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Shut my mouth wide open!

Yesterday my daughter and I took her mom (and my wife) to Boston, where she will undergo a transplant over the next three weeks. We had a nice trip down, spent some time saying goodbye at the hospital, and then began our return trip. It was very pleasant, until my daughter said “Can we listen to music?” Those of you who have 14 year olds may understand why I cringed on the inside. 

My daughter listens to Mariah Carey. Lovely voice, but she has 13 albums, and a couple of songs does me. I’m not hating, honest; it’s just not my cuppa. So, when she went for the radio instead of putting in a CD I didn’t know whether to breathe a sigh of relief, or go for the earplugs. She usually aims for pop radio, and that means Lil Mix and One Direction. Ad nauseum. Not only do these stations play music that gets on my last nerve, they balance music and advertising in a way that seems to favor the latter at the expense of the former. About twelve ads into the first commercial break, she starts scrolling up the dial and then she did it; she stopped on …

Black Sabbath – “Snowblind”

And she says to me “I love electric guitar.”

Wha!?!?!?! We listened to ZZ Top’s “La Grange,” AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long,” some Offspring, and a bunch of stuff I didn’t recognize. Finally, they played some ads (why does pop radio give you two songs between ads, but AOR stations give you about ten?) and she started up the dial again.

And then she stopped on a station that played Elwood’s Blues Show. The song that was playing when she stopped dialing was Luther Anderson’s cover of Hound Dog Taylor’s “Give Me Back My Wig.” OMG! She was interested in who Hound Dog Taylor was, and how Chicago blues are different from Mississippi blues, St. Louis blues and Indianapolis blues! Holy smokes.

We listened to Sue Foley’s “New Used Car” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_jUmILVQa0, and you should, too), some Carlos Santana, and maybe eight more blues songs before we got home.

She and I are going to both enjoy driving together, and now that i know we can find music we both like maybe I won’t get quite so grumpy over the stuff I don’t care for (as long as we get to mix it up a bit). Also, I need to remind myself to watch “The Blues Brothers Movie” with her.

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A Book Worth Reading

OK, I have not actually read it, and at $129 for the paperback, I probably won’t. Still, George Takei suggested I read the comments on its Amazon page, and I am so glad that I did. I’ve been chuckling for 45 minutes! The book is titled “How to Avoid Huge Ships,” and it’s by a gentleman named Captain John Trimmer who, by his title, might know a thing or two about seafaring. Have some fun with the clever reviewers: How to Avoid Huge Ships by Captain John Trimmer

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Season’s Greetings

Happy Boxing Day, everyone!

We made it through another Christmas at Chez Counte – no mean feat – and are looking forward to a better 2014. And I have reason to be optimistic; I saw a white rabbit on Christmas Eve. I had to stop the vehicle so as not to run over it. It was confused, and hopped this way and that before hopping into the woods. This was not a domesticated rabbit on the lam, it was a wild rabbit that was white. Very cool. 

This morning, I ran into town to pay some bills before the storm hits this afternoon. It was already snowing, though, and the kid in front of me slid in a turn. It would normally have been no big deal, but we’re recovering from a major ice storm, and there are slabs of ice piled up where they cleared the roads. He slid sideways into a frozen pile, and it just popped his truck into the air. He landed on his roof. He seemed none the worse for wear and tear, but it did a number on his truck. It’s was only 5 degrees F outside, so I let him sit in my vehicle until his folks came. By the time I returned, the police were there, and the wrecker was trying to right his truck. I mention this mostly because we’ve had some awful weather for driving, but it doesn’t seem to slow people down. Just two days ago, on snow covered roads, after dark, I was in a line of traffic going 45mph in a 50mph zone. Someone passed all five of us at once, up a hill. There is no place you need to be that is worth risking your life or the lives of your passengers or other motorists. Please be safe out there!

That was a disjointed post, but you get what you pay for around here. Peace to you in this Holiday Season, and a Happy and Safe New Year.

 

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What Have We Here?

Good question! I am not sure where this is headed. I was active on My Opera, once upon a time; I abandoned them before they abandoned their users. I took what I posted there seriously, though I was far more active than is sustainable for me. So what will I do here? Not quite sure yet. I am a librarian, and I hope to blog a bit about libraries and education (and library humor. We’re hilarious. Honest). I am particularly interested in how people find information, so there will probably be some discussions about tools and methods that make information and the internet more easily digestible. I expect there will be some laughs, sharing of things that interest or amuse me, and I hope to reconnect with some old friends and make some new ones.

I am not going to be religious about producing content, but I hope to be regular. And entertaining. And, I hope to see you around!