Yes! We have yet another gorgeous morning here today, gang. That rain & thunderstorm stuff still hasn’t happened yet — and now they’re saying tomorrow…

I guess we’ll see.

But this means I get to take another gorgeous walk out there again today.

This village is so fucking pretty in the summertime. There are a few mobile home-type houses here, but most of the houses are really old yet really well maintained — so much character, no 2 houses look alike here — and the village itself (population around 1,354) is surrounded by tall cornfields this time of year. And beyond the cornfields, are the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. Tons of really green trees extending up the horizon, wherever you look, for miles and miles and miles.

When the sky is blue, and it’s not too hot & humid, it just takes my mind to a whole other place.

I really, really love walking. And even in NYC, I loved walking. And even though I really miss NYC, and even though while I’m walking here, I really have no clear idea of how I got here — it still sort of rescues my entire soul.

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Okay, first.

Today is the 5th anniversary of the passing of one of my dear friends, Kent. He and I met when we were 12 and became fast friends for life.

Kent loved books and music — in High School, he turned me on to people that I instantly just loved. For instance, Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Waits. To name just two.

Kent had a PhD in Geology and primarily worked for NASA most of his adult life. (And if you think that I’m a conspiracy theorist, you should have known Kent! For instance, he studied the actual moon rocks as part of his job. He said, “Those rocks didn’t come from any moon…”)

Anyway. Kent was wonderful. So smart, so funny.

Kent was also very good friends with my friend Steve — the guy I’ve known since we were 11. We texted yesterday, sort of unable to believe that Kent’s been gone 5 years already.

RIP, Kent. We still miss you so much.

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Today is also this!

Happy 83rd Birthday, Mick Jagger! (Below, he is about 27, in the era of Exile on Main Street.)

And here’s this, from 1985! This record was really popular back then –when I was working with my best friend Valerie at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC! “Lucky in Love,” from Mick’s solo album, She’s the Boss:

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Okay. This happened yesterday and sort of stunned me.

I was looking through a bunch of old photos that I found stored in the chest of drawers in the guest room.

There was one big envelope of family photos — and it was quite an assortment, between my adoptive family and my birth family.

A lot of the photos, I’d forgotten I even had.

There was a photo of my birth dad from 1954, but on the back of the photo, I discovered that the address of the house they lived in at the time was written on it. (My dad was 9 years old in 1954.)

I decided to Google the address!

I knew that by the time my dad and his family had moved to Ohio from Kentucky, my grandfather was a serious alcoholic. My great-grandparents had moved my grandfather to Ohio and bought him some land, to try to give him one final chance to start over. Instead of starting over, though, my grandfather died from complications with his alcoholism, leaving my grandmother alone with 5 kids.

As an adult, my birth dad had told me that they had been very poor because of his dad’s drinking. But seeing the actual house yesterday online, still just stunned me.

Built in 1901. 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. Absolutely tiny, although it still sits on a decent amount of land. And the house is not far from where my birth mom lives now, I could easily go there and see it. This is the house my dad lived in when I was conceived:

And just FYI, this is a school photo of my dad that same year I was conceived (he was 14, my birth mom was 12):

By the time I was born, he was 15 and in jail for stealing. He was put in the women’s jail, though, because — as you can see– he was a little too young to be thrown in with a bunch of grown men.

However, even though my dad went on to be a US Navy SEAL, serving in Vietnam for the entire duration of that war — even getting injured by a flame-thrower on the Mekong Delta during the TET Offensive — he still maintained that being stuck in the women’s jail for 6 months when he was 15 , was the worst time of his entire life.

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Okay!

Here’s this from that FB page yesterday! Nick Cave!! Adorable!

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All righty!

I guess I’m going to get started around here. I’ve already had an interesting morning — watched the Sunday Catholic Mass from a church in Ireland. Then suddenly felt inspired to read some poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky in a book I’ve owned for about 40 years that was totally falling apart– what a trip down Memory Lane.

Later today, is the live Zoom call for Ross K. Nichols’ private Yachad Group, which promises to be very interesting. And in the meantime, I guess I’m going to go take a walk and think about my life.

I still have a list of things to do, writing-wise, but I am making really great progress with it. By this coming week, I should be able to make some real time to sit and get that memoir underway.

Okay. Have a beautiful Sunday, wherever you are in the world, gang.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Let’s leave with this.

A great video Kent sent me about 8 years ago. It’s beautiful. (This is a song by New Order, the video is from 2012.)

“To celebrate New Order headlining the first year of the UK’s newest festival, the Brythoniaid Male Voice Choir were commissioned by Festival No.6 to record their own unique version of ‘Blue Monday’. The 60 members of the Brythoniaid Male Voice Choir, formed in 1964 in Blaenau Ffestiniog, recorded their interpretation of the seminal track in the studio, then filmed the video on location at the stunning Portmeirion, location for Festival No.6 . Surely the most unique setting for a festival the UK has ever seen?”

Kent’s comments to me: “Apparently everyone in Wales can sing.”

Festival No.6 presents the Brythoniaid Male Voice Choir – ‘Blue Monday’ . Enjoy, gang.