March 23rd, 2017
Dia dhaoibh ar maidin !! (“Good Morning to you all ” in IRISH Gaelic.)
I hope everyone has recovered from another fine St Paddy’s Day. At Casa Abuelo, we tried a new way to enjoy cabbage… we fried it and it was as delicious as it was easy to prepare. I liked mine with a bit of Basaltic Vinegar on it. And for lunch on Saturday … I made myself a delightful Corned Beef and Fried Cabbage with Spicy Mustard on a toasted Ciabatta Roll…. Oh BABY!!!
My daily walk with Chewy and Tippy got a little wobbly this week. Schedules got messed up and on a couple of days delayed the walk till the afternoon and got busy and blew it off. NOTE TO SELF: Get up, Get Out and Get it over with before you can find a way to blow it off.
Other than walking it was a pretty productive week. WWJ (Wonder Woman Jessica) attacked the garage and drug me along for the fun of it. Our garage is amazingly well organized and ready for prime time. I spent most of Saturday morning sorting 3 five pound coffee cans of screws, bolts, nuts, washers, anchors, wire connectors and nails into their respective groupings for organized storage and retrieval. A wonderfully mindless task involving lots of fresh brewed ice tea, a nice stogie, about a dozen or so flan dishes, some baggies and tweezers. I put the last coats of paint (very dark green for our area) on the bat house and mounting board and sorted hardware in between coats.
Jess found some old pics of Urge II in all her wooden bumper, bondo and primer paint spotted glory that I had stashed in my workbench. Our old dog, Timmy sitting in the passenger seat with his eyes glowing from the camera flash. I guess one the best parts about being old is getting to warm your old bones at the sight of an earlier glorious moment. Seeing an old photo of two old friends together as they were so often back in the day kind of did it for me. I said a silent St. Paddy’s day toast to old friends long past.
This week I learned some stuff:
• I learned again, about self destructive sabotage that people can do. Depression is a horrible disease. It is insidious how the depressed mind can recreate realities that justify the depression. The depressed person will invariably find ways to manipulate situations that inspire anger and frustration in the people that love them thus assuring perpetuation of the sustained depressive state. Knowing this is not much help when you are in the middle of it. After the fact, you can see the path so clearly but it is all going south in the moment, deeply ingrained paths from previous episodes take your psyche past knowledge and understanding to the waiting anger and frustration. Your initial reaction when you can think again, is how stupid you were for being unable to alter the situation. It is the helplessness that wears on you the most.
• I learned that I just cannot bear to hear the news any more. I can no longer stand to hear the latest update on the crap that is being said and done in the name of our country.
Website Update
• 2nd week for the New Vocabulary Quiz!!
• This week I also added the lyrics for “The Irish Rover” by The Clancy Brothers for your sing-a-long pleasure. As added treat for you rapid fire history buffs to sing alone with Billy Joel on “We Didn’t Start the Fire” too.
Writing and Painting Update:
• I worked another painting this week. This time I tried to paint a lonely coconut lying on a beach. This week I used a paper made from hemp that someone gave me to try out several years ago. It was delightfully soft, yet textured like an old flannel shirt. I liked paining on it. I have two sheets. The one I used was a tan colored paper and I also have a pure white sheet, I will try next.
Weird-Stuff-O-Meter:
• It just seems weird to me. Kind of like finding great coffee at a sushi restaurant but sometimes I stumble across stuff that just tickles my tastebuds. Such is the case of this duet with Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood called, “The Fighter”. I can’t tell you why but my reaction to seeing his video was wonderful – kind of like watching a puppy playing with a rope – They seem like they are just having fun. And for me, Fun is always fun to watch. Keith is a great guitar player. I love his intro to this song. Who knew Carrie could dance so good and their harmony really works !!! Take a look here.
Music Update:
This week’s UJT Radio selections for you are: yuppie
• The Clancy Brothers – Irish Rover — Raise your glasses Lads to the good men of the Irish Rover lead by their Capn’ Mic McCann ..Happy St Paddy’s to you one and all! Thanks to brother Chris Feely for this one!!
• Culture Club – Do You Really Want to Hurt Me – This catchy tune our of transgenderland helped this British new wave or alt rock group’s debut album, “Kissing to be Clever” go platinum in 1982. Has anyone failed to scream, “Yes” at their radio when this tune was being so over played??? 🙂
• Joe Walsh – Analog Man – Here is another great tune from the solo sober Joe we know and love. This is the title cut to his last solo effort released in 2012 shows that the boy still has it going on.
• The Kinks – Celluloid Heroes – This is one of my favorite songs from the Kinks. This one was released in 1972.
• Billy Joel — We Didn’t Start the Fire – The history of this song is interesting. Sean Lennon was celebrating his 21st birthday and mentioned to Billy that it was a terrible time (1989) to be turning 21. Billy thought everyone felt that way, when he was turning 21 Viet Nam was going and all sorts of other stuff. Billy is a self proclaimed history nut so he got the idea to build a song on news headlines. This was nominated for Song of the Year in 1989.
• The Beatles – The Fool on The Hill – Its 1967 again, Magical Mystery Tour time and Paul and the boys put out this whimsical sad song. I remember thinking this was all about the futility of thinking because there never seems to be enough of it.
• Phoebe Snow – I Don’t Want the Night to End – Phoebe Snow was a special person in addition to being a gifted song writer. She had a severely brain damaged child during a brief marriage and dedicated much of her life in caring for her daughter and searching for help for her. She cared for her daughter until she passed at the age of 31 in 2007. A good life lived by a good woman who left a legacy of music when she passed in 2011.
• The Tedeschi Trucks Band – Shelter – A great soulful tune that reminds me of how lucky we all are to have the loving people around us that we have. Some who is the …Answer when you call…
That’s it… Do the best you can; Laugh every chance you get; And always remember … The best is yet to come!
As always, thank you for being my friend!
James
Under the Jacaranda Tree URL: http://www.jfmccann.com