Dad Joke CCCXXVIIII - special Father's Day edition

Why wasn't one Father's Day gift better than the other?

Because it was a tie.

Light posting

We have family visiting, so I've been busy taking grand kids to the beach.

Posting will be light for a couple more days.  Go check out the folks on the sidebar.

Face Vocal Band - The Parting Glass

This is an old, old traditional song of parting, popularized by The Clancy Brothers and often played at both New Year's and funerals.  This song is especially poignant to me in a year where I lost both Younger Brother Borepatch and my deeply missed Wolfgang.  May 2024 be better.

Happy New Years, everybody.

Divemedic has lost his mother

I'm so sorry.  Rest in peace and rise in glory.

Anniversary

The Queen Of The World and I have taken another lap around the sun.  She's my brown-eyed girl.

Happy Father's Day

 

Antonio Salieri - Requiem in C minor

Today would have been my younger brother's 60th birthday, had he not died 100 days ago.  He was a complicated man, endearing and infuriating in equal measures.  You don't expect the younger to die before you.

Rest in peace.

Most people have heard of Antonio Salieri (if they have heard of him at all) as the sort-of villain in the film Mozart.  That sells him somewhat short.  His Requiem was performed for the first time at his funeral.

Night 1 of my Grand Daughter's beauty pageant

Earlier this month I posted that #1 Grand Daughter was in the Miss USA Teen Rhode Island pageant.  Well tonight was the first night.

Wowzer.  She gets her good looks from her Mom, who gets them from The Queen Of The World.  No mystery there.

Dang, my son-in-law the Chief really needs a shotgun.  Longtime reader LindaG suggested that this song might be appropriate:

So help me out, Rhode Island readers - where's a good gun store up there?  I'd ask for a local gun store but c'mon - everything is local in Rhody.  OldAFSarge, I expect you're my go-to guy up there.

(Help us, Obi-Wan OldAFSarge.  You're our only hope!)

Chaos has descended

Unexpectedly we have two grand kids and two grand dogs for the day.  Blogging will be sparse.

UPDATE 21 MAY 2023 14:38: How do you stop a 13 year old from fighting with his 10 year old sister?  Ask the Romans: divicis et imperio.  Divide and conquer.  He and I took the dogs for a walk and things are quiet now.

Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace - "Baby Mine" from Dumbo

Dumbo is perhaps the ultimate Mother's Day film, about a Mom trying to protect her child, about separation and then reunion.    Churchill (music) and Wallace (lyrics) won the 1941 Oscar for best original score, and this song was nominated for Best Original Song.

Happy Mother's Day, everybody.

Morgan Wallen - Thought You Should Know

Tomorrow is Mother's Day, a holiday that demands sentimentality.  No genre does sentimental like Country, and this song is a perfect tribute to mothers everywhere.  Unsurprisingly, Morgan Wallen wrote this for his mom.

The Queen Of The World suggested this song for today.

Thought You Should Know (Songwriters: Morgan Wallen, Miranda Lambert, Nicolle Galyon)

What’s goin’ on, mama?
Something just dawned on me
I ain’t been home in some months
Been chasin’ songs and women
Makin’ some bad decisions
God knows I’m drinkin’ too much
Yeah, I know you’ve been worrying ’bout me
You’ve been losin’ sleep since ’93

I thought you should know
That all those prayers you thought you wasted on me
Must’ve finally made their way on through
I thought you should know
I got me a new girl down in Jefferson City, and
She lets me fish whenever I want to
Yeah, I’m still proud of where I came from
Still your only damn son
Can you believe I’m on the radio?
Just thought you should know, thought you should know, thought you should know

Oh, by the way, mama, didn’t mean to ramble on ya
How’s everything back at home?
Yeah, how’s that garden comin’?
Is dad still doing dumb s—?
And how’d he keep you this long?
Yeah, I’m sorry that I called you so late
I just miss you but anyways

I thought you should know
That all those prayers you thought you wasted on me
Must’ve finally made their way on through
I thought you should know
I got me a new girl down in Jefferson City, and
She lets me fish whenever I want to
Yeah, I’m still proud of where I came from
Still your only damn son
Can you believe I’m on the radio?
Just thought you should know, thought you should know, thought you should know
Yeah, I know you’ve been worrying ’bout me
You’ve been losing sleep since ’93
I thought you should know
That all those prayers you thought you wasted on me
Must’ve finally made their way on through

I thought you should know
That I really like this girl down in Jefferson City, and
Turns out she’s a lot like you
Yeah, I’m still proud of where I came from
Still your only damn son
The bus is leavin’ so I gotta roll
Just thought you should know, thought you should know, thought you should know
I thought you should know, thought you should know
I thought you should know, thought you should know, thought you should know

Vote for my granddaughter

#1 Granddaughter  has entered the Miss Teen Rhode Island contest.  If she wins, she will move on to the Miss Teen USA contest.  The pageant is running a voting contest as a fund raiser for mental health awareness and education, and the winners will move on to the semi finals.

Obviously, The Queen Of The World and I are pretty proud and excited about this.  We're asking for your help (and small donation) to help her along.  Voting is here.

Next, I'll be running a fund raiser to get her Dad (the Chief) a shotgun.  For obvious reasons.

This week has been living in the Valley of the Shadow of Death

Monday was Mom's funeral, delayed by Covid and family illnesses.  She's now with Dad for Eternety.

Yesterday and the day before it was cleaning out younger brother's (formerly Mom's) house.  He was a complicated guy, and the drugs were a part of that.  It seems that he was a fan of nitrous oxide.m  We disposed of all of that, so the house is straighter and cleaner than it's been for years.  But for both those days I was surrounded by ghosts.

Now I'm flying home, on the one-month anniversary of the day we had to put Wolfgang down.  It sure would be nice to have one of his greetings when I get there but the best I can hope for is his ghost.

I've had quite enough of death this week, thank you very much.  Would not recommend.

At Mom's funeral

It's been 2 years and 8 months since she passed on, but Covid threw a monkey wrench into having the ceremony.  But now the clan has gathered and she will finally join Dad today.

Blogging has been light since travel is a pain in the keister. 

Liminal Space

 Liminal space is a word and a concept I ran across a couple of years ago. When I understood what it was I realized that there were times in my life when I had experienced liminal space and had no words or framework to process the experience.

In some ways, liminal space can refer to a place and how we experience it. It can also refer to a time period and life experience. It is time outside of time.

The death of someone close can push a person into a place where time feels stopped, where even if you are required by situation and events to function normally in an exterior way, it seems that life is on hold. Memories arise of times and events long past. The colors of ordinary life fade.

In the Bible, it is the retreat into the desert. The 40 days, a symbolic number in the Old Testament, not an exact count of days and nights. A time apart from the ordinary flow of life.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion is a modern example of the experience. Ms. Didion's book chronicles her grief following the sudden death of her husband. The suspended time of weeks and months where she thinks irrational thoughts and hopes, awash in memory, wanting to bring him back. The time fades slowly back to normal as she processes the loss and begins to resume her life.

My own experiences with this phenomena is not to fight it or try to move past it. Give it the time and respect it deserves. Look deeply at the loss, your grief, the regrets and guilt you feel. Take the time and space you need.

Decades ago, in what I see as my first adult experience with liminal space, the Catholic church in the town  I lived in was an old, very small, building and it remained unlocked. You could go in day or night. Attending service there was a completely different experience to being there alone. The silence and sense of timelessness was nearly overwhelming. I carried a camera with me once and here is one of the pictures I took trying to capture it on film.

I share this, not to focus on my losses, but to offer my thoughts and condolences to Borepatch. As he mourns his brother and faces the loss of Wolfgang in the coming days, I ask you all to keep him in your thoughts, whatever that might mean to you.

"Honor the space between no longer and not yet."

--Nancy Levin

Rest In Peace, Younger Brother Borepatch

Older Brother called yesterday with bad news.  Younger Brother died suddenly and unexpectedly.  There sure seems to be a lot of death in my family lately.  Do not recommend. 

Younger Brother didn't like the classical music I used in Dad's send off.  He didn't care for the Gospel I used for Mom's.  He liked this, and I sort of think that he'd think it would be appropriate.

Ave atque vale, Bro.

Last minute Christmas Shopping for the hard-to-shop-for

The Child Chucker gag gift box.

Each of the sides has tongue-in-cheek marketing blurbs on the many amazing uses for the Child Chucker device.

I mean, it's just a box - put a boring old sweater in it.  But this will for sure make people do a double take.  And quite frankly, who among us hasn't considered this at least once?

The Queen Of The World's daughter got this for one of the (teen age) grand kids.  Maybe this is a subliminal message?

 

Let the little children come to me

Well, let one particular little child come to Big Country:

He's posted a lot about his grand daughter and his fight to get her to safety.  Click here to donate to the Legal Fund.

Hank Williams Sr. and Hank Williams Jr. - There's a Tear in my Beer

Tomorrow is Father's Day, and there's no more famous father/son pair in Country Music than Hank Williams, Senior and Junior.  Senior died when Junior was a baby (there's an old photo of the two of them in the video, Senior with baby Junior sitting on his lap).

But the late 1980s was a time of emergent technology miracles, and this video is the highlight of the pre-digital editing age.  Keep in mind in today's age of "Deep Fakes" and special effects that the merging of old Hank Sr. footage with a modern day Junior was done without any computer graphics at all.  The Hank Sr. footage wasn't even of him singing this song - it was actually "Hey Good Looking", and an actor/singer recorded the new song and his mouth was superimposed on thew old footage.  This was cutting edge, a third of a century ago.

The song was pretty much a sensation - it was video of the year for both CMT and ACM, and Hank Jr. and Sr. shared a Grammy for best Country vocal collaboration.

I remember watching this when it came out, and how poignant it was - what might have been but never was.  

There's a Tear in my Beer (Songwriter: Hank Williams, Sr.)

There's a tear in my beer
'cause I'm cryin' for you, dear
you are on my lonely mind.
Into these last nine beers
I have shed a million tears.
You are on my lonely mind
I'm gonna keep drinkin'
until I'm petrified.
And then maybe these tears
will leave my eyes.
There's a tear in my beer
cause I'm crying' for you dear
You are on my lonely mind.

Last night I walked the floor
and the night before
You are on my lonely mind.
It seems my life is through
and I'm so doggone blue
You are on my lonely mind.
I'm gonna keep drinkin'
till I can't move a toe
and then maybe my heart
won't hurt me so.
There's a tear in my beer
cause I'm cryin' for you dear
You are on my lonely mind.

Lord, I've tried and I've tried
But my tears I can't hide
You are on my lonely mind.
All these blues that I've found
Have really got me down
You are on my lonely mind
I'm gonna keep drinkin' till I can't even think
Cause in the last week I ain't slept a wink
There's a tear in my beer
cause I'm crying for you dear
You are on my lonely mind.

Note sure if being on the "Nice List" will get you this

The Queen Of The World asked her son what he and his family wanted for Christmas.  Here's what he replied:

I’m pretty sure everyone wants an AR-10 in 308 win mag.  Step-son wants the 18” barrel.  Wife Unit wants the M1 SOCOM, also in 308 win mag, with the kryptek cammo pattern.  Step-Daughter wants a Sig P365.  

They've been good and all, but I'm not sure they've been nice enough to get on that list.  And TQOTW says that she thinks he's probably on the naughty list.