Travels with Pops

VONNEGUT: IF THIS ISN'T NICE, THEN I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS

Events that really pissed me off this week:

a) Finding out Patty Griffin is shacking up with Robert Plant. I love Patty Griffin. I know she loves me, too. I am probably a low-level stalker of Patty Griffin. And it feels good to finally admit that. But it doesn't change anything. Come on, Patty. Do you know where that thing has been?

b) The teenagers whom I flipped off on a recovery-from-running-around-Huffman ride. I was wearing mittens, so I think the effect was somewhat diminished.

d) The student who killed my Walt Whitman buzz in class today by talking about her hair. Ever felt like this?*

Events that didn't piss me off:

1) Finding that youtube video of Patty Griffin singing "In Spite of Ourselves" with John Prine. If you don't know who John Prine is, then you need to go back where you came from, as A.Dewey Pyle says.

2) The Outpost, by Jake Tapper. Sounds like a good book, along the lines of Horse Soldiers and Where Men Win Glory

3) Finally someone I don't know gave me kudos on Strava about a ride I did (or maybe he was just referring to the fact that I tried to flip off some teenagers while wearing mittens)

4) My son's transmission did not have to be rebuilt, and his water pump and alternator are fine. Now, if he can just learn to tighten the chain on his singlespeed, I will have achieved parental nirvana.

5) Hearing that my son is going to do the ride from Morgantown to Masontown. 13 miles out and up. Winter training ground for West Virginia's tough guys.

6) Listening to the new songs my other son wrote. Attention: go see the Blueribbon Bluegrass Band. You're missing out if you've never seen them. They're getting pretty damn good.

7) Finding the Mattingly road to Stony Hill climb which, added to the other stuff in Hinckley, makes the area a damn good place to kick one's own ass

8) Todd Snider at the Beachland, March 20. I have three extra tickets, unfortunately. Hope he plays this song.

9) Getting that student whose father died last year and who has turned into a delinquent, to respond to TKAM

10) Hearing a kid mispronounce the word "swing"  as "shwing."  I believe every kid should be forced to watch Wayne's World, Joe Dirt, Tommy Boy, and Dumb and Dumber before they are allowed out into our world.

11) Getting a nice, prety greeting card from a parent (an obvious forgery) explaining why her daughter didn't do her homework. Hey, at least include a gift card to Appleby's or something, yaaaaaaaa think??


12) Researching our trip to California has produced an enormous erection for me:
Where I get to ride over spring break: Montana de Oro State Park near San Luis Obispo and this  and this. Santa Cruz riding for which I have yet to research the pics, but it's gonna FUGGING RULE!!!!!!!

 (I got a little carried away there. I'm sorry.)

The Final Word:

I hope your lists were equally short and long this week. Hey, how about February is almost over??? It can be dug, can it not?


*

The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me—he complains of my gab and my loitering.
I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable;
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.	1330
The last scud of day holds back for me;
It flings my likeness after the rest, and true as any, on the shadow’d wilds;
It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.
I depart as air—I shake my white locks at the runaway sun;
I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.	1335
I bequeathe myself to the dirt, to grow from the grass I love;
If you want me again, look for me under your boot-soles.
You will hardly know who I am, or what I mean;
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.	1340
Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged;
Missing me one place, search another;
I stop somewhere, waiting for you.