Moving Mama & Home-Fried Chicken!

Well, this past weekend I took off work on Friday (3/25) so that I could move my Mama from the assisted living home she was residing back to her doublewide - where she will be residing with my sister and her husband. (At least for a while). I had rented a uHaul truck and hired a senior vet student to help me and about 5 hours later we had all of Mama's stuff moved. My sister & Mama spent most of the weekend getting stuff arranged. So now she is pretty much moved in to her half of the place. I paid for moving day with an achy, sore knee most of the weekend. It wouldn't have been so bad (I think) if it hadn't been cool and rainy Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday I got to keep the J-man for about 4 hours. My oldest son & wife brought 2-year old Jonas over to stay for a while. We had a good time even though most of the last hour there he spent sleeping in my lap. (He had fallen asleep while watching the Sprout (PBS-related) Network. He will be a heartbreaker when he's older! Believe You ME!

Friday night I had learned some *SHOCKING* news. Well - shocking to a southern boy! My sweetie had never had *home-fried chicken*. Now, she had had KFC and other restaurant-style fried chicken, but like I said - never had home-fried! So, as a southern boy who had home-fried chicken several times a month while growing up and at every family *event* (i.e. wedding, family reunion, death, any party) I took it upon myself to rectify this situation. So I home-fried chicken for Sunday lunch (and took a couple of pieces to Mama - since it was her recipe & she loves fried chicken) and DKW gave it two thumbs up. I had even fried her up a side of home-made onion rings - which she loved. She stated the obvious - that it was very different from KFC - but also added "it's much better"! (I had to sit down before my swelling head caused me to fall over.) But I was pleased. I had one piece myself and it was good. If you don't know - I don't eat fried food more than once or twice a year. It's just healthier that way.

Everyone Have a Great Day!

Skynyrd Still Rocks

This past Saturday night DKW & I used our *free* tickets and attended the Lynyrd Skynyrd concert at the Golden Moon Casino in Philadelphia. Never mind the fact that I've been rocking to these guys since 1970 - they still put on a good show. The last song of the "regular" set was the mega-hit "Sweet Home Alabama" and the joint was rocking and everyone was dancing in the aisles. Of course they said their goodbyes and walked off - but nobody was leaving and everybody in the audience was making noise including many shouts of (the ultimate concert -song) "FREEBIRD". I have to admit yelling it out myself. Well, after 3-5 minutes they came back out and did a "FreeBird" encore that lasted more than ten minutes and everyone left happy. It was great fun & I actually broke even on the gambling I did - so it was a great "low-cost" night.

Everyone have a great day!

Bye Ole Truck!

Well, my truck is gone. The new owner drove it away a few minutes. It was a bittersweet feeling as it left. I liked my old truck but it was on the verge of being a money drain. Oh. Well - not my problem any more. I was very up front with the new owner about the possible future problems - but he still wanted it. The bill of sale was "As Is" so he has assumed any problems that manifest from this moment on.
Tomorrow DKW & I are going down to the casino at Philadelphia (MS). I was given 2 tickets to the Lynyrd Skynyrd concert at 8 PM. We are going to enjoy the concert and I plan on doing a little gambling. Not a lot - I have a set amount I'm taking with me for it and if I lose that I'm done. I'm not going to be stupid about it.
Actually, besides tomorrow, we are going down to the casino on the 19th too. Rita Coolidge is in concert and I have tickets for that one too.
Ahh well. Everyone have a great day!

Mo' Thunder......

Well, I couldn't let it go. The music selected in my last entry I do love, but there are so many songs I left off that this would be Volume 2 (same rules - 14 songs - only one song per artist -plus can't repeat any from first volume). So here goes: (1) Bang Shang-A-Lang - The Archies, (2) Panama Red - New Riders of the Purple Sage, (3) Timothy - The Buoys, (4) I Think I Love You - The Partridge Family, (5) Karma Chameleon - Culture Club (6) Truckin'-Grateful Dead, (7)Iron Man - Black Sabbath, (8) Still of the Night - Whitesnake (9) Back in Black - AC/DC, (10) We're An American Band - Grand Funk Railroad, (11) Play My Game - The Donnas, (12)Devil Gate Drive - Suzi Quatro, (13) Tainted Love - Soft Cell and finally (14) Bat Out of Hell - Meatloaf. Again - many great songs left off. But I promise this is my last musical entry - At least for a long time. But an explanation is in order (I think) for number 11. It was the theme song for the A&E show "RollerGirls" which followed a Roller Derby league in Texas - It lasted 2 seasons and I liked it. But I realize a lot of folks may not have heard of it.
Sigh - I think I may be selling my truck. Had it in the shop to get the fuel system flushed, oil changed, tires rotated & balanced. They did that, but with further inspection. They suggested I at least replace the front brake pads (which will may it good for maybe a year) , but it will need some major brake/wheel work ($1K or more) before a year or so. So I think I'll cut my losses, get what I can, and let her go. But don't worry - I will let whoever buys it know about the upcoming needed work. Dang!

Everyone have a great day!

Smoke and Lighting, Heavy Metal Thunder

Ok, If you are any type of music afficianado you recognize my title for today as being from "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf. I was thinking of days of yore with most (vinyl) albums had ten or twelve tracks - or if you were really fortunate 14. That being said - if you had to come up with your ultimate compilation disc - the (and I will be kind) 14 songs that either speak to you and/or have significance to you. Think about it and here I will give you mine - a very eclectic mix is mine: (1) Born to Be Wild - Steppenwolf (2)Afternoon Delight - Starland Vocal Band (3) Gimme Dat Ding - The Pipkins (4)Joy to the World - Doobie Brothers (5)Burning Love - Elvis (6)Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World (Medley) - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (7)Rock and Roll All Nite-Kiss (8)Starkville City Jail-Johnny Cash (9)We Will Rock You/We are the Champions - Queen (10)Last Train to Clarksville- Monkees (11)Pagan Baby - Creedence Clearwater Revival (12)Schools Out - Alice Cooper (13)Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple (14) La Grange - ZZ Top. I gave this a lot of thought and removed some songs and added others , but if I had a gun pointed to my head - this would be my list. My only restrictions were: No more than 14 tracks and one song per artists represented. Obviously I've left off a ton of great music , but each song represented means somethign to me. Like #9 - Listened to it a lot with my Dad - he wore out two 8-tracks with that song & had it on vinyl. #11 off CCR's "Pendulum" album - my friend Larry & I wore out an 8-track of our own listening to that in my '66 Chevy Impala SS before & after school. #3 - my kids would probably tell you that if they had to choose a song for me - this would be it - I'm sure they heard it enough in their younger years to get sick of it. (Tough!) I'm not going to list my reasons for each, but I am going to for one last one - #6 - first dance at my wedding w/DKW - but I loved this medley since I first heard it on the (very) short-lived TV series "New Amsterdam" (8 episodes aired Mar/Apr 2008).

Some of the artists on the list I could make compilations of just their songs (i.e. Kiss, CCR, Alice Cooper, ZZ Top, etc.) but I kept to my own rules. Think of your own.

Everyone have a great day!