Got Me A Second Job

Got me a little second job over at Academy. I officially started on June 22. Right now, I am a cashier. I enjoy it! We stay very busy, but I enjoy people so it's cool. Plus, I've always liked Academy!

Clarence "Big Man" Clemons has passed

The Big Man has passed. Clarence was like a big teddy bear. He was also the emotional heart and soul of the E Street Band. This is a huge loss. I can't even imagine the void that will be on the stage when Bruce next performs live. Clarence will live forever in the hearts, minds, and radios of millions in the music of Springsteen, and his side projects. Big Man, you will be sorely missed!!!!

By the way, I started my blog about a year after the death of another E Street Band legend, the great "Phantom" Dan (Danny) Federici (he died in 2008). I never acknowledged his passing. I want to do so now. I imagine Danny and Clarence rocking out right now up in R&R Heaven!



Clarence and Danny...

Warren Zevon is the man!

I have been a fan of WZ for many years. He writes a lot of darkly humorous and ironic lyrics. His songs are hook laden and cool! He has a nice baritone voice, and he is very talented, he plays the piano, guitar, and harmonica.

Clarence Clemons

The "Big Man" has suffered a stroke. I hope he makes a full recovery. I fear, not to sound pessimistic, that he will never really be the same. God bless "The Big Man" Clarence Clemons!

I Hate Rude People!

Rude people suck. I face this a lot when I eat at restaurants, or mostly when I go into a store to buy something. Everything is run by kids so they don't give a hoot about customer service and they develop what I call "Retail Face". It is the zombie-life expressionless blank stare worn by retail employees who hate their customers (the one's who make their job necessary, by the way).

Here is an example of retail face:

The Things They Carried - By Tim O'Brien

 

Here is a book I can heartily recommend!!! This is a dynamite book about Vietnam, and war in general from the perspective of the grunt soldier. You will be doing yourself a favor if you track down a copy of this book and read it!!!

Johnny Cash

Who can compare to Johnny Cash? No one. He was a legend in his own time. More charisma than ought to be allowed, more talent than most, a unique sound, a human story, and a major songwriting and song-interpreting talent. Long live Johnny Cash!!

Bee Rock by Sam Walk

This photo is taken from the top...looking down on Highway 6 (to Clifton). I enjoyed sitting here with my legs dangling off the mountain and enjoying the pretty view. Often, there would be farmers working in their fields...livestock feeding...and cars driving by. It was very exhilarating. I've taken .22's, 30/30's and shotguns up on the mountain, but never killed any creatures. Just plinking around...often across the highway into the Bosque river. I made sure no one was in the area I placed my slugs. There were times when I'd sit with my binoculars and watch people fishing or walking along the river. It was also fun to look at people driving by in their cars and see if I recognized them.


On a few of my trips I packed a hammer and small chisel to Bee Rock to carve my name or initials into the rock. You can see where I flattened out a spot for my name and then others crowded theirs around mine. I have no idea whose initials these are. Sometimes I would also paint my name on the more difficult and dangerous ledges that I would crawl out on. I didn't deface the mountain...just a small brush and some red paint and the initials SW. Nothing obtrusive. Just a reminder that old Sammy had gone where few dared to go! It was said that in the 1800's local Indians would station scouts on Bee Rock. I wandered all over that old mountain, but never ran across any arrow heads or other artifacts from that particular era.


This is as far as you could go on the ledge supporting the old cedar tree. I have climbed up to the next small ledge you see...using the tree...and then on to the top. It was quite a drop to the ground below. I made most of the trips to Bee Rock by myself and a few with certain chums. I would often carry water, a sandwich, banana and cupcake with me and spend the entire afternoon just wandering around Bee Rock. Sometimes while I was up there...other young people would climb up and I would track them and make little noises that would confuse them and hopefully spook them a little...especially the girls. No one ever discovered me while I was doing this. Wow! How the years do fly by. Now, I entertain myself playing golf. - Sam Walk 2011

Wacky Death #987

A dude named Richard Hughes [aged 43] from Ohio, was removed from his house and later died at the hospital. He had sat in his "La-Z-Boy" so long he was literally fused to it. Which answers a question no one wanted to find out about first hand: What happens when you sit in a chair for two years? Answer: You get covered with fecal matter and urine and your skin fuses to the chair.

Several Firefighters and a police officer had to cut a side out of a home Sunday to extricate a man from his residence.

Firefighters were the first to arrive at the scene after receiving a call of a general illness. When they got there, they had to call police for assistance to help get Hughes out of the house. Hughes was described as being overly obese.

Police said the man had been sitting in the same chair for two years, in his own feces and urine, and was living in what were said to be "deplorable conditions".


Richard Hughes, who looked something like this completely other man, was very fat

Here's more about it:

The morbidly obese man died in the hospital after he was cut out of his home as he has been fused to his recliner he sat in for two years

Wheeling Hospital in West Virginia confirms the death of 43-year-old Richard Hughes of Bellaire, Ohio.

The man’s girlfriend called the paramedics on Sunday after she found him unconscious.

The man was wedged in his recliner where his skin was fused into the chair from prolonged sitting.

Rescuers had to cut a hole in the wall of his house to get him out as they could not immediately remove him from the chair.

Fire-crews carried the 43-year-old man out of his house. He was rushed to Wheeling Hospital in a critical condition but later died, officers said.

The health officials reported that they found the man sitting in his own faeces and urine covered in maggots at the house on Sunday.

The girlfriend admitted that she had been feeding him by hand since he became too big to get up.

He insisted that his girlfriend feed him food and soft drinks.

Sources told the local Bellaire TV channel that the man insisted on eating, drinking and sleeping in the chair.

Hughes’ friends said that he had been complaining that the arthritis in his knees were too painful every time he tried to move.

One friend said: “I tried to suggest him going to the hospital and getting his legs checked out, but he wouldn’t do it. He said he didn’t like doctors. So you can’t force somebody to do something that they don’t want to do.”

Health officials said three people were living in the house.

One officer said it was the worst thing he had ever responded to.

Another health official said after coming into contact with the obese man he’d been forced to throw his uniform away.

City health official Jim Chase said, “The chair was very filthy, a lot of odor to it. Going in the house, the house was not clean. The living room where the man lived in his chair was very filthy, very deplorable. It’s unbelievable that somebody could live in conditions like that.”

Landlord, Lou Ann Bennett says that the 346 pound man used to be active until his knees started hurting, then he got in the chair and wouldn’t move around.

She said she hadn’t noticed his appalling condition because he’d been hiding himself under a blanket whenever she stopped by.

She says he needs to be left to “rest in peace”.

Speaking of Zombies...

Did you know that Zombies are [sorta] mentioned in the Bible? Check this out...

Events surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus got very weird. The gospel writer Matthew records that many strange things occurred. Including the following which is recorded in Matthew 27:52-53.

It states:

"The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many."

When is says "fallen asleep" read "died". So for a while you have the bodies of the dead wandering around in the "holy city".

Weird stuff!