Back Home Again

iPod Shuffle

Six months ago, I knew virtually nothing about digital music players.  My niece used to come over to my house to download music from iTunes, because I had a fast internet connection.  I had ripped a few CDs onto my external hard drive and listen to them via Windows Media Player onto my external JBL speakers.  I really loved the convenience.

For Christmas, my buddy in Tulsa wanted an iPod Shuffle for his birthday.  He runs several times a week and wanted to listen to music while he ran.  He likes music from the 70s.  So I loaded up the iPod Shuffle with CD music.  It held 269 songs, 1 GB of storage, 17.6 hours of music.  I listened to the Shuffle as I drove down to Tulsa.  My car stereo has an input jack.  The Shuffle sounded great in the car.  I was officially a fan of the iPod.

My sister has been walking daily.  She has lost weight and really enjoys it.  She tried carrying along a cassette player but found it clunky.  So she switched to an equally clunky CD player.  I convinced her four kids to chip in on an iPod Shuffle for Mother's Day and I would load it up.  The price has recently dropped where you can pick one up for $49.95.  I spent most of the weekend loading it up.  The songs of the 1960s were much shorter.  Therefore you can fit more songs onto the Shuffle.  It finally filled up at 390 songs.

I was going to put a bunch of Beatles and Beach Boys songs on there, but ran outta room.  I think I could easily load up a 2GB or maybe a 4GB player.  Still, I was heavy on Motown and the girl groups.  I tried my best to recreate her 45 collection from years ago.  Here's the playlist:

View iPod Shuffle Playlist

I've got the fever now to get my own iPod.  If your car has an input jack (looks like a headphone jack), I would recommend that you get one too.  Hell, even if it doesn't, I'd still recommend getting one.  Can't beat the price.  It's so easy to load one up.  I'll be your tech support if you decide to purchase one.

Mother's Day 2008

This year all six of us kids were home for Mother's Day.  My nephew drove down from Chicago.  My niece and her family came up from Louisville too.  It was a cold rainy day.  We made reservations at Mom and Dad's favorite restaurant.  There were nineteen of us there.  I think it was about all the excitement that Mom could stand.  Still, I think Mom and Dad had a good time...despite their expressions in this photo.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!!    

 

The Beard

About three weeks ago, I got a cold sore right under my nose.  So I decided not to shave until it was gone.  It hurts like hell when you shave into one of those.  Well, ten days turned into two weeks.  Then I just decided to let it grow.  I did shave the sides to form a goatee or VanDyke or whatever the hell you call that beard thingy that guys seem to be sporting these days.

I have never been able to grow facial hair very well.  I didn't shave regularly until I was in college.  Even then, maybe once a week or so.  Most of the time, I could dry shave.  I always envied the guys who could grow a beard over a weekend. 

I learned a few things:   

• I have white hair under my chin(s).
• Beards are itchy.
• You can get a rash under a beard. 
• There's no controlling beard hair until it reaches a certain length.
• Beards still require some sort of trimming.
• After a while, moustache hair creeps into your mouth.
• Food gets stuck in your beard without your knowledge.
• Same for lint and fuzz.
• My great-niece likes to grab beards...and that hurts!

I showed off my facial hair when I went to Houston last week.  I got some interesting comments from co-workers:

• "Your beard makes you look sinister" - My boss.  I've never been called sinister in my life...ever.  I've been called a 98-lb weakling, goodie-two-shoes, and an altar boy before.  Never sinister.
• "Wow.  You look sex-AAA! *growl*" - Female co-worker.  I've also never been called sexy or been growled at...ever.
• "I didn't recognize you.  Your facial hair makes you look very handsome" - Male co-worker.  After getting the initial heebie-jeebies, I'm hoping that it was just a bad Pakistani-English translation. 
• "Hell, I could grow a better beard than that." - Female post-menopausal co-worker.  She's probably right.

The experiment was fun, but not something that I think I could live with long term.  I'm used to being the anonymous guy that no one notices.  The extra attention was unsettling. 

Maybe it's something I could try again in the winter.  I decided I'd had enough this weekend.  I tried saving the moustache to see how that would look.  Yep, just as I suspected...like a 1970s porn star.  Not a good look.  So I shaved it all the way off.  That was a messy shave, but I'm glad it's gone.  Smooth as a baby's behind again. 

I'll leave the beard growing to those hairy guys that can do it well.  I just wish my facial hair would grow as well as what grows out of my nose, ears, and back.  Still, I had to take a photo or two to prove that I could grow a beard.  Well, sorta.      

They Don't Know - Tracey Ullman

Title: They Don't Know

Artist: Tracey Ullman

Composers: Kristy MacColl   

Label: MCA/Stiff 52347

Year Released: 1984

Highest Chart Position: 8

Tracey Ullman is a British comedienne who had a brief recording career in the 1980s.  She released an album entitled You Broke My Heart In Seventeen Places, an ode to the girl groups of the 1960s.  The song They Don't Know was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, although you almost never hear it on the oldies station anymore. 

Tracey would later go on to have her own variety show, the award winning The Tracey Ullman Show.  It ran from 1987 to 1990 on Fox.  The Simpsons made its debut on her show as a cartoon short.  She once said on a talk show, "I breast-fed the Simpsons."  Many years later, Tracey would file a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox Studios to get her share of the profits.  Paula Abdul was the show's choreographer. 

Tracey has appeared on a successful series of special on HBO entitled Tracey Takes On....  She currently appears on Showtime's State of the Union.  Tracey is an amazing master of voices.  She can mimic just about anyone.   

Tracey makes the late-night talk show circuit regularly.  It is usually a lively impromptu performance.  I think she is just a hoot and a half.

Also, included below is the video for They Don't Know.  It's a funny send-off of the 1960s styles and the contrasting realities of marriage and family.  Tracey shows off her dancing skills at the very end of it.  Paul McCartney also appears in the video.  Enjoy!

Note: I have this original 45 with the picture sleeve (photo above).  It cost $1.97 back in 1984.  You can download the single now for $.99.  But, you don't get the picture sleeve.   

Play song (3.5 MB)                                                 

Video: They Don't Know

Indiana Primary

Today is the Indiana Primary.  Finally.  Thank God it's almost over.  Get those politicians out of our state.

My good friend Nora has a funny post today describing what it's been like to be a Hoosier during this primary frenzy.

Time to get things back to normal around here and have folks saying again, "Where exactly is Indiana?"  Sometimes it's nice to be ignored.

How To Tell You're Married

Three women: one engaged, one married and one a mistress, are chatting about their relationships and decided to amaze their men. That night all three will wear black leather bras, stiletto heels and a mask over their eyes.

After a few days they meet up for lunch.

The engaged woman: The other night when my boyfriend came over he found me with a black leather bodice, tall stilettos and a mask. He saw me and said, "You are the woman of my life. I love you." Then we made love all night long.

The mistress: Me too! The other night I met my lover at his office and I was wearing the leather bodice, heels, mask over my eyes and a raincoat. When I opened the raincoat he didn't say a word, but we had wild sex all night.

The married woman: I sent the kids to stay at my mother's house for the night. When my husband came home I was wearing the leather bodice, black stockings, stilettos and a mask over my eyes. As soon as he came in the door and saw me he said, "What's for dinner, Batman?"

I Wish I Had a Girl - Henry Lee Summer

Title: I Wish I Had a Girl

Artist: Henry Lee Summer

Composers: Henry Lee Summer   

Label: CBS Associated 07720

Year Released: 1988

Highest Chart Position: 20

A while back HoosierBoy had a guess the song bit that he did.  One of the songs HoosierBoy described as "This one is really really hard [to guess] unless you are from Central Indiana".  Ahhhh, so true.

Henry Lee Summer is a Hoosier.  He was born in the small town of Brazil.  This song was his biggest hit, breaking into the Top 20.  While considered to be a one-hit wonder nationally, he was, and still is, quite popular in Indiana.  I saw him back in the 1980s performing at the Vogue.  It was a great concert.  Haven't seen him lately.  I wonder if he still has the famous mullet. 

Henry Lee was in the news a couple of years ago for driving through a trailer park and getting a DUI.  Not a great way to make the newspapers.  He still performs.  Maybe I'll catch his act again one of these days.

I found a few of his old videos which are included below.  Enjoy some 80s music from a local boy!

Play (4.1 MB)                                                 

Watch Video (I Wish I Had a Girl)

Watch Video (Hands On The Radio)

Watch Video (Darlin' Danielle Don't)

Clinton Visit

Former President Bill Clinton is going to be speaking today in my hometown, stumping for Hillary.  I can't even imagine what a cluster Bill and his entourage is going to create in this small town.  I'm ready for this Indiana Primary to be over with. 

Boone County is very Republican, anyways.  I can't imagine why they bothered to come here, a town of 15,000.

The last President to speak in Lebanon was Abraham Lincoln.  Then a few years later, his funeral train passed back through town.  That didn't work out so well for Abe.      

I imagine the town will weigh a bit more after he leaves...with all the bullshit that he leaves behind.  Maybe we can send Dad up there with his skid loader for the clean up.  It's gonna take a while to get that smell out of the town though.

Gravel

It looks like the squeaky wheel gets the grease.  After months of complaining by the residents on my road (all nine of us).  We got some fresh gravel on the road...the entire 2 1/4 mile stretch!  The county hasn't put down any new gravel in the five years that I've lived here.  I think we got our ten-year supply.  If you look on the left side of the picture (my driveway), that's how it looked before.  It was so bad, that you could get stuck in the muddy road after a rain.

Now, we've got tons of gravel...literally.  I bet it is eight inches deep on my brother's road; you just about need a dune buggy to get down it.  It was also very dusty after the county put the new gravel down.  But now that it's rained a few times, it has settled. 

It's a big improvement.

Cemetery

I had some time to kill while I was in the hometown.  I decided to visit a friend that lived on the opposite side of the county from me.  I don't get up to that side of the county very often.  Adjacent to his road is a little cemetery.  Two years ago, we attended a burial service there for a cousin's husband.

He was a WWII veteran and the military grave marker was there now.  I'll have to take a picture of the marker and send it to his family.  I thought it strange that grass had not grown on the grave yet.  He was buried in August 2006.

As I walked back to the car, I saw a cat lying in the grass near a headstone.  It was dead.  It was lying on its side, eyes open, and tongue hanging out.  We saw dead animals all the time on the farm.  I guess it had died within the past day.  Still, how odd for an animal to die...in a cemetery.

Then I just started to get the creeps about the whole thing.  Alone, in an isolated cemetery.  Better get going...before the zombies arrive.