So, not only did the local handyman come and put the bolts on the 2 storage closet doors (yay!)…
And not only did I get some yoga done, and study another lecture in the Protestant Reformation course — and it was pretty horrific: The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572 ...
But I also got SO MUCH reading/editing done on The Curse of Our Profound Disorder. Finally. I have only 5 chapters left to read, and that’s only 88 pages, total.
And I’m really liking the book, gang. Although it certainly will NOT be everybody’s cup of tea. I don’t even have a clue what the target audience might be for this book. Perhaps the publisher will have a clue (assuming she likes the rest of the book).
But what matters most to me right now, is that I am liking it — and also consistently feeling surprised by it. Especially since I now know how the novel ends. So, reading it now from the beginning, knowing how it ends — I’m sort of always feeling, like: Whoa…
It is so hard to describe this book, gang. It basically takes place in a total of 4 days, but 1 and a 1/2 days happen in 1984, and then the other 3 and a 1/2 days happen in 1986. But the entire book covers 26 years in stream of consciousness memories (of the protagonist).
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Okay.
Well, the next couple days will be intense. I have to work double shifts back-to-back, and every shift is with a client that has cognitive impairment to one degree or another.
HOWEVER!
I got a text that my new glasses are ready! Yay!
So I’m going to take my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man for a drive to go pick up my new glasses. (He only lives 10 minutes from there, whereas I live 30 miles from there.)
Anyway, I’m very excited. I will be able to see again. Especially while driving at night, and both tonight and tomorrow night, I will be driving after dark. Such a relief that the glasses are ready. (5 days early.)
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All right, here’s this!
While driving the other day near the train tracks, I was humming the old folk song “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” and I suddenly remembered that in my early days on the folk club circuit in NYC, I used to sing a song I wrote to the tune of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” But it was about making my trip out to California when I was 18. It was always a big hit and everyone would laugh.
This was in the early days, when it was just me and my guitar.
I couldn’t recall the lyrics anymore, so I went and dug it out of my files and it’s funny how much of that trip I had totally forgotten about. Well, it all came back to me. The song is funny, but what a dreadful trip that was. It took about 4 or 5 days.
Here you go:
I Went Off to California (I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad)
I went off to California
Left my world at home
I put nothing in my suitcase
But some vintage Rolling Stones
I decided to go Greyhound
Due to quite restricted funds
I was doomed to tear my hair out
Before my trip was done.
I was feelin’ low, sittin’ all alone
In the Greyhound Bus depot-oh-oh
I learned quite a lot ‘tween the hookers and the cops
In an hour in Chi-ca-go.
Dinah don’t ya know, Dinah don’t ya know
It was dawn in Chic-ca-go-oh-oh
And the things that are alive at a quarter after five
Dinah, you don’t wanna know
Next, we pulled into Nebraska
Downtown Omaha
A man who swore that he was Jesus
Was among the things I saw
I was feelin’ pretty hungry
But runnin’ outta dough
I made it all the way to Cheyenne
On seven Or-e-os.
Dinah don’t ya cry, Dinah don’t ya cry
‘though you feel you want to die-i-i
When the man who’s next to you bathed in 1942
And puts his hand between your thighs –
And sings out: “Fee, fi, fiddle-y-i-oh
If you hold me way down low-oh-oh-oh
Fee, fi, fiddle-y-i-oh!
You’ll fceel my love begin to grow!”
By the time we got to Reno – 3 o’clock A.M.
I was pretty near a coma
From fighting off the men
All the way to Salt Lake City
A stranger, good and bombed
Cursed me without reservation
For the years he’d served in ‘Nam.
Dinah don’t ya know, it’s a lonely way to go
And the Greyhound makes me blue-ooh-ooh
But I think of brighter days, when I’ll find a better way
And a house in Malibu.
Though I went to California,
Many years ago
I can still recall the nausea
And the memories of the road
Now I live in New York City
I left the Coast behind
‘though New York is dark and dirty
I’m glad I changed my mind.
Dinah don’t ya know, Dinah don’t ya know
It’s a rough and tumble tow-ow-ow-n
But a man can hold you low and a love can start to grow
And he’ll turn your luck around.
Oh, someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah
Someone’s in the kitchen it’s true-ooh and they’re
Savin’ up their pennies in a cookie jar
For a house in Malibu
And singing, “Fee, fi, fiddle-y-i-oh
You can feel my lovin’ grow-oh-oh-oh
Fee, fi, fiddle-y-i-oh!
When you’re strummin’ on my old banjo!”
“I’ve Been Workin’ On the Railroad” music – © Public Domain
“I Went Off to California” lyrics – © 1981 - Marilyn Jaye Lewis
If you aren’t from the States and don’t know this old folk song, here it is:
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Okay.
If you live in Tokyo, here’s this! (I highly recommend it. It was very engrossing.)
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And while I was reading/editing at my desk yesterday, at one point, I got up from my chair and discovered this cutie on the bed behind me!
Calico!
And a couple of hours later, I discovered this!! Too cute. I had absolutely no idea they were all there, right behind me.
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And here’s this!
From Instagram.
Just because it’s a truly classic Nick Cave photo that I have always loved!
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And I’m thinking that’s actually it for today.
Enjoy your Friday, wherever you are in the world.
Thanks for visiting.
I love you guys. See ya!
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Okay!
I leave you with this. Play it LOUD.
From every single one of my playlists over the last several years, as it turns out! It keeps popping up! (I love this song.)
Rod Stewart’s 1991 classic “Rhythm of My Heart” from the album Vagabond Heart. Enjoy, gang.
“Rhythm Of My Heart”
Across the street, the river runs
Down in the gutter, life is slipping away
Let me still exist, in another place
Running under cover of a helicopter blade
Flames are getting higher in effigy
Burning down the bridges of my memory
Love may still be alive somewhere, someway
Where they’re downing only deer, a hundred steel towns away
Oh, the rhythm of my heart
Is beating like a drum
With the words, “I love you” rolling off my tongue
No, never will I roam
For I know my place is home
Where the ocean meets the sky, I’ll be sailing
Photographs and kerosene
Light up my darkness
Light it up! Light it up!
I can still feel the touch
Of your thin blue jeans
Running down the alley, I’ve got my eyes all over you, baby
Oh, baby
Oh, the rhythm of my heart
Is beating like a drum
With the words, “I love you” rolling off my tongue
No, never will I roam
For I know my place is home
Where the ocean meets the sky, I’ll be sailing
I’ll be sailing
I’ll be sailing
I will
Oh, I’ve got lightning in my veins
Shifting like the handle of a slot machine
Love may still exist in another place
I’m just yanking back the handle
No expression on my face
Oh, the rhythm of my heart
Is beating like a drum
With the words, “I love you” rolling off my tongue
No, never will I roam
For I know my place is home
Where the ocean meets the sky, I’ll be sailing
Oh, the rhythm of my heart
Is beating like a drum
With the words, “I love you” rolling off my tongue
No, never will I roam
For I know my place is home
Where the ocean meets the sky, I’ll be sailing
The rhythm of my heart
Is beating like a drum
With the words, “I love you”
Rolling off my tongue
No, never will I roam
For I know my place is home
Where the ocean meets the sky, I’ll be sailing
Ooh, hoo-hoo, ooh
c – 1991 John Joseph Capek, Marc Wallace Jordan
Marilyn's Room 