Friday Night Playlist

Classic Rock playlist. Tunes that should never be allowed to fade away or be forgotten ......

• Guess Who - These Eyes .... I was in a fast food place, one with a jukebox and overheard a kid, probably around twelve years old, asking his father for money to play The Guess Who's, "American Woman." Had the father not given him the money I would have had to. The youth shouldn't be deprived of great old music.
• The Troggs - Love Is All Around .... Good thing that in the 1960's, the British decided to invade us one more time!! Had they used music in the 1700's maybe we'd still be loyal to royalty.
• Jimmy Webb - Wichita Lineman .... Wish they still wrote songs like this.
• Gary Puckett & The Union Gap - Young Girl
• The Box Tops - Cry Like a Baby .... Hated this as a kid when it was a radio hit and seemingly being played every half hour. Have come to love it though in my old age. Funny how that works.
• The Bee Gees - Words
• Gordon Lightfoot - If You Could Read My Mind
• Steve Noonan - Buy For Me The Rain
• The Mindbenders - A Groovy Kind of Love .... "Can't control the quivering inside."
• Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth
• Tony Joe White - Pork Salad Annie

This could be the beginning of my demise. Discovered!! .... A KFC buffet just twenty miles away. I had previously only heard unconfirmed tales and fables of the existence of such places, all rumored to be located east of the Mississippi River. But a random word of knowledge led to a fruitful weekend mission of search and discovery. And the real shocker was the price!! I expected it to be double, maybe even triple what was whispered to me in hushed tones. I would have been happy to pay double. Might have even sprung for triple. It's not even double digits though. And that's in American dollars!!! It led me to inquire if it was indeed all-you-can-eat. It is!! The seemingly most expensive fast food place in the world when ordering from the menu has an incredibly inexpensive buffet!!

Ghost?

Maybe I do believe in ghosts after-all. A sudden turn and glance out the window at work and I thought that I caught a fading glimpse of two legs walking by. A more focused second look produced nothing. Whatever it was had vanished around a corner into that middle ground between afternoon and evening. Now that I'm distanced from the moment it's easy to call it a shadow or maybe visual lag from my bifocals but it did seem real at the time.

Notes

Just a collection of random thoughts running through my head of late .....

• It's funny. Typing away online in a place like this and I know that I'm spelling the word incorrectly yet the spell checker fails to catch it. Could I actually have gotten it right? 
• Few things quite as irritating for me as when driving along a country road (or any location) and suddenly before me is an image that I would love to capture with my camera, yet there is no where to pull over for a few moments and snap that picture. They should have thought of this when paving roads around the world ..... Turnouts every hundred yards. 
• The concept of growing old gracefully is an oxymoron. It may be possible in public where you can hide things from view but in private, behind walls, where you know the truth?
• Undertaking a purging of sorts .... of old documents, no longer needed. Records, twenty even thirty years old. Having to do a great deal of slicing and dicing in the process. It apparently used to be quite common to print one's social security number all over various pieces of paperwork. It was quite visible for all eyes to view. 
• I'm terrified of this feeling ..... of FEELING again. But it's happening regardless. Towards the most amazing person. I'm afraid to say any more at this point. Afraid of the jinx that follows me around, emerging once again. We'll see what the future brings. 
• A photo that I can truly appreciate .....

Bottom Feeders and Scavangers!!

Spotted Joanne's sisters going through her place today. Damn vultures. I know it has to be done but they they're too stingy and cheap to follow Joanne's wishes. They had her cremated with no service when according to several people, Joanne had expressed a desire for a funeral when she passed. It can't be a matter of expense because Joanne did have some money saved up. It's just a matter of greedy vultures wanting every scrap. Some of the stories of their behavior in the past are well known. What always shocked me is how if true, Joanne would let them get away with things. They basically took her house away from her. I'd ask, how they could actually do that? Joanne never could explain it. Never would attempt to explain it. She would just say that they took it, end of explanation. For someone who didn't seem to mind confrontation with people who worked under her supervision and other co-workers, she sure backed down when it came to family matters. So I'm watching from afar as they carry boxes of stuff to their cars. I might be wrong but from what I know, it doesn't exactly translate to family members grieving.

Those Birthday Blues

Another birthday coming around soon. After several years of attempted avoidance I might as well acknowledge it this time. The last ten have come so quickly. I try to slow down time with little success. When I was younger, I couldn't imagine the possibility of making it to this point. It's something to be proud of. It ought to be embraced!!

Teresa

Had a talk with Teresa who for years was Joanne's best friend at work. I could detect what sounded like a little anger in her voice ..... at Joanne's refusal to follow her doctor's diet advice. Though still friends, they had had a sort of falling out at some point in recent years and were not near as close personally. A few weeks ago she had attempted to make contact on Joanne's birthday to take her to a movie which had been a semi-ritual for them but had received no response.  I told Teresa that I had wanted to contact her yesterday when I initially heard the news but decided instead to let her enjoy her day. I knew that she would surely hear the news the next day. As we spoke I could hear her voice shaking, close to breaking. There's been decades of friendship between them and it suddenly ended on a cold and snowy day, in silence and separation with Teresa unable to help or say goodbye to her longtime close friend.

I've always interpreted and suspected, without official confirmation, though I've heard a few closely guarded and carefully selected words from both, that the falling out had to do with Teresa's decision to leave a job as Joanne's seasonal assistant in pursuit of a position that would offer more pay and security year round. Joanne felt slighted at the time and since had carried a little bitterness that she had not been able to get past fully or make complete peace with.

I especially feel for Teresa at this time because I know of her seemingly numerous trials and tribulations with life and because I consider her one of the more genuine, no agenda and well intentioned persons that I know.

R.I.P. Joanne

Just received word that Joanne has passed away. That the police received a request from her sister to check on her and upon not getting any response, entered her apartment and found her dead. It's been obvious the past few years that she was not in good health. You'd see it at work after climbing the stairs to the meeting room where she would cough and struggle for breath during the pre-work meetings. I was surprised to find out a few months back that she was a smoker. You would never see her smoking. She would do it in private and then douse herself in perfume to block the smoke smell.

She was planning to retire after getting through this year. It makes you stop and consider your own time that you have remaining ..... The sudden passing of these people that you've known for so many years.

Snow Of The Century ..... Errrrr Decade .... Well Maybe The Last Five Years Anyway

Snow! Snow! Snow! The last two days. An unusual event around these parts. Chains are required in Salem. I don't recall that ever being the status. There's always those dumb asses in their pickups, suv's and jeeps who think they are immune to slick conditions. Saw a few of those out and about.

It's funny but whenever it snows around here, it's the topic of about 98% of conversations that takes place between people. I'm sure that in some place like Minnesota or South Dakota, snow falls barely being noticed at times. But just the onset of light flurries around here has everyone dropping whatever they are doing and running to the nearest windows and doors to check things out.

Notes About Stuff

• Went to see the movie, Sole Survivor, last night. Wish that I had chosen something else. Not much plot development. Too much high tech explosions and people falling down slopes where they roll and bounce and roll making high speed contact with every tree and boulder (and surviving), blurring the visual images. It didn't feel realistic. And maybe I'm just getting old but there's too much volume. Turning down the decibels a little wouldn't hurt the film.
• I'm in Best Buy reading the song titles on a compact disc when a store employee interrupts and startles me. I purposely kept reading for three or four seconds before acknowledging his existence by looking up, hoping that he'd get the message that I desired to be left alone. What part of my body and facial language told him initially that I was puzzled and full of questions and that he should approach and ask if I needed help? 
• I can't ever seem to get warm or comfortable at room temperatures these days, always feeling winter's chill. Is this what life is like in those final 20 or 30 years, always feeling the extremes?
• Checker at 7-11 lamenting his midnight drive home after work tonight because the roads are going to freeze up. News Alert .... It's been between 22-24 degrees for the past 36 hours and snowing for the past twelve. Everything's already frozen up. Can't get much more frozen. 
• I must be bordering on insane! Out driving around, taking photos of things covered in snow at 11:00pm. But there's others of my ilk. As I was driving away, someone else was arriving with the same mission in mind. 

the big game

Mark this day down as another super bowl unwatched. Or am I supposed to refer to it as "the big game?" That's something like fourteen in a row for me that have passed by unnoticed. And I don't plan on watching in the future unless: A) The San Diego Chargers are participating or, B) They play it like every other regular season and playoff game. No hour halftimes. No ten hour pregame show. Stop taking yourself so seriously NFL. And it's bullshit that certain talking heads and media outlets are forbidden to utter the words "super bowl!" Especially so after it's over and done with (which I just heard).