"It's 2:44 AM...

... and it's storming its ass off here in the Mississippi Delta...





There was a severe line of thunderstorms that came through at about 6 PM last night... much damage due to extreme straight line winds...the power was out at my house for about 3 hours...


I was sound asleep when this system was coming through...  I love the sound of night time thunderstorms...  they sound like rolling trains when you first hear them... and as they get closer, they sound like what I would imagine would be a series of artillery shellings, and the sky lights up so.   It's funny, the way our brains interpret things. When Ifirst heard the sounds of thunder, I was interpreting them as forms of communication... and it was as if I could understand what was being said.




I was out riding around looking at the damage just about sunset. The first storm had just about passed, and the sun was barely peaking through this rip in the clouds, and was throwing rays across the western sky... and I was without a camera... In the clouds all around the sunset, lightning was running across them...  I drove to the edge ot town, parked, and watched...


I love thunderstorms... There is something greatly mystical about them... greatly powerful... even greatly erotic.  At times, I think about the storms that we have going on in our own personal lives.  We weather them... we survive them.


I often wonder what early Man thought about was happening when these kinds of storms would develop, and how they interpreted these events.  


And when these storms start to pass... and you hear the intensity disappear into the distance, I am saddened... I love storms.  

That song by The Doors sure captured the nature of storms for me.

There's another storm approaching...

I think I shall go enjoy it...

~shoes~

PS:  I sure am glad to be home...

'Bonjour.. Guten Tag... Err.."

Hell...

(I wonder how they say, 'Good Morning' in Hell?)

Where am I?

(...checks map)

I'm in Brussels, Belgium... 

Home of the Belgian Waffle...

David Bowie recorded a song, 'Golden Years'... in which the back up singers would sing something that sounded to me like... 'wah wah wah...' and for some reason, I would think of waffles... That sounds like something I would do...

Man, if I looked that good in a suit, I'd wear them ALL of the time!

The 'RedShoes Mystery Tour/PeeWee's Great Adventure has actually included elements from each.  One reason that I haven't posted much on this trip has been due to the fact that I've been sick much of this journey.  I don't know if it's mostly due to fatigue, or a bug... or nervousness about wanting to do my best... I've had some days where I couldn't wait to get back to my room and sleep...


I've been to Frankfurt, Germany and Aachen, Germany... I've been to Maastricht in The Netherlands... and to Leige, and now Brussels, here in Belgium...

My mostest favoritest place?

Maastricht... I LOVE the Dutch...

Granted, I've only come in contact with a small number of people in each place, but the Dutch smile... they seem happy...

I didn't get to see any windmills in Holland... I wish I had... But flowers? and Rain?? All over the place!!  Especially poppies...


I Fly home.. back to the States... tomorrow.  I can't wait to get home...


I noticed on the news that  Bob Welch has died... he was a front man for 'Fleetwood Mac' before the Buckingham~Nicks version of 'Fleetwood Mac.

Bob Welch

So It Goes...

I will be posting photos and a re-cap of the trip... I will be by to catch up with your goings-on as well... I've missed you all...

~shoes~

"Flying..."

Well...

It's Time...

I'm setting off on Red Shoe's Mystery Tour...

'Magical Mystery Tour'

I will get to go places and see things that I've only imagined doing...

I will be in the same city (Frankfurt, Germany) where my great great grandfather, Balthazar Ohl, lived back in 1825... and where a great (squared- to-some-power) grandmother, Marie Katrina Wimmer, lived back in the late 1600s.  There are old family names like Vogt, Roosa, amd Krom as well.

In a sense, it will be like a homecoming...

I am going to be doing a GREAT deal of flying today...

'Flying'
My FAVORITE BeaTle Instrumental...
(because as far as I know, it's their only one)


I do have the tendency from time to time of screwing things up...


I just hope this trip doesn't become a version of ...

A big o' pair of those WHITE shoes would be cool, I think!!


Guten tag, y'all...


~shoes~

"Red Neck Post...

Red necks...

Down in my neck of the woods, one tends to hear a great deal about 'red necks'...

Hell, I've been called a red neck before, just based upon where I was born and/or where I live.  I've known quite a few red necks in my day, and I do have to admit, they are hard working people...

One could be many worse things than a red neck.

I would be one of Jackson Browne's red neck friends...

However...

I found this one a friend's FaceBook page and it just got me to thinking...

Have you really ever noticed the lack of red neck murder cases on TV detective shows? This could explain everything...

There is a fellow blogger from Memphis by the name of Nude Memphis Steve...

He has a photo similar to this one on his blog page... could be a relative, I suppose.

I'm not much of a beer drinker...

but I've been told I can be belligerent after a few margaritas...

A red neck hibachi?

That flavoring sure doesn't smell like hickory chips to me...

International, Hell...

We see things like this every day down here... 

Is that one of those Mr. Spock sleeper holds he's a-puttin' on that gal?

Boxes and duct tape?

Sounds like someone I know that made a drive across Texas with a mannequin duct taped to her Korean...

I bet she learnt it from these folks...

I'm close to setting off on my great adventure!  

I can't wait...

I wonder what Europeans will think of a Red Shoed Red Neck???

I'll keep you posted!!!

~shoes~

Donald "Duck" Dunn...

Oh, Man...

Sad news out of Memphis, TN today...

Donald 'Duck' Dunn

"Duck" Dunn, bassist extraordinaire, died ... One could have hardly grown up back when I was a kid, liked music the way I did... and never heard of STAX Records... the home of 'Soul Music'...  the house band for STAX was 'Booker T and the MGs... even if you have never heard of them, I will assure you that you have heard their music...

'Green Onions'

Booker T & The MGs

Most of you probably heard him when he and his friend and band mate, Steve Cropper,  were members of The Blues Brothers' Band.   "Duck" Dunn also toured extensively with Eric Clapton for a few years and appeared in Clapton's 'Forever Man' video...

What a talent Dunn was... when it came to laying down a bass groove, he was a minimalist... a few notes at just the right time.  Very few people ever get to spend a life time doing something that they really enjoy... 'Duck Dunn obviously did...

You will be missed...

~shoes~

"Crawlin' Out..."

... of a hole.

Man, what a semester... what a school year this has been... I had times where I didn't think it was going to end, or that I just wasn't going to survive it.

This 'hole' seems to have coincided with the illness of my oldest sister back in August... I wrote about it... and then just a freight train  of on-going events.  My sister is somewhat stable, and now my oldest brother is dealing with total kidney failure.

I have had on-going issues with my children... I know some parents are able to separate from their children at some point, but I think I am a great deal like my Mom... they will always be my kids, regardless of how old they are... 

Some of the messes in which they find themselves... Holy Cow...

But...

exams are graded...

grades have been turned in to the Registrar's Office...

Phone calls and email about grades that I "gave" them  are subsiding...

Commencement was Saturday.

I think I mentioned somewhere that I had been nominated for the outstanding professor award here at Alluvial Flood Plain State University...  I wasn't hopeful about receiving it... someone from the College of Business received it last year.  Seldom do back-to-back recipients come from the same school.  Besides, there are many people who get up and come to work everyday and really put forth great effort for their students.

I've been thinking about some musicians with whom I am familiar... and for some reason, they are from Memphis... Memphis has always been a great hotbed of music...

One of the musicians is a fellow by the name of John Kilzer... he played basketball ball, I believe, for Memphis State University... he recorded several albums and had a great Memphis following... Music has to be a most difficult career in which to succeed.

I found one of his songs that I really like on YouTube....

'Memory In The Making'

I used to know the name of the guitarist that played on this album for John, but his name escapes me... much like Nashville, there are great musicians in Memphis.  I've seen John around in Memphis over the past few years... a really nice fellow... I think he is a minister of music today.


My favorite 'unknown' Memphis musician, however, is a fellow by the name of Rob Jungklas... he was a contemporary of John's, I believe.

I finally found my favorite Rob Jungklas song on YouTube...

If you have a good sound card and great speakers on your computer, turn 'em up...

'Memphis Thing'

Augh!!! What a GREAT song!!!!

A few years ago, there was an article about Rob in a Memphis newspaper... it seems that he was on the cusp of having a musical breakthrough... and hadn't been married long.  He spoke of how difficult the life of a professional musician was on a marriage... he chose the marriage over the music career, and last I heard, he's a school teacher in Memphis... How cool...

Well, next on the agenda for Shoes is the trip to Germany and The Netherlands... now I worry about whether I will do a good job and represent myself and Alluvial Flood Plain State in a positive manner...

Mom always said I worried too much...

... and I was awarded the outstanding professor award at Commence on Saturday... I'm still in shock...

All in all, this has become a very good semester...

~shoes~

"FIRE...

DRILL!!!!!"

We had an Emergency Planning Seminar this morning here at Alluvial Flood Plain State University and I failed a Health and Safety course that was put on for the faculty...

One of the questions was: 

"In the event of a fire, what steps would you take?"

"Fuckin' big ones" was apparently the wrong answer. 

Speaking of scary...

Did you see this ONE?

This dumbass fellow had been dating a dentist, and broke up with her... and evidently, just days later, he shows up at her office with a tooth ache.

"I tried to be professional and detach myself from my emotions," the female dentist was quoted as having said.

"But...

...when I saw him lying there I just thought, 'What a bastard' and decided to take all his teeth out."

"I knew something was wrong because when I woke up I couldn't feel any teeth and my jaw was strapped up with bandages," the toothless wonder mumbled.

Adding to his trauma, he said his new girlfriend has already left him over his now toothless appearance.

LMBO!!!

Yet again???

Talk about Karma!!!!!

I'd better finish grading this bullshit stack of exams...

Amended to add this headline:


Dentist Dropped Tool Down Woman's Throat, Lawsuit Claims


Read about it  HERE!!


I swear, it's almost impossible to make some of this stuff up!!

~shoes~