I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
2001-12-01 - 12:24 a.m.
edited by Carey because Gordondon is a freakazoid.
I was going to say that I'm not going to write much about George dying because I'm sure everyone else would. Thing is Carey already said that. I'll actually get around to saying something about him later in context of my day.
I visited my father in the hospital right after lunch. My timing was good; the nephrologist came while I was there. It was nice to not get answers second hand. The reason they want to try dialysis is that they can't find anything else wrong with my father. There is something a bit amiss with his kidney numbers so they think it is worth a try. They are going to do a few more tests and if they still find nothing decide on trial dialysis next week. If they dialysis helps then he'd have to continue on it the rest of his life. My father took that pretty hard and I understand that. My sister Sue and I are looking at the bright side: They might have found something that can actually help him. Dialysis is inconvenient, three times a week you have to be hooked up to a machine that filters your blood. It isn't debilitating though. The rest of the time you live your life.
After talking to the doctor I decided I could visit Carey tomorrow. When I got home I called her and told her my plan. In the morning I'll visit my father than drive straight down to Maryland from there. I really need this. Part of me feels guilty of course. It helps to know that if it were myself facing a major procedure I'd make the trip without question. My body is healed now and doesn't need much attention but my psyche does. The best things to recharge my emotional batteries are volunteering at WFUV and spending quality time with special friends. Carey certainly qualifies for that.
Carey is in a needy time too of course. On first thought this might not sound like a good combination, two people who are feeling needy getting together. It is actually a great idea, at least for us. I've written a few times on the joy of helping people. It really works. There is nothing better for helping me deal with my problems than helping someone else with theirs. It works for both of us. The other day I called Carey and BadGoovie answered the phone. As soon as I mentioned my father and that I needed someone to talk to she was driven off and Carey gave me all the love and care that I needed. When I was in the hospital it made me feel good when Carey and Leah needed someone to talk to. I forgot all about my problems and felt good that I was able to help them.
We might not actually talk much about any of our problems this weekend. We might just play in the toy store, see Radiant Pig, and just act like a couple of Batnoses. That would just be lovely.
After talking to Carey I went to buy my mother a new showerhead, which I installed for her. It is of course an incredibly easy thing to do but I always feel good being handy around the house even when it doesn't involve being that handy.
Now for what I promised to write about yesterday, The Kennedys. I've learned the hard way that it pays to get to shows at the The Turning Point early. The place is tiny and the parking lot is even smaller. The seats in the back are cramped and the parking lot fills up. I left at 5:30 for a 7:30 show. Under good conditions I can make the trip in about 50 minutes. Tonight there was some traffic and I got there at 6:45. This was early enough. I got a great parking spot and the closest unreserved seat in the place.
Before the show I talked to Maura and Bruce who I had met at the last Kennedys' show. Maura and I discussed when I first saw them. I told her it was at a required listening show at the bottom line. I was trying to remember who else was on the bill; I thought it was EFO. I was wrong; the only one she could remember was Happy Rhodes. That totally clicked for me. I'm a huge Happy Rhodes fan. Happy was the act I was actually going to see; Pete and Maura were my discovery of the evening. I love talking about music with musicians. They are big fans of Happy too.
I told Maura about Lisa's project for school, she is making a folk magazine. Lisa asked me if I could hunt down images for her to use of a list of performers. On the list was the Kennedys. I asked Maura if I could have a publicity photo to scan. She looked but couldn't find one. She did something even better though. She gave me their digital camera and told me to take pictures during the show. She'd then email them to me.
The show itself was great as always. There was no opening act and they did there usual high energy set. They dedicated the night to George Harrison. See I told you he'd show up again. They also have started to do their own version of requestorama. They invited people to shout out requests; they did quite a few of them. I couldn't decide what to request, it was between The Cuckoo, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, and Hard Life by Nanci Griffith. I knew they would know that as they were in Nanci's band, the Blue Moon Orchestra. I ended up requesting nothing. They made me very happy though by playing While My Guitar Gently Weeps on their own. That is my favorite George song. It has that sad beauty that I love so much. I've read and heard plenty about George today and no one else mentioned that song. I thought that guitar people like Pete and Maura would appreciate it. At Bruce's request they did the Nields' Easy People. They sprinkled the show with Beatles songs and the audience was asked to join in with them. They ended with a medley of Beatles songs. I felt like crying a few times.
After the show I returned their camera and gave Maura my email address so she can send me the pics. I then got up enough nerve to make a suggestion to her. I hardly ever do that to musicians except for Ruth Gerson who I know really well and have socialized with away from shows. Things just clicked tonight though. The second song they did was Richard Thompson's Wall of Death. That got me thinking about seeing Richard do it with his son Teddy and how I never thought of it being done by two men before then. That lead to me to think about my idea for Batnose doing the worlds greatest song 1952 Vincent Black Lightning as a male/female duet. The song is largely a dialogue between Red Molly and James Adie so it should work great as a duet. I thought that would be perfect for the Kennedys. They are great singers and Pete is one of the only people who could cover Richard Thompson on the guitar and not be embarrassed. Maura said that it was their favorite song but that she thought it was hard to cover it, as it is so associated with RT. I told her that I had just heard a bluegrass version of it that worked and I think it would sound great by them. I mentioned seeing them with Richard Thompson at Bridgeton. She said that Richard Thompson told them that Life is Large was always in his CD player. They were of coursed thrilled. If Richard needed Horvendilepoints he'd have earned some there.
The drive home was easy and uneventful. Now I have to pack for tomorrow. It's almost 12:30 and I have to get up early so tomorrow. I think I won't wait till 2 AM like I usually do.
That's it for tonight. I probably won't update again till Sunday night unless I get up earlier than Carey on Sunday morning. I still have some things that I need to write about that I haven't been able to get to recently. I'll probably have lots of new things to write about after the weekend, I hope I remember what I want to write when I get the chance.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
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On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Horvendile 2001-12-01
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