This afternoon's playlist

...was surprisingly upbeat, with some interesting lyrical content tying it together ... and yes, it was fairly randomized.

• "I can hold you, keep you safe until you fall asleep / Never worried..." Thinking About You - Calvin Harris, Ayah Marar
• "Don't be afraid, you're not on your own" All the Way - Timeflies
• "Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right / Here I am" Stuck in the middle with you - Stealers Wheel
• "Knocking me out with those American thighs" You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
• "Just one look at you / And I know it's gonna be / A lovely day....." Lovely Day - Bill Withers
• "I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear" Stand By Me - Otis Redding
• "...there's just one, way back, and I'll make it, yeah" Santeria - Sublime
• "There ain't no hiding place from the Father of Creation" One Love/People Get Ready - Bob Marley & the Wailers
• "I heard the screen door slam / And a big yellow taxi / Come and took away my old man" Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell
• "Before you came into my life / I missed you so bad / I missed you so bad / I missed you so, so bad" Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen
• "I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva" Don't Stop Me Now - Queen
• "When you believe in things that you don't understand, / Then you suffer" Superstition - Stevie Wonder
• "Sing a simple melody / That's how easy love can be" ABC - Jackson 5
• "...stop apologising for the things you've never done" Town Called Malice - The Jam
• "And he drives an IROC / But he doesn't know who I am" Teenage Dirtbag - Wheatus
• "I was a fool for you, from the bottom of my soul, yeah!" Shout - The Isley Brothers
• "I'm beggin' please / Stop playin' games" Mercy - Duffy
• "I'm a picker / I'm a grinner / I'm a lover / And I'm a sinner" The Joker - Steve Miller Band
• "A beautiful bunch o' ripe banana ... / Hide the deadly black tarantula" Banana Boat Song (Day-O) - Harry Belafonte
• "Like John and Yoko / Like Ice-T and Coco / Like Jay-Z, Beyonce / Come be my fiance" I'm Alive (Life Sounds Like This) - Michael Franti & Spearhead
• "Those pretty faces always made you stand out in a crowd" I Want You Back - Jackson 5
• "We all could make it a better way / With our love, put together / Everybody learn to love each other" Wonderful World, Beautiful People - Jimmy Cliff
• "Three little birds / Pitch by my doorstep / Singin' sweet songs / Of melodies pure and true" Three Little Birds - Bob Marley & the Wailers
• "Something's got me reeling / Stopped me from believing" Every Morning - Sugar Ray
• "I'm on my way / I don't know where I'm going / I'm on my way I'm taking my time / But I don't know where" Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard - Paul Simon
• "Oh I'm just a girl, lucky me / Twiddle-dum there's no comparison" Just a Girl - No Doubt
• "I may see you, I may tell you to run" Send Me On My Way - Rusted Root
• "I do a handstand, an eagle lands on my seat / Well hello, but baby, the kickstand ain't free" Downtown - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
• "Te estaba buscando / Por las calles gritando / Como un loco tomando oh" El Perdón - Nicky Jam, Enrique Iglesias
• "What would I do without your smart mouth / Drawing me in..." All of Me (Tiësto's Birthday Treatment Remix) - John Legend
• "In a world of squares, maybe you're just round / You can't be everybody's cup of tea" Cup of Tea - Kacey Musgraves
• "Tell me that you've got me and you're never gonna leave" Hold My Hand - Jess Glynne
• "Let me be your air" How Deep Is Your Love - Calvin Harris, Disciples
• "Do you think about me when you're all alone? / The things we used to do, we used to be"  I Could Be the One (Stranger) - Avicii, Nicky Romero
• "I went from zero to my own hero" Roar - Katy Perry
• "When you nod your head yes / But you wanna say no / What do you mean?" What Do You Mean? - Justin Bieber
• "And we sang our song for the little thing" For a Better Day - Avicii 
• "I had a dream so big and loud / I jumped so high I touched the clouds" Best Day of My Life - American Authors
• "We found love in a hopeless place" We Found Love - Rihanna, Calvin Harris
• "Will you be there by my side? / Standing strong as the waves roll over" Lean On - Major Lazer, MØ, DJ Snake
• "We're talking to everyone / Come as you are, just come" Let's Go - Tiësto, Icona Pop
• "I don't need to hear you talk the talk" Bang Bang - Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj
•  "These are the days we won't forget / These are the days we've been waiting for / Rattle the cage and slam that door" The Days - Avicii

Press On

Heard this on the way to work today. Nice timing, of course.

Endless Loop

For Christmas I got the box set of [English] Beat albums. I love these guys, discovered them in college, played the albums over and over and over, and then once we went totally CD I didn't really hear them except on occasional play on Pandora or what-have-you. I finally broke open the seal on the set last week and listened to my favorite of the albums, Special Beat Service, a couple of times in the car while driving around. Over the weekend I started a new audiobook and set the music aside for now.

Since then, every morning when I get up, and several times throughout the days, this lyric from "Sole Salvation" has been running through my head:

...dying only means
You're not in next week's program
...
Skabadoo, skabaday, skabadoo, skabaday...

The last bit ("skabadoo, skabaday...") isn't always included in the loop. It's not my totally-favorite song on the album--that honor will always go to Ackee 1-2-3*--but I like(d) it. Hearing that lyric in my head for a week, however, is dulling my appreciation and I'm getting tired of it. I just wish I could figure out, of all the lyrics, why that one line is on replay. It's irritating.

Maybe I just need to listen to the rest of the set to clear my aural palette....

__________
* Part of the reason I love this song is that it was my entré to the group. Someone--Steve H., I'm looking at you!--made a cart of it to play on the campus radio station in late 1982. One play and I was hooked, and as a member of the Columbia Record Club at the time I scoured the catalog and found the album it was on. Since they never really 'broke' in the states, I could play virtually everything by them on our "alternative" (a.k.a. ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING NOT TOP 40) station. And I did. Between the Native American chanting, the deep cuts off Culture Club LPs and Emerson Lake & Palmer.... I miss the station. Damn.

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge

3 Favourite songs of 2013 (27th December)

I can't possibly pick three songs, but I can probably manage three musicians I enjoyed listening to: Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, and Pink are probably top of the list right now. Their songs makes me happy, or at least they make me feel like I can handle life.

Click on image to play along

Holidailies

What is your favorite holiday song (and why)?

"Silent Night" for the win, every time, at least when it's done right. I also like "We Three Kings" when performed by someone with the perfect voice for it. And "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" which is just fun to sing. Basically, toss me a hymnal and I'll like most of them. I'm kinda over (understatement) secular songs, primarily because they are played TOO DAMN MANY TIMES, but I have a soft spot in my heart for "Feliz Navidad" because it reminds me of my childhood.

Blog Challenge

I'm seriously sucking at this blog-every-day thing. Oh well. Here are the last three days' worth:

Friday was supposed to cover [My] Earliest Memory. The one I usually answer with is that I remember sitting on the couch in the living room writing in my mom's address book. Those scribbles, and the address book itself, were still around when I graduated from high school 15 years later. However, I do have some vague memories of the previous suite of living room furniture (prior to the couch on which I was sitting with the address book). I actually remember the earlier stuff mainly because of a nightmare I had back then that involved either monsters hiding behind it or the furniture itself turning into monsters. Isn't it weird that I can remember a nightmare from 45+ years ago?!


Yesterday's topic--Your Favorite Tumblrs--is easy. I don't actually use Tumblr for anything unless someone directs me to one. I don't see the point of them, actually, but then I've never been much of a photo/picture blogger. I do have a lot of favorite blogs. Most are over in the right column. Most of the rest, the memes, are in the sidebar on my memes blog.


And today is about [My] Views on Mainstream Music. Oy. This is a WIIIIIIIIDE-open question, isn't it? I have come to the conclusion that while I admire rap/hip-hop and don't hate it as a genre, I really don't get it. It doesn't, usually, speak to me. Doesn't mean I think rappers are awful people, and I'll sit through the good stuff, and I actually do like some of it...but most of it I can't relate to at all. Mainstream pop I don't mind--it hasn't changed much over the years; now we have autotune and EDM, 10-15 years ago it was boy bands and harmonizing, when I was a kid it was squeaky-clean bouncy bubblegum. I don't mind it, but there's a limit to what I can ingest. I have gone off heavy rock, and feel the same way about it as I do about pop: a little goes a long way. I'd link to my Spotify account so you can see what I listen to, but it's got my real name on it, so I'll just list the first dozen randomized songs on my Starred list (which currently has 314 songs on it):

• Pumped Up Kicks (Foster the People)
• When You're Gone (Avril Lavigne)
• Ballroom Blitz (Sweet)
• Kiss Me Deadly (Lita Ford)
• Meet Me in the Back (Melissa Etheridge)
• Shooby (Nicole Mullen)
• Rockferry (Duffy)
• Good Life (OneRepublic)
• Cry Baby (Janis Joplin)
• Mouth Wedding (Transglobal Underground)
• 99 Luftballons (Nena)
• Authority Song (John Mellencamp)

Blog Challenge

Guess what: I'm behind again. I do have a good excuse for missing yesterday, though: I was at work for 12 hours (8 for work, 1 for a meal break, 3 staffing the Scholastic Book Fair we host every year for a large local Christmas charity. So I got home last night at 9:30 and helped Beast take apart the TV area in the living room so I could take our Wii and accoutrements to work with me today. I was in bed by 10 or so, didn't sleep great, and was awake at 5:30 for Bible Study, then directly to work at 8.

So yesterday at some point I was suppose to Put [My Nonexistent] iPod on Shuffle and Write 10 Songs That Pop Up. Since I don't have an iPod, and I haven't used my MP3 player in several years, I'm just going to shuffle my Spotify Stars:

1. Ackee 1-2-3 -- The English Beat. I adore this song! It was played pretty much every time I had a radio show in college. I own the album and hadn't listened to it in a decade, at least not until I dug it up on Spotify.
2. Only You -- The Platters. Nothing like a little dreamboat teenaged slow-dance music....
3. So High -- John Legend. ...unless it's a sexy mature slow-jam.
4. Family -- TobyMac. From his latest album. I haven't heard this a million times, but the first time I heard it, it went right onto the starred list.
5. Ben (Akon Mix) -- Michael Jackson [and Akon]. This song makes me tear up, but this mix is less syrupy.
6. 928 Horn Jam -- Trombone Shorty. If you love trombones the way I love trombones, you'll love this song. Or, really, almost anything by Shorty.
7. White Rabbit -- Patti Smith. Yup, this is "that song" but not the Grace Slick version. Patti Smith has (had anyway) a really wonderful voice.
8. Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) -- Shakira. Yeah, just a silly, sing-along song...
9. Club Can't Handle Me -- Flo Rida feat. David Guetta. ...or two, though this is more of a brainless dance-along song.
10. Fuck You -- Cee Lo. Well, they did ask for ten, which I interpreted as the first ten that came up. ;-)

Today I was supposed to Bullet [My] Whole Day. I'll try to do it from memory.

• I guess technically that waking up at 2 means that's part of today, right. Dreaming about badly needing to pee means waking up on the run to the bathroom. Then Beast is (oddly) a little snorey. And I just can't get settled, so I come downstairs and work on a kakuro, till I get a little more sleepy.
• The alarm goes off at 5:30--ugh! One snooze...
• ...and I hit the snooze again and then slug my pillow in an attempt to push myself out of bed. After a couple of minutes, I turn off the alarm, and plod to the bathroom.
• Shower, hair, clothes, earrings, meds, find the other flip-flop
• Downstairs: look for phone, look for work keys, remember they're in the car, grab Wii bag.
• Plug phone into car charger, make sure I have my wallet, turn on the CD player for more Cry, the Beloved Country, pull out of the driveway at 6:20
• Hit the restaurant, get settled, order breakfast, and spend an hour untangling Luke 7:36-50 while eating and drinking two glasses of diet Coke
• Pay, head back to the car, drive to work, arriving at about 8:05
• Prep two book orders, and one media order and send those in. Listen to a coworker rabbit on and try to ignore her or at least not get riled.
• Firefight various things, including random emails.
• Find out that our local self-appointed Community News Dude has reported the Book Fair to the Fire Marshall for blocking the exit of the library. Because why say something to us when he was here Monday when the book fair was set up? He's a tiny little dick with a Jesus complex.
• Realize my throat is killing me, and my back/shoulders are sore as hell.
• Whinge via IM with Beast about above.
• Catalog all the demand stuff that magically appears on my desk, and a few other things.
• Stand around while our IT guy upgrades my Adobe license
• Take two Tylenol.
• Do an hour penance, er, yeah, in the children's room.
• Lunch with Beast at 6 Balls.
• Back to work, feeling less crappy.
• Kill off some order records that Baker&Taylor has cancelled.
• Put away the review journals I was using yesterday.
• Find out if we are keeping the second large-type copy of a Nora Roberts book (cheaper to keep than return at this point).
• Start watching the weather radar.
• Go through the July Bookletters titles to see what we own. Separate the ones we don't have and order them {SHIT--I just realized I only ordered part of them...dammit!!} after confirming with the woman who usually does those orders that she's ok with me doing it. Which is why I screwed up: I've never done one of them, and I was too excited to do it right. :-\
• Crawl into the online weather radar and start panicking about the drive home from work. Also commence worrying that Sparky may also have scary weather--this is one BIG-FUCKING-STORM--and text him.
• I'm sure there were some other random things I did over the course of the day at work, but in the end I left at 5:40 to beat the weather home.
• Once I arrive, I join Beast in the basement, till we both start dozing off to the dulcet tones of The Weather Channel and the weather has cleared.
• Upstairs. Facebook. Dinner. TV.
• Round Two of the storm whizzes through in 10 minutes, with hurricane-level winds and horizontal rain, and some hail before leaving us in its wake.
• I'm going to bed soon, even though it is currently 8:15. I'm way zonked.

A hurricane in a pear tree.
Five minutes earlier, there was no wind, no rain, and bright skies.
Five minutes later, there was a nice breeze, no rain, and brightening skies.

January 1 Memories

Once upon a time there was a little girl who lived with her big brother and her parents in a big house with one black and white TV. When she was six years old, she adored her much-older brother who was in his high school band. He played trombone, which was fun to watch. That Christmas, her parents took her to the high school where there were lots of big buses parked near the band room. She watched as all her brother's friends loaded the buses with their instruments and suitcases and uniform hangers and hat boxes and other things she didn't recognize. Then all the big kids closed the luggage doors and hugged their moms and dads and sisters and brothers and got on the buses and left. It was dark and cold when the little girl and her parents got back in the car. They drove home and had dinner and watched something on their brand-new color TV that Santa had left that day.

Six days later, the little girl's mommy tucked her into bed and reminded her to be up early to welcome in the new year: 1971. And there was something about her big brother being on TV, but the little girl didn't understand that part.

The next morning at 8:00 everyone sat down in front of the TV to watch a parade. The little girl got bored kind of fast: it was all bands and flower-covered floats. She checked back in when there were horses, though! Finally, her parents insisted she come over to the TV because her brother was on. There were a bunch of people dressed like her brother in the same band uniform. It was impossible to tell for sure, but the trombones were first in line, so one of those people was her brother. Everyone was excited, and then they showed a man on TV--it was my brother's band director! It was so exciting to see someone I knew (sort of) on TV!

Fast forward eight years. The little girl was growing up and already a teenager. She played the flute--mostly because it was lighter-weight than any of the brass instruments. She was excited and nervous about high school, and then she heard a rumor that the high school band might be going back to Pasadena in the next few years. What!? While she was still in junior high school there was a meeting in the high school auditorium where she could look around at all the older musicians and get more nervous about high school. The meeting was about working hard to earn the money to pay for the trip, which would happen in about a year later.

So, the girl's first semester at high school was filled with new things all around her, the majority of which centered on endless hard lessons about marching: marching in straight lines (no problem, did that in junior high), marching in turns (ditto), marching on the football field, marching to hash marks and in double-time and half-time, marching with instrument up, standing at ease for lengthy periods of time, marching, marching, marching. One Saturday in November, the entire band (including rifles and flags) took school buses to a former Air Force base where they marched for five hours in the cold, marching up and down runways. They practiced the oddball street corner where the parade makes an acute (over 90-degree) turn in front of the TV cameras. They practiced the songs, the cadences, the sheer difficulty of marching nearly 6 miles without a break. Even a flute is hard to hold horizontal after that long. And the wind and cold made everything harder.

A few days after Christmas, the mommy and daddy--big brother didn't live at home anymore--took the girl to the same spot at the high school where there were several school buses to load with instruments, suitcases, uniform hangers and hat boxes and other things she recognized from practices. All of those high school kids hugged their moms and dads and sisters and brothers and got on the buses with the same band director and went to the airport. There were over 200 people representing the school on that airplane, and by the time it landed, everyone who wasn't part of that group promised they'd watch for that band during the parade.

Once the students recovered all their things, they boarded big fancy buses that took them to the UCLA campus where they stayed in the dorms. They took their instruments to a nearby field and practiced their songs and their field show several times. The next day they got up and rehearsed for a few hours and then marched at Disneyland and then got to stayed for the rides and shows. The next day was almost the same, except this time after rehearsing in the morning they went to Knott's Berry Farm to march, and then stayed in the park till closing. The next day they only rehearsed a little, and then went to the Pasadena City Hall where they had been invited to perform their field show, one of only a dozen bands in the parade who achieved that honor because of all the awards they had won that fall in tournaments. After the performance, the band took a tour of all the floats while people frantically worked to finish them before they were judged.

All the students were sent to bed very early that night with orders to sleep hard and long. They were awakened at about 4:30 a.m. on January 1, 1980, for breakfast, after which they dressed in their uniforms and loaded gear onto the big buses. By 6:30, they were lined up in pre-parade formation all the other bands and parade units. Lots of people were very nervous--one girl threw up in a bag on the way to the staging grounds, one boy had the flu and a fever over 100--but at least it was a perfect temperature and not windy at all. At 7 a.m., the first units began to move out. Soon the girl and her band were on the street getting warmed up by the cadences and few runs through their street tunes. Then, rather suddenly, the bad was in front of the big stands of hundreds of people on either side of the street, preparing to make that horribly odd corner, playing their hearts out. They knew they were on TV and they knew people were watching so they played their best, made an excellent turn, and then really kicked into first gear with Barnum & Bailey's Favorite. Because the girl was on the end of her line, she could hear comments as she played and marched, and people were saying amazingly good things. They were good, they really were!

Five miles later, there were still people cheering along the route, though it was more like a parade at home: people in lawn chairs, people who brought out orange slices and water bottles for people who were in need of perking up. Those people got the same show from us--hard as it was to hold up the instruments by then--as the TV cameras did. Then, finally, the band was in the park at the end of the parade, stripping off uniforms, packing up instruments, being given box lunches and drinks, wiping sweat from everywhere, flapping arms that had started to seize up from being in the same positions for too long, and laughing. They had made it, all of them: the girl who threw up from nerves, the sick boy, the out-of-shape kids, the flaky ones. They had all made it to the end!

That afternoon the band members had a choice: go to Santa Monica beach to see the ocean, or stay at the dorm and sleep. The next day, the girl and her band flew home where life would seem boring for long time.

Pride

One of the periods in my life of which I am most proud. Keep in mind that these performers are all 15-18 years old.

Even though the sound and video quality aren't up to 2012 standards, watching this makes me tear up every freakin' time I watch it. We rocked; we knew it, but we really had no idea how rare it is to be part of something this amazing.

Post-Election Bounce

Staying up till 1:30 a.m. to watch Obama's victory speech was worth it, but I'm very tired now. And today was a weird day. I try not to bring my politics to work, since I know several coworkers are not in full agreement with my view of the world (not that this surprises me, of course).  But it was kind of weird at work today. I got a strange vibe from one staunch Republican coworker who seemed almost ANGRY with me about something; I've just now put it together that she (and a few other Republican friends on Facebook) are really upset today. I'm trying to figure out if I was like that when Bush won.

I didn't feel great today. I have established beyond any reasonable doubt that I can't eat McDonald's eggs. I keep hoping that it's my imagination, but every time I drive through for breakfast I end up feeling lousy by lunchtime. Gah.

A friend's friend/coworker has been dealing with her brother's end-of-life issues, which were all resolved permanently last night. So my friend was not having a good day at work today, and she also not feeling good.

OCLC wasn't working right today either. Every time I tried to export a record, it logged me out. There were a couple of more things that it wasn't doing right either, and after a couple of hours fighting it, I gave up and faffed around the rest of the day. When I wasn't trying to decide if I should just go home since I felt lousy.

Tonight was bell choir. We've got some cool stuff coming up to play in December. And then at the end of rehearsal, the director told us that with the December performance, she'll be stepping down as director due to "personality conflicts." She was very professional and didn't name names, though at least one person jumped to conclusions very verbally. It doesn't matter, except that this really bums me out. Crap.

AND, I'm feeling under the gun because I'm going out of town this weekend, meeting Beast in San Francisco to celebrate our birthdays. I haven't packed--though this will take me about half an hour--and I can feel myself going into pre-trip freakout mode. Part of this is because I haven't been on vacation in over a year, so I'm excited, but part of it is just me doing what I do when ever I stress. At least I recognize it and have some tools to use against it, but I do not enjoy this twitchy feeling. Also: 5-hour flight? Doesn't really sound fun. Clearly, I'm over the whole TSA nightmare, and the airlines' tendency to cram-jam people into seats and charge us up the wazoo for crappy sandwiches.

I Know My Redeemer Lives

Happy Easter!

Mellencamp strikes again

Just heard this song for the first time. He does write good stuff:

I'm not following your frame of mind
Complaining about this life all the time
Surely something good here as the world spins by
Could you please stop being so mean

This will never work out that's what you say
It's the end of the world again yesterday
When I see you coming at me I'm gonna walk away
You need to stop being so mean

Your outlook is haunting us all
Like the ghost of our love down at the dark end of the hall
If you can't say nothing good then don't say nothing at all
And you need to stop being so mean

Your road seems so narrow to me
You're a big boat up the river blowing off steam
My head is spinning from your company
Could you please stop being so mean

I'm not following your frame of mind
Complaining about this life all the time
Surely something good here as the world spins by
Could you please just stop being so mean

Guess I need an attitude adjustment, eh, Johnny?

Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven, John Prine

While digesting Reader’s Digest in the back of a dirty book store
A plastic flag with gum on the back fell out on the floor.
Well,I picked it up and ran outside and slapped it on my windowshield.
And If I could see ol’ Betsy Ross I’d tell her how good I feel.

Chorus:
    But, your flag decal won’t get you into Heaven anymore.
    They’re already overcrowded from your dirty little war.
    Now Jesus don’t like killin’ no matter what the reasons for.
    And your flag decal won’t get you into Heaven anymore.

Well, I went to the bank this morning and the cashier said to me
If you join the Christmas Club we'll give you ten of them flags for free.
I didn’t mess a round a bit I took him up on what he said
And stuck them stickers all over my car and one on my wife’s forehead.

Chorus

Well, I got my windshield so filled with flags I couldn’t see
So I ran my car upside a curb and right into a tree
By the time they got a doctor down I was already dead,
And I’ll never understand why the man standing in the Pearly Gates said…

Chorus

CODEORGAN

 This blog has a beat.

Numb Butt

The longest-ever music concert made up wholly of at least a few marginally talented teens was tonight.

TWO
HOURS7:00-9:00...which really means 6:30-9:30 when travel time is included.

Way too freakin' long. Some of the music was too challenging, and much of the program was just disorganized.

To top it off, both Beast and I have to be out of the house by 6 a.m. tomorrow, and Sparky was gone today for 14 straight hours. He says he has no homework; I hope he's being honest, but to tell you the truth I don't care if he just collapses into bed tonight.

Rock and Roll

We are watching the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame concert on HBO. The kickoff was Jerry Lee Lewis--who is 74 (but still kickin it). He was followed by CS&N and random soft-rockers from the early 70s (yawn). Then Stevie Wonder and (finally someone younger than Beast and me) John Legend.

Everyone is OLD!

It's depressing but at the same time kind of uplifting too because they mostly look really good especially considering the whole 'rock and roll lifestyle' thing.

Sparky is patiently waiting for Metallica to appear after all these decrepit mummies leave the stage.

(By the way, Little Anthony and the Imperials caused him to say, "WOW!" which is quite the reaction, the first stunned comment from him of the evening, though he did like the bass solo in "You Can Call Me Al" as well.)

Latest blurtage

My mom is officially buried. I think. Anyway, the memorial service was Sunday, and those of us who were able to gather for the weekend had a very good time enjoying the company. This is not always true, but we held it together, somehow, this time.

My sister Jean, who was in the hospital for a few nights last week, was released with instructions to use oxygen at all times until she got home. Fortunately, they bought travel insurance, which they have now put into effect. The airline requires that her blood-oxygen be over 90% at all times, which is made more difficult by the fact that we aren't sure if that's 90% at sea level or 90% a mile high (i.e., in Denver, before boarding the plane). If it's sea level, it's probably not a problem.

She has a doctor's note, but the airline is still balking. The insurance is flying a nurse over to travel home with them, but they aren't sure yet when they are leaving. Friday is a possibility. Jean and Reg's daughter and son-in-law, who had planned to fly home with them yesterday, have arrived back home safe and sound according to their Facebook posts.

And still Jean and Reg, and Marie and Jan, wait at the hotel in Denver. I guess a winter storm is predicted this weekend, so Marie and Jan are worrying about getting back home over the mountains before that blows in.

What a mess.

Meanwhile, back on the home front, FIL has spent the past week trying to unsnarl himself from his lady friend (who, it turns out, is no lady at all). The staff at his place had to forcibly remove her one night so they are now inspecting his apartment before he goes to bed and he has been instructed to keep his door to the common hallway closed (and locked) even when he's inside.

And that is GOOD news, because he sounds better and feels better than he has since he started getting seriously mixed up with her. And he hasn't fallen--knock wood!--since he left the hospital last week.

Beast is in Phoenix this week for customer visit(s) and a trade show. I should be prepping for youth group instead of updating my blog and faffing about on Facebook, but oh well.

And the other bit of news is that Sparky is auditioning for the high school men's a capella group tomorrow. Interesting. We'll see how that goes. He's singing Green Day's Basket Case for the choir teacher. Oooo-kay.

My son ROX!

"Whiplash" (Metallica)
He TOTALLY has the heavy-metal slouch thing going for him... Guitar Hero is his addiction of choice. Meanwhile, I'm ROFLing (in my head), but also appreciating how much time he's put in to be able to do this without any "clonks" in the middle of the 'tune'.

He asked his English teacher to read over the first page of one of his completed short stories--which he writes on his own time, and has done so for over 5 years. The page with comments is on the kitchen counter, and it is GOOD! Perhaps he'll let me publish it here. I'll ask.

Definitely telling him about NaNoWriMo. Can't believe I never thought of that!! Duh.