Today I smiled. Several times.

I'm normally a pretty content person, Not too many ups or downs, just level.  But today, several things just made me smile.

1.  The theme from Rawhide.  I'm listening to Pandora radio during the day and I'm on Marty Robbins radio and there it was.  It makes me think of Las Vegas and the Dealertainers.  They had Jake & Elwood Blues and they sang it for our table.

2.  Chick Fil A for lunch.

3 I had an envelope with 5 $20 bills and I could not find it in my purse or bag this morning.  I thought maybe I'd left it in the car.  I found it--money intact--on the ground outside my passenger door.  It had been there all night.  

4.  The team dance on Dancing With The Stars to "What Does the Fox Say" was too cute not to smile.

5.  I had 2 texts from people out of nowhere...and I had to add them back to contacts afterI said 'Who is this?".    My new phone has been an adventure without a doubt.

6.  I have 3 of 9 scarves finished for Christmas and found my bags and tags today.  Things are looking good to be finished.  

I had others...I'll have to think!

Random stuff of today.

Tomorrow would have been my parents 68th wedding anniversary.

Kanye West bought Kim Kardashian an 8 million dollar engagement ring.  It's estimated that 20% of the children and the elderly will go to bed hungry tonight and a woman with no obvious talent or skills, with an ass the size of Kansas, proudly wears that ring. 

I'm watching the Untouchables, a tv show that ran from 1959 to 1963.  It's in black and white, which I love,

and was a Desilu production and apparently they had a stable of young actors that played several parts over the years.  I've seen a young Peter Falk, Leslie Nielson, Nita Talbot, Anne Francis, General Hospital's John Beradino (Steve Hardy) and Larry Gates (Guiding Light's HB Lewis) and more and more and more.  

My Red Raiders lost their first game of the season today.  I'm not really surprised because while we have had a blast and have the great record, no one expected us to win but the truth is our young team with a brand new coach held their own against the might Oklahoma today.  And next year, we will take them to chapel.

Another Untouchable observation.  Robert Stack had great hair.

Where were you?

In the AARP magazine this month, there is the Bob Schieffer story about where he was when Kennedy died.  It's about the coolest story ever.  I'm not going to repeat it here but look it up.  Trust me.  It got me to thinking about the events that I will always remember where I was when it happened.  

First, the Kennedy assassination:   The 50 year anniversary is in about a month.  I was in the first grade in Bagdad, AZ.  I remember the principal coming over the loudspeaker, telling us that our president had been shot.  The teachers were supposed to keep us inside until someone came for us.  I remember Cathy & Jo, senior and junior in high school, coming for me.  I didn't understand what was going on because I was a protected 6.

When Martin Luther King was assassinated, I don't remember where I was at the time but I do remember the girl I was walking home with telling me her parents were very happy about it.  I remember thinking how sad that was.  I don't remember hearing about it at home.  I was a protected 10 year old.

I remember May 30, 1970 going with my sister Jo and her husband Art to a baseball game that Art was umping and because they had been arguing all morning, I wanted to go home.  Right after dark the sheriff came to our door to tell us that Jo had been shot and killed accidentally.  I remember going to the emergency room at the Bagdad hospital and my daddy having to be held back so he would not go after Art.  After it was ruled an accident, and the funeral held, Art took everything out of their house that could be sold and not sold, including Jo's hair curlers and Bible and my parents Mastercard and left town forever.  They had been married 4 months.  Today I think a different investigation would have netted a different result.  

I remember the American POW's coming home from Vietnam.  They had to come home in the middle of the night to avoid the protesters.  I was a senior in high school.  A little less protected.

In August 1977, I was in Miami Beach and I remember stepping out of the shower to hear the announcement on the radio that Elvis had died.  So sad.

On December 8, 1980 I remember Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford and Dandy Don Meredith announcing on Monday Night Football that someone had shot John Lennon.  So confusing why someone would shoot such a gentle man.

On May 31, 1997 my sister Cathy died of breast cancer after a long and ugly battle.  I remember talking to her about 2 weeks before and she was coughing.  She said she was going to come to Texas to rest and let mom take care of her.  I remember telling her it was a good idea.  In the meantime, mom & I went to Uncle T's and Aunt B's for Memorial weekend.  We ate Boston Market chicken at a roadside park on the way home.  My mom liked traveling with me and I with her.  The next morning, they got a call that Cathy was in the hospital.  They drove to Arizona and one of them sat with her 24 hours a day until she died on that Saturday.  My dad was 83, mom was 68.  It broke their hearts.

September 11,2001 goes without saying.   I was at work when my friend Jason came in to tell us that a plane had crashed into one of the twin towers.  We were watching in the lounge when the 2nd plane it.  We stayed at work all day but didn't have any calls.

My mom died in the middle of the night on February 3,2003.  She's been a coma in the hospital for a month and the doctor had told me she was not going to get better.  I remember the day before sitting with her and telling her that it was ok if she was tired.  I think that was all she needed.  

On February 21, 2009 my daddy died in the nursing home in Jayton.  He'd been in there 1 week.  I had always said he wouldn't live for 2 weeks in a nursing home and he proved me right.  He was tired too.

A lot has happened since then.  AT&T Retirement, Walgreens, Wright Elementary, Unemployed, house sale, Texas Tech University, apartment.  And maybe some future memories.

With friends like these...

Last week I watched a movie called ‘The Last Ride’ about the last 2 days of the life of Hank Williams.  It’s New Year’s Eve and his caretaker of the moment hires a young mechanic named Silas to drive ‘Mr Wells’ to West Virginia for a show.   At the first of the show it is apparent the kid does not know who his passenger really is and I wasn’t clear if he even knew until the end of the movie.  Early on, the passenger asks Silas to call him Luke. 

It’s pretty apparent that Hank is in bad shape.  He’s tired and sick.  Silas is warned not to let him drink any whiskey or he won’t be paid.  His drinking has affected every part of his life—his reputation, his performances, his marriage.  It appears if there was not money involved, everyone would have left him to his own devices.  But money has a way of attracting ‘friends’.  

Weather and some stops along the road (including a fight at a bar) delay him and he misses his New Year’s Eve share so soon that are rerouted to a New Year’s Day show in Ohio.  Unfortunately he dies in the car on the way to the show.  His cause of death was a heart problem thought his alcoholism contributed and the beating from the night before may have as well.   From what I’ve read and seen,  when they went on stage in Ohio to announce his death, everyone laughed, assuming it was another excuse for missing a show.  Only when the performers on stage started ‘I Saw the Light’ did the crowd stop laughing and sadly sang along in a final tribute.

What a sad man he appeared to be.  Betrayed by his wife, scorned by his handlers, he was painfully alone with a stranger when he died.  If his music reflects his life, he must have hurt badly.  I realize his behavior caused others to be react, and I in general try to find the best of people, but I have to wonder if he had someone to trust, someone who had his back, if his life would have be different.  Like so many celebrities, he had employees and hangers on but I’m not sure he had genuine friends.  Very sad movie.  It starred Henry Thomas from ET fame as Hank.

It makes me really sad sometimes to think of the people who died too young because they had hangers on instead of friends:

Elvis.  Colonel Parker. Priscilla.   Need we say more?

Michael Jackson.  The entire leechy Jackson Family.  If his parents had seen him as a son instead of a commodity to be sold so they’d never have to do an honest day’s work.  If someone had protected the child he possibly would not have been such a screwed up adult.

Whitney Houston.  Such a talent. 

Marilyn Monroe.

Cory Monteith.   He’d been to rehab and seemed on track but he had a demon inside of him.

Keith Whitley.  I remember Lorrie Morgan saying she’d tie herself to him with her robe tie at night so she’d know when he got up because he could not stay out of the liquor cabinet.

Heath Ledger.  I have never seen a more heartbreaking performance in my life that his Ennis in Brokeback Mountain.  Such a talent.

And there are those in the making: Lindsey Lohan, Amanda Bynes, Miley Cyrus.  It would be so good  to have someone take them by the hand and try to show them a life that doesn’t involve drinking, drugs, more money than they need or twerking while sticking out their tongue.  

Oh, my eyes!!

I made a huge mistake on Saturday. 

Last week, I placed an order with Amazon.com that was supposed to be delivered on Saturday.  But I did not remember to change my One-Click option with my new address when I moved so basically, the order had my old address on it.  And though it started out with UPS,  and was in Lubbock on Friday, for some reason the new trend is to UPS it to a post office so USPS employee can deliver it.  Bottom line, the post office knows I’ve moved and instead of forwarding it, they returned it.  That was not the huge mistake.

I was hoping maybe the post office had delivered it to the old house so I went by an rang the bell at my old house to see if they had by some chance left the package.  They had not.  But I introduced myself to the new owner and she asked if I wanted to come in to see the house.  I said sure.  HUGE mistake. 

My former house was filthy.  Not just messy.  The woman has 4 cats and 2 dogs in there.  Who apparently don’t go outside or to a litter box.  The carpet was nasty.  There was stuff piled in every square inch.  The smell gagged me.  And she wants to take out my gas cooktop that I would kill for if I could have in my apartment.  And she hates the glass in the cabinets.  And I’d had the carpets cleaned before I left—something I did not have to do—and she wanted to know if I’d scotchguarded them  to help alleviate the cat problems.  I did not pay the extra money.  Sorry.

It breaks my heart and it something I cannot unsee.  Ever.