"Elvis..."

"Ode To Elvis"

Once upon a time, my good friend, BARRY  and I would go whitewater canoeing on the rivers in Western North Carolina... it was beautiful up there... 


Anyway, this one evening, the group that we went with decided that we would have a poetry night... We were each asked to write a poem and have it ready to read aloud after dinner.  I figured that there were going to be WAY too many poems about rivers and mountains and eddies... so being the dumbass different kind of person that I am, I decided to write about Elvis...


Are any of you familiar with a group called "Dread Zeppelin?"  If yes, then you understand why I am including a video here for your listening entertainment while you read further...



I can't quite remember exactly how the poem went, but I can recall it enough... most of it had to do with the incredulous disbelief that the King of Rock~N~Roll could be dead...

'Is Elvis dead?

Could he be dead??

Is this really true???

Could Elvis really be dead?

Does this bother you??'

Not the real Elvis...

And so it went... along these lines... and I perceived the tempo of the poem to be building towards this great peak... towards this great eruption...

'Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love...

There in Memphis~town...

Did Elvis really cash his chips all in

With his pants pulled completely down???'

Not the real Elvis...

As the story goes, Elvis was making pooh on his toilet, when he evidently strained too hard... and, Hell, I don't know, he either had a stroke, or  heart attack, or something... and keeled over dead... an EMT claimed he was face down and ass up in his bathroom...  Too bad there weren't digital cameras all over the place back then...

Zombie Elvis...

While looking this crap up researching this, I did find a link where it mentioned the frequency of fatal heart attacks while poohing... Note to self: No more poop straining...

Not the real Elvis...

The REAL Elvis...

Of Course, in reality,

Elvis was really cool...

~shoes~

"Christmas In Dixie... 2010"

It's cold here this morning... the promise of snow scooted north of us... 


GirlShoes and Heff Bert came up for Christmas, but he had to work last night... so I gave them their presents last afternoon.... BoyShoes was here as well... So "Christmas Present"  was over before it had a chance to get started...


That gave way too much time to dwell on 'Christmases Past'... I did take some flowers to the cemetery last afternoon and visited with my Mom and Dad... Left a small remembrance for Barry... and offered a prayer up for Robert...


These are the last two Christmas songs I will post for 2010...  


I love them both... not really Christmas standards by the measurement of how one would define 'standards'... but I love them... these are the two I most prefer to hear...


What a great song this is... I was surprised to find a 'live' version of it...

I shall never forget the Christmases spent as a child with my parents... I shall never forget the Christmases spent with my children when they were small... 

Merry Christmas

From

The Mississippi Delta...

Happy Holidays...

~Jim~

Dad Has A Stroke

I got a phone call early on Feb 14, 1996 from my oldest sister... she told me that she had gone over to Dad's house to check on him... he had fallen... and couldn't get up... she needed me to come and help...

This same sister had designated herself "Official Keeper of Dad"... and had all of the locks changed on his house... so no one but her could get in to "check" on Dad...  "He's safer if there are no extra keys out there...", she said...

Yeah... right...

By the time I got to Dad's, Sister had called the police and the EMTs... when I got into his house, he was on the floor... very disoriented... I knelt on the floor beside him... and touched him... and told him I was "here"... and he turned and looked at me and asked... "Who are you?"   Dad had had a stroke...  I told Dad that it didn't matter, but he was going to be OK...

When Dad was loaded into the ambulance, he was taken to the hospital...  Sister asked me to go with Dad... she needed to go check on her husband and their business...  Of course I would go to the hospital with Dad...

By the time I got there, Dad was in his examination room in the ER... and we were waiting for my buddy, Barry... he was my Dad's doctor... Dad was laying on his right side... facing away from me... I was sitting to his back... and I sat there and just rubbed his back the entire time... letting him know he wasn't alone... at one point, Dad rolled over and looked at me... and called me 'Jimmy'... and told me... "it feels so good to not be alone..."  Sister never understood that she was keeping Dad away from contact... my brothers and myself...   All he had for company the last years of his life was when Sister would come over and visit...

When Barry arrived... and checked Dad out... he confirmed that he had experienced a stroke and was going to be admitted...  I knew Dad was 90... and wouldn't survive... that we were entering the last days of Dad's Life...

And I so wasn't ready for that...