That's that

There. That's that.

I've definitely reached a breakoff point for 2008. The spring sports season is over--it ended last Saturday. Hockey season is almost over, too; the NHL playoffs, I mean. It's not over yet, but it will be in the next few days--maybe as soon as tonight.

I thought it would end Monday. We were less than a minute away from the Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup, but Pittsburgh scored a late goal, the game went into overtime, and about two hours later the Penguins got another goal to win it.

Their last gasp, I hope. It's gone on long enough. It's time to watch the Wings lift the cup. Then I can move on to other things. I want to turn the page. I have been very devoted to the playoffs, but it's gone on long enough. (Sometimes I think I am overly loyal--to my favorite sports teams and (without being too specific) to other parts of my life.)

Next week, my wife and I will be doing some other stuff. It's our first vacation trip this summer (not counting the April trip to that quilt show in Chicago). This time the destination is Milwaukee. We plan to visit the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Mitchell Park domes and some of the sights in a town about 30 miles north of the city, the town where my wife grew up. She says they have a quilt cottage or museum there. Or something like that. It's related to quilts, anyway.

She said she would be doing some internet research on other places to go in that area.

As for me, I have no real plans. We lived in Milwaukee just after we got married (I was raised in the suburbs, went to school and worked in the city), but we moved away about 30 years ago, and the place has changed a lot. That, I feel, is my past life, and it's over and done with. I might be interested in seeing the Brewers, but my wife's tolerance for baseball is not much greater than it is for hockey, so I'll just let that pass. Frankly, it's not a big priority for me, either. Not any more. Things have changed, and I have changed, too.

About 10 years ago, I visited the suburb where I was raised. Needless to say, it wasn't very similar to my memories. I remembered some of the streets and the places I used to go. But that was long ago. Those places now live only in memory. What stands there now just isn't the same.

Whew! Getting sidetracked and philosophical there. 'Scuse me!

There is a chance we can visit S and her husband, since we'll be driving right past their city. I mentioned that in the e-mail I sent her earlier today.

I'm also going to lift several other paragraphs I wrote to her: just news updates. Good old copy and paste. So I will quote myself:

[I]The high school sports season ended last Saturday with the track finals. I had the tennis and golf finals earlier in the week. Our local team won the U.P. championship in both boys tennis and boys golf, and the girls golf team was third. The track team didn't do as well. The other school I cover also won a boys golf title, and its track teams were third (boys) and fourth (girls) in the small schools division.

Anyway, all that's over. This weekend, we have the rodeo in town. We should return from our trip in time to get pictures at the local car show on Father's Day.

The other big event coming up in the near future is taking my mom to see the new Indiana Jones movie. She is a BIG fan of Harrison Ford, loved the other Indiana Jones movies, and I think a matinee show at the theater near the nursing home (less than five miles away) would be a nice treat for her.

Sort of a delayed birthday gift--she turned 86 last week. When I mentioned it to her recently, she sounded very interested. Not many things interest her nowadays, but that movie made the grade. She just seems a lot more tired more often than before. I suppose that is to be expected.

One more update: Ms. Robin has four bright blue eggs in her nest.[/I]

I didn't send S a picture, but here is a photo I took over the weekend. I got out the chair and mirron and camera and took a look. And inside ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Nest08-4eggs-6-08.jpg[/IMG]

There was a storm the next night, with the wind kicking up after dark and a little thunder. I turned on the porch light. There was Mrs. Robin, loyally settled in on her future progeny ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Nest08-MomOnDuty-6-08.jpg[/IMG]

****
The other news is a sad note about the passing of one of my all-time favorite musicians: Bo Diddley.

Oh, I love Bo Diddley. And I know how it all started. When I was a kid, the Rolling Stones were just coming over to the U.S.--this was 1965. At that time, they were mostly doing covers of R&B classics, not their original stuff. I liked their music, and I liked their songs--to the point where I looked at the record labels to see who wrote them. And I would see names like Burnett and McDaniel and Dixon.

Dixon was Willie Dixon. He authored many an R&B classic for Chess Records. Chester Burnett was the actual name of Howlin' Wolf. I know OF him at the time, but I never really got to hear much of his music until about 10 or so years ago. And it knocked my socks off. Great, great stuff. Howlin' Wolf instantly became one of my favorites.

But Wolf's music wasn't played on the pop radio AM stations around Milwaukee nor on the FM rock stations that followed. But you would occasionally hear from Ellas McDaniel--whose stage name was Bo Diddley. You would hear Bo Diddley's thumping, hard-rocking music once in a while--done by the man himself. More often, it was done by his disciples. I always loved "Mona" by the Rolling Stones, featuring Brian Jones' guitar work. That was ported over intact from Bo Diddley's version of the song he wrote. And the Yardbirds' rocking version of "I'm a Man," where they spelled the word out and launched that rocket into orbit. That was another Bo Diddley song. Another Bo Diddley classic.

Years pass, and I'm in a record store in Green Bay when I spot a 2-CD Bo Diddley box set put out by Chess. Now I finally had the real stuff. And it's great stuff, folks. I could hear the humor, the interplay with his band, especially maracas player Jerome Green. Bo and Jerome did "Say Man," where they would basically play an upbeat instrumental (guitar, piano and maracas), not sing a single note but trade insults about each other and their girlfriends all through the record.

It starts out ...

J: "Say man."
B: "What's that, boy?"
J: "I want to tell you about your girlfriend. Hehehe."
B: "What about my girl?"
J: "But you don't look strong enough to take the message."
B: "I'm strong enough."
J: "I might hurt your feelings."
B: "My feelings are already hurt, by being here with you."
J: "Well ... I was walkin' down the street with your girl the other day."
B: "Uh-huh."
J: "And the wind was blowing real hard."
B: "Is that right?"
J: "And the wind blew the hair into my face."
B: "Uh-huh."
J: "Hehe. And you know what else happened?"
B: "What happened?
J: "The wind blew her hair into her face."
B: "Yeah?"
J: "And we went a little further. Do you want to hear the rest of it?"
B: "I might as well."
J: "The wind blew her hair into the street."

He would brag about being a man. It seemed every other song had "Bo" or "Diddley" or both in the title. "The Story of Bo Diddley" is another funny one. "A man came up with a lo-o-o-o-o-o-ng cigar. And he said, Sign this line, and I'll make you a star." Man, he put out so much good stuff!

And he would do "Road Runner" and make his boxy guitar do riffs that garage bands tried to copy for years. He was trained in violin and played the violin in an instrumental. He'd sing about his home in Mississippi. He reminded us that "You can't tell a book by looking at the cover."

He never felt he got the credit--especially financially--for what he did for music. And he did a lot for music. That ever-present "Bo Diddley" beat. That "shave and a haircut" tempo. Bu-bu-bu-bu-bump-bump. Bump-bump. Many of his songs only used one chord. But would you believe he wrote the '50s song "Love Is Strange" by Mickey and Sylvia? It's true. "How do you call your lover boy?" "Come here, lover boy!"

Bo kept touring until near the end--a stroke finally took him off the road permanently. Now he's gone at the age of 79. The man who walked 47 miles of barbed wire. Who used a cobra snake for a necktie. Who had a brand new house on the roadside made of rattlesnake hide. Who had a brand new chimney on top made of a human skull. "Now come on, take a little walk with me, Arlene, and tell me who do you love?"

Here's one famous story. Bo was to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show in the mid 1950s, right about the time when Tennessee Ernie Ford had a monster hit with "Sixteen Tons." Bo recorded that song on one of his albums, and Ed Sullivan wanted him to do that song on his show. So he did "Sixteen Tons" during the rehearsal. And then, during the live broadcast, Bo steps up to the mike ... and plays "Bo Diddley."

Ed Sullivan was less than delighted. Bo never appeared on Sullivan's show again.

J: "I was out with your girlfriend the other day."
B: "Is that right?"
J: "Yeah. Man, that chick was so skinny she had to tie some knots in her legs to make some knees. Hehehe."
B: "Oh, that wasn't none of my girlfriends."
J: "Who was it?"
B: "That was your wife."
J: "Them is fighting words man!"
B: "Is that right?"
J: "You meet me in the alley tomorrow night, after dark, by yourself."
B: "That's OK with me."
J: "You gonna be there by yourself?"
B: :"I'll be there. All by myself."
J: "I know it, 'cause I ain't coming! Hehehe."