Long, Live Rock

Five songs in today's randomized playlist are live recordings, including one not labeled  as such in any way on the CD. Hence the title of today's post. Yes, that is correctly punctuated. It's not the phrase "long live rock," but "long, live (rhymes with jive) rock." Get it?

With the approach of summer (feels like it's already here today), I believe it is time to restore running discipline and rise early to beat the heat. Last time I heard the temp on the radio before heading out the door it was 72 degrees. Because I spent a few minutes upstairs painting my storage trunk, I figured it was probably a solid 75 by the time I hit the street. Upon returning to my abode, drenched and dripping with sweat, hot and tingly from the sun, with a light burn beginning on my lilly-white, freckled flesh, WKAY/WGIL's Terry Cavanaugh read the weather and declared it to be 85 degrees (high today is expected to be 90!).

You get the point. Already it's feeling hot. Winter running seemed so strange and difficult at first, learning how to dress so as to not freeze nor overheat. I think I've got that down and I prefer it, at least in the middle temps. I've run when the mercury's hovering around zero and that's not really fun. But the heat is just about as bad. The up side is that with the sweat pouring off your body, you just know you're dropping pounds. That feels good -- especially after packing on a few during the winter like some furry woodland critter.

Speaking of furry woodland critters, the kind I often see squished in the road, I almost joined their ranks today. For some reason I just wasn't really alert the first few blocks and twice darted out in front of traffic. I will say, the second instance was only half my fault. The light had turned red for me, but the driver to my right stayed put and appeared to motion to me to cross. I obliged (without bothering to look left) and received a honk and a wake-up call about intersection safety.

Today's Stats
Temp: 75-85 degrees F
Distance: 4.9 miles
Weekly Total: 9.8 miles
Treasure: 1 red washcloth; 1 Wave 100's Menthol Green cigarette pack; 1 Marlboro red pack; 1 nickel; 1 blue plastic bracelet; 1 shower curtain hook, metal; 1 nut; 1 gallon of sweat; two sore nipples; 15 cans.

iPod Playlist (shuffle)
Time for Me to Fly - REO Speedwagon
Little Sister (live) - Jewel
The White Tree - Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings soundtrack)
If You've Got Trouble - The Beatles (This video is a gem; audio synch is off, but still waaaaay cool!)
Only You - Chicago
What Good is Life? - Guitar Shorty
Run - Collective Soul
Deep Blue Polka Dot - Stan Ridgway
Elevation - U2
Into the Fire (live) - Bruce Springsteen
Believe In Me (live) - Dan Fogelberg
Excitable Boy (live) - Warren Zevon
How Stupid Mr. Bates - The Police
The River (live) - James Taylor & Joni Mitchell
Racing in the Street - Bruce Springsteen

Mother of a Run

Tonight's run was intended to be a shorty, just to whet the appetite for tomorrow and a new week. Alas, I think tradition says Sunday is the start of a new week. I don't know; it's all so confusing. Calendars kind of befuddle me: Gregorian, Roman, Hebrew, lunar, etc. I think even the work week ends Saturday for those whose jobs entail at least occasional Sunday labor. I don't know. Being a salaried bloke, none of that matters to me. I just turn up as needed and "Git R Done."

Quite a weekend was Mother's Day weekend. Saturday was Free Comic Book Day. I've never been a comic book fan or collector. I once dabbled, ever so briefly, and sough to be different from my friends. I decided I liked the Green Arrow. I think there was some companionship with the Green Lantern, but I liked the guy with the bow. I think I bought one comic about 25 years ago. The cover showed Green Arrow at the end of a dead-end alley, the open end blocked by a slew of bad guys. The thought bubble read something like, "Fifty-to-one. I've got 'em outnumbered!" Loved it.

FCBD's focal point was Green Lantern, because of the recent movie release (or upcoming: I don't know and don't care enough to Google it for accuracy's sake here).

Anyway, I scored a handful of freebie comics, primarily because I'm decoupaging the inside of an old storage trunk with college English course notes and thought some comic pages would add some flashy color. One to note is Civil War Adventure, which claims in the forward: "Civil War Adventure is a series of graphic novels that presents exciting, fast-paced, fact-based, illustrated stories, of the the war that tore our country apart. ..."

Thinking at first it was just that, before I'd even read the forward, or glanced through a few pages, I initially passed it by. Then I overheard someone say something about "the Civil War and zombies..." and I was intrigued. So I grabbed one of those, and a Simpsons, and Elric, Criminal Macabre, Spider-Man, Green Lantern, Mouse Guard, Toy Story, Overstreet, 2000 AD. I am totally ignorant of all but The Amazing Spider-Man, Green Lantern, Elric and Toy Story (because of the movies).

But it was a big comic book day and there were extra specials. Stone Alley Books & Collectibles offered 20 percent off graphic novels. I used some of my extensive storeries.  credit from trade-ins and bought the first hardcover volume of "The Walking Dead." After the discount and store credit for half the cost, I paid about $16. Su-wheet. I haven't really delved into that, but I watched the first season of the AMC TV series on  DVD a while back and was hooked. Had to check out the origins of the AMC production. It is simply awesome.

Pursuing that vein, I bought a handful of raffle tickets at Alternate Realities, the Main Street comic, book and gaming store -- for the benefit of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Knox County -- and ended up winning issue No. 75 of The Walking Dead.

Topping it off were the extra goodies in the shopping bag from Stone Alley. A clip-on badge declaring R.I.P. Superman (with his logo); a one-day free pass to Discovery Depot Children's Museum; a Free Comic Book Day pin-on button; a Free Comic Book Day temporary tattoo; a couple of comics; and, for knowing the Green Lantern secret password, which Stone had posted on his Facebook page Friday night ("Beware My Power."), a tiny Green Lantern figurine by Heroclix.

All right, enough geek speak. Not really my bag, as a geek. I'll admit to geekdom, but it has limits, or shall we say direction. Not that there's anything wrong with comic books or graphic novels. In fact, I've picked up a couple of really cool graphic novels: one is an interpretation of Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451," the other a collection of Edgar Allan Poe tales reimagined in graphic novel form. 

Anyway, on to Mother's Day, shall we? While shopping with daughter No. 3 for Mom and my in-town mom, we were perusing the ecclectic goods of the Calico Cat on South Seminary Street -- I love the oddball gifts they have there -- I came across a "Smoking Donkey." There also was a "Smoking Elephant." Though not expressly political, the symbolism was not lost on the son of a pair of "yellow dog Democrats." Although I don't wish to support the nasty habit of smoking tobacco products, I couldn't pass up the donkey.

He is molded to resemble an old-time miner's companion, bearing a pack with a shovel and pickaxe on either side. You load the pack with your cigarettes of choice, and when you push down on his ears, his tail raises and out "poops" a "butt." Classic. I might just buy one for myself to see if it'll dispense crayons, or at least "candy sticks" -- the politically correct version of the old candy cigarettes.

To my slight dismay, my parents already owned one, a gift from my Aunt Betty, who has a knack for finding oddball gifts for any occasion, like the ultimately cool electricity meter lamp she got my dad one year for Christmas. It's a lamp with a base made from an electricity meter, which spins along to show the kilowatt/hours consumed as the bulb burns.

Well, have I rambled quite enough? My parents had a good chuckle at the coincidence of my choice of gift, but ultimately displayed the two donkeys nose-to-nose atop their refrigerator. All's well that ends well.

You can see from the stats what I collected on tonight's run. I had spotted the hanger earlier today and all the cans while biking out to Menards for some needed item. The wheel cover I noted a few days ago while visiting the dreaded Walmart (they haven't questioned my backpack the past three visits with it). Not a bad night, though. Strangely, the Toyota wheel cover matches one I found a while back, so now I have two identical. Oddly, they do not match those on either Toyota in the driveway on Bateman Street. Maybe they'd attract a buyer on eBay.

Today's Stats
Temp: 70 degrees F
Distance: 4.9 miles
Weekly Total: 4.9 miles (I think the new week is begun)
Treasure: 1 Toyota wheel cover/hub cap; 1 plastic hanger (dark blue); 12 cans.

iPod Playlist (shuffle)
Time and a Word - Yes
I'll Be Back - The Beatles
The Scientist - Coldplay
Yer Blues - The Beatles
Hey Ya! - OutKast
Theme Time - The Tobasco Donkeys
Your Long Journey - Robert Plant and Alyson Kraus
The Arrival (live at the Village Vanguard)  - Wynton Marsalis Septet
Introduction (live at the Orpheum) - The Don't Be Brothers
America - Simon & Garfunkel
I Ran (So Far Away) - Flock of Seagulls
Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran
What Do You Want from Me? - Pink Floyd

Bonus Post: RANT!

The trouble with mass production is that it's created our throwaway society. Why do people pitch things that would take minimal effort to repair? Because of the expense. It costs more to repair an item than to replace it with new. Or damned close.

I've already noted the easily repaired La-Z-Boy I salvaged from the curb during Cleanup Days. That fix involved two screws and some wood glue. The wood piece through which the screws  passed cracked with the invasion of screws slightly larger than the nails they replaced, but if that eventually fails, I'll obtain a replacement piece by some inexpensive means.

But the latest example is the DVD/VHS recorder/player I received recently. It came with the caveat that the VCR half did not work. The last tape inserted into the mouth had to be pried out. Unbelieving such a wild tale, I had to have proof. It just needs a good head-cleaning, I figured. So I tracked down a tape-head cleaner (you know how hard those are to find these days?) and went to work. Clunk. Tape jammed. No ejecting it. No playing. No cleaning. No nothing. Fine. Whatever. I'll just watch a DVD instead of dubbing an old tape for posterity.

The gear in question is to the right of the one
labeled 1, above.

Guess what? With the VHS engaged and jammed, the DVD player wouldn't kick in. No movie that night. So I removed the cover to get at the tape. Head cleaner removed, I gave it another try — maybe it just stuck because I didn't get it going quickly enough when I pushed the tape through the door-flap. Nope. Stuck again. Extract tape and start observing.

Now, I'm not very mechanically inclined, but I eventually figured out that a drive gear was broken. When the machine was powered on I could see the "worm gear" turning in screw-like fashion, but it wasn't connecting with the round gear beneath it, the one that would engage the tape with the mechanics that play, FF and RW. Cool. That looks like a simple enough repair.

Fat chance. I spent 21 minutes on the phone with Sony customer service (several of those minutes waiting for the first representative to track down another who might better grasp my description of the broken part. When we finally got on the same page, Service Rep 2 informed me the part cannot be supplied. I suppose the gear assembly cannot be disassembled to allow for individual replacement. Out of curiosity I thought to ask if the entire VCR interior could be replaced as a unit. Surely that couldn't be too much in this DVD-centric age. Well, if you consider $117 not expensive.

Better view with the crappy part circled.

OK, get it in Galesburg. On to Lindstrom's TV and Appliance I rode to see if they possibly could repair it. The service tech wasn't in but I was told it would be $75 to $80 to fix it (I'm guessing they can't even do it). I understand mechanics enough to know that even the smallest part — a defective O-ring, for example — can wreak havoc or render a machine inoperable. But should something like this make repair fiscally illogical? That simply does not make sense to me.

Here's an interesting tidbit I found just now while searching for an image to accompany this rant.

I discovered during a trip to Walmart yesterday that a comparable Magnavox machine is available new for $140 or $150. Not that I'm buying, just noting the ridiculousness of this situation.

Save A Prayer

"Don't say a prayer for me now / Save it 'til the morning after..."

Today is the National Day of Prayer. Oh, what controversy. Remember the hubbub over President Obama's supposed cancellation of the National Day of Prayer? Bogus. False. Read about it here. Besides which, who really cares if the president proclaims, celebrates or otherwise observes or designates a national day of just about anything?

Sure, the president has ceremonial/symbolic duties to perform, but is that his primary function? No. Hmmm. Quick Googling indicates maybe it is. OK, not really his (or, someday, her) primary function, but the dude (or dudette) does sign a slew of proclamations each year. Yikes! Some are pretty ridiculous. But nobody gets his or her panties in a twist over National German-American Day, Leif Erikson Day, White Cane Safety Day or National Safe Boating Week. So give it a break. If you don't like religion (usually that opposition is narrowly targeted at Christianity), then just save a prayer for the morning after ... you just might need it.

But hey, it's also Cinco de Mayo today. Now there's something to celebrate. Imagine my surprise this morning to hear WKAY radio play a 27-year-old song by a band most people probably haven't heard of. I knew I recognized Stan Ridgway's voice, singing Wall of Voodoo's "Mexican Radio." Didn't make the connection with Cinco de Mayo until later, though. 

A proud recipient of Mrs. Renfro's Salsa
sampler, Feb. 15, 2011.

Of course the exciting aspect of this particular day is that we'll be celebrating May 5 at The Register-Mail newsroom with a looong-awaited sampling of Mrs. Renfro's salsas. Assistant Editor Jay Redfern, my good bud with the noisy office next to my desk, received a box of four Mrs. Renfro's salsas after bemoaning the lack of a fine store-bought salsa in town in one of his Jay Talking blog posts quite some time ago. It never seemed an opportune time to Jay-bird to break out the salsa, but I managed to convince him a couple weeks ago that it would be appropriate to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with a salsa sampling. He'd better not renege.

The goods.

Today's Stats
Temp: 50 degrees F
Distance: 3.3 miles
Weekly Total: 10.4
Treasure: 1 page sheet music ("Blessed Is the Lord"), folded into a paper airplane; 1 Pall Mall box; 7 cans.

iPod Playlist (shuffle)
Walk This Way (Original) - Aerosmith
Night Time - George Thorogood
The Blue Side of Lonesome (cover) - John Prine & Mac Wiseman
Old Dan Tucker - Bruce Springsteen
The River (live) - James Taylor & Joni Mitchell
Young Lust (cover) - Luther Wright & the Wrongs
Havana Daydreamin' - Jimmy Buffett
Into the Fire (live in Gothenburg, Sweden, 2003) - Bruce Springsteen (Video link is to a 2002 show in Stockholm)

All for Naught

Should I return for his pelt? Coonskin caps could come back.

So why did I run today? Guilt over so many skipped days and a screwed-up schedule? That's probably it, really. It was a battle of wills, me against me. The Good Intentions Will said, "Hey, man, let's get up early and run Tuesday. You owe it to yourself and others." 

I listened to him and got up about 6:30. Lay in bed a while, had some breakfast, then lay down again when Sloth Will said, "Dude, it's your day off running and you don't work until afternoon. You're sleepy. Rest, man."

So I listened to him, too, and lay back down. Finally, about 9:45 I got my rear in gear and got outta here. I decided to keep it short, shorter than any regular run since I started a year ago. Glad I did. My shins and calves are aching and my butt still hurts from that mattrass-haul. The worst part is, I bagged a whopping two cans and naught else. Well, I guess I gained the benefit of the run nonetheless. And blogging notwithstanding, that's the real point.

 I'm still working on pix from graduation (waiting for D1 to deliver), but here's one I took as sort of a flash forward. D3 was helping to carry grad gear after the ceremony and department reception and donned D1's mortarboard. Confession to my photog buddies: This shot is posed -- I wasn't quick enough (phone cam takes time to activate). Forgive me.

Today's Stats

Temp: 45 degrees F

Distance: 2.34 miles

Weekly Total: 7.1 miles

Treasure: 2 cans.

Apropos of nothing, I just had to chuckle at
the misfortune of the new bar that used to be
Crappy's. Consider it a lesson in the silliness
of "clever" spellings. Sidetrax started out as
Sidetracks on the awning, or so it appears.

 iPod Playlist (shuffle)

And I Love Her - The Beatles

Midnight in Paris - Wynton Marsalis

There's No Other Way - Blur

It's All Been Done - Barenaked Ladies

Soul Doctor - Foreigner

Rebel Rebel - David Bowie

Do You Want to Know a Secret - The Beatles

Graduation Day: Part 1

My baby graduated yesterday. Daughter No. 1 "finished" her formal education at Illinois Wesleyan University a week ago with her final final. Actually she has an independent study class to complete during May Term that is just prep for her CPA exams (two down, two to go). She graduated summa cum laude in accounting as a recent inductee in Phi Kappa Phi honors society. She's quite a young woman. Photo later.

This is Part 1 because in 30 days Daughter No. 2 concludes her years in the public school system and prepares to head for nearby Monmouth College in the fall. She's an incredible young lady, too. As is D3, my occasional running companion and bestest reading buddy. But this week belongs to Melissa and her achievements. Already she has a job lined up, starting after the first of the year in 2012; summer will see the continuation of bank teller duties. 

So as she commences her life, I commenced my running this morning. I was encouraged by honks and waves from friends I did not recognize through auto glass reflecting the glare of the morning sun, but it helped me to pick up my pace, if only temporarily. It was a dull day scavenging-wise, but it was a good run. I did pass up a basketball in the gutter (a less scrupulous scavenger might have grabbed it, but I figured some kid just let it roll too far). Besides, what would I do with a basketball? My apartment is in the former Galesburg YMCA, but the gymnasium is full of oddments of furniture and appliances; no room for balling or running or any other activity in there. 

More to come, but I have to run (metaphorically speaking).

Today's Stats

Temp: 50 degrees F

Distance: 4.76 miles

Treasure: 1 plastic hanger; 7 cans.

iPod Playlist (shuffle)
I Can Make You a Man (Reprise) - Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show)
The Rising - Bruce Springsteen
I Wanna Be a Cowboy - Boys Don't Cry
Tall Cool One - Robert Plant
Digging in the Dirt - Peter Gabriel
Jumpin' Jack Flash (live) - Peter Frampton (cover)
Don't Let Me Down - The Beatles
The Fuse - Bruce Springsteen
The Burn - Matchbox Twenty
So Much To Say - Dave Matthews Band
If I Needed Someone - The Beatles
Cheeseburger in Paradise - Jimmy Buffett

Three-Legged Race

OK, so it wasn't a race, per se, but my run today consisted of three separate legs. I did about 2.2 miles from home to the high school; drove to Monmouth on an errand; ran 2.11 miles there just for kicks; drove back to GHS and ran 1.56 miles from there to the Buck Girls' Homestead, then walked home.

That's the great thing about kids: They'll keep you on your toes. I was just getting ready to run this morning with a notion of heading to Walmart to pick up a couple of household essentials (Febreze and cedar blocks for my musty old Scout trunk) when Daughter No. 2 called with a desperate plea.

"Can you come out to the high school by 11:30 and pick up my scholarship application and take it over to Monmouth? You can use my car."

Of course I would do that for her. It's a chance to save some money on college costs and I love her. It just meant a little detour in my route: Run to GHS, drive to Monmouth and back, run home. I figured I could use her car to pick up my odor fighters at Target instead of Wally World to boot. And that's what I did.

The best thing is I know people in Monmouth, so it was an opportunity for a surprise visit. And because of the timing it meant I could do lunch there, too. On a whim I decided to get in a short run while I was in the Maple City. My good friend Jane was not on the college campus (her office has been moved and she now works in the old Kmart out by ShopKo and the highway. Jane was still in moving mode and getting settled in at her new digs. Office politics dictates a staff bond during such stressful times so she was committed to lunch with her cronies.

I decided to take my run west along Broadway from the college, right at the Public Square and north to Pizza Hut for lunch. I stopped at the site of the "Opening Soon!" Market Alley Wines, which is owned by my friend and former co-worker Susan, with whom I share my birthday (year and everything). I think Susan should use her and boyfriend Paul's first initials, stock 500 varieties of wine and call it S&P 500. Alas, she was at her day job in Aledo and the store was dark. But as I turned away from the empty store, I was hailed by another former co-worker -- another Jane no less -- who now works at the radio station in Monmouth. We had a nice chat and I was on my way.

Now, why would I eat at Pizza Hut when I could enjoy some yummy Mexican food or enjoy the home cooking of Maple City Cafe? Well, let me tell you. Besides the fact that I just like pizza any time, the Monmouth Hut has the distinction of delicious chocolate chip cookies at its buffet. Galesburg's Fremont Street Hut had the cookies once when the Lunch Gang visited long ago and never since. I'm telling you, those cooking are scrumpdiddlyumptious! Crispy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside with oozing chocolate chips. O-M-G.

Oh, but how to get back to my car in front of Wallace Hall? I risked the run. If I get sick, I get sick, I figured. I did not get sick. I found only three cans and an uninflated blue balloon in Monmouth, though I did see a couple of noteworthy things I wish I had photographed: The Pizza Hut cashier had a Harry Potter logo tattooed on his right inside forearm and as I ran back down Broadway I passed a woman pushing a stroller and walking a trio of pugs. That would have been a cute one. I just moved off the sidewalk as they approached and she said "Thank you" as I passed, I assume for my courtesy in letting her and her entourage remain on course.

I did get to stop by Jane's new office and say hi to her and Melissa Bankes, a soon-to-be Monmouth College alumna who works for Jane. Jane laughed when it was obvious that I actually had been running.

"I thought you were joking when you said you were running," she smiled. "You're the only person I know who would stop halfway through a run to eat at Pizza Hut."

I guess I'm still a cookie monster at heart. 

The La-Z-Boy, right, was a curb find. The salon hair-dryer
chair, left, was $10 at Salvation Army (yes, it works).

Update: Finally fixed the blue rocking recliner I salvaged from the curb last week. The left side "foot" of the chair had come detached from the frame. I vacuumed out the interior, reattached the base and discovered in the process that it is a genuine La-Z-Boy. As I vacuumed the chair and all its crevices, I discovered a Gerber baby spoon, the kind with the soft rubber coating on the bowl of the spoon for tender baby gums.

Sidebar: Apartment furnishings

You'll see from the photos my lovely new chairs and a pretty cool display piece I found at my folks' house while reacquiring my old Scout trunk, the scruffy black footlocker I took with me my two summers on staff at Philmont Scout Ranch. The trunk, nestled in the basement of my boyhood home on Seminary Street, contained several cases of false teeth molds or templates for molds, whatever you want to call them (below). They had belonged to my Grandpa Adam, my stepmom's dad, who was a dentist. 

His dental office was in a couple rooms off the side of his beautiful big house in Huntingdon Valley, Pa. Interestingly, as I look at the Google Map of that area I see a Buck Road, Philmont Avenue and Philmont Country Club. How cool is that?

Today's Stats
Temp: 58 degrees F
Distance: 5.87 miles
Weekly Total: 10.84
Treasure: 1 white washcloth (dirty); 1 blue balloon; 1 ponytail holder (figure 8 style with two pink balls); 1 Marlboro red box (I've finally thought of something creative to do with these); 1 blue balloon; 1 Gerber baby spoon with purple rubber covering; 10 cans.

iPod Playlist
Hear You Me - Jimmy Eat World
Run - Collective Soul
Clocks - Coldplay
Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve
Let It Rock - Kevin Rudolf & Lil Wayne
I Like It - Enrique Iglesias (feat. Pitbull)
Take On Me - a-ha (Link goes to the classic video)
How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty
Baby Got Back - Sir Mix-a-Lot
Goody Two Shoes - Adam Ant
People Are Strange - The Doors
I Ran (So Far Away) - Flock of Seagulls
Touch of Grey - Grateful Dead
Hey Ya! (Radio Mix/Club Mix) - OutKast
In The Waiting Line - Remy Zero
America - Simon & Garfunkel
Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd (This video has more than 24 million views!)