Three Amigos

Summer is coming. Here's proof:

Where I Like It Best

Last Saturday, Bobbers and I enjoyed seeing Rickie Lee Jones in concert at Harvard University's Sanders Theatre. It's a great venue, built in 1870 as a memorial to the Harvard students who lost their lives in the Civil War. In the lobby of the building, on marble tablets, you see lists of those killed at Gettysburg, Antietam, Vicksburg...as well as every war since then.

And yet the music created there is sublime. The acoustics are fabulous and its one of our favorite places to enjoy a show. Last weekend was no different.

Rickie Lee is on tour to support her newest album, "Sermon on Exposition Boulevard," reviewed quite well by Jetison himself. A bit of my favorite song (Where I Like It Best) is below.

"How do you pray in a world like this
You know, I see the people on TV
And they close their eyes and they bow their heads
And they say "Let us pray"
And it feels so cold and meaningless
And I wanted to pray
And I said
Tell me father
Tell me mother
Heavenly mother
And they said

When you pray
Pray alone by yourself
In the secret room of your heart
Don't go out into the church filled with people and pray
God hears every secret that you say
See all those people praying on TV and the churches
They like to make a big parade out of what they're doing
They think God hears them louder if they say it
Over and over and over and over and over again

But I say, God, but I say this
You are the prayer
Your eyes are the prayer
Your hand on your cheek
You are the prayer
Those words you want to speak
They are the prayer
That dance you make
When you're by yourself
Just before your mother calls you on the phone
You are the prayer
I tell you what
You gotta take it back from them
Because the prayers belong to you
All you gotta do is say hey hey
I'm down here too, I'm down here too
I'm down here too
And I hear you in the trees
And I hear you
And I'm near you
I wonder why there's so much suffering?

I want to say thank you, thank you
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you
I wanted to say thank you, thank you
I wanted to say
I wanted to say
You are where I like it best
You are where I like it best
You are where I like it best

That's the Lords' prayer
"You are where I want to be"
So, amen, just amen
Amen, all by myself, amen, amen
I'm so lonely, just amen
And I'm rising, rising, just amen
You can look through my eyes
Hear through my hear
Look through my eyes"

Perfect lyrics for a Sunday - my own personal moment of reflection.

Running?

I've never been a runner. For far too long in my life, I've lived by the mantra, "Why run when you could walk? Why walk when you could stand still? Why stand still when you could sit?"...You get the picture.

In spite of my sedentary adulthood, as a teenager I enjoyed participating in team sports: softball and volleyball (mostly because girls weren't given any other options). While I wasn't a gifted athlete, I was a great teammate, and was often elected team captain. In fact, the summer before I entered high school I played on three softball teams simultaneously: a town team, my school team and my church team. (Yes, I did attend church once upon a time.) As soon as I learned to drive, however, sports dried up for me.

Nowadays, I regret that I never kept up an active life and I am trying to make up for it. Initially exercise started as purely a health requirement - something to do because I must. But after a couple of years, I grudgingly must admit that I feel better after a workout and sometimes even like it (especially when I swim). It's not that I do a lot...but I do at least an hour of aerobic exercise three times a week, and do a Pilates class at work during my lunch hour once a week. Along with eating more healthy food, I'm gradually turning things around in spite of my aging body.

Every once in a while, you need a dose of inspiration to keep you moving, and I got one just when I needed it. Last week I was walking at a pretty good clip around the track when I noticed a woman running ahead of me. She wasn't young - I would guess late 60's, early 70s. But, she was running. *gulp*

It made me think: will I ever run again? Can I even run? I thought how sad it would be if I started to stop doing things. What other experiences have I given up, I wondered? And isn't it time to double-check that I'm not becoming totally decrepit? So, at some point, I've resolved to run again - even if it's for short spurts over short distances.

Here's my message for fellow middle-agers: it's time to stop stopping...and start living.

The Most Unkind Cut of All

I've ranted and raved about the ridiculous Iraq War for the five or so years since this entered (or was forced upon?) entered our consciousness. And I certainly admit that there are some who honestly think the war was truly worth it.

But there is something that we will all agree on regardless of our political stripe. And this is it: those who serve in our armed forces should be treated well when they return from their tour of duty overseas, especially if they are wounded. Over the weekend The Washington Post ran a feature story about the deplorable conditions at the famous Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington.

From the story:

"Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss. But the old lodge, just outside the gates of the hospital and five miles up the road from the White House, has housed hundreds of maimed soldiers recuperating from injuries suffered in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

And I suppose it's one thing to have a crumby, rundown building. It's quite another to hear how the administrative arm of the hospital is failing these soldiers:

"On the worst days, soldiers say they feel like they are living a chapter of "Catch-22." The wounded manage other wounded. Soldiers dealing with psychological disorders of their own have been put in charge of others at risk of suicide.

Disengaged clerks, unqualified platoon sergeants and overworked case managers fumble with simple needs: feeding soldiers' families who are close to poverty, replacing a uniform ripped off by medics in the desert sand or helping a brain-damaged soldier remember his next appointment.

"We've done our duty. We fought the war. We came home wounded. Fine. But whoever the people are back here who are supposed to give us the easy transition should be doing it," said Marine Sgt. Ryan Groves, 26, an amputee who lived at Walter Reed for 16 months. "We don't know what to do. The people who are supposed to know don't have the answers. It's a nonstop process of stalling."

What are the long-term implications for the soldiers and their families? Suicide. Overdoses. Anger. At the very least, frustration. Apparently, soldiers get the best possible care to keep them alive while they're in the war zone - in fact, more wounded soldiers are making it through alive by the expert - and even miraculous - care they receive when they are evacuated to a medical hospital. But afterwards? The soldiers are left to question why the military bothers to save them so heroically, when they are treated so poorly when they come home.

We are a better country than this. I clearly don't have an answer to how to solve this problem. The neglect of our veterans is a bi-partison issue with ALL the politicians in Washington DC responsible. Let's hope this journalistic breakthrough brings hope to these kids who didn't ask for anything except to be treated well by their government.

Joni Mitchell - A Case of You

I do believe this is one of my favorite songs; enjoy!

For the Record

Hard to believe, but we finally got a chance to get the snow-blower out yesterday! Had about 8 inches of snow - no big deal by New England standards, but a real pain in the butt. The all-day event included rain, sleet, and awful little ice pellets. Today was no better, with temperatures not passing 20 degrees, but at least it was sunny..

This Cracked Me Up

I was driving home from work today and cruising through the radio channels. Passed through an NPR show ("The World") when I heard a guy singing hip-hop...






in French.

Hysterical. If you want to hear it, go here.

The Secret Dick

If you haven't been reading about how the Scooter Libbey trial is shining a spotlight on the role of The Dick, you should be. Here's a really scarey story from today's Boston Globe that demonstrates the dangerous role of the VP. It kinda knocks your socks off to actually read it, especially considering that 90% of the country has no clue:

What didn't he touch? It's almost like there was almost nothing too trivial for the vice president to handle," said New York University professor Paul Light, an expert in the bureaucracy of the executive branch.

"The details suggest Cheney was almost a deputy president with a shadow operation. He had his own source of advice. He had his own source of access. He was making his own decisions," Light said.

Red Sox

As we anticipate spring training beginning later this week, I thought it might be nice to look backwards...it's amazing how many of the Sox have moved on. Time to bring home another championship, boys!

What a Face!

You gotta love this face, eh? In a little over 10 days from now, we'll get to see him in a Sox uniform. Can't come soon enough.

iPod Shuffling Along

One of my Christmas presents from Bobbers was an iPod Shuffle - this 1.5"-long machine holds about 240 songs and has been much more fun to have than I would ever have imagined. **geezer alert**

Another gift was the CD of last summer's documentary about Leonard Cohen called "I'm Your Man." In the CD, various young artists, most notably Rufus and Martha Wainwright, cover a bunch of Leonard's songs. This has inspired me to delve into some of the original albums of this rather iconoclastic singer/songwriter who is incredibly difficult to pigeonhole. You'd probably find his music filed under "folk" at the CD store (are there any of those any more?) Yet, his demeanor harkens back to the pre-Dylan folk music days. In fact, in my imagination, I think of him wearing a smoking jacket and sipping brandy before retiring to his bed each night.

I haven't listened to all 4 of the CDs as yet, but it's been a pleasant diversion during this (finally) cold winter season. Hence, the post from YouTube of one of his most famous songs..."Halleluia" below. Cohen's probably not for everyone, but I find his music to be unique and entertaining.

Leonard Cohen Hallelujah

Happy 2nd Blogbirthday

In case anyone's interested, in late January I hit the two year mark for this here blog.

Whooooohoooo.

Quick and Easy Question for You

My few readers (if you're still out there) are likely not as interested in presidential politics as I am. (Although I do have to admit that this year its gotten way too early - even for me.)

Anyway, I have just one question for you: are any of you looking forward to voting for Hillary Clinton? If anyone answers this question, I'll post my theory. Well, hell, I'll probably post my thoughts anyway.

I'm genuinely interested in hearing from anyone who plans to vote for the Senator from New York.

OK, Alright, I Know....

I know, I've neglected this blog terribly over recent days. Am I blogged out? Has Bush's downfall also meant that I have nothing to say? (Ha!) I don't know, but until I can come up with something more original, I'll be posting less regularly. I'm not of the mind that posting for the sake of it is a good thing. Wouldn't that just be masturbation?

Short Takes

Interesting times, indeed...here's a catch-up on the news of the day:

• I don't care how naive this may sound to the more jaded among us, but I, for one, will be thrilled to hear the Sargent-at-Arms tonight when the Chimp makes his entrance for the State of the Union: "Madame Speaker!................." I am old enough to remember when such a greeting was unthinkable. Now I can't wait until the person being introduced to the House of Representatives is a woman, or a person of color. I just hope Nancy can keep from putting devil ears over the chimp's head while he's speaking.
• On the same note, I'm fairly certain I won't be supporting Hillary's bid for the presidency. I agree with those who say that a Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton series of presidencies is just not good for America. The same goes for Jeb if he were to decide to run. It's unfortunate, but if her name was anything but Clinton, I'd probably be voting for her and thrilled to have a viable female candidate run. Right now, it's Edwards and Obama for me.
• Second best event tonight will be hearing Jim Webb's response to the State of the Union. This new senator from Virginia is royally pissed. Can't wait ::rubbing hands in glee::
• My infatuation with Patrick Fitzgerald continues, and it appears that we may have Fitzmas after all. Did you see today's unraveling at the Libby trial? Apparently Grumpy McVP was more involved in the outing of the CIA agent after all. Bwahahahahaha. I would pay a LOT of money to watch him being grilled on the witness stand. Finally, there is someone who will force him to answer at risk of perjury. Just when I thought all was lost in this country. This is all occuring at the nick of time.
• Yesterday's news, you ask? The Chimp's poll numbers have dropped BELOW those of Richard Nixon during Watergate. Damn. (Strangest coincidence....just as I typed this, I heard on the teevee that E. Howard Hunt of Watergate fame died today.)
• I attended a business breakfast today in Boston, with a keynote address by our new governor Deval Patrick. I have to say that he's rather impressive - he probably has been in contact with nearly every citizen of our commonwealth in the three weeks or so since he's taken office. Can't say the same for our former goofball governor, Mitt Romney (aka The Hair)
• A non-political note? It's only about 3 weeks till spring training. Wahooooooooooooo!

Rest Easy, Indian Hill Under Control

For my fellow Cincinnatians, here's the latest from Indian Hill, which appears to be running amok.

No Urge to Surge

I'm rifling through our taped TV shows tonight so I don't accidentally stumble on the Chimp when he explains, yet again, what the hell he's going to do in Vietnam...er, I mean Iraq. He's taken about a month to "consult" with everyone...from the Iraq Study Group, to senators and members of Congress. Even appointed a new Secretary of Defense. And all he can come up with is to throw more money at this thing. I don't want to minimize the number of people he's sending, but according to recent reports, we've had the same number of servicemen in Iraq at any given time over the past few years. Nothing new here, except more money and death.

I guess I could watch with the same feeling one gets when watching a train wreck. But I do believe I have better things to do.

This country needs an intervention.

Now.

Miscellaneous Musings on Presidential Funerals

Although I didn't plan to, I ended up seeing a fair amount of TV coverage of President Ford's funeral. I guess it's hard to miss, since it seemed to go on for weeks. Same thing happened when Mr. Reagan left this world a few years ago. At that time I recall thinking the whole event was excessive.

It got me thinking...who was the most recent president to die (other than the disgraced Mr. Nixon) and what was his funeral like? It's hard to believe, but if my research is correct, it was Lyndon Johnson in 1973. The picture above is from his funeral. Here's a bit of the obituary from the New York Times:

SAN ANTONIO, Tex., Jan. 22--Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th President of the United States, died today of an apparent heart attack suffered at his ranch in Johnson City, Tex.

The 64-year-old Mr. Johnson, whose history of heart illness began in 1955, was pronounced dead on arrival at 4:33 P.M. central time at San Antonio International Airport, where he had been flown in a family plane on the way to Brooke Army Medical Center here.

A spokesman at Austin said that Mr. Johnson's funeral would probably be held Thursday at the National City Christian Church in Washington. He said the body would lie in state at the Johnson Library in Austin from noon tomorrow until 8 A.M. Wednesday, with an honor guard, and then would be taken to Washington, where it will lie in state at the Capitol rotunda until the funeral. Mr. Johnson will be buried at the L.B.J. Ranch.

Death came to the nation's only surviving former President as the nation observed a period of mourning proclaimed less than a month ago for former President Harry S. Truman.

I thought the last sentence rather interesting, no? And I was very surprised that LBJ was ony 64 when he died - in fact, he looked like he was 104.

OK, so I guess the funerals are as they should be - with all the pomp and circumstance we've come to expect in the services for these last two presidents.

So, having settled that critical conundrum, can you imagine anything stranger than being a former president during these events? When you pay your respects at the Capitol, you know that you too will be lying in state there. You must wonder about your own funeral, although since these memorials are planned years in advance, this must be an easy transition to make. You can just imagine Jimmy Carter, George HW Bush and Bill Clinton eyeing each other and thinking who would be next. Every cough or stumble might signal the upcoming honoree.

And what about the Clintons, especially if Hillary ever becomes president herself? Chelsea must quake in her boots thinking that she potentially could have to endure going through two of these events, all by herself.

Oh well, let's hope it's a long time until the next one. (Another Googled fact is that, yes, Lady Bird Johnson is still living, at the age of 95 years old.)

Photo credit: Marion S. Trikosko; link

A Look at 2006

A sure-fired way to get rid of the doldrums in January: an amaryllis or two...

March: A visit to the sculpture garden at the DeCordova Museum, Waltham, Mass. If you ask me, this winter tree is a beautiful enough sculpture:

March: My best friends from high school, Janet (below, left), and her daughter, Amanda, visited us during their whirlwind tour of the northeast looking at colleges. Where did Amanda end up? I don't know, but Fordham University was the lead school last I heard from my New Mexico pal.

April: Bob and I enjoyed a walk through Boston's public garden on a spectacular early spring day.

Late May saw us travel to Portland, Oregon, to visit my brother and his soon-to-be wife, Tara. Here are some of the highlights (or at least some of my favorite pictures):

My August birthday celebration featured a Red Sox T-shirt of one of my favorite new players, Jonathan Papelbon. Hey, how many days till spring training?

Our favorite Labor Day celebration is our visit to the Tanglewood Jazz Festival. Hard to see it here, but this is Elvis Costello playing with a jazz pianist Marian MacPartland. Nice, except the weather in the Berkshires was a bit chilly. This is Seiji Ozawa Hall, a beautiful place, both visually and acoustically.

Our Tanglewood trip is almost always followed by a visit to our favorite local museum in North Adams, Massachusetts: the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (or Mass MoCA). Below is a self-portrait of the two of us in their large fesitival installation:

And this rather interesting installation that is way too hard to describe but was more interesting than you can believe. It involved projectors and lighting and some willingness to play along...This is Bob and me where I touch his heart from 10 feet away.

Late September was bad at the office, but we salvaged a beautiful day at the Cape, visiting our friend, Joan (center). My best pal, Susan, is on the left and my great buddy, Ethel, is on the right:

Columbus Day: We took at day-trip to Newport, Rhode Island, flew some kites, did a little shopping and had a great dinner at a local restaurant. This is sunset in Newport Harbor - a favorite picture:

In October, my friend, Julie, suggested we take in the Topsfield Fair, one of the oldest of its kind in the country. We saw farm animals, kids' 4H displays, tacky, tacky souveniers and food that would give you a heart attack. Here, Julie seems to enjoy my skepticism at looking at the rather large cows. (We did miss the 29-inch high horse, supposedly you had to pay $1 to see it, even though one of us just walked up and saw it when its keeper wasn't looking. And NO, it wasn't moi or Julie.)

November brought us many happy events, not the least of which was the Democrat takeover of Congress (sorry, I can't resist a political comment), but it also included Bob's birthday:

Mary Lou's Birthday, November 22: The girls in our family, minus 1

Thanksgiving and Jennifer's wedding are documented on my flickr site (see the left column to see them in detail). But I especially liked this one:

Christmas 2006: Our tree was especially nice this year and has held up really well ...even tonight as I type.

Our friends, George and Sharon, bring their daughters every Christmas for a visit when they come to see their own family. We were lucky to have a concert this year by Amelia (almost 5) and Zhen (nearly 10):

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!