View from a windshield at 84 mph

This ain't the German autobahn or a Montana country road, and I have heard they drive faster there. But, I am not so sure they pull a boat three or four or five times larger than the vehicle that is pulling it when they race down the road. I was slipping and sliding around eight-five miles-per-hour (mph) along the highway a few days ago when I passed this boat and the pick-up truck pulling it. Its speed would have been between seventy-five and eighty. I do not think I would care to pull a boat like that -- its name was Cindy Lou, incidentally -- at a speed like that. But, I am beginning to miss my Mustangs and my Audi and to think I need a faster car than my typically suburbanite Mercury Sable. By the way, for New Yorkers and Los Angeles-types, this is an interstate highway in Minnesota, maybe thirty miles from the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. Do you get it? Next, the songs below feature Jon Lord, who played with a couple of bands, but is mostly known for his years with Deep Purple. Lord died last week at the age of seventy-one. If you missed out on Deep Purple and Lord because of your youthful age or your anti-rock snobbery, I feel sorry for you. But, then again, I can relate to that because I can barely handle country western, refuse to listen to rap or hip hop, and think most bands popular during the last decade should be banned from performing in public. To each, his or her own. Rock on! (But, without the cowboy hats, please.)
 

Not a post, but sort of an ending

Open a box from your seldom-visited storage unit, and what do you find? Why, memories, of course. Four sets of swim fins, in this instance. Two pair of these U.S.Divers/Aqua Lung fins have tasted the waters of the Pacific Ocean, as well as a few bordering seas, lakes and rivers. Another pair has known Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, as well as a few less significant lakes and rivers. The fourth and final pair -- from where do these companions come; what waters have they explored? Well, not all questions are meant to be answered. A bit of mystery makes life more interesting, does it not? Oh, yes -- the music -- no mystery there. The song is part of a sunrise portrait painted for eternity within the depths of my memory of awaking on a July morning from the heat of the sun on my face as I slept on a stretch of near-white sand forming a seemingly endless Lake Superior beach. (I believe that might be the longest sentence I ever have written.) I was quickly on my feet, running up the beach. I wanted music to match my adrenalin of the moment. My Suburban of those days had six speakers within it, and the sounds of "Sunrise" and "July Morning" from Uriah Heep began rocking through the air. I sat there for a long time, on that sandy beach, staring out over The Lake to end all lakes and the woodlands bordering it. Time did not exist there. It could have been a million years ago. I could have been the only man living upon the earth. And, yes. One pair of those fins is part of that memory. About midnight the night before, I had used them to swim out and out and further out into The Lake beneath the radiance of a full moon. I should write more about that lonely swim sometime .... hmmm. There were two full moons in July that year, and I swam in The Lake beneath both of them. It was my last summer of living by The Lake -- possibly, my last summer of actually living. Rock on ....

Sunrise

Performed by Uriah Heep / Bernie Shaw, vocalist
Composed by Jarvis Cocker, Stephen Mackey, Nick Banks, Candida Doyle, Mark Webber & Peter Mansell

Sunrise, and the new day's breaking through.
The morning of another day without you.
And as the hours roll by
no one's there to see me cry
except the sunrise,
the sunrise and you.

Tired eyes drift across the shore.
Looking for love and nothing more.
But as the sea rolls by
no one's there to see me cry
except the sunrise,
the sunrise and you.

Sunrise, bless my eyes.
Catch my soul,
make me whole again.

Sunrise, new day heed my song.
I'm tired of fighting and fooling around.
But from now until who knows when?
My sword will be my friend.
And I'll love you...love you for all of my time.

Sunrise, bless my eyes.
Catch my soul,
make me whole again.
Sunrise.

Not a post, but sort of a self-portrait

I lack many things. Imagination is not among them. I had a physical examination a few days ago which included blood work. With the words, "why not?" running through my mind, I took my Blackberry from my shirt pocket. I then said to the technician that I was about to do something I would wager she had never before experienced.  She gave me a half-worried, half quizzical look, so I actually told her what I was about to do. With my right hand, I then took this photograph while blood was being drawn from my left arm. Not a photographic masterpiece, but, given the circumstances, not bad and sort of fascinating -- I think. Incidentally, I did not realize I was holding the technician's blouse until I saw the photograph.  Instinctual, I guess. She did verge on being beautiful and had a wonderful smile.