So the second half of my trip back to the land of ERRRRRR involves family and friends.
What and incredible weekend it was for both. To be able to come home and finally catch up with my sister who now lives in England with very her cool Husband. They happened to be coming in for a stay at the same times so it was yet another good reason to head home. Seeing Meg and spending time with her was wonderful she’s not my baby sister anymore and it was a joy to share conversation with her and her husband and get all caught up on things again. Then having a second sister living right in town behind my parents home made it so I could spend time with her, her husband and two great kids. Got see my niece and nephew who are growing up way to fast. It was wonderful to just sit and chat with my sister Patsy. And just being able to enjoy every moment I could spend with my Mom and then Fathers day with my Dad. It was just more than I could have hoped for to have that much quality time with family.
And then there was this little gathering of some of my old friends at a little joint in town called the rivers bend. This place has been there on the edge of the grand river in various forms it seem like as long as I can remember, and so this was just the right place for all of these people to gather. I will admit to being a little apprehensive as I headed out to this party. Some people I’d seen not long ago and stay in touch with fairly often. But the majority of this gang I hadn’t seen in quite some time like 30 years in some cases! So as I walked in and began to scan the room for familiar faces I started to see what was about to happen, a real great evening of conversation, laughs, tears and lots of smiles as I was excepted back into this great circle of friends. Man at first I felt like I was the only one that had changed. I could recognize just about everyone of course like myself of course people looked different, but it was the personalities that what make it so easy to re-connect with these very important people in my life.
The old stories start pouring out as everyone tried to spend a few moments with each other. It felt a little intense at first like we needed to hurry to catch up with everyone before time ran out. But as the drinks flowed and we all sat down to eat the evening just got more and more enjoyable. I loved to old stories and how sometimes you had a whole different memory of the same thing that a friend was talking about, and then you start to talk about what the hell you’ve been doing, family old teachers and start to see just how much all these people effected you’re life, this place you grew up in really does have a place in your heart. And these Friends are still the best friends a person could grow up with. Then as you decide a group picture is needed before some have to leave we all gathered together for a “team picture” and it’s just as silly as if we were all seniors again. You couldn’t get this group to stop laughing, making faces, making smart comments, (ok Jeff and I were the biggest culprits on those points) as the evening just kept making its move towards the sublime. I wish I could go into more detail, but that wouldn’t be fair to my friends. And I wish I list them all here on the page, but that would mean I’d forget someone and that wouldn’t be fair either. I just want to say to all of them how privileged I feel to be able to call all of them friends, old dear friends who I feel so lucky to have grown up around!
I will say one more thing, just for those who came to this gathering and that are this. I really do hate pickles, but for one crazy night in one crazy little town, I was more than happy to take a bite out of one of our cities historic symbols! The smell of Heifetz in the summer is about only thing I don’t miss about the land of ERRRRRRRRRRR! Thanks for the wonderful time gang and I look forward to enjoying my next chance to see you all again. It was a very positive charge to my heart and we are all even closer than before!

During the weekend I quickly got my fill of the wall to wall coverage some were doing regarding the death of Michael Jackson…..particularly since there was nothing new to report.  NBC in particular filled their entre Evening news with Brian Williams and the Weekend Today shows with the same footage and the same freaking reports from the same freaking reporters.

So since we have gone to the well waaaay too much on Jackson, lets have this as the last thing we see or say…until someone gets arrested.

From Time magizine

 

 

I’ve heard the same adage you have, “famous people die in 3’s.”  Guess this week makes that more or a rule than a suggestion.

Ed McMahon – The ultimate pitch man. He could do commercials and make you want to eat Alpo. A giant in the television industry.

Farah Fawcett – I was a teenager when her poster came out.  I had a bad case of carpel tunnel in my right hand for a long time due to that poster.

Michael Jackson – A marvel to watch and I  enjoyed much of his music.  He changed the music video industry and I remember seeing evidence of someone having the “it” factor.

I was standing in the Blockbuster Video store on East North Street, right after the Motown 25^th Anniversary tape was released. Blockbuster had it running on their multi screen display.  As I recall, there were between 20 and 25 folks in the store. Black and white, young and old, men and women.  At one point I noticed no one was moving or talking. We ALL were watching Jackson do the moon walk as he performed.  I looked around the store and everyone was looking up and engrossed in a performance unlike any since the Beatles. He held the entre store in his hand and it was amazing.

A pitchman, a pinup, and a performer. 

Things keep changing.

 People keep leaving.

 What a week.

I am in a bad mood. 

My normal sunny disposition is under wraps due some of the recent events. 

Lets take a brief walk down the path shall we.

Mark Sanford – I wasn’t surprised that he was caught having an affair.  Those are becoming a political normalcy.  It did surprise me it was with a woman. 

To take that uncomfortable feeling a bit further, close your eyes and visualize the following: Sanford, naked, covered in sweat, straining for the “brass ring” with his “very good friend” in Argentina.  Give you the willies? Good.

Farrah Fawcet – The announcement of her passing moved on the news wires a couple of hours ago.  I’m sorry she became ill and I can speak from personal experience the toll cancer takes on the patient as well as the family and friends is horrible. 

She was like many in Hollywood. Famous for being famous. She teased her hair and flashed a big smile in the 70’s for Charlies Angles and that was it. Not much of an actress…but made for a great poster.  Beyond that….not much to hang your hat on. 

Health Care – When Lord Big Ears was elected he promised change.  Oddly enough he never said he planned on “changing” everything by having his team run every industry they can touch.  Their motto should be….”from the people that brought you the I.R.S. (a well run machine) comes your brand new car companies, your banks, and now government designed Health Care. “ 

Has it dawned on any of the losers that actually voted for Obama, that neither he or any of those that will design the new health care program, will be part of it. 

Thaaaats right, none of the SOBs will opt out of their very nice program (President, administration, Congress, etc) and have to endure what we will. 

Am I the only one that is bothered by that? 

Next time one of your liberal friends burps up the health care issue, ask him or her, why it wont be good enough for the leader of the free world and his friends in congress, but it will be fine for the taxpayers.

I need to run.  Time to kick the dog, steal some candy from the neighborhood kids, and frighten the old folks.

Well whoever it was who said   “you can never go home again” is just flat out wrong when it comes to my home town Eaton Rapids or as we called it back then, “the land of ERRRRRR”! 

     A few months ago several old friends of mine mentioned to me that they were all going to get together for little mini reunion this summer and asked me to come up. Now mind you I have gone back home to visit my family over the years and occasionally I would run into a friend here or there, but I hadn’t gone to any reunions since my 10^th which was a long time ago. I decided to think about going but really didn’t feel like it would be a big deal if I didn’t go. I mean why spend the money on a trip like that was it really worth the time, effort or money? Well as the time for the gathering started to get closer some things started to happen in my life. 1^st, one of my friends started posting old pictures of all of us when we were kids. Wow there I was with all that hair, skinny as a rail, braces and zits, but with this big old smile on my face. And there were all my old friends laughing it up and it made me think of the fact that a lot of my memories about school days seemed to only be about, the guilt over bad things I did or that I had hurt some ones feelings back then or embarrassed myself doing something stupid (which was a pretty regular thing back then), and heck I didn’t stick around to many years after school, I was headed to Texas just a few years after school and would end up never moving back. So really what reason did I have to come back and see these guys? Well that answer was in those pictures. Those smiling faces of me and my friends started to bring back the fond memories again of the good times and the old friendships I had left behind. I mean some of these people I’ve known since we were 6 years old!  And it was then that I started to think this trip might just be a fun thing to do. Add to that the fact that my Mom and Dad were celebrating their 55^th anniversary and my sister was coming in from England AND it was Father’s day and well, I sure didn’t need any more convincing, I was going up.

     When I arrived in town it was storming outside and I thought “great another cloudy cold weekend in Michigan!” And then another element came into my big weekend home. I was home only like 15 minutes when a tornado hit! It was like the wrath of hell had descended on my parent’s neighborhood. The power went out, we heard what sounded like explosions and then it was over. Well we could go outside cause of the rain so we all just went to bed. When we got up at the ungodly hour of 7a.m., it was then we saw what had happened. Giant trees down everywhere. In the streets over power lines, in the back yard crushing the fence and another slammed into the back of my folk’s garage. And that was all just in our yard! All over the neighborhood, trees or power polls had crushed cars, covered the streets and it looked as though a bomb had gone off. I thought first of how lucky we all were that no one had been hurt, and then thought of how long it would take for all this to be cleaned up and what a long ordeal these people were in for waiting for the help to come and begin cleaning things up, it would be weeks before this neighborhood would be back to normal. Boy was I wrong!

      You see this is small town middle America, it’s the kind of town John Mellencamp would write a great song about, this is a place where people know who lives next door, where hard work is part of one’s life, where you learn to do whatever it takes and don’t sit around whining and bitching about things you just go do it! And as the sound of chainsaws began to fill the air, I stood in the street watching everyone come out of the houses and come from down the street and started gathering down at the end of the block. Without any organizing or direction from official of some kind, these people started going from yard to yard helping each family clean up. Ok so you know I first thought I don’t have a stake in this, hell I don’t live here anymore, but then I thought about my mom and dad and who was going to help them clean up I mean at 77 years old they are going to need help for sure, and that help was going to be me! “Damn it I didn’t come up here to move trees this weekend”  I thought, but it was just a moment later that I walked down that street and started to help with this great group of people. Oh I took a little ribbing from my friends who were there for being late to the gathering and but I was quickly apart of the “crew”. We cut, dragged, piled, and stacked our way down the block. House by house this growing gang of wannabe lumber jacks worked through each yard. We even got a guy with a wood chipper to come out once the street was clear to start grinding up the debris.

        I want to tell you, that that block was cleaned up and ready to get on with things by mid afternoon. It was incredible. Even some of the people put out food and water for us when we finished! It became clear to me that this was just one of the many amazing things I was supposed to be a part of this weekend. It was so moving to just experience what I had lost touch with over the years, good people just helping each other through a bad time. It was a privilege to be one of the crew that day, and my hats off to all those great people who gave up a good chunk of there Saturday to help out a neighbor in need. My pride swelled knowing I was from this place, this “small town” in the Midwest that seemed like it had died years ago was alive and kicking and it was a pure joy to see.

But what about the party BB? Did it happened? Oh that’s coming next in part two of: My trip to the land of ERRRRRRRR!

I just watched the press conference held by current Governor Mark Sanford.

As the show unfolded, I kept getting distracted by a familiar noise. 

Turns out it was the sound of yet another political career getting flushed down the toilet. 

Hope someone jiggles the handle.

To quote a popular country song….”God is great, beer is good, people are crazy.” 

Here’s  some proof.

More people are upset that the douche bag couple “Jon and Kate” as getting a divorce, than feel bad about the passing of Ed McMahon.

A man that worked in television for well over 30 years, was a great spokesperson and showed the skill required to work on a major network program takes a back set to these two ass clowns that are making a living off her eggs, and their kids.

It’s a sorry world.

Congrat to Clemson Tiger, Lucas Glover for playing the best game of his career to finish the final round of the frickin’ U.S. OPEN, two strokes over names like Phil Mickelson and David Duval!   The famous Tiger finished even par, tied for 6th, that’s 4 shots behind Glover.  Lucas took home a mere $1.35 million for his troubles, good gig.

John munus Kate, ain’t it great!  Now go away fast and save your children.

Governor Sanford is lost, now he is found, so what.  Take a hike!

Ed McMahon has joined Johnny on the greatest stage with a big HI-OOOOOO.

Finally, Neda Agha Soltan, the Iranian girl shot dead on Tehran street for taking a stand for what she, and many other young students believe in.  The cell phone footage is on YouTube and other social networking sites, it makes me think of images like the student standing in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square and images for the Kent State massacre May 4th , 1970.

Could you give your life for something you are passionate about?

It’s hard to believe that these idoits are allowed exist let alone be put on a pedistal and called “celebrities“.   What does this say about us making spoiled rich kids, richer!  

Here’s what Heidi had to say about Al after the interview,

“I was shocked at how rude he was – I was crying afterwards because I couldn’t believe I felt personally attacked. I wanted to say to him, do you feel proud of how you’re talking to me right now? I’m just a young woman and you’re coming at me so aggressively and meanly and mean-spirited.

I just wanted to talk about the show and my experience there and how fun it was, and he just made it a very uncomfortable and awful experience. I really would advise women especially to be careful around him because I feel like he definitely came and attacked me and I did not appreciate that at all.

Diagnostic features of narcissistic personality:  Narcissistic personality disorder is a condition characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance, need for admiration, extreme self-involvement, and lack of empathy for others. Individuals with this disorder are usually arrogantly self-assured and confident. They expect to be noticed as superior.

 This couple is what Larry Wilson’s “Thinning The Herd”  is all about.