Random Reflections

This week, Georgia spent with her mom and sister, leaving me with one less person with whom to interface; beit a very significant person. Although I did quite a bit of yard work, met and made appoints with various doctors including an upcoming carpal tunnel surgery and a sleep study.... and got to attend a few grandkid's baseball games (an aside here; although I claim to not be superstitious, I have noted that whether it be the Cardinals, the Illini, or my grandkids; it seems that when I get to see the game, my team gets trounced.. I guess I'll have to play through that one.).. back to the subject. I had significant time in which there was far less outside stimulus to my thought patterns. When I get to listen to "all day radio"; my pattern is WDWS until 11am when I switch to WEFT http://weft.org/stream where they play "blues" from 11 - 2, then back to WDWS. One line from a song stuck with me because it really painted a picture for me; "She's gone. I have to face Christmas in my overalls." Wow! A picture of absolute dispair gelled in my head. It's Christmas and this guy is walking around his "pad" in slippers, a tee shirt (or not) and bibs. OK, that's one.

This morning on the WDWS "Standard time" where they play "standards". up came "Gentle on my mind". Another flashback. When I came to Illinois in December of 1974 to interview for the job from which I just retired, I ran into one of my idols (so to speak) John Hartford. There was this skinny guy in the airport in a peacoat with a blue sock cap pulled over his ears and a fiddle case over his shoulder. I think that's when I started one of my "habits" in public places which I will embelish later if I don't forget. I said, "are you John Hartford?" He said, "Yup". I said, "I love what you do with music". He said, in that rich deep voice, "thanks". That was about it!, but I can replay that tape over and over as one of my "brushes with greatness". A few months earlier, we had seen one of his stage shows in Athens, Georgia. I of course told him about that and he just grinned (slightly). Now for those of you who "ain't cultered enough" (to borrow a line from another great; Jerry Clower) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slMkcGMFhGw

here is a site on John Hartford http://www.johnhartford.com/biography.cfm

That's 2.

Then she played Elvis' "That's when your heartache begins". For some reason, that took me back to somewhere around 1961, when after I had found myself declaring my love for Georgia Sue (due to my indescretion on our senior trip) she decided that she wasn't sure she wanted to be "going steady" (It was her senior year, after all.) Well, you know the John Denver song?? (She stomped on my heart and squashed that sucker flat). There I was, too cool for bib overalls, but just as mournful. I was a mess. I played every sad song I could find including Elvis' heartbreak hotel, etc. At that time there was also Hank Williams with the "lovesick blues" and "I'm walking the floor over you".. There I was in my new black Ford Galaxie, pining away for my lost love. I nearly got over it, when that fateful auto accident at "THE" stoplight in Silver Lake brought us back together.

Before I finish with my discovery about "RYAN'S" patrons, I'll fill you in on one of my habits. How many times have you heard, "you only go round once in life." ?? That little encounter with John Hartford has brought me so much joy over the years. Just slipping back to the moment briefly, then getting back to life. Although I generally tend to be a "wave smoother not a wave maker", I really get worked up in the "pregnant pauses", such as elevators where we cocoon up, or an opportunity to speak to someone occurs, and we pass it up for fear of embarassment. I find myself more and more, "speaking up". And I'm glad I do. Yes, often I get embarassed monentarily, cause it wasn't the person I thought it was, or the other person has no idea where I'm coming from, but the "hits" are worth it. Today, we live such isolated lives and miss so much because of it. Even if the other person doesn't get the connection, I feel better having expressed the thought and taking the chance. Yesterday while riding my bike back from the pharmacy, I passed by a house that has been on the market for a while, but when we got home from Oregon, we noticed that the "for sale" sign was gone; so we thought it was sold. Yesterday, the same couple who had live there were in the yard. Now I had only seen her once at a garage sale and had never seen him before; but I knew enough to know they were the same people. I stopped and made a comment about them still being there. We visited a bit and I went on. Typically, I would have just said, "huh?" to myself and rode on, but by stopping, we got to interface at bit and I believe the world is better for it. Not because it was expected by either of us, but I took advantage of a small opportunity and am glad I did. Does this make any sense to anyone but me??? A good friend of ours, Tom Richardson has made a "career" (ministry) called "friendship evangelism" out of this very concept.

Now I'm likely to piss some people off!.. Before Georgia left, she gave me some coupons to Ryans Steakhouse and Home Town Buffet. I got to take advantage of 3 of them. However, this morning while sitting in Ryans eating a fantastic breakfast I noticed that although I'm considered "obese" by my BMI http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ , I was the smallest guy in there. There was one "tall drink of water" with his fat family, whose metabolism is probably like my dad's and my sister's who will never be fat. My dad's nickname was "Bone". nuf sed?? So, anyway, in any event, the portions on my plate appeard larger and larger as I saw all those pigs heading for the trough. (Oh, it wasn't much different at Home Town Buffet as I look back.)

These places are fantastic because they offer such a variety. We don't have to eat EVERYTHING. I think you can eat healthy at those places, but my observation is that the draw is to those who can't handle the responsibility. Although breakfast is my weak spot, I did eat a lunch at RYANS and ate healthy (unless they laced the brussel sprouts with grease and salt).

That's probably enough delusion for now. Gotta get to work, Georgia's coming home. Oh, I will be working at the U of I next week. Home stuff will have to slow down for a week.