A lovely morning here. Yay!

A little chilly, but it is mid-November, so I can’t complain. Oh, wait! I could complain, but I won’t!!

I have a shift with the retired Minister later today, but most of the day here is free and I have tomorrow OFF, so — yay!! I’m tired, but I’m happy.

Okay!

I forgot to post this yesterday!

It was 45 years ago yesterday that I moved to NYC!! What a time it was, gang. New York in the 80s. Wow. Some rough stuff out there in those streets but so memorable! (And for some reason, living for nearly 30 years in NYC was never as rough as my life had been in Columbus, Ohio…)

And here is quite a memorable song from that era, too. Whenever I hear this song, I always remember that first year I spent in NYC. It was life-changing on so many levels. Queen, 1980, “Another One Bites the Dust”:

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Here’s this!

I loved this photo of Allen Ginsberg in Prague, March 1965:

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And, WOW, gang!

I got up to go to the bathroom during the night at — apparently — 2:49AM, and these 2 very cool texts were on the home screen on my phone!! I had to take a screenshot for you!

One was from Wayne, with more kind words about my manuscript for The Curse of Our Profound Disorder.

And a quick reply from Billy Sheehan to one of my comments to him on Instagram!

If you don’t know who Billy Sheehan is:

“…an American musician known for playing bass guitar with acts such as Talas, Steve Vai, David Lee Roth, Mr. Big, Niacin, and The Winery Dogs. He is also known for his “lead bass” playing style, including the use of chording, two-handed tapping, “three-finger picking” technique and controlled feedback. Sheehan has been voted “Best Rock Bass Player” five times in Guitar Player readers’ polls.”

His account on Instagram is personal — he’s actually the one posting stuff, not an assistant. And while he has a ton of bass-related stuff, he also posts photos of his cats, his wife, his yard, his meals when he’s on tour, etc.

And I really appreciated Wayne’s text about the Jack Kicking Eagle section of my novel, because I re-wrote that particular stuff many, many times. Even when I finally signed-off on it, I wasn’t sure if it was going to be clear enough for readers to appreciate it. So that really felt good.

And — oddly enough — when I was driving home from my shift yesterday afternoon, I was thinking about that very section of the book and I was wondering what Wayne was going to think of it. So it was particularly cool to see that text in the middle of the night. I went back to sleep with a little smile on my face.

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And yesterday, while I was with my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man, we were talking about the hot springs area of Japan where his father had gone to live until he died — Beppu Onsen in Kyushu.

I found a photo of it on my phone and his face lit up when he saw it. “Yes! That is it!”

Since his long-term memory is still perfect, he really, really enjoys seeing photos of people and places he remembers from his past.

Here is the photo of Beppu and this LINK tells you about the area.

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You know, the older I get, the more convinced I am that I won’t be able to see a lot of the places I’d dreamed of traveling to in this lifetime, primarily because I get so tired of doing everything all by myself. And the places I want to visit, and the reasons why I want to visit them — I can’t imagine anyone being interested in going with me.

Except maybe Kara! I can actually imagine myself saying to her:

ME: “Come on, Kara, we’re going to Beppu Onsen in Kyushu! Get your passport ready!”

SHE (a little mystified): “Oh, really? Okay! Wow, where did I put that darn passport…”

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Okay, that’s kind of it for now.

I know I said I was going to go into more of the details about my great trip to see my birth mom and my younger, 59-year-old (!!), brother. But it will wait until tomorrow.

Enjoy your 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!

I love this song!! I especially love the off-beat Thomas Jefferson history of it.

I’ve been playing this CD on my retro boombox for the last few mornings, when I finally get up, let the cats into my room, and start making the bed!! And then this fantastic opening riff sticks with me all morning.

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Jefferson Jericho Blues”, from their fantastic album, Mojo, 2010. Enjoy, gang.

“Jefferson Jericho Blues”

Well poor Tom Jefferson
He loved the little maid out back
Midnight creepin’ out to the servant’s shack
Kept a secret under the bed
Wrapped in a burlap sack
Well I drove all day and night
Out to Jericho
But in my second mind

I knew it was time to go
Yeah and I still get nervous every time
That bugle blows
Well she ain’t no good for me
But I just can’t let go
If I sit here thinkin’
My thoughts will overflow
And I can’t keep from cryin’
Can’t keep time from movin’ slow

c – 2010 Tom Petty

Sorry I’m late. Again.

Wow, am I exhausted, gang. Emotionally. I’m really having trouble snapping out of it. And not just because of Nancy’s death, but because everywhere I look right now, nothing makes sense. My brain can’t process anything.

I need a stay-cation so badly.

I am so tempted to call off sick for tomorrow– to give the Agency a big head start, trying to find someone who will cover a 10-hr shift….

But then I remember how much the client said they appreciated me last week and I feel like I can’t call in sick if I’m not truly sick… I’m just exhausted.

So anyway. On we go.

(Oh, looks like the Government is finally re-opening. The Senate just voted.)

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Since tomorrow is Tuesday (I can’t call it “Terrible Tuesday” anymore because it makes me feel guilty now, knowing how much my client wants me there). Anyway, I won’t be posting to the blog tomorrow–

So, an early Happy Veterans Day to one and all!

Long-time readers of this lofty blog no doubt recall, that my ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

And while I could conceivably be a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, since my birth certificate says “Father Unknown,” I can’t prove that I am part of the May family bloodline. (And my birth father is dead now.)

But the Mays not only fought in the Revolutionary War, and knew Thomas Jefferson, they also played a big part in founding the State of Kentucky. And they also knew — and explored Kentucky with — Daniel Boone.

I’m only bringing this particular stuff up, because it came up last night while I was at my shift with the retired Minister. We were watching a few reruns of the old Daniel Boone TV show from the late 1960s. That show takes place around Maysville, which is a town in Kentucky, on the Ohio River, founded by my Uncle John (put a bunch of “great-greats” in front of that).

Well, I could go on and on about my ancestors in the State of Kentucky, but I won’t.

Just try to honor Veterans Day tomorrow, if you live here in the States.

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This morning, when I’d gone back to bed with my cup of coffee, and totally collapsed (after having had 7 hours of sleep last night), I was listening to this on my retro boombox:

And it brought back memories from over 20 years ago, when I lived on Spring Garden Street with Mikey Rivera, in Easton, Pennsylvania.

We had a little CD player in the bedroom, and I would often play Nat King Cole while making the bed in the morning, getting ready to start the day.

I was a full-time writer back then, and always under constant deadlines. I miss those days.

But anyway!

Here’s my beloved desk back then (yes, I had a fax machine!):

And here’s the house we rented our apartment in. (House on the right.) Our apartment was on the second floor, on the left:

It was only one house away from the Delaware River. We could easily see New Jersey from the kitchen window, and the foothills of the Pocono Mountains from the living room window.

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Okay.

Last night, I started watching Episode 2 of “My Life As A Rolling Stone“.

Episode 2 is the interview with Keith Richards. It is great! I liked it so much better than the interview with Mick, but mostly because Keith is so easy going and animated and emotional.

I stopped watching right before 1968, when things are going to start going really bad for Keith for quite a while. I will watch that part tonight. But I am really enjoying the series. And I am LOVING my family room again, gang.

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Ross K. Nichols Sunday School class from this past Sunday.

Matthew’s Prophetic Rebirth (1 hr 25 mins):

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All right.

I have to finish up the laundry. Get a pot of soup started. Do yoga, wash my hair — and somehow fit in a phone call with Sandra.

So I gotta scoot.

Enjoy your Monday, wherever you are in the world.

I will be back here on Wednesday.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Breakfast-listening music!

Such a beautiful LIVE album.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Ship Song (Live At The Royal Albert Hall version) (1997). Enjoy, gang.

Happy Sunday. Sorry I’m late.

I’m still trying to process my grief over Nancy’s death the other day, without really having much quiet time to do it in. So it is really kinda weighing on me around here this morning.

My cats don’t seem all that interested in hearing about it. And I can’t discuss a client’s death with my other clients.

I do get free, 24-hr phone counseling through the Agency, but you know, where would I start?

ME: “Everyone I interact with everyday is really, really old, cognitively impaired and getting ready to die or has just died, and I feel like, I don’t know, like something’s missing in my life… I got a new flat screen TV in my family room and it helped, but still…”

THE COUNSELOR: “Have you considered getting a pet — a cat, maybe — to interact with?”

Okay. Perhaps I underestimate the counselor, but you know. Where would I start? Honestly. It seems easier to not dwell on everything that’s weird in my life and just keep goig. Or “going,” as the case may be. (Although I have never actually “goig’d” so maybe it would help. I will look into it…)

I did get a chance to have a chat with Valerie in Brooklyn late yesterday afternoon and that helped a lot. But I really just wanted to call in sick today (I have the retired Minister and his lovely wife and cat later today), but there’s something I do with them every other Sunday (which is today) that no other caregiver is trained in yet, so it just seems like it’s better for me to just go to town for my shift. I have tomorrow off.

All I have to do between now and leaving for town in 4 and a 1/2 hours, is do yoga and take a shower. I like to think I can manage that. I guess we shall see.

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But it was great chatting with Val yesterday. And she actually asked to read the manuscript for The Curse of Our Profound Disorder.

After I picked myself up off the floor and got back in my chair, I said:

ME: “You haven’t read one of my books in, like, 25 years — give or take 20 years.”

SHE: “Yeah, it might have been a decade or two ago.”

She has trouble focusing. But now she wants to work on focusing so, hey. I sent her the file!! I would just love it if she would actually read it and tell me her opinion of it. We’ll see.

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Okay, here’s this.

From Phyllis Stein’s Instagram page!

Keith in Los Angeles, in 1972. Photo by Ken Regan:

And last night, in my new & improved family room — I started watching that documentary TV series on the Rolling Stones from a couple of years ago, “My Life As A Rolling Stone“.

Episode 1 interviewed Mick Jagger. It was interesting, but I felt like it glossed over a whole lot of stuff from the last 60 years. Still, I watched it and will continue. Although it only covers Mick, Keith, Ronnie, and the late Charlie Watts.

Plus, from the brief synopsis about the series:

“…how [they] grew from young blues-loving hopefuls to a globally recognized cultural brand.”

It actually says that. A globally recognized brand.

That’s sure what The Rolling Stones mean to me. For chrissakes.

ME (aged 12, alone in my room, listening to “Exile on Main St” for the first time): “Wow! If these guys stick with it, they could become a globally recognized brand!!!”

But anyway.

I’m trying to force myself to sit in the family room at night and watch TV. And stop being closed up in my room so fucking much. (Along the lines of how Val is trying to force herself to “focus” again.) So I will stick with it. I am of course eager to see Episode 2, which interviews Keith.

We’ll see if I have it in me to watch it tonight, after my shift. Or if I will be too entranced with the idea of closing myself up in my room, lighting some votives, getting in bed and wondering what the fuck has happened to my life…

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Okay, well, I think I’m gonna stop there for today and try to get my thoughts together here before heading off for the shift later. Hopefully, I’ll be in a better emotional place tomorrow.

Enjoy your Sunday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys, See ya!

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Sunday morning-listening music!

From when I went back to bed, with my cup of coffee. Meditated. Then watched it rain outside the window. It helped.

Enjoy, gang.

Well, the visitation & funeral for my wonderful client who died early Thursday morning is being held next week, on a day & time when I have to work, so I won’t be able to attend.

And the family doesn’t want flowers, so I can’t do that, either.

However, I did get to read her obituary and wow, gang, does she sound like someone I would have absolutely adored knowing. The obituary even mentions what a great vocabulary & sense of humor she had!! And that is something I am always so attracted to in a human being.

I feel blessed that I got to at least know her in the final months of her life, even though she was already cognitively impaired and couldn’t speak much at all. But what a warm and wonderful person she was.

I will really miss her.

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It’s looking like “Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness” will not be shown in US theaters. At least I can’t find any upcoming listings for it.

It’s looking like it will be on Amazon Prime in the US, starting on December 12th (?). I am so unclear about this, though.

Dear Johnny Smoke,

If MODI is playing anywhere near me, I am willing to make one last trip to an actual movie theater, otherwise, I will just stream it on my new family-room TV. Could you please clarify.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

(And, yes, you can sort of see that the TV in my kitchen, there by the kitchen door, is actually bigger than the new TV in my family room, however, the kitchen table gets in the way if I put the smaller one in the kitchen…)

(And, yes, I was watching a re-run of “Black Books” when I took that photo yesterday. I love that fucking show!!)

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Well, I was totally appalled and — I don’t know — utterly beyond disappointed, to read the news very early this morning that the bookshop owners in Moscow are getting arrested for:

“…selling books containing ‘traces of propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations,’ Russian investigators said.”

Mike King went on to say, in his own words:

“It’s a ban on socially destructive homosexual / trannie filth.”

Wow.

He went on to say more things along these lines that were simply appalling to me. (He’s in favor of this ban.)

I’m not 100% certain, and even while I wasn’t planning to sell any of my books in Russia anytime soon, I’m kinda thinking I’m not reading Mike King’s news updates anymore.

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I wasn’t as “appalled or utterly beyond disappointed” by Nick Cave’s Red Hand File yesterday, but I was — I don’t know– a little repelled by it? Is that too strong a word?

You can read it here.

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I can go so far as to say I was “shell-shocked” by an article in The Guardian that my friend & colleague Roger Gaess sent me a link to yesterday.

‘Matt Smith is so hot it’s problematic’: inside the TV version of Nick Cave’s disturbing, sex-filled novel

The way that both Matt Smith and Nick Cave describe The Death of Bunny Munro, and in particular, the lead character, makes me feel like I read an entirely different novel.

But at least now I’m no longer upset that I won’t be able to see the series.

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On a happier note!

Wayne texted during the night that he’s making progress in The Curse of Our Profound Disorder. (He’s up to Part 3, so he’s almost done.)

In addition to also liking the character of Taylor Hanson Hewitt III, Wayne thinks the book is well written.

So far, so good.

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Here’s this!!

From Phyllis Stein’s Instagram page, a bonanza of David Jo photos!

I stopped in at Gem Spa often when I lived in the East Village. It was on the corner of St. Mark’s Place and 2nd Avenue. It opened in 1921 and closed down 5 years ago.

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In other happy news–

My favorite 95-year-old Japanese man had a great day yesterday. He was alert. He had clarity. We had great conversations all day. And he remembered details from things he had done the last 2 days. This is huge, gang. It was so nice.

Today, we are going out for sashimi & sake. We’ll see how it goes. Each day is different, at this point. But the one thing that is always the same — we have a great time being together.

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More of the great conversation between Dom Crossan and James Tabor.

Crossan & Tabor–An Informal Conversation: Our Backgrounds, History, Scholarship, and Core Ideas (1 hr 47 mins):

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And I think that’s it for now.

I hope you have a great Saturday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I leave you with this.

Just because sometimes I need to remember why it is that I’m still happy I came here (to Earth, that is). Enjoy, gang.

“Happy”

Well I never kept a dollar past sunset
It always burned a hole in my pants
Never made a school mama happy
Never blew a second chance, oh no

I need a love to keep me happy
I need a love to keep me happy
Baby, baby keep me happy
Baby, baby keep me happy

Always took candy from strangers
Didn’t wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss ev’ry night and day

I need a love to keep me happy
I need a love, baby, won’t ya keep me happy
Baby, won’t ya keep me happy
Baby, please keep me

I need a love to keep me happy
I need a love to keep me happy
Baby, baby keep me happy
Baby

Never got a flash out of cocktails
When I got some flesh on the bone
Never got a lift out of Lear jets
When I can fly way back home

I need a love to keep me happy
I need a love to keep me happy
Baby, baby keep me happy
Baby, baby keep me happy
Baby

Happy, baby won’t you keep me
Happy, baby won’t you keep me
Happy, baby won’t you keep me
Happy, baby won’t you keep me
Happy, baby won’t you keep me
Happy, oh, keep on, baby, keep me
Happy, now baby won’t you squeeze me
Happy, oh, baby got to feel it
Happy, now, now, now, now, now keep me
Happy, my, my, my, keep me
Happy, keep on baby, keep me
Happy, keep on baby, got to
Happy, my, my, baby keep me happy

c- 1972 – Mick Jagger, Keith Richards