"Son, You Have No Business Traveling That Fast"

"When the wind blows and the rain feels cold
With a head full of snow,
With a head full of snow.
In the window there's a face you know.
Don't the nights pass slow.
Don't the nights pass slow."

“The sound of strangers sending nothing to my mind,
Just another mad, mad day on the road.
I am just living to be lying by your side,
But I'm just about a moonlight mile on down the road”

-“Moonlight Mile” Sticky Fingers album, written by M. Jagger and K. Richards

For those of you who don’t know, that would be the Rolling Stones. This probably is my favorite song they recorded. I first heard it during the opening credits of the Sopranos’ episode “Cold Stones” of season six. Carlo Gervasi, the cook at Satriale’s was chopping up Fat Dom’s body to get rid of it. But, this somber selection from the Stones’ 1971 release, “Sticky Fingers,” takes us to a somber place with an air of regret, if you will, for this event. Repercussions will be felt. It is just a matter of time.

Okay, I really don’t have a whole lot going on right now. I thought I would just give you a short update. My buddy Dug-E-Fresh came to town this past weekend. It was really good to be able to hang out with him. Fortunately, Dug is moving into town to work at the new Lowe’s on Sir Barton, so we spent Saturday afternoon finding him an apartment and a pretty swank one at that. The Summit behind Brighton Place is where Dug will have his new Digs. Ha. Ha. Dig Dug.

I get to spend this evening in the nice confines of the Ramada Inn Convention Center on Paris Pike for traffic school. This will be such great fun. I can hardly wait to learn about the importance of safe driving and how my irresponsible driving affects others. I bet you want to go with me, huh? Ah, well. Off to school I go. Hey Joel, maybe I will see Wild Will from D & K Healthcare over there.

Check out that Stones’ song. I bet you add it to your playlist.
P.S. This is my 50th post anniversary! Hooray.

Why Do I Even Bother? You Hate It. I Know.

“Don't pull your love out on me, baby
If you do then I think that maybe
I'll just lay me down and cry for a hundred years.
Don't pull your love out on me, honey.
Take my heart, my soul, my money,
But don't leave me drownin' in my tears.”
-“Don’t Pull Your Love Out” by Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds

I’m sorry for the rash of song lyrics. I hope you like them. There is a little story behind each one. As for this one, the story goes like this…

I was on my way to work Monday morning and I was listening to 105.5 FM. They play a lot of what I like to call AM Gold, usually a good mix of pop songs from the late 60’s and early 70’s. This song came on the radio. I guess I wasn’t really listening to the disc jockey that much and I missed the name of the song and the artist(or artists in this case). I was really grooving to this jam by the second chorus. This really isn’t a hard song to learn. When the song was over, I was racking my brain to figure the enigma of this song. “Who wrote it? Who was performing it? What is that smell coming from Martek?” No wait…scratch that last question, not important.

When I got to work, I was really busy, as my partner in crime, Toad, was out on vacation and I had to pull his slack. I forgot about my quest. The next morning I remembered I had meant to find out about the song. So, off I went to my official music guru, J. Way. He named of a couple of names that it possibly could have been, like Seals and Croft or Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. After a little searching, we came across the name Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds. J. Way said, “That’s it!” And sure enough, we were rocking to “Don’t Pull Your Love Out” in a matter of seconds.

From there, we went on a tear listening to similar stuff from 60’s and 70’s sampling Bread, Orleans, Doobie Brothers, England Dan and John Ford Coley. and America. Good timing jams. Then, I remembered I was at work and more important, I had work that I needed to review. My train ride aboard the Groove Express on the tracks to Funkytown had been derailed. Bummer, dude!

This news is just in from across the pond. No, not the Island Pond. Zinedine Zidane will don a mask and become a luchadore on Lucha Libres. His finisher move will be the “Don’t Talk Smack About My Mama When You Are Not Looking-Head Butt”. Ba-Dum-Chhhhh! (snare and high-hat) Sorry, that's all I've got. Out.

Over The Hills and Far Away

“Cause we’ve never seen Honky Tonk ladies,
That look as good as those sisters do.
I heard they like to party.
Well, so do you and I.
So let’s lay a little bit of that brotherly love
On those sisters tonight.”
--"Brotherly Love" by Gary Stewart and Dean Dillon

These are some fine lyrics from one of my favorite CDs, the Essential Gary Stewart. There are so many songs on this album that could easily bring you to tears, under the right circumstances, of course. There are also killer, good-timing songs that make you want to sit in your garage and knock back roasin’ ears until the wee hours of the morning. Yea, Boy! (Not to be confused with a YEAH, BOYEEE!)

The weekend vacation to the heart of West Virginia with the in-laws was very interesting. There were some breathtaking sights such as the New River Gorge. There were also sight-taking breaths such as the riding stables at Babcock State Park. Eeech! The New River Gorge was something else. We stopped first to check out the view of the gorge at Hawks Nest State Park. The views from the lookouts are indescribable. We could see the New River Bridge far off in the distance. The bridge is tall enough to fit the George Washington Monument and two Statues of Liberty between New River and the bottom of the bridge.

Next, we took the tram down to the river for a jet boat ride up New River to the New River Bridge, the longest steel-arch bridge in the western hemisphere. This was really fresh as the water was getting pretty rough towards the bridge. An unfortunate kayaker was having a rough go at it somewhere upstream as we passed by a kayak paddle floating on its own on the way up the river. The boat captain smelled bad and I got to sit right behind him. He kept on mentioning he was out of jail on work release. Say it with me, “GREEAAAT!”

We checked out one of the crappiest parades I have ever seen in Fayetteville. It lasted about five minutes and was comprised mostly of bicycle riders. Not professional bicycle riders, just kids. No wheelies. No endos. No bunny hops. Disappointing, eh?

The next day, we visited Babcock State Park. This is where the famous Glade Creek Grist Mill is located. It really is a picturesque scene and would be the bomb in the fall. That evening, we went to the visitor’s center on the east end of the New River Bridge. There were a couple of great lookouts there. From there, we traveled the old road that winds down to the river. This took about a while, but it was quite worth it to look up to the bridge from the river. Yes, it is safe to assume I saw the bridge from every available angle.

On Monday, we visited Tamarack. Tamarack is a showcase for West Virginia artists and goods manufacturers. The paintings and sculptures were quite exquisite and intrinsically expensive. This was worth seeing nonetheless. After Tamarack, it was back to St. Albans. Beth and I met up with her friends, Jennifer and Chris, at the Fifth Quarter downtown in Charleston. We hung out on the patio waiting for the fireworks to start. Unfortunately, a pop-up thunderstorm ruined that. We stood under the awning of the restaurant waiting for the rain to stop. In the meantime, we were made privy to a wet t-shirt contest of the all the folks who had walked down to the boulevard to watch the fireworks and were caught in the rain. Some were nice, but most were…well, not so much. C’mon guys, you have to take the good with the bad.

It’s good to be back in the Bluegrass, despite having to work Thursday and today. I’ll remedy that this evening with some liquid cure-all and some brats on the grill. Tomorrow, I am grilling up a beer can chicken. Get on over to the Pond and get a leg.