Happy Birthday, Randy!

Randy Bachman of BTO and Guess Who fame is 68 years young today!  Those of us who are regulars on his "Vinyl Tap" website have posted birthday greetings, which I'm sure he has read.  He's a busy guy and doesn't post very often to his website.  He's out with Fred Turner this week touring Canada, and no doubt has already penned some tunes to what we hope will be a new Bachman & Turner CD.

I'm going to post YouTube link to two songs that he released on his 1978 solo album Survivor.  The first song is the leadoff track, "Just a Kid", where he is reminiscing about his then 34 years on the planet.  The second song is "One Hand Clapping", with a guest appearance on piano by Burton Cummings of Guess Who fame.

These are the best two tracks on the album, and I think, way ahead of the others on that album.

Here ya go!  You'll have to hit the "back" button if you want to come back to this blog........!

Just A Kid

One Hand Clapping

I hope you enjoy these songs as much as I do!

* * * * * * *

OK, so where have I been?  What have I been up to?

I've been a busy guy too.  I have seen some long hours on the job these past few weeks as I am split between two different projects that reside within the same product line.  One project is going to take me until January to complete, as that I am responsible for three tasks within it, and I may have to take on two additional tasks.

Another project has short term tasks, and there are a lot of those kinds of fires to put out.  I frequently think that these are two full time jobs that I am doing, but as it is I have to be innovative in keeping the "Must Get Done" list down to a manageable level.  That assignment came close to having me in Amsterdam this week but someone else got drafted to put out that fire, and I am here in Tucson putting one of his fires that he couldn't get to.

It's frantic, it's busy, it's a snake ranch, but I'm having fun.  With that and the classes I am taking on Thursday nights I don't have very much in the way of spare time.

Eventually I will have to figure out how to get my social life going again, but that's on hold for the time being.

I think I'm also going to have to call up Todd and go rabbit hunting before long, now that the monsoon season is showing signs of winding down.

* * * * * * *

Yep, monsoon season is winding down.  Or is it?  We're usually done by mid-September, but we had some sprinkles this afternoon.

Two Thursdays ago we really had a pounding in the afternoon.  Session Number One started around 1:00 PM, and brought us half inch size hail along with the bullet rain.  I've seen quarter inch hail before on occasion here, but this one, well we got some bigger stones.  Then it ended and I thought we were done.

Session Number Two then kicked up around 2:00.  We had bullet rain like we did with the first round, but we got hail again!  This time they were quarter-inchers.  It was something, but we weren't done yet.

Session Number Three kicked in around 3:15.  More bullet rain, and more hail!  Three hailstorms in one afternoon!  These were quarter-inchers as well.

I had never seen hail twice in one day before here, let alone three times.  I ended up leaving work at 4:00 when it subsided but had trouble getting home as that half the roads near where I work were closed due to flooding.

After that I thought it was the season finale, but as I said, we had sprinkles today, and we may have a few more of those before we're all said and done.

* * * * * * 

I think I'm done here for tonight.  Just two more thoughts.

One.....don't forget to pet a dog or a cat.  It will do you more good than it does the dog or cat, although the dog or cat will think otherwise.

Two.....don't do anything to make the fire department come after you.

Good night!

It's been a busy month.....

I've got some catching up to do.  In some ways it seems like there really isn't a whole lot to report but in other ways there are.  I have started down that path that my own burning bush called me to do, and although I started with a sense of trepidation and wondering if I was really doing the right thing or was even up to it in the first place, I find myself glad to have started this.  I have a sense of peace and well-being about it that I can't describe.

I won't get any more specific about this.  It's an interesting situation and I'll leave it at that.

* * * * * * *

Things on the work front are also turning out to be interesting.  It took a few weeks to settle in to this new assignment and to feel comfortable at it, but I find that I am enjoying it a great deal more than I thought I would.  I'm not used to a project being run in the way that this one is.  No, that is not a reflection of management, it's instead the nature of the project itself that has it set up this way.

I can honestly say that I've been blessed with a great selection of co-workers.

It's one thing to have a job.

It's another thing to have a job where you enjoy having the right people on the team.

* * * * * * *

I am still slowly going thru that box of nickels that I bought back in early June.  I'm not even at the halfway point.  So far, two of the sought-after 2009D nickels have turned up.  I hope to get lucky and score several more.  

* * * * * * *

Speaking of coins, I have an amusing anecdote to pass along.

I purchased some $80 worth of half dollars at one of the Wells Fargo branches here.  No, I didn't score any silver (I hardly ever do), but no big deal.  I like spending them, and I also sell several of them to a manager at one of the Quik Trips here in Tucson (he also buys $2 bills off of me).

Anyway, I forgot to sell him my half dollars my last time there, but again, no big deal.  They're legal tender, and can be used as such as long as a vending machine isn't involved.  I was on my way to the swap meet to visit a longtime friend of mine who owns a business there, and I decided to stop off at a Chevron nearby to get a cold soda.

I decided to ditch two of these half dollars in the transaction, along with other change.  The young lady behind the counter stared at the half dollars for a second, and then asked me, "are these the fifty cent quarters?"

I said yes, and left it at that.

I figured that would take a lot less time than in correcting her as what the coins really were, and how many of them it would take to make a dollar.

* * * * * * *

At the swap meet, my friend Mercury showed me a counterfeit ten dollar bill that had been passed in his store the night before.  A lady had come in before closing, the lights were turned off, and she used this in her purchase.  It wasn't after she was long gone that Mercury and his wife Michelle had learned that they had been stuck with a counterfeit.

The bill almost fooled me; it was that well done.  It was colorized like the real latest issue ten dollar bills are.  However, there was nothing in the watermark area, and the microprinting was a bit fuzzy.  Also, the back was  a bit fuzzy if you looked close up at it.

It's probably no surprise to the Secret Service that the counterfeiters are keeping up with technology.  I have seen fake bills before, and this one was one of the best.

* * * * * * *

That's all I have for this evening.  Have a safe Labor Day weekend!

Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat!

Happy Birthday Blair Thornton!

Blair Thornton, gutiarist for Bachman-Turner Overdrive is 61 years old today.  I suspect that he still looks 20+ years younger than he is.  I've met him on a few occasions and is approachable.  However, he was never one to seek the spotlight during his time with BTO and we know very little about him.

We do know that he still lives in the same neighborhood in west Vancouver where he grew up.  He's an avid golfer, and I'd guess that he's a fixture on one of the golf courses in the Vancouver area.  His guitars of choice in the 70s were the Gibson models, particularly the SG and the Les Pauls.  Later on he switched to a customized Fender Strat.  When I asked him why he switched, he told me that the Gibsons weren't holding up on the road as well as he would have liked, and that he had a couple of them break on him.  He then went into a detailed technical description of the how he had his Strat customized.

Any BTO fan will readily acknowledge that he's one of the top guitarists, and I can personally attest to that.  One time when he was playing in Tucson, he was ripping out the solo for the song "Gimme Your Money Please" and he broke a string.  He never broke stride, he stayed true to that solo (which I'd seen him do before) and did NOT miss a note.  It was like he didn't need that string after all.  After the song guitarist Randy Murray loaned him one of his guitars, and Randy played his backup while Blair did the next song with Randy's #1 guitar.  Then with the song after that, one of the techs handed back Blair the strat with the string replaced.

One other anecdote is worthy of passing along.

After a show that they did in Las Vegas, I was hanging around the band after their "meet and greet".  They were delighted that three of us had come all the way up from Tucson to see them, and we were invited to stay and chat with them a while.  I was telling Blair that a song that he co-wrote, "Four Wheel Drive", was the first song that I played in my truck when I got my CD player put in....after all, it's a 4WD truck and I felt that no other song could be the first one played in it.

He liked hearing that, and as we were conversing a drunken fan then came up to us.

This drunken fan had mistaken *me* for a member of BTO!  He started shaking my hand, telling me that I had played really well that night, and that he had followed us for a long time.  Ole Blair went right along with that, saying "Oh yeah.....I haven't heard him play that good for several years now.  He hasn't played that well since 1997".  The fan thanked me again, and left, and probably was bragging to his friends the next day that he had gotten to shake hands with one of the guitarists from Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

So......can I say that for a brief moment, that I was a member of BTO?

Happy Birthday, Blair!  And thanks for memories that will last me a lifetime!

Here's a YouTube video of "Four Wheel Drive", live in 2004.  Blair's the one with the sunglasses.

Four Wheel Drive

Some catching up to do.......

Life had been something of a whirlwind during the first ten days of this month.  When things slowed down I did some much-needed goofing off, or maybe I should say that I decided that I needed some "down" time.  Well, I've had my down time, but I am behind in my emails and there are a few folks out there who I need to call.  I also realized that I needed to catch up here, so I'm here.

Let's get started.

* * * * * * *

I was not the only one who came across the burning bush last month.  After seeking out some counsel and asking lots of questions, I decided to respond to the call.  What this means is that I am going to be giving up some free time, but I feel that the need that I'm being asked to fill is important.  And, I'm not going in this alone.  Ten of us are getting involved and we'll be helping some people out, behind the scenes, who need the help.

That's all I'm going to say for now on this.

* * * * * * *

Things are changing for me at work.  When I returned to work after an extended weekend from the Fourth, well, I was made aware that things were going to change soon.  All I can say is that another project pulled some strings, and I was more or less encouraged to take this new assignment.

No, I'm in no way bitter about this.  It's just the nature of the business.

And seeing as how this is about work, that's all I'm going to say for now on this one as well.

* * * * * * *

Here at home, I've been experimenting a lot with the barbecue.  I had a pair of hamburgers for the evening meal, but this time I did them differently.

I had them rubbed down with olive oil (that's now a standard procedure here), and after the olive oil I sprinkled some Thai seasoning on them.  I then cooked them as I usually do, but in the final five minutes of cooking I put some Thai chili paste on them.

I was really pleased with how they turned out!  The side effect that I may suffer from later on could come in the form of some absurd dreams or possibly nightmares.  We'll see.

I do know from an experience several years ago that spicy Montreal steak seasoning on hamburgers will give you nightmares!  Back when I was in the townhouse I made generous use of that seasoning; going on to blacken those burgers like I was some sort Cajun cook.

They were tasty, but later on that night I paid for it.

I still use McCormick's spicy Montreal steak seasoning in cooking, but not like that anymore.

By the way, I did some research on that Montreal steak seasoning.

People in Montreal didn't come up with it.

Instead, someone at McCormick came up with a blend of spices, and since they wanted to sell a lot of it, they called it Montreal seasoning.  There's more than one variety of Montreal seasoning that you can get, and I'm partial to their spicy steak seasoning.  It does go good on a ribeye, and on hamburgers if you don't overdo it.

* * * * * *

I need to catch up on some other things here, so I'm going to sign.

Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat!

Is that a burning bush in front of me?

Yesterday I was approached by someone whose wisdom and counsel that I have respected for many years.  He asked me to consider volunteering for something specific that I will not pass along at this time.  I will not identify this individual; I will confirm that he was a great member of my support network when I was struggling with those dark days earlier this year from February thru early April.

His approaching me reminded me of one of the early Bible stories that I learned when I was a child.  That story concerns Moses, when he went to investigate a burning bush that would not burn up.  It was a strange sight, and his going over to it set in course a chain of events that would affect the lives of the people from which he came.  God told Moses to return to Egypt, and to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt.

Let's stop for a moment and consider a few things.

Moses was brought up in the court of Pharaoh, and had a position of power within Egypt.  He was enjoying the good life, until one day he saw an Egyptian mistreating a Hebrew, and Moses killed the Egyptian and hid the body in the sand.  Moses had committed an act of murder.  He had killed someone.

Once Moses learned that his crime was known to others, he became a fugitive.  I re-read the account in Exodus earlier this evening and what Moses did was not only known to two Hebrews who were arguing, Pharaoh knew about it too.  Pharoah, or rather, the person was then Pharoah, wanted to kill Moses.  We can infer from this that murder was a capital offense in Egypt at the time, and Moses knew what the punishment was.  He didn't run at first, thinking that maybe he had gotten away with it.  He fled once he became aware that he was a wanted man.  The crime of murder angers a lot of people today, as it did back then.  Moses went on the lam, and entered into fugitive flight.  He found a new life in Midian, married, and started raising a family.  We don't know if he struggled with guilt for all those years, but we do know that when God told Moses to return to Egypt, that God later assured Moses, after he agreed to go back, that those who wanted to kill him were dead.

Anyway, being approached yesterday, for some reason, reminded me of this story.  To be quite honest, I feel that I am more qualified to be the recipient of the help that I'm being asked to give.  No, I am not a fugitive in any criminal sense, but I am feeling the need of wanting the events from February/March/early April to be behind me once and for all.  I have the sense that I am healing from this, and that it will be easier to recover from the adverse circumstances that preceded my arrival in Arizona.

Yes, I am reluctant to say yes to this.  For one, I wasn't sure if I really had a future in Tucson.  I even went so far as to approach hiring managers in Colorado, and the one position that I phone-interviewed for won't be offered to me until October, if at all, and as I write this I do have something lined up here in Tucson that begins in October.  I guess I can infer that the Good Lord is going to keep me here in Tucson, even if the circumstances right now are not as good as they were two years ago.

Secondly, this isn't something I can say yes to right away.  My present assignment has with it a need to put in some long hours at times.  The effort that I am supporting is damned important to my employer and it's something that I'm actually enjoying being a part of.  I plan to ride this train until its course is run, and my gut is telling me it's going to be a few more weeks.  After that, I can return to a previous assignment as that last Friday my old supervisor told me he wanted me back and to give him a call once I'm done doing what I'm doing right now.  I said that I would like to take a vacation between jobs and he has no problem with that.

Third, the individual who approached me is well familiar with my current situation, and he knows that I can't give an answer right away.  I personally think that I'm going to need three weeks to mull this over, and to assess if I have the amount of time availalbe for this.

But it is funny in a way, of how this emerged yesterday.

One question that I have asked myself a lot lately is, have I made a difference?  I mean, I came to Arizona in early 1999, knowing it was what I had to do at the time, but not sure if I understood in the 100% sense of why I was being brought to Arizona.  Those close friends who I have shared this with, and this includes the person who approached me, have told me that I have indeed made a difference.   I mean, I'm sure that I have in some ways, but did I make a difference as to where it really counted?  Should I even know if I have?

A few other observations.

I have survived an armed robbery, an earthquake with fatalities, one traffic accident, and a front wheel coming off at 70 miles per hour.

By all rights I shouldn't even be here.

I have also had two biopsies for cancer, the most recent one being last month.  Both came back negative.  For some reason I am still here.  I sometimes ask myself why.

I mean, what is there left for me to do?

I've gotten to meet the members of Bachman-Turner Overdrive and April Wine, who are among the people that I most wanted to meet.  I've walked where Caesar once walked and I've had one night in a luxury suite at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.

And more importantly, I have been blessed with the greatest collection of family and friends that anyone could ever hope to have.

What is there left for me to do?

I was thinking about this as recently as a few days ago, and before that I was wondering if maybe I shouldn't be taking up some volunteer work of some kind.  I went so far as to explore one local charity, only to discover that I could not make the type of time/talent commitment that they were looking for.  I was giving some thought to something else, but then shelved that too as I returned to that one question about what's there that's left for me to do.

I'm sure that there are some things left to do while I'm still kicking.  Even before yesterday, I was soul-searching about some other things on my mind, and trying to figure out what's ahead, as if I can really do that.

Now I've been approached, and that has now entered the mix of what's on my mind.  And in the process, I am thinking about that strange sight that Moses once saw, and wondering........

......is that a burning bush that's in front of me?

Beef Ribs! Yeah!

Temperatures in Tucson have broken the triple digit barrier.  One weather forecast said this would happen by Memorial Day and another had it yesterday or maybe it was today.  Anyway, it's hot out, and I'm not hanging out in the man cave (the garage, that is) as much as I used to.

I am making some more frequent use of the BBQ grill.  Safeway keeps having beef ribs marked down, and I keep buying them.  I think this is going to be the fifth consecutive Sunday where I've had them on the grill.  Thing of it is, is that the ribs have been previously frozen, so re-freezing them really isn't an option.  So what do you do?

If you live in Tucson, you fire up the grill.

* * * * * * *

One advantage to living in southern Arizona is that you can fire up the grill at practically any time of year that you want to.  I don't view barbecuing as a summer activity, so to speak.  If I feel like firing it up on Christmas Day, then I'll fire it up on Christmas Day.

That must run in the family.  I've seen my dad fire up the grill on Christmas Day.  Hey, why not?  Who says a Christmas dinner has to be turkey?  Why can't it be ribs, or salmon, or tri-tip?

* * * * * * *

My beef ribs recipe evolved over several years, and I think it's still evolving.  There was a period of time ten years ago when I was "done" with the recipe.  I would season the things overnight with a rub recipe that I stole from the Weber website.  They called it a Kansas City rub.  I don't think it was a true Kansas City rub as that other KC rub mixes call for brown sugar and this one didn't.

However, the Weber KC rub was mighty tasty!  A friend of mine from Texas who so much liked the way I did beef ribs once offered to buy them for me if I would just only cook them.  That's a real compliment when you stop to think about it.  I think when a Texas native compliments you on your BBQ skills, that's just as good as a manager in a Japanese company telling you in a written letter that the test procedure you sent his company was "completely correct and easy to follow".  I still have that letter, and I should fish it out sometime and frame it.

* * * * * * *

Getting back to beef ribs, one change I made was in the cooking time.  I used to slow-cook them for ninety minutes but I recently changed that to two hours.  I have not noticed any change to them except that the meat is more tender.

Also, I've been using maple chips for smoking.  I very much believe in the use of smoking chips whenever I'm slow-cooking something.  In the past I've used hickory, mesquite, applewood, or a random combination of two woods.  I've soaked them in cheap red wine for two hours, and every twenty minutes while the ribs were cooking I'd chuck some of those chips onto the coals and then put the lid to my Weber kettle back on.

Then a few moments later, that smoke starts coming out of the top vent.  It smells good.  It smells really good.

It's probably not legal for something to smell that good.

* * * * * * *

I recently discovered somewhere, and I can't remember where, some maple chips.  Maple?  Hey, what the hey.  Maple's used for curing bacon.  Why not ribs?

I didn't want to mask the flavor so I used water instead of wine for the maple chips.  I was pleased with the results too.  That was "recipe" for what I was soaking the chips in, but one week later that changed too.

I had had, for over twenty years, this 1.75 liter bottle of dark Bacardi rum.  It had been taking up space for all this time, and the problem, or maybe it's not a problem, is that I wasn't drinking it.  I mean, I might have a shot of tequila if it's a premium reposado, but Bacardi is not tequila and I don't think it was intended for shots in the first place.

So, what to do?

I started soaking my chips in a mixture of water and Bacardi.  I liked the results!  The smell that the Bacardi imparted to the chips while they were soaking is probably also not legal.

* * * * * * *

That bottle of Bacardi was finally emptied last week, and was carried off for recycling shortly thereafter.

Now I don't have any rum.

Should I now pick up a bottle of Myers spiced rum?  Or should I pick up some Captain Morgan?

If I pick up the Captain Morgan, then I'm going to have to hold one of my legs at an angle  If someone sees me doing that, they might think that I'm weird.  I might be weird for all that I know, but I don't think I should go out in public and confirm that for anyone.

Well.....Todd knows about rum.  He knows how to make some killer drinks.  I think he's using some premium brand of rum that I never heard of before.  Whatever it is, it's great stuff.

My problem is, is that I'm not one to consume rum on a regular basis.  I might remember on New Year's Eve to make myself a Cuba Libre, but even then I don't always remember to make one on New Year's Eve.

I'll hold off on buying some rum for now.

I do know that I won't get a 1.75 liter bottle of it next time.

I might not live long enough to see it emptied, and I might get to the grave a little early if I do try to empty it quickly.

* * * * * * *

Getting this back to beef ribs, and to smoking chips, but not leaving the topic of spirits, did you know that Jack Daniels is in the smoking chip business too?

I have two bags of JD chips, from oak barrels that they used to age their whiskey in.  Some barrels get shipped off to Scotland where one of the distilleries uses them to age their whiskey.  (Or is that "whisky" in Scotland?).  Other barrels get chopped up and sold to BBQ enthusiasts such as myself.

If you're going to use the JD chips, you absolutely postively should never soak them in wine.  I don't think soaking them in wine is legal, and if it isn't illegal then it should be.

Soak them in water.  You don't want to mask that smoky flavor that it will impart to the meat that you're cooking.

If you don't believe me, then use these JD chips on a tri-tip sometime.  It'll be a tri-tip that you'll remmeber.

Ask Ken & Gillian and their children.

I'll bet that they remember that tri-tip I made for them a few years back when they were down here!

* * * * * * *

I forgot to mention that whenever you're slow-cooking ribs on the grill, you should have a drip pan underneath them.  This drip pan should have some cheap beer poured into it.  The beer will steam the meat, and impart some flavor to it.  Try this sometime.

DO NOT USE a premium imported beer for this!  Use some Budweiser instead.

The Budweiser folks will not be insulted by using Budweiser for cooking.  They don't care what you use Bud for.

But if you're going to use Moosehead or some microbrew for cooking, then you've either got more money than you have sense. or you probably shouldn't be allowed to play with matches even if you're going to use those matches on charcoal briquets.

* * * * * * *

I just realized that I should point out that what I've told you about cooking beef ribs assumes that you're using charcoal like I do.

I have nothing against gas grills; you can get some good steaks or burgers off of those.

But me, I'm a purist when it comes to BBQ, and it ain't BBQ if you ain't using charcoal.

* * * * * * *

Is it legal for me to use the word "ain't"?

Dang if I know.  Ain't like I'm going to care much about it anyway.

* * * * * * *

Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat!

An Old Memory, and Other Odds and Ends

Back when I was in elementary school in the 4th grade, in Titusville Florida, I had a morning teacher and I had an afternoon teacher.  The morning teacher was Mrs. Tague and the afternoon teacher was Mrs. Allen.  I don't know why it was set up that way but it was.  I can't remember what each one of them taught aside from Mrs. Allen teaching English.

All classes were in a portable building.  Oak Park Elementary School was a bit on the overcrowded side.  Titusville's population had boomed from 6000 to 29000, largely due to the space program at Cape Canaveral.  My dad worked on the Apollo program as did several other fathers, and Brevard County had to build new schools to accommodate what was then a growing population.  Oak Park Elementary School was a recent construction; Madison Junior High School was built right next to it and it too was a little on the packed side.  In Madison's first year they had to take in the sixth graders; the year before that Titusville High School was so packed that they had a morning session for one group of students and an afternoon session for another.

Anyway, for some reason I got to thinking about this one song from that time period.  Mrs. Tague taught PE (Physical Education, that is) in the afternoons and on most afternoons there was a record player going round and round and this one song that I remembered was played a lot.  My thinking was that it went "Mary Mary, quite contrary" and it had a real catchy hook to it carried by the bass line.  The girls enjoyed dancing to that one.  I would look up from my desk in Mrs. Allen's class and see that, and wonder why Mrs. Tague's afternoon class was out there having fun while I was in this portable having to do other stuff.

Well, for some reason, I got to thinking about that song a few months back.  A Google search failed to turn up who did that song.  I would think about it every now and then.....for some reason that hook must have really grabbed on to me.

While driving back from Todd's house this morning (I went up there yesterday and stayed the night) I got to thinking about that song again.  Who could that have been by?  I got to thinking it must have been done by the Monkees.  They were really big on TV back then, it seemed as if all my classmates watched that, while me, my favorite TV show was "The Invaders".

Anyway, once I got back home, I decided to do a YouTube search on that.  First I brought up Michael Nesmith's "Cruisin'"......that one had a catchy hook to it too.  A search of Wickedpedia (can't resist calling it that sometimes!) brought up that Mr. Nesmith wrote some songs for the Monkees in an effort to be taken seriously as artists.  And then I tried a YouTube search on that "Mary" song.

For the first time since 1968, I listened to it!  Another childhood memory!  This time around, I learned how the memory distorts things after a few decades.  I thought that bass line was really heavy, but it wasn't.  Also, the song didn't say "Mary Mary, quite contrary".  It instead said "Mary Mary, where you goin' to?".  As I was listening to it for the first time in 40+ years, I'm thinking, is one of those verses going to say "quite contrary"?

Nope.  That never came up.

I also seemed to remember that the music would stop during that song, and then start up again.  It didn't do that either.  OK, if I had been the record producer back then I might have had the band do it that way, but that's not how it happened.  I always thought it would be neat to be a record producer and I think being a record producer would be a better job than being an engineer, but those weren't the cards that I drew.

But getting back to that song, I've found myself re-listening to it some more.  It apparently wasn't the best known song by the Monkees; two more got way ahead of that one in terms of public recognition.  Still, I think it's a good song, very 60ish, and I still like that hook!

The link below has this song.  If you wish to listen to it, click on hit, but if you want to come  back to this blog you'll have to hit the "back" button unless you have a creative way of opening up a new tab or a window.

Mary, Mary

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I wanted to post last weekend about Harold Camping's rapture prediction.  No, I didn't think for one minute that there would be a rapture, though I couldn't resist jokingly posting a comment on one forum that "Harold Camping seems to have disappeared".

This isn't the first time that Dr. Camping has made a rapture prediction.  Back in 1994, he said it would happen that year, and when it didn't he became aware of a "math error" that he had made.  When it didn't happen last weekend, I read conflicting posts on what he had to say about it not happening, but my understanding is that Judgement Day is now on for the 21st of October.

Anyway, what I would have said is that Harold Camping, for as many years as he's studied the Bible, should know better about making these kinds of predictions.  Christ himself told us that He didn't know, and neither did the angels of heaven.  So what can Harold Camping know that Christ can't?

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Yep, I drove up to see Todd, Annette and Amber yesterday.  It was a good visit as always, and Annette continues to display her talented culinary skills.  As long as I've known Annette I've known her to be a great cook, in addition to being intelligent.

This morning we were chatting on the back patio.  She told me that I've changed, and for the better.  That was an interesting comment, and I think she's right that I changed.  For the better?  I would hope so.

I didn't ask her just how recent this change was, but it must have been over the past year and a half.  I have noticed that I don't get as stressed out about traffic and left lane hogs like I used to.  At least, I haven't recently opined to anyone that left lane hogs should be beaten as I've been known to do in the past.

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I'm going to call it a post right now.  I really thought I was going to write more but I feel the urge to take care of a few other things.  I'm going to have to fire up the BBQ grill before too long; beef ribs were prepped a few hours ago and I'm going to give these guys two hours of cooking time.

Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat.