Some neighbor of mine might have gotten to watch me sing along with Folsom Prison Blues and I Walk The Line as I set up the kitchen and wondered why I used a frying pan as a guitar and bass.
The obvious answer is it is impossible to unpack boxes while plucking a bass or strumming a guitar.
Duh.
And he said, “Son, this world is rough
And if a man’s gonna make it, he’s gotta be tough
And I know I wouldn’t be there to help ya along
So I give ya that name and I said goodbye
I knew you’d have to get tough or die
And it’s the name that helped to make you strong” A Boy Named Sue- Johnny Cash
Sometimes It’s Good To Have Gas
A bunch of my friends are gearing up to send their oldest children off for their freshmen year in college.
Another group are in the midst of teaching teens how to drive and so I find myself involved in conversations about the importance of life skills.
Conversations in which people tell me they wonder and worry if they have done a proper job of preparing their kids for the new responsibilities they are taking on.
I listen and share my two cents about what is important and remind them they have to let them make their mistakes and let them learn from them.
It is something I have tried hard to do with my children because I refuse to cripple them by making them think someone will always be there to catch them.
I’ll always be there to help, but I may not be there to prevent them from slamming into an unforgiving surface.
And it is not because I don’t want to, but because they will be in places and situations I can’t handle for them.
Anyhoo that is all just prelude for saying I am a sweaty beast who hasn’t any hot water in which to bathe at home.
Initially I thought it was because the pilot light on my water heater had gone out but it turns out the real reason is I didn’t set up gas service for the new house.
In my defense my electric provider also handles natural gas and I thought when I signed up it was for both.
But the reality is they only handle electricity for my neighborhood and so I had to sign for a different service which won’t be able to connect things until Monday.
Guess I’ll hit the gym tomorrow so that I can get a hot shower.
I’d make a comment about hot monkey love except I can’t figure out how to make it work here. Well, that is not entirely true.
I moved on from Johnny Cash to The Beatles and listened to Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me & My Monkey.
Music break, sing along with John:
Your inside is out and your outside is in
Your outside is in and your inside is out
So come on (Ho) come on (Ho)
Come on is such a joy
Come on is such a joy
Come on let’s make it easy
Come on let’s make it easy
Make it easy (Hoo) make it easy (Hoo)
Everybody’s got something to hide except for me and my monkey
You May Be A Lover But You Ain’t No Dancer
Back in my high school English days it used to irritate me when I would be asked to try and dissect the multiple meanings my teachers swore were in some of the works we read.
Because I was certain sometimes a blue sky was about the freaking sky and the opening of red rose petals was really just a flower.
Thirty years later I sit here listening to Helter Skelter and hear multiple messages and meanings in it.
Thirty year later I think about the multiple times I have been asked about the meaning of some of what I write and can better see where those teachers were coming from.’
Because there are moments when there are layers to my writing but most of the time if I haven’t spelled it out there is nothing more to be seen or discovered.
I am pretty direct about my thoughts.
You usually know whether I love, hate or am ambivalent about you.
Of course that direct nature didn’t lead to gas service having been set up so I sit here debating whether I am going to take a cold shower tonight.
I hate cold showers.
Take A Risk
If you want to talk about taking a risk just listen to The Beatles Revolution 9 and ask yourself what kind of drugs they were one when they put that one together.
I kind of like it because it reminds me of some of the mind dumps I call blog posts.
A few days ago I had a conversation in which I frustrated some people because I pushed back against what they had to say.
I don’t think they were expecting it from me because I hadn’t done much of that with them.
It wasn’t because I agreed with everything they had to see until now but because I had so much going on I could barely see straight.
There is still far more happening now than I like but I got enough out of the way that I managed to plant my feet and take a hard look around.
Frankly I am not a fan of much of what I see and heard which is why I pushed back.
If you insist I do something that isn’t just stupid but dumb solely because you fear to take a risk I may be difficult to deal with.
Sometimes you have to look at the railroad tracks and cross because the train you fear isn’t close enough to be seen, let alone hit you.
Disruptions are part of life and though it is always worth looking for ways to avoid them sometimes you manage them best by creating them.
Or so goes my theory but what the hell do I know, according to some keyboard jockey I am just a maniac with a keyboard.
You know the best part of getting these notes from the assorted keyboard jockeys out there in the ether is knowing that no one is forcing them to read.
Yet some get so geared up they write to complain about things they would never know about if they hadn’t taken time to read.
Maybe I ought to tell them to Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da themselves.
Given the age of the song I am willing to bet some of these yahoos would accuse me of insulting them with foreign languages.
Could be kind of fun, but first I must see how cold the water is.
Brr…
