and the beat goes on

We were watching a movie with Boogs yesterday when all of a sudden here comes Jimi Hendrix doing All Along the Watchtower, and we both just kinda' went "hmm." I would have never heard of Pharrel Williams were it not for Despicable Me. I just love good music, no matter who's playing it. As I've aged I come to value the happy ones much more because that's how I try to be. Raised on the Beatles crossed over to classic rock, I followed individuals from most of the groups that I liked into their solo careers. Steve Winwood. Phil Collins. Kenny Loggins. Gino Vanelli? Wait, please tell me I didn't listen to Gino Vanelli! "I just wanna STOP!"

Shannah's dog Gizmo has this plastic lime green snake that he chases like a dang fool when you throw it. I noticed that somehow it had crawled into the living room this morning, and shortly thereafter Sophie tore Mr. Snake's head off and chewed it to bits. Giz don't care...he'll chase it anyway. Today is the third anniversary of Shannah's mother's death and it's still raw for she and her brothers and dad. I didn't know her but feel like I do through their tributes to who she was in their lives.

We steered the grands today away from eggs and doughnuts toward the Dairy Queen because Cracker Barrel is way too much trouble and it's all about the experience anyway. As we ate our cheese curds and fries, the deputy to our local sheriff approached our table to say "hey ya'll" to Daddy. On my way home I noticed a city cop hidden in the trees by the pond at the end of the road. It's a great place to catch people driving their asses off because there's no traffic light for three miles. This is the aforementioned dangerous crossover where my parents collectively totaled four vehicles.

I stopped by the office of a guy who bought some of the Southtown Hindu hotel property for cheap and talked to his daughter about possibilities for a grocery store on that site. According to her nothing is feasible until the city funds improvements for river flooding in that area. The neighborhoods are ghost towns now, a sad remnant to once thriving neighborhoods who took care of their own. Dyersburg was built around that river and the Mississippi, home to generations of river people who built houses on stilts and grew their own food for the hard times. There were lots of snake handling churches down there too, just saying.

I once dated shacked up with a guy whose family grew up there around Bradley Road and he was poster boy for that lifestyle. His family home got swamped by the Mighty Mississippi as did his sister's. I remember riding a mule about a quarter mile down from a fish fry and right into the floodwaters. As you would expect, it's awful hard to keep those roads maintained for the farm equipment and whatnot. That was my last attempt at a relationship, mostly because he moved out on his birthday with a bottle of expensive whiskey that I gave him. Live and learn, girl. Live and learn.

^j^