Eez Inger Ed Ookies Are Ood

Sometimes I think about backpacks. Let's see, the newspaper in my left hand, coke in the other. I spy the tin of homemade ginger bread cookies a client gave my wife for Christmas. I put down the newspaper and coke, take the tin top off and get a cookie. I tuck the newspaper under my left arm to hold the cookie in my left hand and grab the class of coke with my right.

I hear my wife downstairs. "Barry, can you bring down the can of chex mix please?"

I put down the newspaper, cookie, coke and take the can of chex mix out of the pantry. I cradle the chex mix between my right arm and chest so I can hold the glass of coke. The newspaper, tucked in my left armpit, cookie in left hand.

"Honey, can you fix me a coke too?" (In most southern stated this translates to filling a glass with ice and pouring in any kind of soft drink, including coke products.)

I put down newspaper, cookie, chex mix, and my coke. Fixed wife a coke. Cradle chex mix on right side, wife's coke in right hand, tucked newspaper in left arm pit, and my coke in left hand. The ginger bread cookie delicately held between my teeth. 

I stepped downstairs, Wallenda-like, without spilling a drop.  

Merry Christmas

Robert Earl Keen  'Merry Christmas from the Family'

XXX-Mas

Who Are Those Geezers?

The Rolling Stones have been around since 1962. In 2005 they released their 27th studio album called 'A Bigger Bang'. I think it's the best they've sounded for a long time. They have returned to their roots...straight ahead rock and roll.

The Rolling Stones 'Rough Justice' 2005.

New Round

Remember singing 'rounds' in grade school...Row, row, row your boat? I was listening to Beck in my truck the other day and the song 'New Round' came on. I never really paid much attention to this song but it struck me how the song got it's name. It has become one of my favorite songs by Beck.

Beck  'New Round'  2006.




New Round

When the oceans are dark
The heavens are foreboding
A chain link wind
Is breaking you open

And lessons of the day
On a blackboard night
It seem to be erased
And the beacon has a light

The eyes of confusion
Looking for a string
Everything they need
To keep the dogs at bay

There's no escape hatch
No submarine
Could take you to the moon
rake you in the leaves

And keep you just the same
All in my arms
Some day, some day
Say bye bye bye bye

Bye, bye, bye

I'm smaller than a stone
Bigger than a road
Farther than an ocean
Closer than a soul

Every little word
And every little step
Every new direction
Closer you would get

The farther away
You go from where we went
I'll try to keep with you
Hold you like a star

Found the frozen bank
To a hollow tune
Pushes up beyond
And all they come from home

When you bring them down
All they fall aside
On the radios
Don't forget it's yours

Bye, bye, bye

[Spoken]
What?
Dinner time, yeah.

We're Floored

We added on to the front of our house back in 1992. I cannot believe it's been that long ago. Today we had the eighteen year old carpet ripped out and a new hardwood floor installed. Australian Cypress. Looks good.

All that's left is baseboard and shoe mold and we're good to go.

Birth of Venus

There is a new female Correctional Officer at work and the first time I saw her she reminded me of someone or something. It was her face.

I figured it out the other day; she's Venus in Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus' painted in 1485.

 

Cauliflower Brain

On my way to roll call the Captain stops me outside his office. "McClain, you're going to BHNE to relieve Ramsey." I do an about face and walk to the parking lot and arrive at the hospital fifteen minutes later. It's going to be an easy, but boring day.

Ramsey hands over the restraint keys, cell phone, and weapon. He's anxious to get home. The inmate is sleeping as far as I can tell, with the sheet over his head. He occasionally stirs.

Besides keeping an eye on the inmate, there nothing to do but watch TV. There's a cops & robbers rerun, then a little food channel. What's his name was stuffing hens with a cranberry dressing mixture. For drinks he made a champaign cur royale with craneberry juice. I'm not sure I would like it. Too foo-foo.

A CT tech comes to take the inmate to get a head scan. I wheel chair him behind the tech, who is wheeling the IV stand. They move and adjust his head inside the donut hole. The image appears on the screen and as the tech moves the mouse an invisible plane moves down through his brain like a time lapse of a blooming cauliflower.

These Are The Days

I was watching James Taylor and Carole King performing live at the Troubador on PBS. It sounds every bit as good as it used to.

Carole King's first big hit; 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow'

Black Friday

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Depending on the source, the term dates either from the 1980s or back as 1966, although its usage was primarily on the East coast. The term has become more common in other parts of the country since 2000. On this day many U.S. retailers open very early, with most of the retailers typically opening at 5AM or even earlier, at midnight.

The day's roots may have originated in Philadelphia, where it was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Others claim it was part of mid-1980s anti-consumerism backlash, when people took a pledge to "blackout" that day - staying home, rather than shopping.

I'd rather be drawn and quartered than to go anywhere near a mall on this day.

Steely Dan  'Black Friday'  1975

Messin With The Camera

Has it really been that long ago?

 

Ready for the big day.

Law and Order

Ben is no longer an officer but was promoted to detective and was on TV a week ago.

A Day in The Life

'A Day in The Life'  is one of the Beatles most famous and influential songs.

the song comprises distinct segments written independently by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, with orchestral additions added later. While Lennon’s lyrics were inspired by contemporary newspaper articles, McCartney’s were reminiscent of his youth.

George Martin, the Beatles' producer, later described explaining his improvised score to the puzzled orchestra:

"What I did there was to write ... the lowest possible note for each of the instruments in the orchestra. At the end of the twenty-four bars, I wrote the highest note...near a chord of E major. Then I put a squiggly line right through the twenty-four bars, with reference points to tell them roughly what note they should have reached during each bar ... Of course, they all looked at me as though I were completely mad."

McCartney had originally wanted a 90-piece orchestra, but this proved impossible; the difference was made up, as the semi-improvised segment was recorded multiple times and eventually four different recordings were overdubbed into a single massive crescendo. The results were successful; in the final edit of the song, the orchestral bridge is reprised after the final verse.

Following the final orchestral crescendo, the song ends with one of the most famous final chords in music history. Lennon, McCartney, Starr, and Evans shared three different pianos, with Martin on the Harmonium, and all played an E-major chord simultaneously. The final chord was made to ring out for over forty seconds by increasing the recording sound level as the vibration faded out. Towards the end of the chord the recording level was so high that listeners can hear the sounds of the studio, including rustling papers and a squeaking chair.

'A Day in The Life'  The Beatles  1967.

Ooooooooh Scary

Hailee as Eighty's Girl and Tristan as Dash Incredible. Tristan's mask looks upside down but we turned it over and that looked upside down too.

Death Grip

I was pulling the dead zinnias out of the ground. They'd served the previous season's purpose, giving summer color in our house. I'm surprised at the death grip strength of the roots as I pull. I can't help but feel a slight sorrow for the zinnias and the passed Summer. Do plants have a slight consciousness? Do the trees around me mourn at their dormancy?

Not to worry; next Spring comfort will come in seed packets and the trees will wake to watch the planting and watering in of their next of kin.

 

Made By Hailee

The Theremin

The Theremin is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device in 1928.



Theremin demonstrated the device to Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. Lenin was so impressed he began taking lessons in playing it.

The theremin is associated with a very eerie sound, which has led to its use in movie soundtracks such as Spellbound, one of my favorite films.

Roto Rooter

On the way home from work yesterday I was behind a Roto Rooter truck most of the way and this morning on the way to the hospital wife and I saw another. When I made the appointment for my colonoscopy I didn't think about it being on election day. I suppose there's a certain irony about that.

The evening before I drank three liters of that goop which cleans you out and early this morning I drank the final liter. I was miserable. Five years ago I took the horse pills but they have since discovered a threat of renal failure with the pills. I'd almost take my chances with the pills.

They wheeled me into the procedure room and put the twilight cocktail through the IV. The doctor looked like Rand Paul behind the mask and the nurse became Sarah Palin. I went kicking and screaming into unconsciousness.

A Sort of Halloween Story

We had next door neighbors, two women, who had a side business involving estate auctions and antique sales. All sorts of stuff was always being moved in and out of their garage...chairs, sofas, antiques of all sorts, knick knacks, bric-a'-brack, paddy whack, and give a dog a bone. Jackie and Betty were real characters.

A first Saturday in May Betty calls me.

"Barry, look out on our back patio, do you see that woman?"

"Yes"

"She just walked up and sat down and she won't say anything to us, she acts like she on drugs or something. Can you walk over and try and talk to her?"

The seated woman had her back to me with an arm leaning against on patio table. She was wearing a black dress and had a black wide brim hat on her head. I thought since it was Derby Day she may have wandered over drunk from another party. Wait a minute, black on Derby Day? nah. All sorts of scenarios were running through my gullible head.

As I got closer I said "Ma'am...Ma'am? she remained stock still. Then I saw it was a mannequin and looked up to see Jackie and Betty at the back window laughing.

Good one.

Crown Mold

We recently had crown molding installed in a couple of rooms. I can do alot of things involving carpentry, but crown molding is beyond me. I've installed chair rail, shoe mold, and base board but crown molding I don't get. It would seem to be straight forward but there's much more to it than meets the eye. You have to think inside out and it's difficult to visualize the inside or outside corners when you're out making cuts with the miter saw. 

We had a friend who lives across the circle install it. He's been a finish carpenter all his life. He said that when someone tells him they're going to install crown themselves, he always replies, "Can I watch?"