the stomach, intestines, heart, and lungs from the rest of the body. In no time a big pink side of beef was hanging from a meat hook. After coming back that day I remember feeling exhausted as though I had done the work myself.

My grandfather asked if I were hungry because my grandmother was making hamburgers for supper.

Graffiti and Confetti

The car windshield had smears and she reached over to spray fluid and wipers. This slightly irritates me; who's driving this car anyway? Wife and I are going to pick up something quick to eat after the gym.

Last night I had an intense vivid dream. I'll blame it on the non-drowsy antihistamine I starting taking the other day.

I'm installing some sort of kit....a new kind of windshield washer kit to replace the old system on my truck. Someone says I'm going about it all wrong and besides, it works the same way as the old system anyway. This person is really upset over the way I'm doing it.

I look at my truck which is laying on it's side and this person is saying something about the wiper indicators don't line up and it's the reason the system doesn't work right. We have a heated argument and I take off running.

I'm running around my childhood neighborhood in a pouring rain. I look over my shoulder and there, running along side of me, is my niece. She's assuring me that I did the right thing with my truck and tells me to follow her.

I follow her to a beach house and the sky is drenched with sun. There are many small people dancing around and they're waiting for something to come ashore. They all have bags of confetti, throwing handfuls in the air. The confetti becomes animated and changes into all sorts of sparkling shapes. There are also little people drawing a colorful graffiti on a stilted beach house.

I can't help but laugh at the feeling of celebration. My niece tells me to follow her up the stairs of the beach house and then there are hundreds of people with us, among them are my brother, sister, other nieces, nephews, and my parents. I'm behind my mother, helping her up the stairs. My shirt sleeves are ballooned out because they're full of confetti.

My niece and I are in the beach house and she's showing me photographs of her mother and father. She wants me to help decide which ones we show at their funeral. All the photos don't look like photos but graphic representations of photos. Some look like crude M.C. Escher prints. 

I wake at 2:50am. That's were the dream ended. It's the most vivid, colorful dream I've had in a long time.

Summer White

Our living room is taking shape and we're almost through with the painting. The name of the paint is Summer White. A white by any other name smells like paint.

Enamel Wins

All day Sunday jazz streaming from the web and I'm off work sitting here in my sweats playing spider solitaire. I don't want to do anything because my barking sinuses, but there's plenty to do. The gallon of woodwork paint is sitting upstairs nagging at me. The paint brushes are feathering my conscience. Even the green cut in tape rasps at me. Will we never finish the damn living room?

I feel like ibuprofen and a nap, fall asleep while the 'Trane plays Aisha....no no... ibuprofen and a whispering TV golf announcer "That was a beautiful chip shot, but I would have used the 60 degree wedge instead." zzzzzzz. 

Ahh screw it, I'll go ahead and paint (while jazzing it up)

As Clear as Water

I had a dream last night. I told my wife about it this morning:


"I was in a sort of forested outdoor ampitheater and I was called that there was trouble and started running where I somehow knew where the trouble would be and came upon a correctional sergeant (who I know from work.) He said they were coming.

Several wolf-like animals were running towards us. We were protecting each other, back to back, fending off the wolf-like creatures. We ran and the scene around me had changed to the UK campus. I was walking up and down the aisles of the student center theater searching the faces of the people for someone I knew. It was somehow important that I find him or her.

The creatures appeared again and I ran and the scene changed again to our home in the early morning. I rushed in the back porch. There were clothes neatly laying on the floor and I knew they belonged to a couple who are close friends of my wife and I.

I heard Bruce snoring in the living room and then he came out fully dressed with a hat on. He seemed upset and asked where I had been, your wife has been crying. My wife appeared and asked what I had been doing all night.

I held out my shredded bloodied arms and said this is what. There was a slow deep growling sound coming from outside. The wolf-like creature was as big as my truck and was circling the deck around our back porch.

I woke up terrified and it was awhile before could get back to sleep. It was 2:38am."


My wife said with all the stuff going on with you at the prison I can see where that dream came from, It's as clear as water.

Alternative Minimalist Chanteuse

Jessica Lea Mayfield just put out a new CD. She's dark, sad, and mysterious. I can't figure why I like her music, and especially her voice..but I do. A twenty-one year old alternative minimalist chanteuse.

Jessica Lea Mayfield 'Our Hearts Are Wrong' 2011.

It Didn't Work

The first book of Timothy was a letter written by the Apostle Paul to Timothy regarding how to minister to the early Christian church of Ephesus. It was written about 64 AD and at that time Ephesus was the second largest city in the Roman Empire with a population of roughly 250,000.

I showed the following verses to wife today. She just rolled her eyes at me and said "Yeah, right."

"¹¹ A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. ¹² I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet."

Chiropractic Wikipedia Tangents

Most of the day Saturday I finished up the caulking.

Saturday night my back started in on me.

Sunday it was worse.

Had a hard time getting out of bed this morning.

My chiropractor squeezed me in.

She manipulated my spine.
She TENSed my back.
TENS stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation.

It has been used since 1974.

It feels weird, but good.

good vibrations.

Beach Boys.

Then her massage therapist squeezed me in.                          Her name is Mary Hieronymus

There was a painter from the fifteenth century.

His name was Hieronymus Bosch.

Not much was known about him.

He was Dutch.

Fewer than twenty-paintings survive.

My deductable has increased five dollars.

Blood suckers.

Academy Connection

Jennifer Lawrence starred in the film 'Winter's Bone'.
Her mother's name is Karen Lawrence
Her maiden name was Koch.
Karen Koch was a cheerleader at Westport High.
She married a guy named Lawrence.
I went to Westport High.
Karen and I graduated from Westport together.
Karen probably wouldn't remember me,
if she tripped over me.
I haven't seen 'Winter's Bone' yet.

Big deal huh?

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

Today I heard this song covered by a Welsh band, the Stereophonics. Most people think that Roberta Flack wrote this song.

It was written in 1957 by political singer/songwriter Ewan MacColl for Peggy Seeger, who was later to become his wife. At the time the couple were lovers, although MacColl was married to someone else.

MacColl wrote the song for Seeger, also a folk singer, after she asked him to pen a song for a play she was in. MacColl wrote the song and taught it to Seeger over the phone. The alternative version of the creation of this song is that MacColl was challenged by a friend to write a love song, with no politics. This song was the result.

MacColl and Seeger included the song in their repertoire, when performing in folk clubs around Britain. During the 1960s.

The song entered the pop mainstream when it was recorded by Roberta Flack in 1972. The Flack version was much slower than the original: an early solo recording by Seeger, for example, clocked in at two and a half minutes long, whereas Flack's is more than twice that length.

Stereophonics  'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face'
  

BB Studley

I rely on our neighbor Bill, a semi-retired Finnish carpenter, when doing projects involving wood working. The last three days I've held his compound miter saw and two nail guns hostage. However much I would like to buy these goodies, I can't justify it. Our living room smells like a saw mill but things are looking good. All the wainscotting and trim are up and I ran into very few problems.

Now comes the tedious finish work of setting odd finishing nails, which despite using the nail gun, didn't have enough umph to penetrate the plaster walls and the fifty-five year old studs beneath. I'm a fifty-five year stud myself...HAH. Caulking...how I hate to caulk, but no matter how much you'd like to be the perfect stud-carpenter, caulking is necessary.

Chair Rail Dragster.

Never Ending

After the new hardwood floor, new baseboard and repainting the wood trim in our bedroom the remodel cancer has now spread to the living room. The wainscotting has been put up and tomorrow I start on chair rail and baseboard. I have the week off. surely I can finish in five days -- even with the unseen problems that will come. In spite of this, I love doing remodels on the house. It may be because of the problems that I like it.

On home improvement TV shows they edit out the cussing and gnashing of teeth. They make it look so simple. At the end of "New Yankee Workshop" Norm  Abram says you can order the plans for the project he just finished and you'll be off and running. Of course Norm has 100,000 dollars worth of equipment in his designer workshop and decades of professional woodworking experience.

After I'm through with my part we're papering between the chair rail and ceiling. Wife is the official wallpaperer and I'm her gofer. We work well together...hell we should, we've papered most every room in the house...twice.

Paul & Art

You've probably seen a car commercial with a background song which happens to be Simon and Garfunkel. The snippet of the song sounds speeded up slightly on the commercial. For some reason this irritated me.
It's similar to changing words in a Mark Twain novel.

Paul Simon wrote this as a thinly-veiled message to Art Garfunkel, referring to a specific incident where Garfunkel went to Mexico to act in the film Catch-22. Simon was left alone in New York writing songs for the album 'Bridge over Troubled Water', hence the lonely feelings of 'The Only Living Boy In New York' Simon refers to Garfunkel in the song as Tom, referring to their early days when they were called Tom and Jerry, and encourages him to "let your honesty shine...like it shines on me."

The background vocals (the part in the commercial) feature both Garfunkel and Simon recorded together in an echo chamber, multi-tracked eight times."

Simon and Garfunkel 'The Only Living Boy in New York' 1970.