June 6, 2020

And the Song Of The Day in my head this morning is You Ain't Goin' Nowhere by Bob Dylan

Artist: Bob Dylan

Album: Music & Words 1998 to 1963

lyrics:

Clouds so swift
Rain won't lift
Gate won't close
Railings froze
Get your mind off wintertime
You ain't goin' nowhere

Whoo-ee! Ride me high
Tomorrow's the day
My bride's gonna come
Oh, oh, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair!

I don't care
How many letters they sent
Morning came and morning went
Pick up your money
And pack up your tent
You ain't goin' nowhere

Whoo-ee! Ride me high
Tomorrow's the day
My bride's gonna come
Oh, oh, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair!

Buy me a flute
And a gun that shoots
Tailgates and substitutes
Strap yourself
To the tree with roots
You ain't goin' nowhere

Whoo-ee! Ride me high
Tomorrow's the day
My bride's gonna come
Oh, oh, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair!

Genghis Khan
He could not keep
All his kings
Supplied with sleep
We'll climb that hill no matter how steep
When we get up to it

Whoo-ee! Ride me high
Tomorrow's the day
My bride's gonna come
Oh, oh, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair!

link to lyrics: http://www.songlyrics.com/bob-dylan-the-band/you-ain-t-goin-nowhere-lyrics/

link to performance:

June 3, 2020

From The Guardian 6-3-20 Political Cartoons: After seeing some of the U.S. cartoons of

tRUMP's religious experience I thought that all that was needed was to portray him wrapped in a
U.S. flag. Now this morning I see that Steve Bell has succeeded admirably in portraying just what I had in mind...

Steve Bell on Trump's church photo op amid George Floyd protests — cartoon

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2020/jun/02/steve-bell-on-trumps-church-photo-op-amid-george-floyd-protests-cartoon

I recommend The Guardian Political news just for the cartoons... enjoy!

June 2, 2020

Out And About Yesterday And Today*... and I made a funny or two...

Yesterday: 6-1-20

I finished up our absentee ballots and got them ready for mailing tomorrow. But then I found out
that to be valid they had to be received by our County Clerk by 7 pm tomorrow. So I hotfooted it down to the post office and dropped the ballots off in the drive-thru mail drop in the early afternoon. Whew!
That was almost a disaster!

Today: 6-2-20

I had a large envelope of family pics ready to send to Canada so I headed to my local UPS store to
avoid the long lines at the Post Office. (UPS can also provide USPS service.) When I got there there was a small line so I eased into a little bit of shade and explained to some people waiting for the
hair stylist next door that I didn't want to get too tan since I might get shot. I'm not used to getting
compliments but one of the guys said Hey, That's Funny! Being encouraged I then said to another person in the UPS line You Know What They Say About Mad Dogs And Englishmen** and the answer was No, What? So I said They Go Out In the Noonday Sun. Don't people read anymore?
Short answer:UPS took my money but couldn't print out the stamp I needed so they gave me a
refund and I headed for the Post Office.

The Post Office was great, no line, quick service and much cheaper than UPS. I'd like to thank my vee-hickel for having air conditioning that works even in city traffic. That really helps me keep from
developing an attitude...

Went to WalMart. Just normal stuff, did my shopping. Didn't see any Muslims. Oh well. Got home.
Wiped down groceries and put them away. Checked our absentee ballot tracking info and the
County Clerk already has our ballots. It doesn't get much better than that!

*Yesterday And Today is also a studio album by The Beatles. See information at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yesterday_and_Today And I bet YouTube has a page where you can listen...

**Mad Dogs And Englishmen is also the name of Joe Cocker's tour plus being a song written by
Noel Coward with plenty of reference to both here:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=is+there+a+song+or+album+titled+mad+dogs+and+englishmen&t=ffnt&ia=web Again, YouTube will be willing to support your listening needs...

So it looks like Noel Coward is the definitive source for the quote "Mad dogs and Englishmen go out
in the midday sun." I apologize for misquoting "noonday" for "midday" but then that's more of an
apology than anyone will ever get out of tRUMP. Right? Stay tuned for my next exciting adventure...
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffnt&q=source+of+saying+that+mad+dogs+and+englishmen+go+out+in+the+noonday+sun&ia=web

June 1, 2020

From The CBC/Canada: some good news... Meet Some Of The First Nations' Health Workers...

This is encouraging to see during so much other bad news.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/first-nations-health-care-worker-1.5590863

May 31, 2020

And the song in my head this morning is from Neil Young in the 1970s: Don't Let It Bring You

Down:

Neil Young Lyrics
"Don't Let It Bring You Down"

Old man lying
By the side of the road
With the lorries rolling by
Blue moon sinking
From the weight of the load
And the buildings scrape the sky

Cold wind ripping
Down the alley at dawn
And the morning paper flies
Dead man lying
By the side of the road
With the daylight in his eyes

Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning
Find someone who's turning
And you will come around

Blind man running
Through the light
Of the night
With an answer in his hand
Come on down
To the river of sight
And you can really understand

Red lights flashing
Through the window
In the rain
Can you hear the sirens moan?
White cane lying
In a gutter in the lane
If you're walking home alone

Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning
Just find someone who's turning
And you will come around

Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning
Just find someone who's turning
And you will come around

May 30, 2020

Out and about 5-30-20: The credit union, the post office and WalMart plus a family dynamic

bonus... and some pain relief .

The credit union: We got our second stimulus direct deposit this last week so I went to do the transfer
that puts my son's share into his savings account (we share it but he's the primary). I can take care of
my end online since the money comes into my account. As usual, my son has more money than I do
but I am an honest guy, after all...

The post office: WooHoo! We got our absentee ballots in our PO Box today! YAY!

WalMart: Lotta masks being worn by my/our family members today. I saw some interesting people as
usual. I was patient in waiting for 3 ladies who were ahead of me in one aisle. One of the ladies
walked back closer to me and I said I had to wait since they were taking up the space that I wanted to be in. No problem.

I decided to do some impulse buying and picked up some ice cream and chocolate cake. Hey, we've
been good and deserve a reward! Over in the cake section there were a young man and woman frisking about. He was picking her up then they were embracing and kissing passionately. Wow! They weren't masked but at least they kept their clothes on! It was better than pay-for-view...

My oldest son turned 50 last week so I sent him fond birthday wishes. Since then we've been emailing daily and that's good since like many families our relationship has suffered some strain over the years.

My back has been really bothering me this last week. Nothing I've tried before was working, then I remembered that I'm using Tylenol now since that's recommended with this virus. But I always used
to use aspirin and since my back pain isn't virus-related I took some aspiring at 10 this morning.
Within an hour my pain was gone so take a lesson from me to stick with what you know works!

May 27, 2020

Out and about 5-26-20: Highlights of my day...

The Post Office: I dropped off our requests for absentee ballots in the drive-through mail drop at my
local post office. YAY!

Checking my bank account online: I've been looking for our second government stimulus direct deposit.
Yesterday it showed up as a pending transaction. It'll be deposited on Thursday this week. YAY!

Shopping:

Most people masked. I bought a new pair of reading glasses since the ones I've been using are at least 10 years old. I found out they weren't working anymore when I tried to read the fine print
on the latest/new brand of hydrogen peroxide I bought. So with my new 3X specs no problem
seeing that all is well.

Gave a guy in the parking lot 5 bucks when he asked for change. That came out of my personal philanthropic fund. That's the way I do it to keep things personal and remember when I panhandled some years ago.

Saw two lovely young obviously Muslim women in the produce section so as I was passing by I spoke
the greeting "Salaam Aleichem". They were from the black part of our family and gave a reply that I didn't understand but I didn't stop and hope they appreciated the words of welcome and acceptance that I gave them. Many a time throughout the world people have been kind to me when I was a stranger in their town/city/country and I try to pay that forward.

YAY! It was a good day, like many others I experience...

May 23, 2020

Here's a link to a handy reference to Beatles' songs listed by album with lyrics to any song

selectable by right-clicking on any song listed...

link: https://www.azlyrics.com/b/beatles.html

May 23, 2020

Out and about 5-22-20: The Post Office, A language lesson and an elbow bump...

At the Post Office: My son and I received our applications for absentee ballots today in our P.O Box. YAY! We are registered Democrats...

A language lesson: Since I arrived in West Pakistan when I was 2 years old in 1951 it was a simple thing to pick up the Urdu language, which is spoken mainly in modern Pakistan and India*. There are
other languages spoken in the Middle Eastern/Arabic countries as I've learned when I tried to greet
people with the Urdu that I do remember. As I recall, the typical greeting in Urdu is "Salaam" and the
typical response is "Salaam ji". I've been corrected to use the greeting "Salaam aleikem" but still use the response "Salaam Ji" and that lets people know that my background is in Urdu...

*more language at link: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Urdu-language

As I left the checkout at WalMart I saw a couple with a baby that were clearly members of the Middle Eastern part of our family. I decided to make contact, stopped near the man (it's a bad idea to direct any remarks towards a woman who is in a man's company) and said in English, "Excuse me, Sir".
After he turned to face me I said "Salaam aleikem" and he responded with some Arabic that I didn't
understand at all. When he was done I said "Salaam ji" and he extended his hand for a shake.

The Elbow bump: I offered my elbow and we bumped, my first elbow bump since the start of the whole masking/physical distancing campaign started. What a great day!

May 21, 2020

Once again I couldn't go to bed until I tracked down the song in my head. Yup, once again a

song popped up in my head. I remembered that I heard a woman sing it and it remembered the rhythm of the lyric but all I could remember were the words "win my love".

So I started in searching and it didn't really take too long even with those words "win my love" being wrong. The song was written by Bob Dylan and first recorded by Billy Joel then covered by Adele too and it must be her version that I remembered hearing.

So here's links to the lyrics and two or the recordings that I'm aware of. I guess tRUMP doesn't live in my head all that much if I have room for remembering a song too...

link to lyrics: https://genius.com/Bob-dylan-make-you-feel-my-love-lyrics

link to Adele performance:

link to Bob Dylan performance:

The only Billy Joel performance I found is a mix tape that's almost 12 minutes long so I didn't include that but it's easy to find if you want to. Enjoy!