"Brother and Sister..."

Brother & Sister...

The Allman Brothers Band has always been one of my favorite bands... They are Southern and they are Blues... two good attributes, if you ask me...

This is one my favorite ABB songs... at least at this point in time... that could change in 10 minutes... This is an acoustic version that just captures my soul everytime I listen to it...

The story goes that Duane and Gregg Allman, and Dickey Betts would spend time writing in an old cemetery named Rose Hill, in Macon, GA, and it was close to a headstone that had inscripted on it, "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed Napier."  Anyway, something moved Dickey Betts to write this song. An interesting side note to this story is that Duane Allman and Berry Oakley are buried near Elizabeth.


Anyhoo, this is about a different brother and sister...


Somewhere along the way, I became interested in my family tree... my Dad had a sister that did this some years ago, and stopped when she learned we were directly descended from Jean Lafitte, the pirate of New Orleans...


For some reason, there is one link that has been easier to trace than any of the others... it's almost as if I have been led down this path.  I found a fellow who died in 1853 who I suspected to be my great, great grandfather... and later confirmed when I found some documents in some stuff that my sister stole got when Dad died.


I've found a couple of photos that I was so pleased to get...

William F. Hoskins was a member of the 87th Illinois Infantry in the Civil War, and participated in several battles including the Siege of Vicksburg.  


I also found this photograph...

The couple seated in the front are my Great Grand Parents, Coles...  Her name is Rebecca Hoskins Coles... she is the sister to William F. Hoskins in the first photo.  The third person from the left standing behind them...is my Grand Mother Brown. I have written about her many times.  Every time I find a new photo of her, I am startled by it... As I have said before, there is some connection between her and myself that I just can't explain.  I've written about her HERE   

and HERE.  


I've traced my family back to the early 1500's and to countries such as France, Wales, England, and The Netherlands.  This has been so therapeutic for me.


I continue to go to funerals of friends... the most recent, yesterday.  I continue to worry about the mess that my daughter seems to be slipping into, only deeper and deeper... *sighs*


I've quit writing in detail about the things that bother me so... they must be so tiring to read...


I would love to hear some of your stories about your family trees...

~Shoes~

"No, It Just Can't Be..."



Wow…

Guess who would have been 69 today!?!?!?!

I hope you watched that video and turned the sound WAY up… What a voice she had!  What a set of pipes!!

The guitarists are playing Fender Telecasters... I SO wanted one of the paisley models that they came out with...


ARGH!!!!






You could SO rock, Janis... you've been gone WAY too long!!!

~shoes~

"Blah..."

Hurt

I Hurt Myself Today...

To See If I Still Feel...

What Have I Become...

My Sweetest Friend?

Everyone I Know Goes Away...

In The End

I Wear This Crown Of Thorns

Upon My Liar's Chair...

Full of Broken Thoughts

I Cannot Repair...

Beneath The Stains Of Time

The Feelings Disappear...

You Are Someone Else

I am still right here...

What Have I Become...

My Sweetest Friend?

Everyone I Know Goes Away...

In The End...

__________________

This is just the mindset in which I've found myself stuck...

Where, oh, Where has my Muse gone!?!?!?!?!?!

Blerk...

~shoes~

"Happy New Year, Part II..."

So It Goes...

I have a colleague here at Alluvial Flood Plain State University that I consider to be one of my best friends... I went into her office a last afternoon and found her crying... she was working on a financial statement as to how her Life Insurance proceeds would be split among her two children, so as to give them the best financial opportunities possible...

She was diagnosed with breast cancer just a couple of weeks ago, and has been so strong... so brave...  I guess even the strongest of us wear down over time... 


On a different and separate note, my stalker is back... the married woman that just can't seem to take clear, distinct, and direct messages... this time, she has enrolled in one of my classes.  When I saw her name on the class roster, my stomach immediately knotted up... on the way to class yesterday morning, I honestly was on the verge of throwing up...  Of course, this really is just a nuisance... a pain in the butt.  I can handle this...

That's supposed to be a vomit face, 

but it doesn't look like it to me...

Anyhoo...

I just don't understand things at times...  

I've reassured my friend that she is going to be ok... and that she shouldn't worry about her classes... we can cover them for her.  She has surgery scheduled for next week, and then radiation...  She just doesn't deserve all of this...

*sighs*

All in all, I'm ok... 

It's just my friends that seem to struggle so...

~shoes~

"Happy New Year???"

Happy Fukken New Year…

... or so they say...

Man, have I been out of the Loop or what? I haven't posted since December 15th...

No "Merry Christmas" posts or any of that stuff...

*sighs*

I had mentioned earlier that I was emotionally down... and how I tend to reduce the size of my world when I feel this way... 

What way is it that I am feeling? I don't know... I don't feel threatened, I don't think... but I have greatly withdrawn from everything... from everybody...  from Life.

Outside of my Son, I really saw no one over Christmas that mattered to me... I did spend a few hours with one of my brothers and his wife, but that felt more like an obligation...  I did see my daughter after Christmas... she and her husband drove to Oxford, MS to see Boyshoes for his birthday...

I spent the same hours with my sister... the one that I thought was leaving us back in August...

She's doing much better, I think... she's mean again... How sad is that?  If someone wanted to make a movie about a female version of 'Mr. Scrooge,' she would be the ideal model for that role.

You know how people say that you can't take your money/riches with you when you die?  She will prove everyone wrong on that account... she WILL find a way...

We report back to work tomorrow... it will be registration for the Spring, 2012 semester...

I don't care... I really don't care... the indifference of the students and the ambivalence administration has caught up with me...

They've won...

I've started going through my guitars... they've been a joy to me, but I have too many... I'm going to start selling some of them off... they deserve to be played more than they are getting played...

I've written before about my good friend, Keith... he and I have gone on quite of few trips... we like Monument Valley, we've done parts of the Appalachian Trail...  anytime we've planned trips, it's always been with the caveat that  whether we actually went or not would be dependent on how well Connie (his wife) was doing at the time... Connie's struggled so with colon cancer...

Connie died over the Christmas break...  it hurt to see my friend, Keith, so grief stricken...

So it goes...

I had a dream about my Mom the other night... and like many of the dreams about her, I never see her... I "feel" her... what does that mean? Anyone have any ideas?? I hear her talk... I sense her presence... but I never see her in the dreams...

I've not "felt well" since November... 

This is not the right time of the year for me to want to be taking a pilgrimage...but I so need to rejuvenate...

In all seriousness...

Happy New Year, folks...

~shoes~