Welcome Home!

Today I say “Welcome home” and “Thank you for your service” to those who served in the Vietnam War. This includes two Vietnam vets who mean a lot to me – my dad and my uncle/Godfather.

My dad didn’t talk about the war much. It wasn’t until around the time I was in high school that he got involved with the local Vietnam Veterans chapter that he did.

I often went to many of the events held by the chapter. They had fundraisers, steak outs, holiday parties and more. It was at those events that I met other heroes.

Those heroes became good friends. Billy, Jan, Rich, Jimmy Mack, Pat, Steve, Gary and so many others always made me and my friends feel welcome at those events.

Over the years, many of them have passed away. Many from cancer (which may have been caused by Agent Orange). Some of them are battling it now.

When the war ended, many of those who served were treated poorly (and that’s putting it nicely). I never knew any of that until some of the guys eluded to it. I researched this and was saddened to read about their return home.

I have always made it a point to thank veterans who I see out and about at the store and such. Even more importantly, I always be sure to say “Welcome home” to those who served in Vietnam. You have my deepest gratitude.

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Yesterday I took my daughter to Urgent Care with a fever. No Covid. No Flu. No Strep. Instructions were to alternate Tylenol and Motrin. This morning the fever is still there.

No more puking for my son last night. He actually slept good. That was a relief. I stayed up working on transferring some files just in case.

My wife came home from work and she looked terrible. She told me that about two hours into her shift she got really warm and then began to be sick. She struggled through the rest of her shift, occasionally getting more sick. When she got home, she texted her boss to tell her she was not going to be there tonight and went to bed.

I’ve had a cough for a couple days, but that’s really it. I’m hoping and praying I can avoid whatever is going around. Pass the Lysol ….

Where The Rubber Meets the Road and the Vomit Meets the Mattress

You may recall that our jobs require my wife and I to drive 45-70 minutes to work. Then, the same amount of time back home – every day. My car just turned 93,000 miles, while my wife’s just turned 89,000. They are both a 2024 Chevy Trax.

We knew we needed tires. The last couple times we had oil changes they told us. Thankfully, we got a few buck back on our taxes and we were able to both get new tires.

I worked all night Thursday and after work drove to the tire place. They put in my tires and I was home by noon. So I was up about 19 hours. I was able to grab a couple hour nap before getting up to pick up my daughter from school. Exhausted doesn’t describe how I felt by 6pm.

We were all in bed by 7 and the kids were asleep by 8. We all slept in my bed last night, because I was too tired to get them in their own beds. Naturally, once they were asleep, I struggled to fall asleep.

I’m not sure when I fell asleep, but I wasn’t sleeping too long when I had a rude awakening. Andrew began to vomit on the bed, himself, his sister and me. I do NOT do puke well. 9 times out of 10, the smell alone will make me gag.

I shot out of bed and got him to the bathroom. Ella was crying because there was puke on her new pajamas. I was focused on getting the sheets off the bed and in the wash. I was able to get them off before the smell got to me.

We grabbed Andrew’s mattress and put in on the floor in Ella’s room. He slept there and she and I slept in her bed. I didn’t have my CPAP in there, so any sleep I did get was crap.

Total damage: a couple pillows didn’t make it. The puke soaked right through the pillow case. I tossed those right in the trash.

So we’ll be heading to the urgent care this morning to see what’s going on. Hope your weekend is off to a better start than ours.

Friday Photo Flashback

Happy 71st Birthday tomorrow to the amazing Reba McEntire! You know that spunk that you see during her live shows and on her TV show? Yeah, that’s how she is in real life. Here is one of my Rena stories:

I had never had the chance to see her live. It never failed. Every time she came to town for a show, I was DJing a wedding or something. I finally had the chance to see her when she played a show at DTE (formerly, Pine Knob). I was lucky enough to go back stage and meet her.

When I walked up to her I told her I had been wanting to meet her for years, and she said (in her wonderful southern accent), “Well, darlin’, here we are and what took you so long?!” Talk about an amazing person – Reba is that person. We talked about her music and a mutual friend that we have. Reba was the reason for that mutual friend.

When I was working at the Moose, I received a letter from a mom who said that her daughter was a big Reba fan. Her daughter had spinal bifada and she had bought tickets to Reba’s show at one of the casinos. She was hoping that she could get back stage so her daughter could meet her. I made a few calls to some record folks I knew and explained that I didn’t need tickets to the show, just two backstage passes. They made it happen. Her daughter was very surprised and that moment led to our friendship which continues to this day.

Anyone who has been to a meet and greet knows that they try to get you in and out pretty quick. There are almost always a line of people waiting to get their turn. When it was time to take our picture together, she pulled me real close and said “let’s make this one look REAL good!”. She hugged me afterward and I was truly in awe of her. She was about as kind and genuine as they come.

If you ever get the chance to see her, do it – she puts on one hell of a show!

Happy Birthday tomorrow, Reba!

Remembering Ludwig

It was on this day in 1827 that German composer, Ludwig Von Beethoven passed away in Vienna. He died in his apartment at the age of 56, following a prolonged illness. His death was witnessed by his sister-in-law, possibly by his secretary Karl Holz, and by his close friend Anselm Huttenbrenner, who provided a vivid description of the event. Beethoven’s funeral was held three days later, and the procession was witnessed by a large crowd.

This reminds me of a story:

When Beethoven passed away, he was buried in a churchyard. A couple days later, the town drunk was walking through the cemetery and heard some strange noise coming from the area where Beethoven was buried. Terrified, the drunk ran and got the priest to come and listen to it. The priest bent close to the grave and heard some faint, unrecognizable music coming from the grave. Frightened, the priest ran and got the town magistrate.

When the magistrate arrived, he bent his ear to the grave, listened for a moment, and said, “Ah, yes, that’s Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, being played backwards.”

He listened a while longer, and said, “There’s the Eighth Symphony, and it’s backwards, too. Most puzzling.” So the magistrate kept listening, “There’s the Seventh … the Sixth … the Fifth …”

Suddenly the realization of what was happening dawned on the magistrate. He stood up and announced to the crowd that had gathered in the cemetery, “My fellow citizens, there’s nothing to worry about. It’s just Beethoven decomposing.”

In the words of Paul Harvey, “Now you know the rest of the ‘story'”

Book Recommendation – Murder on the Marlow Belle

It was nice to revisit the folks of the Marlow Murder Club. Don’t get them confused with the Thursday Murder Club, though. They are very similar, but each very distinct, I love the characters in both series. This time around it is Murder on the Marlow Belle.

Judith, Suzie and Becks are at it again. This time around, they search to find the murderer on The Marlow Belle. Hear is the Goodreads synopsis:

Verity Beresford is worried about her husband. Oliver didn’t come home last night so of course Verity goes straight to Judith Potts, Marlow’s resident amateur sleuth, for help. Oliver, founder of the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, had hired The Marlow Belle, a private pleasure cruiser, for an exclusive party with the MADS committee but no one remembers seeing him disembark. And then Oliver’s body washes up on the Thames with two bullet holes in him – it’s time for the Marlow Murder Club to leap into action.

Oliver was, by all accounts, a rather complicated chap with a reputation for bullying children during nativity play rehearsals, and he wasn’t short of enemies. Judith, Suzie, and Becks are convinced they’ll find his killer in no time. But things are not as they seem in the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, and this case is not so clear-cut after all. The gang will need to keep their wits about them to solve this case, otherwise a killer will walk free …

This book had all the elements that I have come to enjoy from this group. There were plenty of laughs as the women search for the killer. This one was hard to put down. There was a sort of “cliff hanger” at the end of this book and I’m already waiting for the next book due out this year. It looks like it will pick up where this one leaves off.

I can’t wait to get my hands on this one ….

4 out of 5 stars

Too Much Glare

We’ve been using the same photographer for about 3-4 years now. It never fails, she always seems to find perfect pictures among chaos. We were unable to get family photos done around Christmas, so when her Spring Mini Sessions opened, we scheduled one.

One thing has changed since the last family photo session – three of us are wearing glasses. For the first time ever, I was a bit disappointed with the photos. About half of them had glare on our glasses. Honestly, I’m not sure if our photographer’s assistant did the editing or not, but I was surprised at how many of them had glare.

I attempted to download a few photo apps to see if I could fix them, but every last app wanted credit card information or a subscription for 6 months. I wasn’t about to do that. I attempted to use Gemini and Chat GPT to see if they might be able to get rid of it, and it was hit and miss. One program removed my daughters eye glasses completely along with her eyebrows!

I did drop a note to the photographer, and perhaps she has a way to get rid of it. I’m not sure. I hope so. As I said, we’ve been pretty loyal customers and I hope there is something she can do.

There were some good pictures, though. There was no real bunny this year, but the kids did get one to snuggle.

As difficult as it is to get these to to sit still, there were a couple nice ones of the two of them.

Sadly, it was the family photos that the glare played a factor in. Too many people with glasses, perhaps? A couple of these were run through AI, but the glare is still there.

She had the kids take a few together with Sam, but the glare really messed those up. By the time it was my turn to get a couple with the kids, Andrew was kind of done with pictures. Ella, however, is always happy to get pictures with me. She also always knows how to make a dad feel special.

I really hope that our photographer reaches out. I have a couple friends who take pictures, but I don’t know if they’d be able to correct them. Fingers crossed.

Tune Tuesday

It was on this day in 1958 that Elvis Presley joined the US Army.

Elvis had been in the RCA recording studio in Nashville on February 1, 1958. It was on that day that he would record Wear My Ring Around Your Neck. This would be the final recording session before he entered the service.

The song was written by Bert Carroll and Russell Moody. What is unique about the song is that it was particularly notable for breaking a string of ten consecutive number 1 hits that Elvis achieved in just two years. Although it was Presley’s sixth number-one hit in the American R&B charts, it only peaked at number 2 on the American pop charts.

In June of 1958, while on his first army leave (furlough), Elvis recorded five songs: “I Need Your Love Tonight,” “A Big Hunk O’ Love,” “Ain’t That Loving You Baby,” “(Now and Then There’s) A Fool Such as I,” and “I Got Stung”. This was his final session until March 1960, when he was discharged.

While in the army, RCA continued to release songs that Elvis has already recorded.

Movie Music Monday – Sky High

It took me a bit to find a movie to feature today. This is mainly because it wasn’t so much about the movie, or the song. I wanted to find a song and movie based on the artist. On this day in 1944, Ric Ocasek of The Cars was born. There are plenty of Cars songs in the movies. Honestly, I could have picked Moving In Stereo because of the scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High because that’s the one everyone talks about. Instead, I picked Just What I Needed, which is featured in 2005’s Sky High.

This movie really has quite the cast. Kurt Russell, Kelly Preston, Lynda Carter, Bruce Campbell, Dave Foley, and even Cloris Leachman! I’ve never seen the movie, but the cast makes it something I may have to visit.

I also admit that I am stretching it a bit, because the Cars version is not it the film. The version in the film is by Caleigh Peters (whoever that is.) It doesn’t matter, though, because I want to focus on Ric today.

Songfacts.com says, “Ric Ocasek was The Cars’ frontman, but he had bass player Ben Orr sing lead on this one. Unlike some singers, Ocasek had no problem handing off a hit to a different bandmember to sing.”

Ric was the writer of Just What I Needed. Songfacts says “he wrote this song in a basement at a commune in Newton, Massachusetts, where he lived at the time. At least that’s the story he told – he also said that all written words are fiction.

“Just What I Needed” is a classic example of his skewed sense of humor and sly lyrical touch. It seems very sweet when he’s telling the girl she’s just what he needed and letting her know he’s happy to have her wasting his time. But then he gets to the chorus:

I guess, you’re just what I needed
I needed someone to feed
I guess, you’re just what I needed
I needed someone to bleed“

The song established The Cars as one of New Wave’s leading hitmakers and helped get them a deal with Elektra Records. According to songfacts, They recorded a 2-track demo of the song that their manager brought to two popular Boston radio stations: WBCN and WCOZ. This ploy rarely works, but the group had built a following in the area and the song was very radio-friendly. Both stations played it and listeners loved it; on WBCN, it became the most-requested song by a local band in the history of the station. With a song on the radio in a major market, The Cars were a surefire success and had their pick of record labels. They went with Elektra, who had them re-record the song and released it as their first single.

Happy Birthday, Ric!

WordPress Daily Prompt

Who was your most influential teacher? Why?

Every once in a while, there will be a prompt that I feel compelled to write an answer to. In this case, I wrote about it in 2020.

Who was my most influential teacher? That is one of the easiest questions to answer. Tom Shaner. Why? Well, here is a link to the blog I wrote when he passed away:

https://nostalgicitalian.com/2020/12/29/im-gonna-miss-you-sir/