A peek of spring

Decided I wasn't in the mood to comment on all the gloomy bullshit happening in the world today, and we have warm weather and sunshine, so I figured I'd post more of my sappy spring photos that I took today.
As usual, click on them to humongify (yeah, I know that isn't a word, but WTF)

Picture 1: Blood Plum blossoms
Picture 2: Daffodils next to my front porch
Picture 3: Bi-colored daffodil
Picture 4: Miniature daffodils (the flowers are only an inch across)
Pictures 5 and 6:  the first tulips opening in my yard; the rest are getting ready to bloom

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The stuff up above I typed in Saturday.  Just after I had saved it, I heard a whining form my computer, and my hard drive expired.  Put a new one in, and decided to upgrade my operating system from XP to Win 7.  Just getting things set up from backups.

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Lately I've been in the mood for a lot of old stuff; I don't know how much anyone will recognize.


         "To Cry You A Song" by Jethro Tull
 "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison
        "King of the Road" by Roger Miller
         "Substitute" by The Who
         "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters
         "Yesterday's Gone" by Chad and Jeremy
         "Homeward Bound" by Simon and Garfunkel
         "Runaway" by Del Shannon
         "All Your Love" by John Mayall, Eric Clapton, and the Bluesbreakers
        "Sunday Morning Coming Down" by Johnny Cash


Who could forget this tune?

An oldie from some of the best of the blues players.




I think a lot of us can empathize with this song; written by Kris Kristofferson and done by the Man in Black.

Hi again

Anyone else getting tired of winter? Around here it has been a roller coaster the past few days; we get a half foot of snow, then it turns sunny for a day, then it snows again, then it is sunny, until you don't know what the weather is like until you look outside, and if you wait a couple of hours, you better look again, because it may have changed. (Damn, that was an awfully long sentence, with too many commas.)
I was finally able to hobble to the gym today and do some work on the machines; I still can't use a treadmill because of the pain in my left leg, and I don't dare use the free weights. Still trying to get the strength up in my bad shoulder so it will be ready when spring finally comes.

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Saw this little item the other day; if the reviews on it turn out well, I may have to look into one, especially for that price. Check out some of the stuff you can do with infra-red.

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Have you seen the people that the Stupid Party (Republicans) have been coming up with? I think Tamara pretty much sums it up better than I could express it.

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I see the feds are still battling about the national debt. There is no way they are going to come up with a good solution; you cannot pay off something when the money out is more than the money coming in, and anyone who thinks just raising taxes will solve it is an idiot. The government has raised taxes in the past, and it never works, because they do the same thing that some families do; when they start making more money, they just start spending more, so it doesn't help them relieve the debts at all. Both parties will do their song-and-dance, make a lot of noise, and not solve a damn thing. I have a bad feeling that the charade will go on until the camel's back breaks, and then we will have an economic crash that will make the Great Depression look like a party. I hope I'm wrong.

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A bunch of oldies in this batch.

"Waltzing Matilda" by Slim Dusty
"Society's Child" by Janis Ian
"Lovely to See You" by The Moody Blues
"Maggie May" by Rod Stewart
"Lazy Bones" by Leon Redbone
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye
"Can't Find My Way Home" by Blind Faith
"Lady Willpower" by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap
"California Nights" by Lesley Gore
"All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix

Anyone around in the sixties should remember this group.




A lot of her songs were "bubble-gum"; this was one of her best.




What can you say about this version? It speaks for itself.

And Mother Nature plays her game...

Yesterday it was 70ºF, during the night a storm moved in; I woke up to the yard covered with snow. Around the neighborhood quite a few branches got broken off; some of mine are bent to the ground.

#1: you can see from my birdbath that there is about 6-8" in my back yard.
#2. some trees in my front yard.  The snow isn't as deep because it is all on the trees, bending them to the ground
#3: looking into my driveway from the street.  I had to knock snow loose to drive out.
#4: looking out into the street from my driveway.

The sun came out a couple of hours ago, so hopefully some of this will melt away.

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It appears someone burned a Qu'ran; so now people are rioting over in the middle east, and killing people who have no relation whatsoever to the person who burnt it. Bunch of savages still stuck in the dark ages.

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Will try to post more often; sometimes I have the focus and energy, sometimes not. If my health gets better that will probably help.

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Any familiar ones in this bunch?

"Knockin' On Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan
"Fire and Ice" by Pat Benatar
"I'm Eighteen" by Alice Cooper
"Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" by Crystal Gayle
"Dark Night" by The Blasters
"Once Bitten, Twice Shy" by Great White
"Morgana" by John Renbourn
"Black Unicorn" Heather Alexander
"Take Me to Heart" by Quarterflash
"Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." - Robert Frost

Was hoping to get here sooner; I've been laid up with sciatica for the past couple of weeks. Feels like my left kidney, hip, and leg are being beaten with baseball bats, and that's on a good day. When it gets acting up badly, it feels even worse, and throbs continually. I'm feeling a bit better today, so I'm able to focus a little better.  My wife is visiting her brother for the weekend (I'll be taking her to the airport in just a few minutes), so I'm going to be a bachelor for a couple of days.

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I don't know what is going to happen in the Middle East, everything seems in an uproar over there. It will probably turn out the way it usually does; whoever has the most soldiers and the best weapons will bully and beat everyone else into submission, and run things like usual. Nothing really changes over there, a bunch of neo-barbarian tribes fighting it out, only they can afford better guns these days.
I just hope the idiots in DC keep us out of it; nothing good ever comes of messing around in other people's civil wars.

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We're getting a taste of spring, but it could still rain and snow this weekend; around here the weather is sort of odd.  The daffodils, hyacinths, and crocuses are blooming well; the tulips should be opening up soon.

At least the flowers are brightening up things a bit.
Picture 1: a miniature daffodil; it is only one inch across.
Picture 2: full size daffodils
Picture 3: periwinkle
Picture 4: violets
Picture 5: catkins on a quaking aspen

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Any favorites in this bunch?

"As Time Goes By" by Rosemary Clooney
"One" by Three Dog Night
"Saginaw Michigan" by Lefty Frizzell
"Squeeze Box" by The Who
"Those Were the Days" by Cream
"Cats in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin
"Jump" by Van Halen
"Waiting for the Sun" The Doors
"Dark Eyed Woman" by Spirit
"Sometimes in Winter" by Blood, Sweat, and Tears