WHS - Kitty Midnight Madness

Kate Bush- Egypt

"I cannot stop to comfort them.... I'm busy chasing out my demons...oh I'm in love with Egypt."- Kate Bush, Egypt,Never for Ever album, 1980.

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Watching the news coverage of the power struggle in Egypt. This is the only other song I know of about Egypt other than Walk like an Egyptian. Kate Bush is such a visionary. This was 30 years ago! I still have this album in a crate somewhere here.
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But seriously, the people of the country have suffered long enough. Things reach a tipping point I guess. I hope the relics and "antiquities" don't get raided like in Iraq. People can show a very ugly side during times like this. So much culture and beauty at risk.

Making Meatloaf and Pondering Food

It's hard to believe I've lived on this planet so long and never made meatloaf. That changes, today. Can't really get out to buy food, tired of pizza, and I started looking around. Realized that there is actually food here, if someone cares to start putting ingredients together. One has to look at expiration dates, though. The parmesan expired in 2009. Onion flakes will last through a nuclear war. No problem there.

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Let me just say I haven't been much of a cook. I came from the "heat it and eat it" school of cuisine. But I've watched enough cooking shows on TV that hopefully some of it rubbed off. Meatloaf seems like a can't miss sort of thing.

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I was reading somewhere that the "younger people" are into cooking now. The number one condiment among twenty-somethings is hot sauce. When I was in my twenties my idea of cooking at home was Rice a Roni, or boil in the bag type meat on toast. I still don't mind eating that stuff in a pinch.

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One thing I don't compromise on is butter. I can say without hesitation that if I were told that if I didn't eat butter, and instead ate that horrible bread spread margarine stuff I could live a whole year longer when I'm old, I'd say screw it. Pass the butter.

Wisdom

The important thing is this: to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.

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Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Getting Ready for the Super Bowl

I got my numbers on the Super Bowl Square and they don't look good. One and Nine. I checked online and I had to go clear back to 1980 to have a winning pair. The Steelers beat the Rams that year 31 to 19.

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A more optimistic person would say they are "due" to hit. Me, well, I'd say the probability of a win is woefully against me.

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Nothing else new.

Almost Valentine's Day

Going through my piles of things during The Big Move, I came upon a heart shaped vase with "I love you" written in many foreign languages. So sweet. But I've never used the vase. Not since that long ago Valentine's Day when I was in high school, when things went very wrong.

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Oh puppy love. When the doorbell rang and I saw the vase filled with flowers my heart soared! You see I had a crush on this guy and I just knew he wouldn't forget me for Valentine's Day! It was exciting to think he spent all this money to buy me flowers! I tore open the card expecting to see some sentimental little phrase and his signature. But NOOOOO. What was this? A joke? I didn't even recognize the name for a few seconds. Sheesh... it couldn't be.

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It was from ANOTHER guy. One I didn't really know well, and never really wanted to know well. I thought he was strange, or older, or...something. I can't even remember now, but his face came rushing back to my brain when I picked up that silly vase. A pretty vase really. I love you...in all those languages. And I still have it. And I never saw him ever again.

Bohemian Rhapsody on the Uke

Tribute to Dad

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Maybe there is something to the old adage that women really seek to marry men like their father. I say this with some bemusement because when I was young a statement like that would have sent me into hysterics. Dad and I never saw eye to eye on much back then.

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But now? I sure could use a blue eyed Finnish carpenter around here right about now.

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I can remember dad and I riding around the township and he would veer down a side street and say, "See that house over there? I built it. See that porch? I put that on 20 years ago and it looks good. And that roof? It looks okay too. I see his neighbor needs a new roof...."

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And so it went.
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I can't remember a repairman ever coming to the house. Dad did his own plumbing, sewer work, painting, roofing, and just about everything. And his buddy was a telephone man. So we had phone cable strung to everyroom in the house including the garage, the cellar and underground to the greenhouse up on the hill. Both ends of the couch had phone jacks, too. This was before

wireless phones.

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Dad would have been 84 today. I miss you dad. There's a lot of work to do here yet.

Just Farr Fun

Found a book in the basement. Big fan of MASH so I opened it up and started flipping through it. Noticed the autograph.

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(already looked...$14.95 on EBAY.)

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Some nice glimpses into behind the scenes. Henry Blake really was a mirror image of Mclean Stevenson. But Larry Linville was NOTHING like Major Burns.

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Nobody Home

On a list of phone calls you never want to get, pretty high on the list would be one from the police saying someone may be breaking into your apartment when you are not home. Under normal circumstances that would send waves of emotions: Anger, fear, frustration, helplessness, each grounded in some kind of violation and loss.

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Under normal circumstances.

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But right now, I'm ten days from being completely moved out and am literally ready to give away my bedroom suite and livingroom couch and chair to whoever can haul it because I can't sell it. So my first thought was... Hell, I hope they take the furniture and be done with it. There is nothing else in there!

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Called the neighbor upstairs. Yup, he thinks someone is down there. And he ain't going to go look. Scared. I'm not there, so he called the police. Police called me.

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Hmmph. I strapped on my set of... I mean, I put on my coat and out I went into the cold night, to go up and see that was going on.

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Buy the time I got there the police were "on the scene" as they say. No footprints around, checked the sides of the house.

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Went in and looked around. Nothing.

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No one around. Don't know what the neighbor heard.

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Couch intact.

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Sigh. I guess it's a happy ending.

Midnight in Harlem

Thanks, Dharma Bum for turning me onto this. I love it. Also went and dug out my
Picture of her from a Pittsburgh concert I saw a million years ago.

Leftovers Problem....Solved!

At least someone who lives here isn't picky. This is my new garbage disposal. He eats rather well. Leftover roast and potatoes yesterday.

Tired

Tired of cold, tired of snow, tired of gray, tired of dark. Missing green, missing warmth, missing light, missing flowers. And we are only half way through January.

Little Girl Blue

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Janis, you were real and you never B.S.'ed anyone. Here's to ya.You were true to yourself.

Happy Birthday Janis Joplin

Janis was born January 19th in Port Arthur,Texas in 1943. I don't want to do the math. She lived fast and died much too young on October 4,1970. This is Leonard Cohen singing Chelsea Hotel, a song about his night with Janis.
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"I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
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And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music."

Pale Blue Dot

Why Not Just Buy a Truck?

So here's the dope on the new snow blower. For that price, it should come with a man to run it.

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Free at Last Times Two

"Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Replace the word “Men” with “Cats” and you have the inspiration to open the cat cages in the basement this weekend. It is time to let Sweet Pea and Sambo figure out how to co-exist.

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Sweet Pea is officially moved in. Sambo is the frazzled little black cat. Sweet Pea is the self assured one. We'll see how it goes.

Snow Shovel Blues

I've got the snow shovel blues,

just as blue as I can be.

My back hurts, my legs ache,

and I have to get all these clothes off just to pee.

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-Madjoan

Hemingway Said...

I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?

-Ernest Hemingway

What will the Neighbors Think

"The neighbors will think I died three times."

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My Mom, reflecting upon the commotion she brought to the neighborhood with three ambulances

to the house in three days.

Why are People so Mean? And Dirty!

I don't live in Mayberry so I don't expect Aunt Bea to help me pick out a cantalope. Or Goober to tip his hat and let me in front of him in the checkout line. But Sheesh. What is up with the absolute imbeciles in this town lately?

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My trip to the grocery store was a miserable experience. It seems all the ignorant, ill mannered cretins were let loose and they all showed up at Giant Eagle. First the 400 pound filthy man in a filthy van parked in the fire lane screaming the F-bomb at his wife(?), with two equally loud children yelling and crying from inside.

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Inside, the store seemed overcrowded with people pushing buggies like there was a fire and everyone had to get out of the way or be flattened. Then, there was the freak who stood and just stared at me while I picked my Chicken and Rice Soup from the Campbell's display, until I finally turned to him and said listen, I'M NOT IN YOUR WAY. You can go around me. I 'm just getting

one can of soup. DUH. But I didn't say Duh.

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Unlike the lady in the next aisle with the overflowing buggy, the baby and the two kids taking up a whole aisle, while she chatted obliviously on a cell phone.

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GET ME OUTTA HERE, was all I kept muttering under my breath. Why can't this be a kinder, and happier experience? People in Haiti are starving. This is paradise. We have GOOD FOOD. Plenty of it. They are living in tents, no sanitation...

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Speaking of which, WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE SO DIRTY? I can understand being poor, but dirty? I saw someone buying steak and Pepsi, with a Government card. But no SOAP?

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All I wanted was to buy my cantalope and soup, and Italian bread. Leave me in peace.

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Would I Marry Big Ben? Like, No. Duh.

Who wants cooties?

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Some talking heads on the radio made me laugh today. One in particular was twisting himself into a pretzel trying to reduce the Big Ben engagement into a case for believing in redemption, or just being a "hater."

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It's a set up.

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I don't hate Big Ben. But I don't see him as marriage material. As for the redemption he is attempting for his lapses in judgment, well, IMHO, that's just work in progress. Time will tell if this egotistic oaf will fly the straight and narrow path to keep his superiors signing his paychecks.

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In the meantime, I can't imagine what would possess a woman to walk down an aisle and make promises to him. Unless the pre-nup has a lotta cash. Insurance dontcha know for that whole redemption thing.

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I'm just sayin'.

We are So Behind

Ok, seriously, we're halfway through the first week of 2011. Where's my flying car.-- John T. Nene

Bye Bye Blackbird

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In honor of the thousands of dead birds in Arkansas, and now Louisiana, I bring you Ringo Starr.

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Hold on to your Tin Hats. Is it the End of Times? Heck, I never took the Apocalypse doom and gloom stuff all that seriously, but...all these dead birds do get your attention. And why just the black birds?
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What about the tufted titmouses? (tit mice?) Who knew they were such hardy stock?

Oh Caritas

The Sunday Morning Muse, January 2, 2011

I'm selling my furniture. This is not an easy task during Christmas. Who wants to spend their Christmas money on used, I mean pre-owned, furniture?
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I never liked to sell anything,even when I was a kid selling candy for band. But I can't focus on this neurosis now. I have to build the hype. Just got a call. Really. Right now. Lady wants a bedroom set for an 11 year old girl. "Perfect" I said, with a smile. "It's perfect for her. I'll make ya a good deal." It would be. It's this creme polished looking furniture with gold trim. It is not mannish in anyway. Men would cringe.Big mirror on dresser...armoire.
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She's to call back.
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We'll see. Please call back.
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As for the kitchen table and chairs? Another deal. May even come with a free bottle of Gorilla glue for the one broken spindle. Fix it like new.
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Anyone want a gold leaf patterned couch and chair? Anyone? Buehler?

Summer Rains

Good Googledly Goop

Every year the TV people put together a "Who Died" list for the year. I try to watch them for nostalgia's sake. While I was looking this up on line I got distracted by Sandford and Son blasting in the livingroom. Whatever happened to Grady? I googled him, and his real name is Whitman Mayo. He died in 2001. Ironically, in Grady Memorial Hospital. Hmm. Wikipedia also said he was only 42 when he started that role. Hmm, again. Double Hmm. He was always old to me.