Turntable Talk – This Song’s Going Places

Once again, Dave over at A Sound Day has offered up a new topic for his Turntable Talk feature and has asked me to contribute. His thoughts of holiday getaways and Spring Break led to this month’s topic. Our instructions:

“Tell us about a song (or album) you like that is all about going places. Trains, planes, automobiles – there’ve been scores of good songs about traveling, geographically or even mentally, not to mention songs about specific destinations…”

One song immediately popped into my head and takes me back to my childhood. In order to write about the song, we have to take a trip to Michigan’s thumb area in 1979.

My great aunt had a trailer in Caseville, MI. My grandparents would go there on occasion, and we did too. At some point they decided that they also would like a little summer getaway and bought their own trailer. They placed in on a lot of land one street over from my great aunt’s place.

I have many fond memories of that place. Walks to the beach (which is now private), grocery shopping at the IGA, big breakfasts cooked by my dad and grandpa, riding the minibike around the neighborhood, and fishing at the back lake.

The thing I remember most about the trailer in that first couple years was that they did not have a TV. When they did, it only got one or two stations and you’d have to go outside and turn the antenna to get a good picture. The radio was our main source of entertainment. Even that wasn’t great, as there were very few stations that came in. We had this small, one speaker radio/cassette player that provided the music.

There were two cassettes that were at the trailer. The fantastic “Stardust” album from Willie Nelson and Johnny Paycheck’s Greatest Hits Volume 2. Each album contains a song about Georgia, but my pick comes from Johnny Paycheck. Georgia in a Jug originally appeared on Paycheck’s Take This Job and Shove It LP.

The song was written by Bobby Braddock, who wrote some of country music’s biggest hits (Toby Keith’s I Wanna talk About Me, Tammy Wynette’s D-I-V-O-R-C-E, and George Jones’ He Stopped Loving Her Today, to name a few). He is a member of the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame. As a producer, he discovered Blake Shelton and got him his record deal. He also wrote Shelton’s hit “Austin,” which was a number one song. Coincidentally, Blake Shelton also covered Georgia in a Jug.

This song’s “travel” would fall into the “mental” category that Dave mentions in his instructions to us, as it all occurs on a barstool. It is relatable in that most of us have a jar or bucket where we throw spare change in hopes that one day we’ll have enough to travel or make a big purchase. The dreams of the singer are shattered by the end of a relationship. He decides to head to the bar with his money and take his own trip. The destinations include, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Honolulu.

One reason I have always found Johnny Paycheck’s version superior to the other covers is the arrangement. After each destination, you hear a little musical bit that takes you there. “I’m going down to Mexico in a glass of tequila” is followed by the sound of a trumpet from a mariachi band. “Going down to Puerto Rico in a bottle of rum” is followed by a marimba type drum. “Going out to Honolulu in a Mai Tai mug” is followed by the sounds of Hawaiian music. Those little musical flourishes really make the song for me.

Listening to this song as a nine year old, I had no idea it was about getting drunk or drinking. I just remember it being one of those cool songs that the family listened to and sang along with as a gin rummy game was being played, while we were reading a book, or we were sitting outside eating at the picnic table. It is one of many songs that will instantly transport me in time – and isn’t that what makes a song so special?

Thanks again to Dave for allowing me to take part in this feature. As always, I look forward to reading the contributions of the other music lovers in our group. Thanks for reading!

Georgia In A Jug

Mason jars on the dresser filled with dollars and quarters
Savin’ em’ for our trip around the world
But now you’ve changed your tune, there’ll be no honeymoon
So tonight I’m going there without you girl

I’m going down to Mexico, in a glass of tequila
Going down to Puerto Rico, in a bottle of rum
Going out to Honolulu, in a Mai Tai mug
And I’m coming back home to Georgia, in a jug

We’ll never ride that bus to Mexico City, and that’s a pity
We’ll never sail our ship into old San Juan
You’ll never walk with me, on the beach at Waikiki
And we’ll never share that brick suburban home

Today I’m taking that money out of that jar
Tonight I’ll buy my ticket, at the corner bar

I’m going down to Mexico, in a glass of tequila
Going down to Puerto Rico, in a bottle of rum
Going out to Honolulu, in a Mai Tai mug
And I’m coming back home to Georgia, in a jug

Yes, I’m coming back home to Georgia, in a jug…

Happy Easter

Wishing you a very Happy Easter. For me, this is the day I celebrate my risen Savior, Jesus Christ. His death, burial, and resurrection are the foundations of my faith. Without them (and Him) I would be lost and without hope. I rejoice today with those who share my faith.

A weekend update is coming. For now, I will tell you that I am looking forward to egg salad sandwiches made with eggs where the colored dye has bled through the shell….

Happy Easter

I Hope These Won’t Suck, But They Probably Will

When it comes to new stuff coming to TV or the movies, there hasn’t been much for me to get excited about. However, this week, news broke of a couple things that seriously have the potential to be good. Sadly, more often than not, these great ideas are a major disappointment.

A good example of this was when Disney brought the Muppets back to the big screen (and later, the small screen). The reinvented Muppets lacked so much of what the movies and original Muppet Show had. You can bring in every big name celebrity for cameos and it just wasn’t going to save any of those projects.

Now, there is news of a new Muppet feature coming to Disney Plus. The premise is solid and I really hope that it will be worth watching. The Muppets Mayhem will feature the house band from the Muppet Show – Doctor Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.

The show will be a mockumentary about Dr. Teeth and his legendary bandmates, will be available to stream on Wednesday, May 10th. According to Disney plus, “the series “follows The Electric Mayhem Band — Dr. Teeth on vocals and keyboards, Animal on drums, Floyd Pepper on vocals and bass, Janice on vocals and lead guitar, Zoot on saxophone and Lips on trumpet — on an epic, music-filled journey to record their first-ever studio album. With the help of a driven young music executive, Nora Singh, the old-school Muppet band comes face-to-face with the current day music scene as they try to finally record their first studio album.”

Seriously, this really has the potential to be something cool – and I hope it is.

The other project is not anything new. They have been talking about a fifth installment of the Shrek franchise since 2016, but it looks like it may be happening soon.

In past interviews, Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy have both said that if another Shrek movie were to happen, they’d do it in a heartbeat. Rumors are that the original cast members are in talks to be a part of it. Eddie Murphy was quoted as saying he’d be interested in a Donkey spin-off movie. He noted the success of the Puss In Boots movies, and said it could work with Donkey. The rumors also say that the spin-off is a very good possibility.

Both of these projects peak my interest, and I will probably check them out if/when they are released.

Book Recommendation: How To Stop Time

Less than two weeks ago, I posted a blog about a book I read called The Midnight Library. I really enjoyed it. You can read that blog here:

Another Good Read – The Midnight Library

That was the first book I read by author Matt Haig, and it made me want to find other books by him that I might find just as good. So I went to the library website and found one. I’ve always been a big fan of time travel stuff, so the name of one book stuck out – “How to Stop Time.” While this isn’t a true time travel story in the sense of going back in time or forward in time, I found the premise interesting and ordered it.

Amazon and Good Reads both have this synopsis:

Tom Hazard has just moved back to London, his old home, to settle down and become a high school history teacher. And on his first day at school, he meets a captivating French teacher at his school who seems fascinated by him. But Tom has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he’s been alive for centuries. Tom has lived history–performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with F. Scott Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life.

Unfortunately for Tom, the Albatross Society, the secretive group which protects people like Tom, has one rule: Never fall in love. As painful memories of his past and the erratic behavior of the Society’s watchful leader threaten to derail his new life and romance, the one thing he can’t have just happens to be the one thing that might save him. Tom will have to decide once and for all whether to remain stuck in the past, or finally begin living in the present.

How to Stop Time tells a love story across the ages—and for the ages—about a man lost in time, the woman who could save him, and the lifetimes it can take to learn how to live. It is a bighearted, wildly original novel about losing and finding yourself, the inevitability of change, and how with enough time to learn, we just might find happiness.

One review I read said, “How To Stop Time plays like a meditation on the tick and tock of time and mortality. On the preciousness of every moment and the nightmare of having both too few and too many.” I thought this really hit the nail on the head.

Is it a love story? To a degree, yes, but it is more than that. It was another Haig book that I couldn’t put down and finished in two days. There were some slow parts, but all in all, it was a good read. There is talk that Benedict Cumberbatch is going to make a film based on this book.

People always are talking about living forever, but is that really something you’d want to do? Following Tom’s story and the highs and lows of being alive for so long will make you really think about how you want to answer that question.

Spring Is For Splashing!

We have had a lot of rain over the past couple days. It has rained so much that the small city park near us was completely flooded!

While I slept today, Sam said there was torrential rains. When I got up, I could see that the backyard was flooded.

I have to give credit where credit is due – my wife is the “fun” parent. I really don’t think that I would have been the one to say, “Let’s put on your rainboots and go jump in the puddles!” to the kids. She did! Ella lit up! She couldn’t wait to get outside. Andrew was just as excited.

So we all went out and the two of them jumped and splashed! It was really fun to watch.

It was 70 degrees with a slight breeze and the kids loved every minute of it! The smiles and laughter were worth every ounce of mud they brought back in the house!

Andrew was walking by out and you could hear the water sloshing in his boots. Both kids had a cup or more of water in each boot, so the boots came off.

They had a blast jumping and splashing. Oh, to be a kid again!

The wind started to pick up a bit and the sun went away, so it was time to come inside. Neither kid wanted to come in! Despite the chattering teeth, they still wanted to play in the puddles. Sam had gone in and started a bath for them. There was some major coaxing by me and they finally (and sadly) walked inside.

I wish I had gotten a picture of them when they came in. Two wet kids, with mud in the hair, and noses! The warm bath cleaned them up and wonderful memories made – all thanks to Sam’s playful suggestion!

Project Update

The “Closet to Nook” project is underway. I neglected to get a true “before” picture, but I did get some pictures of the early stages.

The first thing my father-in-law and I did was rip out all of the shelving and such that was in the closet.

The above is a look directly into the closet. There was a shelf up top that had the bar to hang coats and such on hanging below it. That stuff came off the wall fairly easily. If you look in and to the right you can see where there were other shelves.

The shelves that were in there were hand made and thankfully didn’t take too much to get out. My father-in-law and I started framing things up as you can see above. Originally, my wife just wanted us to put a wall up and cover the hole back there. (More on that in a minute.)

The frame above the floor is where the bench seat is going to go. We added a couple diagonal beams (like a V) to stabilize the bench (especially for when fat guys like me sit on it!). Now let’s talk about Project Problem #1.

Because this closet was not square really anywhere, we had to make it square. Lots of adjustments and such. We got it as close as we could and started framing and putting every thing together. We were checking to make sure everything was level and there were plenty of screws and nails.

Once the bench frame was ready, we laid the premeasured bench board on top. To our surprise, it was about 2 inches short. We both stood there and looked at it. My father-in-law says, “You know what we forgot to do? We forgot to subtract that extra inch and a half off for that beam in the back.” So I asked him what we needed to do now. He says, “Well, we’re gonna unscrew all of those boards and trim them up and put it all back together again.”

Now, it took about an hour and a half to cut, frame, measure, and screw everything into place. The last thing I wanted to do was undo all that we had done. So I asked, “What if we get a bigger board?” He says, “Well, we could do that. We’d have to cut it to size, though.” Well, I spent the extra money on a new piece of wood, because it was the easy (and granted, more expensive) way out. Once it was cut, it fit perfectly!

The second day of work, we took all the OSB wood and cut them in slats. We’re going to paint the walls, so it won’t look like it does in the picture. My father-in-law asked me again about “walling up” the side of the closet where the shelves were. I asked Sam and she said that she didn’t want shelves and that we were going to put a wall up.

While my father-in-law and I were outside cutting the OSB into slats, Sam and her mom got to talking. (Sam’s mom was there watching the kids while we worked.) We came back in and we found out that they had been discussing the possibility of a cabinet in that wall. So her dad says, “We could do that if you want.” He explained that we had just about enough room to maybe fit one and place OSB above and below it. This, of course, meant another trip the the store.

My father-in-law is one of the brightest guys I know. In every project we have tackled, he has always been able to find a solution. So as we are walking in the store, he says we can do a cabinet or maybe a closet organizer might work. We looked at both and decided the cabinet would be the easiest way to get what we wanted. So we walked back to the cabinet area and spoke with someone.

We knew that we had 54 inches to play with for height. A 40 inch tall cabinet would work. We had 17 inches as our width. The cabinet we wanted was 18 inches wide. No worries, though, because my father-in-law told me we had an inch of wood that we could just trim out and make it fit. So we ask the gal to get us all we need. She runs all the numbers and says it would be about $160 for everything. Perfect. “Oh, wait a minute,” she says.

They didn’t have that cabinet in stock and would have to order it. My father-in-law looked at me and said, “Well, that won’t work.” So we asked what cabinet that size they did have in stock. She tapped a bunch of stuff back in the computer and found one. The door was different and it was about $40 more. “Ring it up!” I said. By this time I was so ready to be done with this!

I had no problem paying extra. It is for my wife and I want it to look good for her! So we brought the cabinet home and built something for it to slide in and sit on and mounted it. I was impressed with how easy this portion of the project went.

So all that we really have to do now is finish putting the OSB up along the side of the cabinet and up on the top of it. Then we have some trim we need to work on closer to the ceiling. We also are going to run a router over the edge of the bench seat edge. After that, we should ne ready to paint.

I can tell you that I would NEVER tackle anything like this by myself. My father-in-law has been such an amazing mentor to me when it comes to this stuff. His tape measure got caught on a board and got bent up while working on the project. When we went to the store to get the cabinet he grabbed a new one. When we got the the register, he picked it up and was going to pay for it himself. I grabbed it back from him and told him that I would get it! With all the things he has helped me with, I certainly wasn’t about to let him pay for a new tape measure!

More to come …

Do You Ear What I Ear?

You may recall that our daughter had tubes put in her ears a year ago. This was due to many ear infections.

A few days ago, she woke up with yellow nastiness cakes around her ear and on her pillow. They were able to get us in to the doctor, who says the eardrum has burst.

She’s on antibiotics and ear drops. The ear is still draining and it almost seems like the ear needs a physical cleaning. She gets three drops in the ear three times a day. The issue seems to be that it pools inside. I end up pulling on the ear lobe a bit to get the drops in.

She’s not in any pain now (surprisingly). I have a feeling if it keeps looking like it does, we have have to take another trip to the doc.

My Next Project

I have been informed by my Project Manager (my wife) that I am tackling a new home improvement project this week. Thankfully, I will once again be under the direction and guidance of the Site Supervisor (my father-in-law). All joking aside, I couldn’t really do anything without his help! He helped me redo our laundry room (with tile and grout), he helped me transform our dining room into Ella’s room, he as helped me with plumbing issues more than once and now he will be working with me on the new project.

In our living room, we have a closet. If you don’t count the linen closet in the bathroom, it is our only closet. Currently, it stores our winter coats and some other things that are hanging in there. It also has shelves off the the side and up top which are holding tools, various boxes, and other things. My wife wants a nook with a bench – so that is what we are going to give her.

The space itself isn’t too big, but I know we need to tear a bunch of stuff out of it to get what my wife is thinking. I am not 100% sure what she is looking to have, but I know she wants a bench, some coat hooks, and basket/bins to go under the bench.

It could look something like the above picture, but this one seems really in the open.

It could look like the picture above, but again, I think this is more complicated than she wants. If I had to guess, I would say that she wants something more like this:

This is deep, like our closet. The coat hooks are perfect for what she was saying. I’m not sure how she wants the baskets under the bench, but it is probably a bit more simpler than the above picture.

It looks like we will get supplies, and do demo of shelves and such on Sunday and finish it up by Monday. I’ll keep you posted.

Pass me that hammer …..

I Smell Like a Shamrock!

Ok, to be fair, I don’t know what a shamrock smells like. I tried to look it up on Google and got answers like:

“…the fresh scent of lush, green hills kissed by a sparkle of sunshine…”
” …shamrock’s smell like freshly poured Guinness, of course!“
“…Shamrock kinda just smells like dirt and grass…”

For some reason or another mint is commonly accepted as the smell of a shamrock. This could be because of the color green or the Shamrock Shake at McDonalds! I really don’t know.

Anyway, conversations at work one day led to talk of they types of soap people use. (Yeah, we have some real brilliant chats at work!) Someone mentioned these huge bars of soap from Duke Cannon. I was unfamiliar with it, and a bar was given to me. The thing is HUGE!

It is like 2 and a half bars of soap.

As the packaging suggests, it really is a “Big Arse Brick of Soap!” I had to laugh because my one coworker told me her husband uses it and he loves it because it smells good and lasts so long. She said that he gets the charcoal soaps. Why anyone would want to smell like a barbecue is beyond me, and at the same time, why would anyone want to smell like a shamrock shake? My one buddy said he gets his at the Hardware store! “It’s right up front by the register!”

So I took this “brick” home and I have used it a couple times now. It actually lathers up pretty good. It smells good. It doesn’t leave my skin dry like a lot of bar soaps either.

I also like a company with a sense of humor. The limerick is often associated with the Irish. No surprise that there is a limerick on the side of the box –

I was happy to read that a portion of the sales of this soap goes to benefit US Veterans. My dad and my Godfather both served in Vietnam. I have many friends who have also served this country and any company that supports our veterans is ok in my book!

I think I will try out another scent when this one is gone. This one may not be for me …. it says so on the label:

“What the Hell…Manns!?”

Today I had a small accident. The said accident caused me pain. If it hadn’t hurt so bad, I might have been able to just yell the title of this blog and it would gotten a laugh from my wife. Instead, the whole thing just caused me to spout off a few curse words (which I am not proud of) and wince in pain.

My wife does not like Miracle Whip. When she last did the grocery shopping, she wanted to get real mayonnaise instead. She bought the bottle pictured above. Once opened, she placed it on the shelf on the refrigerator door. The shelf happened to be the top shelf. Why is that important? Because of the distance it fell.

We had spaghetti for dinner tonight. I went to the fridge to get out some cheese to put on mine. I truly don’t believe that I opened the door too fast or too hard, but it was hard enough for the mayo to fall off the shelf and down to the floor. Only it didn’t hit the floor first.

I’m no mathematician, so I cannot calculate the exact speed that the mayonnaise container was going before it crashed into my baby toe. But based on the gash, loss of skin and amount of blood that was there, it had to be going over 100 miles per hour (give or take a few MPH).

The mayonnaise container fell with the clear flip top down. As it crashed into my toe, the top shattered. I’m not sure exactly what slashed into the top of my toe, but it had to be part of that flip top. My wife was in the other room with the kids when it happened. All she heard was the crash and my hollering in pain.

She called out to me and asked what had happened.

“The mayonnaise broke my toe!” was what I was able to come up with.

It was so ridiculous that I had to share.

My toe still hurts. Thanks for asking….