A reminder that I have stopped posting new content on this blog.
Since doing so last month, ASVU has had several dozen, new subscribed followers here and I wanted to point them in the direction of my new blog, Mitigating Chaos.
That’s where it’s happening.
Hope you join us there for the same content that you have enjoyed here.
“One day at a time” really does work, as long as you never give up. If you need some hope in your life, read this. Even if everything is going great in your life, read this story because someday, things may change and you will want to remember this story. Thanks, JoAnna.
As September is “Recovery Month,” I’m sharing this story based on my interview with a man who has become a respected friend.
Some of us remember it as “The Blizzard of ’89.” To Theo, it’s the night he almost froze to death.
Not technically a blizzard, the storm was an anomaly for the Carolina Coast, especially on Christmas Eve. He’d quit his job at Dupont to drink liquor and sell blood. He’d been arrested 66 times for child support. The money was supposed to be taken out of his check, but it’s hard to hold on to a job when you keep getting locked up.
On that Christmas Eve in 1989, he walked to the club on Orange Street and got hit in the head with a bottle by a man trying to rob him. Theo stumbled into the cold and headed toward Ann Street and the place he called…
“I can think of no more stirring symbol of man’s humanity to man than a fire engine”
. . . Kurt Vonnegut
No argument from me!
My last day as a Reserve Driver/Operator for the City of Aiken Fire Division, June 2011. The end of 35 years in emergency services. I still miss it every day.
With the recent (and current) hurricanes, earthquakes and other stuff, it might be easy to overlook that tomorrow marks another anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2001.
9/11 Memorial at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, MD. There are 343 names on that plaque.
I’m publishing this a day early, just in case we lose power overnight. For those of you seeing this on FB, Twitter, Linkedin, it will best be read by going to the blog as there are several links embedded that will help tell the story.
If you are old enough to remember September 11, 2001, you will never forget where you were, what you were doing and the dread you felt in your heart.
I have written several columns about that day. This is the one that tells the story best.
I encourage you to watch and listen to Jessica Locke’s “Reading of The Names” at the end of that page. It’s not what you think and I promise you will never forget it.
When the first teeth appear, these little stones slowly pushed up through the child’s red gums, appearing at first like sharp little points, then standing there like miniature white towers in the mouth, it is hard not to be astonished, for where do they come from? Nothing that enters the baby, mostly milk but also a little mashed banana and potato, bears the slightest resemblance to teeth, which in contrast to the food are hard. Yet this must be what happens – that certain substances are extracted from this partly liquid, partly soft nourishment and transported to the jaws, where they are assembled into the material used to make teeth. But how? That skin and flesh, nerves and sinews are formed and grow is perhaps just as great a mystery, but it doesn’t feel that way. The tissue is soft and living, the cells stand open to each other and to…
As I awoke this morning, one of the first thoughts of the new day was that I forgot to add this song to the “Storm preparedness” list yesterday.
Why I woke up thinking about the blog? I do not know.
Forecast as of 0800 on 9/9
The forecast keep getting better for us here in the Aiken-Augusta area and it looks like we will have nothing more than a breezy, rainy and cool Monday. OK, that might be somewhat of an understatement, but it’s better than it was.
There has always been some disagreement regarding who was the better REO Speedwagon singer, Michael Murphy (shown below) or Kevin Cronin, who still fronts the band today? Personally, I like both of them. One of my favorite live albums, (as illustrated on my top 20 “Live” albums of all time) has Kevin at the helm.
The title of this post refers to the line Kevin uses to begin the introduction to Ridin The Storm Out, the last song of each show.
It was around the time of the video below that I first saw REO and it is possible, that this can be the video that I saw late one Saturday night in 1974 (age 14) while babysitting a neighbor. Regardless, I heard Gary (RIP) play this song and I was hooked.
From 1974. I remember talking my parents into buying this album as a Christmas present and I listened to it again and again and again. This is such a tight record. Blackmore and the late, Jon Lord just have at it on this one.
The title track from Stormbringer. (The studio version superimposed with concert footage)
As all eyes (at least in this part of the country) are on Irma, I figured this might be an appropriate distratction. Maybe the first of a few as another hurricane song just came to mind.
Current forecast, subject to change, includes winds 50-70 mph for us on Monday.
Since I do occasionally post controversial content, I have been asked to note that the opinions promoted on this blog are my opinion and not that of my wife.
A Simple, Village Undertaker 