Sunny Sunday

If you're living in a 4 season area, DO enjoy the upcoming week of Indian Summer. Yup, the leaves completed their mission of quiet beauty and now hide your lawn. Before long, even that will be hidden by the softness of the fallen snow, as the earth begins its annual nap. You might want to dig out last year's bag of rock salt and slam dunk it several times to loosen the clump.

While you're in the garage making space for the car, please give a good thought to YOUR God for my buddy, Boomer, as he prepares to do battle with the big C. He needs to lower his white count before the chemo starts. Let's all cyber hand-hold to combine all the energy he needs for success.

As luck would have it dept: I forgot to turn back my smoke alarm and missed the okra carving contest at the A & P!!!

What I ponder on a bleak, rainy, windy Friday

Friday, November 5, 2010 9:57 AM

On the lighter side

This week, our mower hit the unemployment line, son #1, tablehopper.com and later this month, grandson #2 blow out another candle. As I enter the days of baseball withdrawal, I loved seeing one of the better playoffs and world series in quite some time. We'll miss you, Sparky Anderson!

On the heavier side

Will the "lawn decorating" election signs disappear as quickly as they "grew?"

Money spent by those who did NOT win would have stocked many a food bank. When I become king, there will be a 30 day campaign season, 5 ads per day, per candidate on broadcast media, 1 million dollar cap on spending and absolutely no robotic phone calls.

The amount of mud tossed was enough to fill the La Brea tar pits. Did ANY candidate say ANYthing honest? And, when will we return to, "by, of and for the people?"

Does a good teevee series HAVE to turn into neurotics unanimous? After the 1st 3 installments, most prime-times morph into agendas, issues and the inevitable bed-hopping olympics.

Action vs reaction: To those who "write" commercials for broadcast media, when I hear your "this is cool" incessant beating of drums in the background of your ads, I immediately go elsewhere. Don't you wonder about the folks who approve some of those ads? C'mon...an insurance agent in a woodpile?!?

We need check-out nazis for those who have no regard for "Less than 12 items."

Ponzi schemers and others who bilk the innocents belong at Leavenworth, not at cushy inns that should never have been built. By the way, why have no bankers been indicted?

I and many others applaud those raising money to find a cure for cancer. By no means do I demean your efforts. But, did you know...? Several weeks ago, our local newspaper listed industries with surplus cash...that's CASH. The auto world was first and the 2nd was the medical "industry" with a cash surplus of 140 BILLION DOLLARS! Is there documentation of disbursement from the likes of Susan B and others? For years, I've ranted about the increasing cost of health care. Are you oblivious to the architectural wonders they call offices? Do you see how the employees dress, what they drive and where they live? Is YOUR health plan equal to theirs?

(And my daughter wonders why I'm grumpy)

That's a lot to absorb, so I'll sign off for now, as you probably need prep time to sort out what 5 people talking at the same time are saying on The View.

What I ponder on a chilly, rainy October morning

October 2, 2010

These days, which has better odds?

1. Winning the lottery 2. Getting a buyer for your house 3. An honorable person getting elected 4. Mary Worth staying out of everyone else's business 5. The Browns winning on Sunday

There IS good news out there!

Some things have no explanation and some don’t need one. I can’t remember when I didn’t like music, particularly from the swing era of the 1930s and all the Big Band Swing style that was ever so popular through most of the 1950s. Upon first hearing the Andrews sisters, I was drawn to that vocal magic! The era was unique…not the same as, but with equal impact as those of the masters from preceding centuries. The genre began during the Great Depression of the 1930s, temporarily lifting spirits of those who lost so much and giving hope of a safe return to all wearing uniforms during World War 2. Music’s evolution of the Post Korean conflict brought us Rock-N Roll in the late 1950s, thus beginning the erosion of Swing’s impact. Remnants of Big Band were carried by the likes of Lawrence Welk, Barry White and sometimes, even Paul Shafer. Although Elvis and the Beatles were explosive, according to Wikepedia, neither had as many Top 10 listings as did les Sisters Andrews.

Fast forward to June, 2010, almost. My first encounter with Appalachia was the summer of 1996. Even though time has erased my previous position of association, I’ve been back more often since retiring. The coalfield “hollers” outside of Hazard, Kentucky, are magnetizing. 6 miles up the mountain, at Lotts Creek Community School, one can quickly become enamored by the beauty surrounding the unofficially named Mounts Adam and Eve.

The 364 mile trip is interrupted by peaks and valleys of radio signal strength, causing even the most serene driver to “channel surf.” During one of those episodes, I discovered a totally different country music…that which was NOT the Cleveland, Ohio style of so-called country top 40. What I heard was music of the mountain homeland…passionately meaningful narratives with music. Another station played the quick banjo and guitar picking of Bluegrass. Interspersed with all of that was………the fiddle. I’m hooked! Born and raised with Polkas, this became the parallel favorite.

Okay, we’re back to 2010. Alice, Dick and I are on the mountain road, returning to the school, after having supper at France’s. NPR is playing in the background and…all of a sudden…I hear “that sound!” It’s a trio of sisters being interviewed and playing songs from the Swing Era! Truly, I thought it was a rebirth of the Andrews sisters. I absolutely had to own some of their music! Turns out, it was the Quebe sisters of Krum, Texas. Pronounced KWAY-bee, I had one heck of a time finding them, since I could only guess the spelling and never got a response from repeated inquiries to the radio station. Finally, I found a Southwestern Swing web site wherein a kind lady provided the correct spelling. That in hand, so to speak, the Quebe Sisters Band web site noted that their music was available via CD Baby, of Portland, Oregon.

I promptly ordered the CD and have to share the following marketing genius order confirmation and shipping data they emailed to me:

Date: Monday, September 13, 2010, 7:38 PM


Robert-

Thanks for your order with CD Baby!

USPS

(1) The Quebe Sisters Band: Timeless

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.
A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.
Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.
We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, September 13, 2010.
We hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. In commemoration, we have placed your picture on our wall as "Customer of the Year." We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Sigh...
We miss you already. We'll be right here at http://cdbaby.com/, patiently awaiting your return.
--
CD Baby
The little store with the best new independent music.
http://cdbaby.com cdbaby@cdbaby.com (503)595-3000

To copy the speaking style of Chandler Bing on “Friends,”

“Can it BE any better???”

Well…yes!

The CD arrived on the 16^th. What we once called a packing slip had the following printed, in part, at the bottom:

“Thanks for ordering from CD Baby! We want everything to go PERFECTLY. If your order was wrong, or damaged in any way – or you’re having a bad day and want to unload on someone – feel free to contact us.”

Am I having a super week………or WHAT?!? (Heart icons to all!)