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Month: November 2019

My Favorite Veteran

My Favorite Veteran

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Last year in my post Veterans Day Musings I whined about not wanting to be stressed out by listening to the news and therefore I had retreated to music and my favorite Sirius XM radio station, Little Steven’s Underground Garage.

Sadly, not much has changed in a year as far that is concerned.  But I did get to make that same road trip this year.

Actually, this year I was able to kiss my favorite veteran on the forehead on Veterans Day and thank him in person for his service.  Not all of you can do that anymore and I am sorry about that.  I am certainly blessed with that privilege.

But a Tuesday doctors appointment for my mother and the sudden burst of cold weather requiring the water lines out to the dock to be disconnected and blown out for the winter had me in my truck after work on Monday with the Underground Garage tuned in headed once again over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and on to the Eastern Shore.   Thanks to the holiday, I arrived early enough on Veteran’s Day evening to hang out for a while with my parents and eat ice cream with my dad.

 

The process of shutting off the water and blowing out the water lines requires removing two 32 x 36-inch pieces of flooring and leaning them against the wall.  Then, crawling down below the 2 X 10-inch floor joists to get to PVC water line and the shut off valve.  The pipe is then disconnected at a threaded fitting and an air compressor quick connect is screwed on.  Once that is complete the spigots are opened up out at the bulkhead and further down on the dock and the air compressor line is attached,  blowing the water out to keep the pipe from freezing and cracking.

At one point in this process my dad observed me to almost bump my head on one of the 32 x 36-inch plywood sub-floor that was leaning closest to me as I was entering the crawl space.  My dad leaped into action balancing one foot on the 2-inch edge of the floor joist and reaching to grab the piece of sub floor.  With my mother now panicking yelling “Carl what are you doing?” he replies “I have to move this piece of plywood before it hits Curt in the head.  Don’t worry my balance is pretty good today Flo!”

Lying helplessly in the crawl space looking up through the floor joists, I listened to the commotion occurring above me.  Seeing my dad’s shoe with his weight now balanced on the 2-inch edge of the joist, while he bent and grabbed the piece of flooring to move it, I could only just hope for the best.

“My balance is pretty good today Flo.”

My dad is 90 years old.

A veteran of the Korean War.

And he has Parkinson’s Disease.

His kind of Parkinson’s makes him prone to falling.  He loses his balance easily.

So, seeing his sneakered foot on the floor joist above me and hearing my mother’s overly expressed concern, with only the comforting knowledge of “my balance is pretty good today Flo,” meant it was one hairy 20 seconds.

 

But I guess it’s nice to know you are never too old to have your dad try to keep you safe.

And guess it’s also comforting to know he will never be too old to want to.

 

Happy Veterans Day Pop.

Thank you for your service.

And thank you for keeping me and the rest of us safe.

Oh Well

Oh Well

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I can’t help about the shape I’m in
I can’t sing, I ain’t pretty and my legs are thin
But don’t ask me what I think of you
I might not give the answer that you want me to
Oh well

(From Oh Well, written by Peter Green)

 

Peter Green.

Born Peter Greenbaum October 29, 1946.

Many of you are familiar with Fleetwood Mac.  I have confessed to my being a rather big Fleetwood Mac fan before.

What you may not be familiar with is that originally Fleetwood Mac was called Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. The Fleetwood Mac years that included Peter Green was the Fleetwood Mac I remember liking most.

A pretty good guitarist, Peter actually replaced another pretty good guitarist named Eric Clapton when Clapton left John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.

In 1967 Peter left the Bluesbreakers to start his own band that included other former members of the Bluesbreakers, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie.

 

I have a calendar hanging in my office.

It’s a guitar calendar.

Each month it features a cool photo of a famous or unique guitar and its history.  It also lists birthdays of notable guitar players for that month.

Peter Green was on that birthday list for the month of October,  October 29th  to be exact.

 

You can probably imagine hearing a conversation like this:

Joe: “Hey man how is it going how are you feeling?”

Jack: “Ah man you know I am not really feeling very well, I got this cough that I can’t kick, headaches, a fever that just won’t go away and the doctors can’t seem to figure how to make me well again.”

Joe: Wow that’s too bad, listen get plenty of rest, drink lots of water, and you know I am sure everything is going to work out.  And I will be thinking about you. Be sure to let me know if there is anything I can do for you. I will keep you in my prayers.”

And you can probably also imagine hearing one like this:

Joe: “Hey man how is it going how are you feeling?”

Jack:  “Ah man, you know I am not really feeling very well, I can’t sleep, my heart is racing, I am depressed, I don’t have any appetite, I feel like I am going to lose it at any time  and the doctors can’t seem to figure how to make me feel good again.”

Joe: “Wow man, I am sorry to hear that, that’s too bad, yeah I got an uncle like that too, hey about those Nats huh?”

 

Oh well.

Joe just might not give the answer that you want him to, huh?

 

Due to his mental illness, Peter Green would fall out of the music scene in the mid 70’s.  He would eventually undergo therapy for schizophrenia.   Thankfully he would come back and be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and tour as late as 2010.

 

As is often the case with me, a song sticks in my head for a day and gets me thinking and then you poor folks have to hear about it.   That is what happened when Oh Well played in my head recently and Peter Green’s birthday was listed on my office wall.

 

And I am reminded by how I feel this is the time of the year when the daylight ends sooner, that many people are struggling.  And not just from the touch of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) that plagues me to some minor degree, but many more to a much more serious degree from a multitude of reasons or causes.

But whether its schizophrenia, or seasonal affective disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder, or anxiety, or depression, or grief, or some other behavioral disorder or life situation that causes unbearable stress, we need to be attentive and sympathetic to the needs of those folks too.

 

You may have people in your life who are struggling with something.

Actually, let me say that a different way.

You do have people in your life who are struggling with something.  A person that you love, a person that you work with, a person who is your friend, the person waiting on you in a restaurant.

You may not realize it.

Or, you may prefer to avoid it.

You may prefer to say, “Oh well, how about those Nats?”

I have written before, that those brothers and sisters need our help too.

And if we don’t know how to help them, which may often be the case, we just need to pray about it.

Pray for them.

And maybe just listen.

And maybe not say anything.

Maybe just be there.

 

And it could be me, and it could be you.

And if it is, we need to tell somebody.

 

Now, when I talked to God I knew he’d understand
He said, “Stick by my side and I’ll be your guiding hand
But don’t ask me what I think of you
I might not give the answer that you want me to
Oh well

(From Oh Well, by Peter Green)