For one thing — the weather.

No high winds. Mild temperatures — mid 60s Fahrenheit. Partly sunny! (In other words, what Spring is supposed to look like around here when no one’s fucking around with the atmosphere…) Yay.

Yesterday went great. As I mentioned in my post, I did indeed spend a good chunk of my shift sitting alone with my iPhone, in the waiting room at the dentist’s office, waiting on my client. (I got caught up on a lot of the emails that were sitting in my inbox.)

But then my client wanted to run some errands! Yay! To buy more Easter stuff for his grandkids!! So fun. So it was just a really easy shift yesterday.

And, as a private bonus for myself — I’d been wanting to buy some chocolates for my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man’s eldest daughter, who will be visiting him from Seattle starting this weekend. She’ll be there all week, leaving on Holy Saturday.

I wanted to have some Easter candy waiting in her room when she arrived, but I had no clue where I would find good quality chocolates in my usual stops (i.e., Rural King, drugstore, Dollar Store).

So when my client yesterday wanted to stop in at Goumas’ Candyland — wow!! The best homemade chocolates for miles around here. I was able to buy her a really nice box of homemade chocolates. So that made me really happy.

Goumas Candyland: “A Taste of Heaven since 1911”

And, actually, after my day off tomorrow, I won’t have another day off for 7 days, because I will be working everyday at my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man’s house. His private nurse will be out of state, visiting her own family, and so I’ll be covering for the nurse while his daughter is visiting.

It’s probably gonna be a little intense, because my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man and that particular daughter have a dicey relationship. But I’m sort of like a pro at the dicey father-daughter relationship thing!

Plus, I know how his mind works nowadays, and I can sort of head him off at the pass when I sense he’s getting ready to be “difficult.” We shall see!

And his fridge is already loaded up with this for emergencies!! Yay!!

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And speaking of the Rural King!

My quick stop there yesterday morning before my shift was interesting, indeed.

‘Wild Thing’ was not there. There was only one checkout lane open and it was kind of long, so I was waiting a little longer than I usually do to check out.

And just when the person in front of me was paying for his stuff, in through the huge front doors walked ‘Wild Thing’!!

I saw him immediately, of course, but I didn’t want to act like my usual 14-year-old crushing self…

I was trying to be more like this — well, spiritually:

And I am not making this up. He saw me right away. I saw him see me. And then he sort of hurried over to the checkout area where I was standing. He threw off his coat, but he didn’t clock-in or anything, he just sort of hovered there, happily chatting away with the woman who was ringing up my stuff.

He glanced at me, I glanced at him — both of us sort of smiling. But I was determined not to say anything, because it would seem weird for me to start suddenly talking to the guy who wasn’t actually ringing up my stuff, right? And he wasn’t even on the clock yet.

But, wow. The energy was just right there. It was so cool.

So I left there, yet again feeling like the crushing 14-year-old!!

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Anyway!

Here’s this!

I love photos of Keith with his (enormous) family.

This was to celebrate either his birthday or Christmas, 2024:

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And here’s this!

It turns out that yesterday was Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s heavenly birthday!

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And here’s Nick Cave, performing outdoors for 7 (tiny) people across the water!!

And here’s this.

Not sure what he’s thinking about here, but sort of seems intense.

Nick Cave, not smoking on a sofa. (Perhaps he’s in the process of quitting smoking here and wishing he had a fucking cigarette…)

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And that’s it!! I really gotta scoot.

My supervisor just texted me, saying she needed to stop in at my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man’s house this morning, to collect some of my paperwork from the last month.

So off I go!!

Have a wonder-filled Wednesday, wherever you are in the world!

I don’t know if I’m posting tomorrow because the AC guys are coming at some point, but we’ll see.

Thanks for visiting!

I love you guys. See ya!

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I leave you with some travelin’ music!

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ “Travelin'” from Nobody’s Children. 1995. From the Playback CD boxed set. Enjoy, gang!!

The bad news is that the retired Minister had to be taken to the hospital. (And this is really, really not a good thing.)

But the good news for me, though, is that I got today off unexpectedly.

So this means I have 2 days off in a row.

Two very Spring-like days, I might add. (Update: now they’re saying high winds again this afternoon, followed by thunderstorms then rain through tomorrow!!! And temps going back down below freezing. Weather manipulation, anyone??) Anyway.

Which means I might even be able to go out and take a couple of walks in the sunshine, surrounded by things turning green. But I will certainly be able to spend a lot of time on my writing. Finish going over the final proof for The Curse of Our Profound Disorder and maybe even finish the short story.

Regardless, this is such a relief for me. Two days off in a row. I’m just sorry it had to come with a serious downside for someone else.

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Okay.

I tried watching the new “Peaky Blinders” film on Netflix last night, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so violent. I made it through about maybe ten minutes. Literally. When they shot the bird and showed the close-up of it, bleeding & dead, I said, “All righty. I see how this is gonna be.” And that was that.

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And somewhat related —

This is an excellent book:

“One of America’s greatest living literary legends invites you to think for yourself in this compelling narrative of manipulation, power, and the human condition.” (And the role of horror in entertainment.)

You can buy it here.

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Okay.

Here’s this.

Dr. Terry Traster is also a member of James Tabor’s Research Group. The stuff he discusses here are things that are discussed in the Research Group all the time — specifically ancient markings on ossuaries from 1st Century Jerusalem.

Archaeological Evidence for the New Testament | Dr. Terry Traster (40 mins):

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All right.

Here’s this.

The Rolling Stones in London in 1964:

And the Rolling Stones, different line-up, at Stephen Stills’ home in Laurel Canyon, LA, in 1969:

And the above photo led me to unearth a book I’ve had since 1973. (The above photo is in the book.) (And, no, I did not steal the book!! I bought it with money I earned from babysitting!!)

This book meant the world to me, gang, and I took it just about everywhere I went back then:

Back cover:

And the inside cover, in case you wanted to know whose property it was!!

The book was (is) loaded with photos, record reviews, interviews, concert reviews — all kinds of cool stuff from the first decade of their career!

AND (!!) sheet music for every song they’d written up to & including Sticky Fingers!!! (Seriously. And that is a lot of songs.)

I used this book a lot while practicing my guitar and also the piano.

And when the book fell open to the above music page just now, a handwritten song fell out.

Apparently, I had also taken this book with me to the mental hospital (along with my guitar — well, the guitar was brought to me a week or so later. I also had Music Therapy while in the hospital — with the same Music Therapist who made us turn off Bob Dylan’s incredible new record, “Blood on the Tracks”, because she claimed it “wasn’t music”).

The song is sort of a joke about being in the mental hospital and several of us “inmates” wrote it together, while sitting in the kitchen area one afternoon. (Even though we were all ages 13-17, we were allowed to smoke in the kitchen area!! Plus, our parents gave us each $5 a month and the staff bought us each a carton of cigarettes with the money. Yes. $5 for a whole carton of Marlboros!! Parent Approved!!)

Anyway.

I had forgotten all about this song!! “Up On A Hill”.

You’ll note that it is copyrighted: Summer 1975. Smart move!! And that it is dedicated to Harding Funny Farm. (I don’t know whose handwriting this is, it’s definitely not mine. Although the “copyright” along the side there is my handwriting.)

(The third name at the bottom there in pencil, before “etc.”, is the name of the girl I fell in love with there. She was my first girlfriend, in the bisexual sense, and we got into a TON of trouble in the hospital, as well as when we both got out of the hospital. And I mean a ton…)

When I turned the paper over just now, it said this (this is my handwriting from back then):

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Well, that was quite an unexpected trip down Memory Lane!!

Back to this….

Nick Cave smoking in color!! In 1988:

And smoking in 1984! In black & white:

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All righty!

I’m going to finish up the laundry. Wash (and trim!!) my lovely hair. And then get down to work on proofing The Curse of Our Profound Disorder.

I hope you have a really beauty-filled Sunday, wherever you are in the world!!

Thanks for visiting,

I love you guys. See ya!

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I leave you with this!

From the cassette that is currently in the retro boombox next to my bed.

From 1991, Praying Mantis, a collection of poetry & prose readings by Jim Carroll, most of it recorded live at St. Mark’s Church, in downtown NYC, way back when.

“Times Square’s Cage” a poem. Parental Advisory!! (2 mins). Enjoy, gang.

At last!!

It will be sunny today and in the mid-60s Fahrenheit! The daffodils are still blooming everywhere — they were not killed by the recent freezing temperatures and light snow.

That, alone, is such a relief to see, gang.

Anyway.

Let’s briefly talk about Honda.

It is DONE, gang! My car is fixed. And not only that, but I also had time for them to do a tire rotation and an oil change — which means that if I want to drive to NY in mid-June for the Lammy Awards, the car is ready.

And here’s something that I found really interesting, gang– yesterday, as I was driving along the backroads to town, the thought of driving to NY again did not fill me with dread. (I’ve done the drive many times, but in the last few years, especially since all those stress-filled drives to see my dad when he was dying, I felt like I wanted to fly everywhere from now on, instead.)

It was so cool to feel that change in me. Like I had finally become independent of my grief and was becoming my true self again.

I have already bought my ticket to the Awards show. And I am looking for an affordable hotel in Midtown, in case Sandra will be out of town working that weekend.

And I sent a text to my birth mom to see if she felt like taking care of my cats — especially now that the house has central AC.

But I am intending to be in NYC the weekend of June 12th!! Yay.

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As an added bonus from my trip to Honda yesterday….

Okay, gang. This part is INSANE.

I had a little extra time after they worked on my car to stop in at the Rural King and buy more cat food.

This was the first time I had ever been in there on a Friday and found ‘Wild Thing’ working!! I was not expecting him to be there.

But there he indeed was.

I have been trying to rein it in, inside myself, because he is half my age. I want to just sort of let this go.

But not only was he still (pleasantly) flirting with me, he SPOKE in FRENCH!!

WTF??!!

Okay. He actually has shoulder-length, straight brown hair and a full beard, mustache, etc. He’s got at least 2 noticeable tattoos. He looks like a hippie from days of yore. (And, which I have pleasantly noticed, a lot of young men are looking that way again.)

Anyway.

HE (looking at me as he was tearing off my receipt from the printer): “Enchanté.”

ME (in a tiny 14-year-old-crushing-girl voice): “You speak French?”

HE (putting my receipt in the bag and handing the bag to me): “Voila.”

WTF???!!

I cannot tell you how many people out here in the Hinterlands, let alone young people, do NOT speak French!! Not even a little bit! To the point where I have sort of found it appalling that adults around here can’t read the label on a bottle of French wine…

So, let’s recap: Not only does he remind me of every boy I fell in love with in 1974 who was nothing but trouble, he’s also into GUNS, he’s a SINGER, and he at least knows two words in French, perhaps more! (But I’ll settle for just “enchanted” — I won’t complain.)

(Perhaps the next time I’m in the Rural King, he will either whip out an accordion and start singing old hillbilly songs, or whip out a couple of the paintings he did of Montmartre when he was living in Paris one summer… Or maybe both!)

Jesus, gang. WTF?? Enchanté at the checkout counter at the Rural King??? And me, still studying French everyday since 1968…

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Okay!

I still have about 90 pages of the final proof of The Curse of Our Profound Disorder to do tomorrow before my afternoon shift. And then I will be able to focus on the short story on Monday. I only have about 4 more paragraphs to write before it’s complete. So that’s exciting.

I did take that Stage 32 webinar yesterday afternoon after my shift.

I was wrong about a couple of things , though. Anna Henry was the instructor. The showrunner I was hoping to learn from is Jacob Tierney and the Q&A with him will happen on Tuesday, when I won’t be available.

Still, the webinar was a breakdown of the HBO drama series “Heated Rivalry.” And it was informative.

I’ve heard a lot about the show (a gay erotic drama, based on a popular Harlequin Romance series of novels), but I had never seen it. So I re-subscribed, yet again, to HBO to start watching it last night. I don’t know what it is about me, gang, but it seems that ALL these streaming hit shows that I’ve tried to watch lately — they just do not resonate with me.

I had to literally force myself to watch 20 minutes of the show last night before I gave up and immediately watched 2 re-runs of “Archer” instead and was captivated and laughing the whole time.

Who knows. But I will at least try to finish the first episode of “Heated Rivalry.” If only because so many people love it.

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Meanwhile–

Here’s this!

More reasons to LOVE Bob Dylan!!

Please note: 2 packs of Chesterfields on the table, a bottle of red wine, perhaps even coffee, assuming the red wine is not in the coffee cup… and a typewriter!!

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And here’s this!

Wow, gorgeous.

It has something to do with the Oscars the other night, but I don’t think it was taken then. I do not know where this is or who took the photo. But the producers of the film that Nick’s song was in (which was nominated for an Oscar) posted this photo.

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And here’s this!

The Stones in a publicity photo for “Miss You” in 1978:

And, well, here’s this, while we’re at it! Such a great song!! I was 17 when this came out:

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And here’s this!

Keith. 1992.

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And, judging by the clock, I better scurry or I’m gonna be late!!

Back to see my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man! (Yesterday, we went out for sashimi and sake, and this time I was really, really careful about how I parked my low-riding Honda Civic. When I helped him out of the car, he said: “You parked about 3 feet away from the front curb.”)

Yes I did!!

Okay. Have a great Saturday, wherever you are in the world, gang!

Thanks for visiting!

I love you guys. See ya!

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I’ve posted this song here many times, but here it is again!!

I probably don’t have to tell you why!

France Gall, “Laisse tomber les filles” !! En francais. So much fun. Enjoy, gang!!

Okay, so it almost feels like today is finally going to be a “normal” day, energy-wise. We shall soon see.

It seems like my life has been on Mars since last Friday, when the high winds, snow, power outage began….

Along with the many trips to the Honda dealership!

But guess what!!

I got back to the Honda dealership early yesterday morning. Only had to wait 45 minutes and then the service guy came and got me from the waiting room. Which, you know, was nice because it wasn’t a long wait this time. However, the dealership is literally 5 minutes from my Tuesday clients and I suddenly had an hour and 45 minutes to kill — and it was 21 degrees Fahrenheit out there with a light dusting of snow everywhere.

But I digress.

The service guy told me: “It needs a different part. We’ll have it here by tomorrow morning.”

Oh, how nice! So I get to go back to Honda on Friday at 9AM!

But the good news is that instead of $245, it’s now only going to cost me $106. Total. Parts and labor. That’s it. So, like, wow.

It has just been so weird around here. But this is a good weird. It’s costing a lot less. And I purposely did not schedule the next Honda appointment for tomorrow because it is my DAY OFF. And NO repairmen are scheduled. (Although I still don’t know when the roofers are coming by to fix my siding…) (Wouldn’t it be cool if they also told me: “It’ll only cost you a total of $106” ??) (Methinks it won’t, but I’m not going to complain.)

Anyway!!

Thursday is all about me sitting at my desk and going over the FINAL proof of The Curse of Our Profound Disorder. (Which I was supposed to do over the weekend but you know how that went…) But I’m looking forward to some peace tomorrow. Finally.

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Okay!

Since I haven’t really been posting here in several days, I have way too many “here’s this’s” stored up, so I’m only going to post a few of them today.

First and foremost–

I LOVED THIS!!

Yesterday was not only St. Patrick’s Day, it was also Patti Hansen’s 70th birthday!!

Keith posted 3 photos of them, but this was my absolute favorite!!

Wow. Encroyable! So beautiful.

(And today is their daughter Theodora’s 41st birthday, but he hasn’t posted anything for the “Blonde Teddy” yet.)

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But here’s this–

Still Keith, still beautiful, but a whole different kind of thing–

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And here’s this.

From Phyllis Stein.

Mick and David Jo at Max’s in NYC 1973! (I actually remember this photo from my wee bonny teenaged girlhood. It was probably in CREEM Magazine!!)

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And I was actually able to get a few updates about the upcoming Shane MacGowan tribute album, but here’s this from Johnny Depp yesterday:

And then there was also this over the weekend:

It is not available yet for pre-sale on Amazon US, though.

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And speaking of Johnny–

2 of my all-time absolute favorite photos of Johnny, ever. They were in GQ Magazine back in 1993. (Yes, I had them taped to the wall in front of my desk back then — in the apartment on West End Ave in NYC.)

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And since it was Mother’s Day in the UK this past Sunday, someone re-posted this classic gem!

Nick Cave with his mum in Australia, maybe around 40 years ago?

And here’s this! (Having nothing to do with Mother’s Day, except that his mum was the sort of portal through which he arrived here…)

Nick Cave, happy:

And as a Nick Cave-related aside: Wow, was “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert” an incredible movie. I was really just stunned by every moment of it. I am so glad I saw it on a big screen, in an actual theater.

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And on a different note… this is a shorter version of a zoom we had in the “Christianity Before Paul” course.

James Tabor: A Band of Sisters: The Forgotten Treasure of the EARLY Jesus Movement! (30 mins):

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And that is it for now!

It is still cold here, but SUNNY!! And it will be getting warmer again as the days go by. Just in time for Spring.

And now I gotta get ready to go see my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man! (I have driven 360 miles since I went to see him on Friday and we had the fateful mishap with my Honda in the parking lot of the Peony Bistro.)

I’m really tired of driving. But off I go, anyway.

So have a wonder-filled Wednesday, wherever you are in the world!

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Okay!

This one goes out to Patti from Keith!!!

“Wild thing, you make my heart sing!!”

Enjoy, gang. (Again and again.)