Month: January 2023

“Cowboys Lose”

I took Finn to get his wisdom teeth out early Tuesday morning.  All went smoothly except for his seizure type thing at the beginning, when he saw the needle.  Just like his first COVID shot experience.  The dentist was all over it – “I just cranked up the oxygen and raised his feet above his heart.”  Apparently Finn apologized when he came back around.  Poor guy.  He slept for a few hours at our home, and then wanted to rest in his own bed.  Isn’t that a nifty ice pack setup that straps around your head.

We had an outing to Denton on Saturday afternoon.  “A Taste of Herb”, a Herb Alpert tribute group, was playing at Dan’s Silverleaf.  It’s been a while since we made that drive, and I almost turned around.  The traffic with all the new building North of us was brutal.

Speaking of Pacifica, we chuckled on receiving a note that Eric Lindell is playing at the Longboard margarita bar when Diana is next visiting.  That’s the dive bar where I went to watch football over the holidays.  Apparently Lindell’s Mum lives in Pacifica.

Sunday ended poorly.  The Cowboys lost to the San Francisco 49ers.  Most everyone played well except the quarterback, with two costly interceptions.  Campbell says he might not be able to support the Cowboys next year if they have the same quarterback.

I hope Will didn’t waste his money on these Cowboys items for Ollie – no more opportunities to wear them in support of the team this year.

I started “The Hero of this Book” by Elizabeth McCracken this week, and am really enjoying it so far.  Here’s the online summary:

“Ten months after her mother’s death, the narrator of The Hero of This Book takes a trip to London. The city was a favorite of her mother’s, and as the narrator wanders the streets, she finds herself reflecting on her mother’s life and their relationship. Thoughts of the past meld with questions of the future: Back in New England, the family home is now up for sale, its considerable contents already winnowed.

The woman, a writer, recalls all that made her complicated mother extraordinary—her brilliant wit, her generosity, her unbelievable obstinacy, her sheer will in seizing life despite physical difficulties—and finds herself wondering how her mother had endured. Even though she wants to respect her mother’s nearly pathological sense of privacy, the woman must come to terms with whether making a chronicle of this remarkable life constitutes an act of love or betrayal.

The Hero of This Book  is a searing examination of grief and renewal, and of a deeply felt relationship between a child and her parents. What begins as a question of filial devotion ultimately becomes a lesson in what it means to write. At once comic and heartbreaking, with prose that delights at every turn, this is a novel of such piercing love and tenderness that we are reminded that art is what remains when all else falls away.”

Here’s a passage on what it feels like to walk around Texas in areas that are only really intended for driving:

“The sidewalk of my suburban youth was like God, omnipresent and irregular. In Texas, where I’d lived for a decade, walking was seen as a form of peculiarity, perhaps a sign of northern-ness, even among my largely unarmed Texan friends. Sometimes in Texas as I walked, I would suddenly feel the presence of all the hidden guns around me, as though I were an x-ray machine.

Here in London, I knew that not a single civilian or police officer, for that matter- was armed.

Already I was lost. But there was a sign at the edge of the ungreen green that showed the neighborhood: what was within a five-minute walk of You are here, what within a fifteen-minute. Some things only the city itself can tell you, and other things you must learn from a map.

In Austin there are enormous streets called Lanes, as well as Drives and Streets and Circles and Boulevards; in my mother’s suburban Boston neighborhood, dead ends called Terraces. Trevor’s place was on a Close, and I was headed for Jerusalem Passage. Surely I would be changed upon it. I passed the Belgian bar Trevor had mentioned, now closed. A shared workspace, closed. Early Sunday morning in the business district: Everything was closed.”

Here’s a song that popped up to remind me of my time in Basingstoke – this album got a lot of play:

I get email invites to a house concert series in Austin, but have never gone.  This one sounded interesting.  Werner has entertaining lyrics about New Orleans.

And finally, something from Funky Friday on our local radio station, 91.7 KXT:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all.

“Penelope Hates Me”

I followed Diana over to the Volkswagen dealership on Monday.  She was dropping off the BBB (Big Black Beast, VW Atlas) for a service and to get some minor things sorted.  I picked her up and we headed home.  Diana headed up to the grocery store in Penelope.  About 30 minutes later, I got a panicked call telling me that Penelope wouldn’t stay running.  We arranged for AAA to come and see if they could help.

You can tell from the above picture that things didn’t go well.  I walked to the grocery store, arriving just as the AAA guys had decided that they couldn’t get things fixed and would need to tow Penelope to visit Alex.  We Ubered back home with the groceries, and a nice gentleman came to pick up Diana when BBB was ready.  He had quite the repertoire of jokes to share with her on the drive – she even remembered a few to tell me later.

I watched a really heartwarming movie about the power of music in the evening.  “I Used to be Famous” is wonderfully acted and directed, and is a story about a washed up rock star who befriends an autistic drummer.  I loved this movie – apparently having seen some of it before (must have fallen asleep early.)

Diana started a new puzzle on Tuesday morning.  It’s the album cover for Jackson Browne’s classic “Late for the Sky.”  And it’s double sided for extra complexity.  One of my all time favourite albums, with amazing guitar from David Lindley – perhaps the best supporting guitar ever!

Diana concocted some kind of strategy where she did the less challenging parts of both sides of the puzzle, then flipped one to match up.  What she thought was going to be impossible lasted less than 3 hours.

It’s hard to pick a favourite song from this album, but here’s what I’m going with – so amazing when we heard Jackson and David Lindley play it live many years ago in Grand Prairie, as a tribute to Little Feat drummer, Richie Hayward, who had died a few days earlier:

If you’ve never listened to this album all the way through, you should do that today.

We picked up Penelope on Tuesday afternoon – something about a vacuum fuel line in a manifold – I just nodded and agreed with Alex.  I did let him know that McD was driving, as is typical when things go wrong with Penelope.  I think he gave a small German chuckle – hard to tell.

We completed our Golden Globe award ballots and started a new show while recording the awards – there are so many things that you need to fast forward through.  The new show was “Georgia and Ginny” on Netflix.  The first episode was mediocre, and then it started to become pretty funny and entertaining.

How did we do on the ballots?  Here you go:

That’s 14-7, for those keeping track.

The storms in California continued to wreak havoc with power and roads.  Clorinda lost power to her house, and the line coming down caused a bunch of things to blow out – including the fridge, toaster and coffee maker.  PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric) came out to assess the situation – fortunately Caroline went to High School with the PG&E guy, and soon there were 6 vehicles working on the repair.

Diana ordered up replacement appliances, and worked hard the rest of the week to coordinate delivery of the fridge.   Thankfully, it was completely installed on Friday night.

Finn texted me that he had a day off on Wednesday – would I like to meet up for lunch.  A first!  I finally delivered his Christmas coffee table, and took him to a new place, Yaba Java, for lunch.   This place was great – lovely design, great service and delicious food.  I had a Mediterranean panini – it came served on pita bread straight from the pizza oven, reminding me of Shaya in New Orleans.

On Friday night, we watched an episode of “Break Point” on Netflix.  This is a show about tennis players, filmed last year.  The first one featured is Nick Kyrgios, the Australian bad boy.  It’s amazing to consider that he doesn’t have a trainer or a coach, and just plays when he wants.  He had a great run in the U.S. Open, and has more natural talent than anyone else – just can’t keep himself under control mentally.  You have to wonder what he could do with professional coaching – maybe it’s too late.

Saturday started with an overdue trip to the APEX fitness center.  We followed that with a trip to Yaba Java, so that I could show Diana what a great place I had found.  The food was great, but the coffee operators were hopeless – creating what Diana described as the worst cappuccino she’d ever tasted.  The avocado and egg toast was given a big thumbs up.

This weekend marks the start of the NFL playoffs, with a host of great games to watch.  I proactively ordered a 1,000 piece puzzle to keep McD entertained while I watched.  She might be making quicker progress than desired on Saturday afternoon.

Before the playoffs started, I watched a bit of the Grammy tribute to Paul Simon.  Greg had recommended this when we were in New Orleans.  What an amazing show – each performance better than the last.  “The Boxer” by Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, accompanied only by his acoustic guitar, is my favourite so far.

“Bridge Over Troubled Water” was one of my Dads favourite 8-tracks to play as we drove around as kids.  Listening to this performance brought all of that back to me – I think I can even tell you where the click-thump is when we change to a new one of the 8 tracks.

The San Francisco 49ers vs Seattle Seahawks playoff game provided some good entertainment, with the 49ers pulling ahead nicely after halftime.

McD took a break from her puzzle and we watched an episode of “Emily in Paris.”  A silly but pretty entertaining series.

We sampled a bit of the evening playoff game.  The Jaguars won with Trevor Lawrence, their quarterback, throwing 4 interceptions – a very unlikely win.

As I submit this post, Diana is still plugging away at the cacti puzzle.  It seems to be lasting well.

I continued to work my way through “Like a Rolling Stone” by Jan Wenner this week.

I really enjoyed the first section, and am now becoming a bit disillusioned.  It seems like the purpose of the book is for Wenner to tell us about all the famous people he befriended, and how much fun he had.  That gets a bit tiresome.  I met up with Jackie Onassis, and then met John Belushi in the evening – blah, blah, blah.

I did enjoy a couple of sections on the passing of Ralph Gleason, who helped Wenner start Rolling Stone magazine:

“It started with Lucille Armstrong, Louis’ widow, and Mercer Ellington, Duke’s son.  Dizzy Gillespie wrote, “I have been knowing him about thirty years and he hasn’t deviated one centimeter from what he sees as the truth – in music, in politics, or any other field of human endeavor.”  There was a letter from Lenny Bruce.  Frank Sinatra called him a “rate and gifted friend.”  Miles Davis wrote one line: “Give me my friend back.”  Jerry Garcia, Paul Simon, Robbie Robertson, and John Lennon all paid tribute, too.  He had helped them all.”

“the last words Ralph ever wrote: “Stone is the journalist as incorruptible man, honesty personified and as such brings to life an American myth: that the honest journalist is a saint who can save us all by his integrity and his dedication to truth.  He is reporter as a poet, Knight of the Holy Grail of Truth.  He cares passionately about humanity and about truth, he doesn’t expect people to be perfect or truth to be absolute, but he does care.  He is a testament to the possibilities left in man, and we need the inspiration he can give us these grim days.”

I really hope the remainder of this book tends more to substance than fancy friends and capers.

Jeff Beck passed away this week.  We were fortunate to see him a few years ago as part of the Eric Clapton guitar festival, where he was joined by Johnny Depp.  Here’s one of my favourites:

I read an article where the drummer for Blur was talking about his five top albums.  He talked about “Spirit of Eden”, the 1988 album from Talk Talk.  I agree it’s one of the best technically recorded and emotional albums.  I listened on Saturday morning.  The unique sounds from organ, trumpet, and guitar are amazing.  And the songs are given the time to develop and layer.

This led to the wonderful Blue Nile, and this gem – also beautifully recorded by Linn:

Finally, an excellent cover that played after the Blue Nile.  What excellent musicians – the little slide guitar touches from Gary Clark Jr. just make the recording:

Sad that this song is still so relevant.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all.