“103 Years Old”
Hello again. Not much happening here in McKinney this week. Just working from home, reading, eating, exercising and sleeping. I’m pleased to announce that with all this time eating at home, McD has become an accomplished outdoor griller. Burgers, steak, salmon, shrimp and veggies are all cooked perfectly these days. Here’s some perfectly cooked shrimp and a lovely salad that I enjoyed:
My annual physical (personal M.O.T.) rolled around again this week. ECG, prostate, and most blood tests (still waiting on a few) all show positive and healthy results. Maybe I’ll be brave enough to go for the day long full battery of tests that my company offers next year. In addition to this torture, I also had my weekly Physical Therapy appointment. It really wasn’t too bad but certainly stretches the limits of what my leg and hip can do.
I loved receiving this picture from my sister-in-law, Amy, this week. That’s our newest niece, Frankie, our nephew Massimo, and their Great-Grammie. I love the looks on both of their faces. And the best part, Grammie turned 103 yesterday. She’s still walks unassisted and had cooked an apple pie for the visit. Truly amazing!
The New York Times crossword puzzle was kind to me today. The Sunday puzzle usually takes me about an hour – it’s easier but much larger than Friday and Saturday. Today was my best time by far. You’ll notice that I finished this at 7:34 am – courtesy of Diana’s early morning weight training and walk – she likes to get them in before the weather becomes too oppressive. The theme was “Alternative Cinema” – I really like the clue that I highlighted here:
With so little excitement these days, I’ve been wondering how to add something interesting to the blog. So… here goes with a new segment. I’m going to share my exploits in learning new songs on the piano and guitar. First I’ll tackle “Racing in the Street” by Bruce Springsteen – a long time favourite:
Let’s talk about those lyrics:
“I got a 69 Chevy with a 396,
Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor,
She’s waiting for me tonight,
in the parking lot,
of the Seven-Eleven store”
Other than the “69 Chevy”, it’s a bunch of Greek to a Scotsman. We don’t have souped up muscle cars and drag racing in Scotland – at least that I’m aware of. The Anglo/American cross culture flow may have changed that by now. To break it down, “Fuelie heads” are defined in my Google search like this:
“The 461 head is more popularly referred to as the “Fuelie” head, because it was introduced as standard equipment on the 1962 327ci Corvette engine that was fed by a mechanical Rochester fuel-injection system. In some bench-racing circles, all double-hump heads are classified as Fuelie heads.” Got it?
“Hurst” is basically a gear lever: “Hurst proudly maintains a wide variety of exceptional shifter products for the performance enthusiast including automatic shifters, legendary Hurst manual …”
I hadn’t heard of 7-11s until I was in training in Fort Worth and frequented the 24 hour convenience store just across from the apartment complex where we were housed. Apparently 7-11 parking lots are a gathering place for street drag racing competitions. I remember going to my first amateur drag racing event many years ago with some friends from Gearhart. Quite an experience to witness the strategy of amateur racers going through the heats with a wide variety of vehicles.
Back to the practicing – and for the guitar, I’m very early (1 day) into learning “Pride and Joy” by Stevie Ray Vaughan. When I first visited Dallas for training with the oil logging company in 1985, Stevie’s song “Change It” was all over the radio. The first riff caught my attention and had me cranking up the radio every time.
Hearing him live in Dallas in 1986 was a musical highlight. I remember being a huge fan of the live version of “Pride and Joy”.
On our Executive Committee meeting this week, I was presenting a request for some capital spend, and one of the members said he wouldn’t approve unless I played something on the guitar that he spotted in the background. He specifically requested some Stevie Ray. I managed to dodge that request but it did give me the idea for this new segment. Here’s my attempt at the first few bars. The song only gets more difficult from here. Going to take some hard work:
I listened to a short story called “Climbing with Mollie” by Bill Finnegan on a couple of my swims this week. A small MP3 player that clips onto the strap of my goggles and some waterproof earphones made this possible. Those and a bit of patience deciphering how to find an Audible book download file, convert it to MP3 format, and load it onto the player. Then some trial and error with different sized earphone end pieces and “fitgoo earbud insertion helper”. Now I’m all set to listen to books while swimming.
Finnegan won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for his memoir “Barbarian Days” which is about his fascination with surfing while he grew up in Hawaii. The book that I listened to is about his adolescent daughter, Mollie’s, passion toward rock climbing. She had been a bored non-participant in group sports – counting daisies on the soccer field and rejecting swim team – but took to rock climbing immediately. Mollie proves to be a natural-born climber and Finnegan gets hooked as well.
As Mollie progresses in the sport, the descriptions of her activities get more detailed and technical. I really enjoyed learning so much about how climbing “problems” are rated and named. The duo travel from indoor gyms to rock faces in Central Park, Mexico and Canada. I was interested to hear about their time near Queretero in Mexico – that’s where our corporate office for Mexico and Latin America is located – and one of the last places I traveled to before lock down. The descriptions of the nearby town of Bernal have me looking forward to a return visit. Pena de Bernal is the name of the monolith that dominates the skyline.
I ordered “Nashville, scenes from the new American south” with text by Ann Patchett (author of “Commonwealth” and “The Dutch House” and one of my very favourite current authors) and photographs by Heidi Ross, expecting a series of short stories about the city. Instead it turns out to be mostly a photography book with short notes from Patchett. I have enjoyed flicking through the beautiful photos for places that we’ve visited, and places that we should visit on our next trip. Here are a few of the pictures that I enjoyed. “The iconic Delbert McLinton at the iconic Union Station hotel”:
My favourite Delbert tune:
He’s clearly traveled a few miles since recording this song. The second night that I spent in the United States, I saw a Delbert McClinton concert. I convinced a few of my oilfield logging classmates, including a couple of Argentinians, to accompany me to the Caravan of Dreams music club in Fort Worth and really didn’t know what to expect. I can still remember how much I enjoyed that show and the feeling of being right at home with great blues and R&B music that wasn’t going to be easily found in Scotland. Isn’t it fun when a photograph can bring back so many memories?
Here’s a look inside the Parnassus bookstore that Ann Patchett owns with her husband:
The shop appears to have quite a nice music section.
And finally, a weekly lunch date that Sturgill Simpson and John Prine (famous Nashville based singer songwriters) enjoyed at Big Al’s Diner prior to Prine’s passing from Covid a few weeks ago:
I read the book “Silver Sparrow” by Tayari Jones this week. Sometimes I really can’t remember what possessed me to order certain books, and this is certainly one of those. I suppose it popped up on one of those “if you liked this, you’ll love this” lists or on a book review that I trust. Here’s what the Los Angeles Times reviewer had to say:
“Tayari Jones has taken Atlanta for her literary terroir, and like many of our finest novelists, she gives readers a sense of place in a deeply observed way. But more than that, Jones has created in her main characters tour guides of that region: honest, hurt, observant and compelling young women whose voices cannot be ignored . . . Impossible to put down until you find out how these sisters will discover their own versions of family.”
—Los Angeles Times
The book opens with the line, “My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist.” A unique opener for sure. Silver Sparrow is the story of two young women, Dana and Chaurisse, who are the daughters of a bigamist father. Only Dana is aware that her father has another family and Dana’s existence must be kept a secret from her father’s other family. The first half of the book is told from Dana’s perspective and the second half is told from Chaurisse’s perspective as she slowly begins to realize that something isn’t quite right with her family. The last quarter of the book was certainly the best, as all the threads come together for a somewhat predictable finale. Not sure I’d recommend this one to any of you, but it did keep my attention for a couple of days.
We’ve been working our way through the Hulu series “The Handmaid’s Tale” over the last few weeks. What a truly bizarre and disturbing story. Perhaps mostly because we have the sense that it’s not such a long leap for our society to become something like this. That being said, the acting and directing are excellent. Several episodes have had us on the edge of our seats.
I’ve commented a couple of times on the music in the show. There’s not much of it and the deep selections had me convinced that the musical director was British. When Roy Harper’s “How does it Feel?” showed up in an episode this week I was convinced. What do you think Google revealed? The music is selected by a lady who lives in Austin! The Harper song took me quickly back to an old favourite of his from University days – “When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease”. If you listen you’ll hear one of the things that draws me to this – that’s right, the excellent brass band accompaniment. Coupled with the poignant lyrics, it’s right up K alley.
Now that I think about it, I believe I wrote about discovering this song again quite recently. Apologies for the duplication. Well, not really, it’s a great song.
What’s on deck for the coming week? Well, let’s see: a haircut on Monday; Physical Therapy on Tuesday; 3 swims worked into the calendar (I plan on listening to the audio book version of “American Dirt” for company); reading the new Churchill novel, “The Splendid and the Vile”, by Erik Larson – it covers the years 1940-1941 and the last part of the jacket blurb reads, “this book takes the readers out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when – in the face of unrelenting horror- Churchill’s eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together.” We can only wish for a tiny bit of that these days.
Stay positive, calm and kind.