MUSIC

More musical things! I've heard the sentence: "Music soothes the savage beast". Here is the actual quotation, taken from http://www.phrases.org.uk/. It was written in 1697 by William Congreve in "The Mourning Bride".

"Musick has Charms to soothe a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.
I've read, that things inanimate have mov'd,
And, as with living Souls, have been inform'd,
By Magick Numbers and persuasive Sound ..."

RADIO

I started listening to WMNF, Tampa, shortly after it went on the air. I eventually became a volunteer DJ there, doing a 2-hour bluegrass show once a week for about 13 years. Occasionally I filled in on other shows. Thanks to my exposure on WMNF, I was one of the emcees at several bluegrass festivals and one folk festival. I got to meet Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, et al. I went to a lot of jam sessions, and did some pickin' & singin' with little pickup groups playing coffee houses, county fairs, and even the state fair. We didn't get paid, but did get passes and meals. I played autoharp, rhythm guitar, sang harmony, occasionally sang lead, and usually tossed in some comedy. I loved it! not the exposure per se, but simply the fact that it was so much fun and such a stress-reliever! Shortly after moving back here in 1996, I landed a 2-hour Saturday spot on an old AM station, which had been a top-40 station when I was a teen. At the time, it was in the throes of death. Here's a picture of me at the controls of WMNF in 1993. I had sun-burned lips, a "Far Side" T-shirt ("Know Your Insects"), and was holding the "Will the Circle Be Unbroken II" CD set. Do I miss all that? The music at the New Year's Eve party made me realize just how much! Playing and singing at home alone just is not the same!

BORING WEATHER!

If all anyone has to talk about is the weather, then they must have a pretty boring life. Today I have a boring life! Wednesday, though cold, was gorgeous, with cloudless blue skies. Yesterday, we had snow forecast. I know this is nothing to you in the North, but we rarely have snow and ice so we are never prepared. I made it to work and stayed my 8 hours. Luckily I have a driver so made it home fine. The driveway was a bit icy, the steps WERE iced, but by walking on the grass, using my cane, being careful, I made it. Temperature never got above freezing. We had sleet and some snow. Three ladies in the office left at noon, another left at 4. The boss left about 4 to go home to get some sleep, knowing he'd be out all night. Our crew was out all day and would be out last night, putting de-icer on the roads. One of the men not on the crew was going to stay all night to answer the phones. The governor sent word about 3:30 that state offices would not open until 10 today. It was too late for me to reschedule my morning bus so I would've had to leave home as usual about 6 a.m. I planned to go to work today but the thermometer on my porch showed 10 degrees at 5 a.m., and with 15 mph North winds, the wind chill brought it to about 5 below 0! I called dispatch and canceled my buses for today. Just too risky navigating my front steps and the driveway. Maybe I could have sat in a cardboard box and SLID down the driveway to the street! I lived in metro Tampa, Florida about 30 years. You know where I'd like to be right now! Stay warm, y'all!

OFF WORK

Because Mobile and Baldwin Counties get a Mardi Gras holiday (Mobile, not New Orleans, has the oldest Mardi Gras celebrations), state employees in other counties can take one personal day. I took mine today. My cousin came from Arab, AL, to take Mother to the eye doctor, so we three spent the day. Dr. Mark Bearman at Vision First (www.visionfirst.info/) is the first ophthalmologist I saw on December 18, 1998 after my left retina imploded on December 15. I went back with Mother to speak to him for a minute, and of course got a hug. Afterwards, Joyce, Mother, and I went to Cracker Barrel for a late lunch, in part using a gift certificate that Angela, an on-line friend who's a Christian in Dublin, Ireland, had sent me. Mother's 92 and mentally still sharp. She got in a couple of zingers today! She may be old, but mentally she is not slow! We had a great time! I was gone from home from about 11:30 until about 6:30!

AUTOHARPIN' on NEW YEAR's EVE

One lady at the New Year's Eve party

had the good sense to take her camera. Here's one of me, which she had labeled "Mama Maybelle". When I get permission from the others to post their picture, I will add to this.

ON the ZEPHYR

Reading author Henry Kisor's blogs today reminded me not only of his books, especially his story of riding Amtrak's "Zephyr", but of the trips a friend and I (we met at church August, 1959) made on Amtrak when I was off work due to 15 eye operations. The longest trip we made was to California - round trip about 9,000 miles. He had a broken foot and I had my white cane. We left here Nov. 6, 2004 and got back Nov. 25: Birmingham - Wash., DC on the "Crescent", to Chicago on the "Capital Limited", to Emeryville (Oakland area) on the "Zephyr", San Jose' - Seattle on the "Coast Starlight", to Chicago on the "Empire Builder", then to DC and home. A cousin and her husband lived near SJ and we visited them a few days (we drove to Gilroy, the "garlic capital of the world" - you can smell it in the air! I got to tour Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael [fantastic place! Glad I don't need a guide dog but glad to know such is available], and we all toured the Winchester House), spent 3 in Seattle (weather was nice, I walked to the Space Needle but didn't go up, enjoyed Pioneer Square), auxiliary engine quit in Minot, ND (20 degrees on the platform) so we limped into Chicago so late that a lot of people missed connections, thus we spent 2+ days there (weather was gorgeous and I walked a few places) at Amtrak's expense. I wrote this in about 30 minutes on Nov. 9 while on the "Zephyr", about something that happened while we were on it. I'm long overdue for another train ride.

From the dirty rail yards in the Windy City
Through the canyons cut by the rivers' run,
Beaver dams and eagles' aeries -
Snow-topped Rockies shimmering in the sun.
Folks in the middle see both ends of the train
As it esses up the mountain slopes.
There's pasture lands with cows and horses,
But what you expect to see are mountain goats!
Engines in the lead and the middle and the end -
Helper locomotives chugging "I think I can"
Make long freight trains look like a "pushmi-pullya"
Through beautiful areas of steep, rugged land.
There's one more deer who's gone to "deer heaven".
The conductor said it had a ten-point rack.
Big buck in the headlight of the Number Five train
Picked the wrong time to cross the track.
That deer caused some trouble, some disconnections.
The engineer finally brought that High Iron to a halt.
Some employees crawled under to fix the problems.
God was with 'em on that trestle with no cat walks.
The "Zephyr" flies like the breeze she's named for
Between Chicago and Emeryville.
But that wind has to stop when there's an obstruction -
When the wild life becomes "rail kill".
Feeding and caring for lots of people
For 2,000-plus miles is sometimes a pain.
God bless the engineers and all the operating crews
And the service crews on all the Amtrak trains.

12:10 a.m. JANUARY 1, 2010

Last August, I bought a ticket to the Alabama Symphony Orchestra's New Year's Eve concert at The Alabama Theater. But I learned a month ago of another NYE event. So I lost my $30 ticket, but I attended a much better one. Rather than being with 2,000 strangers, many in silk and furs, in a nose-bleed seat in a dark theater downtown from 6-8 p.m., I spent 4+ hours with casually dressed friends, in a well-lit room, with food to spare since we all took some. I got home right at midnight. Eunice & Lorene were able to be there only a few minutes. The rest? 4 men and 4 women. Harold brought his harmonica and Appalachian dulcimer. Boy! Is he good on both! I took my autoharp (mostly in tune). There were some games, though only Rook was played (Joyce, Chester, Marilyn, & Steve). Marlene was mostly cooking. Shane was looking up lyrics & such on his laptop computer. Things got quiet after Steve asked the blessing - you can't talk with your mouth full! Then we got out church song books, and sang ... and sang! I mostly sang lead so Steve could sing tenor, though he told me to take tenor on "Were You There when They Crucified My Lord?" - but I get shrill when I get high, as I'm mostly an alto. We took turns choosing a song. We sang 25 or 30 (not counting the few secular songs with dulcimer and autoharp earlier)! I wish I'd taken my tiny digital recorder! Even with my singing, I think we sounded pretty good. We closed with Steve reading the poem I just wrote, and Harold leading the closing prayer. Since I had to get up as usual at 5 a.m. to go to work on the 31st - the boss did let us leave at 3 p.m., I started fading about 10, but it's going to take awhile to come down from this "high"! What a wonderful way to start not only the new year, but any day! Thanks to God for friends!