CarPod or "I've got the music in me."

"You've got to get up every morning, with a smile on your face and show the world all the love in your heart.  Then people gonna treat you better, you're gonna find, yes you will, that you're beautiful as you feel.... "
Yes, if you follow me on FaceBook, you'll know that I recently posted that quote.  It's from the song Beautiful by Carole King.  I quoted it because it played on CarPod the other day when I was driving.  CarPod for you non-FaceBook folks is the iPod that stays in my car and stays connected all the time.  There's over 9 hours of songs on my biggest playlist.  I could drive for a day listening and the world could come to a halt, and I wouldn't know.  I was at work/school on 9/11, but I often wonder what my day would be like if something like that happened today and I was on a long trip driving somewhere.
I enjoy music so much.  I've often said that music will give us just what we need.  It gives us hope and strength when we are down and will expand our joys when we are feeling joyful. It makes our sad times easier to cope with and our happy times happier.  It can stir our emotions with memories.  It can bring us to either sad or happy tears with our private thoughts and remind us of someplace, sometime or someone special.

CarPod has many songs and about a dozen playlists.

Jack says most of my music is dumb.  But, I occasionally have one or two that he enjoys.  I'm a 70's kid when it comes to my tastes.

John Denver was my favorite in the 70's.  He was much bigger than most people give him credit for.  I remember when AJ was a teen, Take Me Home Country Roads had a bit of a resurgence.  I also remember AJ's shock that I knew that song.  There were a few more JD songs that I liked.  I think I liked Perhaps Love the most.  "If I should live forever and all my dreams come true, my memories of love will be of you."

Songs like Windy by the Association, You're In My Heart by Rod Stewart and When You Remember Me by Chris Thompson are among those songs that remind me of someone special or a special time in my life.  

Among the songs that I consider "Our Songs" for Jack and I:  Leather and Lace (Stevie Nicks & Don Henley), Harvest Moon (Neil Young) - that one was dedicated special to us at AJ's wedding, Arthur's Theme (Christopher Cross), The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me (Gladys Knight), The Search is Over (Survivor) - "now I look into your eyes, I can see forever, the search is over, you were with me all the while."  and Still the One (Orleans).  "We're still having fun and you're still the one.."
From our wedding:  Just You and I (Eddie Rabbit/Crystal Gayle), Color My World (Chicago) - I came down the aisle to the flute solo at the end -  and The Wedding Song (Paul Stuckey). "He is now to be among you at the calling of your hearts."   All these songs bring back memories of the day. 
Songs that remind me of AJ:  Forever Young (Rod Stewart) - danced with him at his wedding to that one, Freebird and Simple Man (Lynyrd Skynryd) - "Oh, take your time, don't live too fast.  Troubles will come and they will pass.  You'll find a woman, yeah, and you'll find love.  And don't forget, son, there is someone up above." Mahogany (Diana Ross), "Do you know where you're going to?  Do you like the things that life is showing you?"  and John Denver's Christmas Song, A Baby Just Like You - "And as the magi came with gifts, I come with my gift, too.  That peace on earth fills up your time, that brotherhood surrounds you, that you may know the warmth of love and wrap it all around you."   There's always The Best of My Love by the Eagles, because sometimes that kid just got the best of my love.  When I hear We Rode in Trucks (Luke Bryan) I'm reminded of AJ and his Georgia friends. "We were all best friends, wide-eyed, baptized and still wanting to sin."  Speaking of sinning how about The Devil Went Down to Georgia?   Speaking of Georgia... Georgia On My Mind.  Good memories.

Particular voices that just melt my butter... Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, Dean Martin and Steve Perry (Journey).  Yes, I'm that old and that complex.  But... swoon!!!

The first line of Elton' John's Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me reminds me of someone in particular - every time.  "I can't light, no more of your darkness."  I'm just going to leave it at that.

Amie by Pure Prairie League takes me back to a friend's wedding.  The memories of me and a few other beer and/or wine infused girls singing that one at the reception, quite loudly - together.  A memory which lasted longer than the marriage.
Speaking of marriages and weddings... have a DJ play We Are Family and watch me and all my "sisters" dance.... and sing... and dance some more!!
SPORTS FUN:  1982 St. Louis Cardinals - Celebration by Kool and the Gang.  The 2019 St. Louis Blues = Gloria by Laura Branigan.   I think we Blues fans made it one of the most downloaded songs last year.
I have a couple of playlists of Christmas Music.   One with words and one just instrumentals.  (I can sing along!)  If you've never heard Michael Crawford sing Oh Holy Night, do yourself a favor... Google and listen!  Folks my age will remember Bing Crosby and David Bowie singing The Little Drummer Boy together.  If you don't know that one... do yourself another favor.  Google and listen.  "I pray my wish will come true.  For my child and your child, too. He'll see the day of glory.  See the day when men of good will live in peace, live in peace again."

I have a playlist of just Hymns.  Many times in my life I feel the need to switch over to that playlist.  Precious Lord, Take My Hand... That plea comes in handy quite often.  And if I really want to think ahead, my funeral song Just As I Am is on there.  "And that Thou bidst me, come to Thee... Oh Lamb of God, I come, I come."  In all my hymns on CarPod, I learn just "How great Thou Art."
And in the Spring when I feel like singing my favorite Easter song - Christ the Lord has Risen Today - Debby Boone will sing along with me.

More Debby Boone notes:  When she recorded You Light Up My Life about 40 years ago, she said even though it was promoted as a love song, to her it was more spiritual.  She said many people picked up on that just by the way she sang it.  "You light up my life. You give me hope, to carry on.."  I find the same spiritual message in Celine Dion's Because You Loved Me:
"You were my strength when I was weak.  You were my voice when I couldn't speak. You were my eyes when I couldn't see.  You saw the best there was in me.  Lifted me up when I couldn't reach. You gave me faith cause you believed.  I'm everything I am because you loved me."

I have a play list for the kids.  Landon always got a chuckle out of Down by the Bay... you know... where the watermelon grows... "Have to ever seen a goose, kissing a moose... down by the bay?"  I still hear that little boy giggle.  We sang the Hokey Pokey, but while in the car we couldn't go through the motions.  We did that in my kitchen when we got home.  Where we got our musical accompaniment from... you guessed it.  KitchenPod!  There are many more songs on the kid's playlist and I hope to share them all someday with my own grands.

We can learn so much about life from music. Lessons from the obscure to the obvious.
Such as when the Eagles remind us about the Hotel California - where "you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave."  Or when Ricky Nelson tells us he went to a Garden Party and he's "learned my lesson well.  You see, you can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself." Or when Louie Armstrong (or my version, Rod Stewart) reminds us... "It's a wonderful world."  And even Raffi reminds us.. "the more we get together the happier we'll be". If you haven't learned that lesson this year, then you still have a lot to learn.
One that sends a thoughtful message and also reminds me of someone in my life... The Rose.
"It's the heart afraid of breaking, that never learns to dance.  It's the dream afraid of waking, that never takes the chance.  It's the one who won't be taken, who cannot seem to give.  And the soul afraid of dying, that never learns to live." 
If you need to find some happy... listen to music.  If you need to melt the sorrow... listen to music. If you need more life lessons... listen to music.  Or you can always re-read the first few lines of this blog. 

So on that note or this note 🎵:  "kiss today good-bye.  The sweetness and the sorrow.  Wish me luck, the same to you.... won't forget, can't regret what I did for love."  

 

As Political as I'll get...

We voted.  By we, I mean, me, Jack and my mom.

Yes, I know it's not November 3rd.
By voted I mean we voted by mail - sort of.

Most of my family and friends know that one of my biggest soap boxes is that I feel very strongly that voting is not something that needs to be incredibly convenient for us.  The people who secured this privilege, and those that have continued to safeguard it, had no convenience in providing and defending this for us.  Therefore, it should not be so easy for us.  It should never be something that we can do on our couches, or in our jammies, when it fits our schedule. We need to always make an effort.  For those of us who can, we need to always get off our couches and go to the polls.  Every election day.  Not just the big one every 4 years.  

I realize there are many people who cannot get out and vote in person.  For them, there are ways to vote.  We who can, perhaps, need to offer whatever services we can provide to those who cannot.  Drive them, get them to a facility to vote early or find out how to provide them with an absentee ballot.  And, yes, I believe mail has always been an option.

So if this is my soapbox, why did we vote by mail this time?

First of all, my mom, because of her age and because of the pandemic was always planning to vote by mail.  I agreed, that was best for her.  But, why Jack and I?  Well, a couple of months ago, when the option to apply for a mail ballot was presented to us, a couple of things happened.  First, we live in a small community and we have a good County Clerk, who's office is in charge of elections.  He did a video on Facebook explaining the procedures for the voting by mail option in our county.  One of the things he explained was that once we got our ballot by mail, we had more options than just returning it by mail.  He would provide secure drop off options within the county and would actually be stationed for one evening in each town during October for ballot drop offs for those who cannot get to Carlinville, the County Seat.  We could also hand carry our completed ballots to his office.  We felt fairly comfortable with that process as I could hand carry all 3 of our ballots into the Courthouse.

The second thing, and probably the real reason we decided to vote by mail was this.  Around the time we were to decide if we wanted to apply for a mail ballot, Jack and I had a few friends who found themselves in a quarantine situation.  Fortunately, all tested negative.  But we realized we could just as easily find ourselves in that situation at any time.  And, what if, that happened just a few days before the election.  What if we would be quarantined and not able to go to the polls?   We cherish this honor and privilege and this election is too important for us to miss that opportunity. 
So, in this very bizarre year, we voted.  By mail.  Sort of.
Tuesday, I took all 3 of our sealed ballots into the Courthouse to the County Clerk office. 
My mom and Jack both had to fill out the back of the outer envelope authorizing me to carry in their ballots.  I, too, had to sign the back of their envelopes.  I handed them to the lady at the County Clerk office and she noticed mine just had my name and no authorization for another party to return it.  "This one is yours?", she asked.  "Yes."   Then she glanced at the back of the others and said, "Okay, thank you."  She did not look at them long enough or close enough to verify that all was filled out correctly.  She did not ask for an ID to make sure I really was the authorized party.  Yes, this is a small town, but no... I had no idea who she was and she didn't know me.
So...we should pray.  All any of us can really do at this point is put our faith in God that His will be done in this election.
Please do both.  Vote and pray.

Emotional memories

Yes, I know, it's been a long time since I've posted here.  Trust me, there are a lot of thoughts that go through my head, but very few that I want to share.  Out loud.  On the internet.  Besides, I promised nothing political here.
I've also been busy working on that project that I referred to in my last blog.  Plus, I've had a birthday since my last post and a couple of adventure days.  

I had a fun day back in "the Lou" with Kelley.  We haven't done that in months!!  I know, most people haven't done "normal" for a long time.

I spent a partial day in Springfield at some of the "bigger" stores, getting things that our Carlinville Walmart doesn't supply.  I already see that I need to go back.
We took my mom to Wentzville to see A.J. and Abby and their house one Saturday.  She did very well and even went down the steps to see the basement and better than that... she came back up!   AJ carried her oxygen tank for her in both directions.  I think she had a good day.  Some normal family time for her.

In working on that writing project today - editing and adding commentary to the blog that I did during our transition to Illinois - I came across something from the day before we officially moved to this house.  We'd been at our rental house for 4 months and even though the official "all hands on deck" family assisted move was still a day or two away, our new bedroom furniture had arrived here, so, Jack and I decided to bring a few of our bare essentials and just spend a night or two here before the big move.  A.J. was living at college by then.  I found this in my writings:

    "...... when I talked to AJ on the phone, I told him we’d be at the new house when he got to Carlinville. His response brought tears. He said, “No, mom, you’ll be home. That’s home now.”

Reading that today, brought tears again. 
I also noted something else in my writing around this same time.  In our early days here, Jack and I used garage door openers and we didn't lock the door from the garage to the house.  So that's how we got into the house.  No key required.  We only had 2 remotes and cars were not programmable back then, so.... A.J. would need a key.  Therefore, A.J. became the first person to officially carry a key to this house. I think that has some significance. 

We've been "home" for just over 13 years now.  So much has changed.  Family members added through birth and marriage.  Family members lost through divorce and death.  Okay, not really "lost" they've just moved on.  But, the other thing I read within those lines today is how nearly 30 people came together one Sunday and in 4 hours all of our "stuff" was out of the rental house and into this one.  We've added to and purged some of that stuff through the years, but, it's just stuff.  Things. 
But, family.  That's a whole 'nother "thing."  Having them all help with that move meant so much.  Having them all in our lives through the good times and bad has meant even more.  I hope we've all learned the importance of people in our lives this year. If you haven't learned much in 2020, I hope you've learned that.  Learned what's really important.  Because, if not, then you may be doomed to repeat the year.  In other difficult times in my life I've tried to learn the lessons that are being sent through adversity because I don't want to have to repeat the course. 

This is the proper order, folks, and never, ever doubt this:
God/Jesus, Family, Friends.

Significant.
I'm inserting a picture here.  This is one of those pictures that when I first saw it, I just tucked it away with all the others from that time.  Then, a few years later I came across it again.  This time my reaction was different.  This visual just got to me. This is AJ here at the site where we built this house.  This was taken in June 2006, a full year before we started building.  Many more trees were to be cut down eventually, but the driveway had been put through and he was walking away from the house site back towards us at the car. This picture has been in a 5x7 frame and has sat on my desk since I rediscovered it.  I find it very poignant.  He is one of the first 3 people to call this place home. He was the one who kept reminding me it was home.  This at a time when I wondered how he felt that we were uprooting and disrupting his home.  HE always called it home.  Someday, he may be the last of the 3 of us to walk away from here. The first key carrier may be the one to hand over the key to someone else.

I've spent a lot of time "home" this year.  Thank you, God, for family and home.  Thank you, God, for A.J. and Abby's new home.  Bless their home with their love and Yours.