The people I have met – the music I have played – the places I have been
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind
Below is a picture of my new car on a trip I took a few days ago up to Bar Harbor in Maine. Just me and my new mini motoring around – and it was something – it was what I needed.
I wake each day with the desire to do the best with the time in front of me.
And I sleep each night downloading the wonder and allowing it to cycle through my dreams.
I really am blessed.
Is there still pain?
Yes – there will always be –
But that is not the default mode
The default mode is to live, to laugh and to love.
I have more traveling to do in the coming weeks and will return to more blogging at some point
Standing on my grave on a cool fall day while the sun warms my face.
A strange feeling – not sad or fatal – but weirdly calming – none of us gets away with tricking destiny.
We coerce and tempt – we punch and pull – we struggle and scream.
But it comes anyway.
Wait, … hang about ….. hold on a minute……
We are still here
This not over – the struggle part continues – the dark days – the drama – the conflict – yeah, … all in there.
But the ink is not dry.
We are skipping ahead and reading a few lines.
We get what we choose or we take what is left —- there is no third way.
This will be the end – but damn it – let’s make the remaining pages something special.
Let’s leave nothing undone.
Let’s live!
These are my thoughts after meeting the caretaker at the cemetery and picking out the resting place for my wife and I. As you may know if you follow me – my wife has been battling cancer and it has not been going our way. The diagnosis was dire two years ago – and nothing has stopped it from progressing.
Here we are– making final arrangements. Not because we want to put them into action, but more so we can clear them from our minds.
Anybody who faces this comes to this – this point of “giving in” to all the possibilities that are coming at you.
It’s not “giving up” —– giving up means waiting around for the bad to happen…….we are not waiting , we are doing.
We are looking this bastard right in the face and not turning away.
We had this awesome eclipse last night at the cave. I took a picture as it started with clouds and a picture nearing the peak without clouds…..Why not put them together? There are no rules to photoshop—there are no rules to blog posts—-Just two honest pics combining to make it look more like it felt.
The opposite of disgruntled has to be gruntled (at least, as far as I can tell) – I was thinking of this and trying to make myself gruntled.
Can you just do that?
Sort of like “making yourself” a blogger.
There is no license needed to be gruntled, no test to take, no initiation fee or any period of time when you are on grundle probation. (to see if you have what it takes)
You just do it.
You accept where and what you are and choose to make the best of it.
Like making yourself a blogger – (what, that again?)
Yea! – That again … because in the next couple weeks or so– unless I do something to completely screw it up – I should hit the blogging milestone of 1000 followers.
So I made a chart to show what it feels like to be at this cusp of greatness!
It means that this little minnow of a blog has grown up to be a medium size and completely legal sport fish in this bizarre world.
If you hook into this blog, you can expect a nice little tussle on the end of the line and a good picture to take before you release me back in the water.
So many little minnow blogs never grow up and make it – and that is sad.
Half the blogs that follow me probably don’t exist anymore – and that is sad.
Sad because all you have to do is keep posting until you find your voice.
“What if I don’t have a voice?”
You do, and you will find it if you keep posting.
So thanks for staying with me through all the rants, photos, drawings and not-quite-legal music captures.
It means a ton to hit this milestone even if half of you are already gone.
Come back and try again.
There are no rules saying you can’t – most of us fail miserably the first time – this blog is my second attempt after 6 months with a horrible one and 3 followers.
Thanks for making me a respectable sized fish in this web ocean.
I really do enjoy each like, follow, and comment.
Even if I may appear a tad snarky and disgruntled at times.
My name is Wayne and I am gruntled. [polite applause]
Any parent with a teenager knows that you will sometimes hear strange sounds coming from their room, and unlike what all the TV programs and magazines say about parenting —We do not want to know what is going on!
So when I heard THIS — This tin pan alley type music blaring one day from behind the mysterious-door-of-quickly-dissolving-childhood – I broke my “don’t ask don’t tell” policy and yelled through the door.
“Son, what the hell are you listening to?”
“Dad – This is Pokey LaFarge”
“Pokey LaFarge?”
It’s old and it’s new – it’s really old and really new – even the name is too quirky to be quirky.
Is quirky the new cool?
Pokey Lafarge?
What can I say – the boy has great taste in music.
If you go to the band site there is a free download of his new song – Something in the Water—although the file does sneak into your system like a virus – so good luck finding it after you play it.
The last great buffalo herd was shot in 1898 yesterday.
I saw it on the news before I went to work – 15 bison running next to the highway in frantic formation.
A taste of what we lost.
I know this is a just a small glimmer of what these beasts once meant.
In a former time they were free to roam and they were legion.
And now we got a few “escaped convicts” from a local meat farm answering their instincts and on the run.
They swam across the Hudson River. They ran across interstate highways.
They moved as one – the adults and the young – these tremendous artifacts of a bygone era.
I have to admit when I saw them running – it made me feel good.
This is what they are supposed to do – run from place to place – in a big country that lets you go forever – they are made for this – battering-ram-monsters of freedom.
“Give me a home where the buffalo roam”
This is friggin’ awesome!
But the wheel has turned
Their time is done.
The farm they escaped from employed a few hunters to gun them down (as was their right, according to officials on the scene) – The State police called it “an ugly affair” – with one hunter possibly facing criminal charges for refusing to “finish off” a wounded animal. In all, 22 animals were slaughtered if you include a few shot earlier. All agree– there was no other choice – these animals are too big to contain and too dangerous to let run free.
The meat could not be cared for and got to the buffalo butcher for three months, (not many buffalo meat cutters around, I guess) – so it was deemed no good for human consumption.
This is shades of Buffalo Bill and the other wranglers that forced the land to submission by killing and leaving the skinned carcasses to rot where they were dropped.
No food and clothing – no life for the native people that depended on this animal for countless generations.
Build the railroads and build the new America.
The wheels are turning – progress – industrial might and other stuff all coming to a suburb near you.
When you marry into an Irish family – they take you whole heartily without asking for references or identification.
I am forever grateful for that.
So by way of my wonderful wife – we have some music on the cave
Can I still do a nice music blog? We shall find out together.
Fisherman’s Blues – The Waterboys
Inspired partly by Geoff and his excellent site @ https://1001albumsin10years.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/my-top-5-tapes-from-88/ who mentioned this album in cassette form (which is how, I too, met the Waterboys … and played them over and over in my beat-up chevette). I loved that car and I love that tape!
Fisherman’s Blues is like a hot cup of tea on a rainy day-and I don’t mean no frou-frou fancy-ass hipster organic fair trade flavored tea —-I mean TEA—-Boiling water from the kettle poured in a pot (you don’t have to pre-warm it) —- enough to share with family or friends so we all feel better—- a good cup of tea! It does wonders.
I’m Shipping Up To Boston – Dropkick Murphys
ARRR Me Maties!- Hooligans and scoundrels need love too!– this is a beautiful gail force wind of skullduggery to blow through ye sails while ye wee vessel gets tossed about on angry seas.
The City of Chicago – Christy Moore
This song packs a ton of punch – repression and survival – you can’t remove political strife and contempt for the crown from this art form – immigration is too often seen as people coming here to take a slice of our pie – when, as in this tune – there was little choice.
Much respect for Christy Moore.
The Gloaming – Samhradh Samhradh (Live in Cork)
The arrival of summer – A happy light ditty? Put some shorts on and go to the beach? – Noooo! — watch a flower grow and have a good cry.
Great song – Great band – Great record
Carrickfergus– Jim McCann
This is always a fav at the local Irish pub – the bands will do this one late in the show—-when everyone is good and drunk. I am not saying it sounds better when you are inebriated because that would be irresponsible to all you kids out there
But – a song about the perils of alcoholism that you can drink to – only the Irish can do that!
And also rip your heart out like a Mayan sacrifice (sorry, see my Mexican posts for reference).
Beautiful tune.
This music is meant to be enjoyed live.
So go out and support your local Irish pub.
And if you don’t have one- consider opening one yourself-We can never have enough.
I am stepping out of Rock music to highlight a few pieces “out of genre” that cut me right to the soul.
Talk about old school
Let’s take it back to someone who received a few more dabs of the stuff that makes man the image of God than the rest of us. Or if you don’t go for that- “The accidental combo of D.N.A that evolved by pure chance from the primordial soup and a dash of comet dust to create a perfect music producing specimen.” This is a one in [however many humans have ever been born] shot. What is that? About one in 4 trillion or something?
And I know time and upbringing and all manner of other things had to work together to make this genius happen. It did happen and he was a rock star for his time!
Mozart taps into the very essence of the joy of being human.
Miles Davies is cool
This sounds like walking deserted streets on a summer night with no fear because you know the town and it knows you- mixed with a complex and overwhelming feeling of loneliness. Refined to an actual entity so we can all join in and be alone together. I actually feel like I am part of one of those dime store detective novels when I hear this.
Country music does hold some amazing talent
This guy makes great music and I am not even sure if most country music fans really like him? He polishes the ridiculous into the sublime. This song works like Procol Harum’s Whiter shade of Pale. It grabs you and takes you on a cosmic journey. A sort of Texas psychedelic trip complete with ponies and Tonto telling the Lone Ranger to “kiss his ass”. This is just one favorite in a huge catalog of great songs.
He was not around for very long and I totally get why they brought him back as a hologram. I love this song because it always makes me dance and lifts my spirits. This is not a great video so I would skip ahead to 1:18 and get to the start of the tune. Pure rock fans can argue all they want about how terrible hip hop music is but I do not agree. No genre of music is inherently bad.
All good music is derived from the same well of inspiration and there are many rivers to drink from and swim in.
Cave of Fame 