Wednesday, November 8, 2023, dropped upon us with an unmusical clang. The noise was sufficient to blow some clouds out of the valley and stir clumps of fading mouldering leaves. 44 F now, up from 36 F, it’ll reach 58 F in Ashlandia, where trees are common and the leaves are above average.
I’ve been absorbing the election news, nagivating between dramatic headlines, trying to reach the meat of matters. Other stories pulled me in, like a candidate dying at the polling station, a five-year-old girl found hidden in a nailed closet hideaway in Arkansas, an earthquake in Texas, forty dead in flooding in Kenya and Somalia, and man bites crocodile. It’s a lot of news to take in and I think coffee will be needed to wash it all down.
News alerted The Neurons to a 1978 song off the Boston Don’t Look Back album. A friend, Randy, loved this band and this album, and would play it all the time when he wasn’t playing Van Halen or watching Atlanta Braves baseball. Mind you, the album was over ten years old before I met Randy. But the song in the morning mental music stream (Trademark stolen), “Used to Bad News”, has that classic Boston smooth guitar, keyboards, strong pop vocals, and flowing, anchoring bass, so I undertood why Randy liked it. A little too full of cliches for me but that can be overlooked once in a while.
Stay positive, be strong, lean forward, and don’t look back. Coffee is working its way through my systems, making The Neurons happy and priming them to start the day. Here we go. Enjoy the video. Cheers
Despite a cloudy presence, it’s a sunny Tuesday, November 7, 2023. An election day in many precincts, we’re not voting on anything this year in Ashlandia, where the voters are blue with purple tints and mostly retired professionals. It’s 49 F now with plans to burst into the low fifties, perhaps even hitting up to 53 F. Woo – break out the shorts and tank tops.
Do people still wear tank tops?
My clothes amused me today after I dressed. They were so funny, cracking jokes among themselves. Yeah, I need to say that information differently: The Neurons pointed out how old my wardrobe is, amusing me. Like, the jacket was purchased in San Francisco at Macy’s in December, 2005, during a trip to the city from our new home in Oregon to visit with friends and hear some blues at a club. Pants, underwear, and socks are fairly new at four ~ five years, but my brown Nunn Bush shoes are over twenty-five years old, which strikes me as impossible. And they still fit and are amazingly comfortable. Just a little older than the shoes is the Arrows shirt, purchased at the Naval Air Station Moffett Field Exchange back in 1996.
Weird what memories stay sharp in the mind. Adding it all up, I’m an old clothes man who will never be accused of being a fashion plate. Oh, well.
I keep finding pieces of kibble at odd places in the house, such as the bedroom hallway, in the living room by the television, and in the office. I normally pick them up and toss them away. Yesterday, though, I saw Papi, the ginger blade, come up, sniff the kibble, look around, and then head for the feeding station. That put it all into context: these kibble pieces are not lost or misplaced, but precisely located elements of the KPS, the shorthand for the Kibble Positioning System. Consulting the KPS provides the floof about food locations. The floofs have such amazing technology, yeah?
The Neurons knocked me back with the music they slotted into the morning mental music stream (Trademark fishy). I was in the kitchen, minding my own business, getting on with needs. Having fed the house floofs, I’m preparing my own brekkie when I hear, “Words can’t bring me down.” Within a heartbeat or two, I’m hearing more of Christina Aguilera singing “Beautiful” from 2002.
Why this song today? I asked Der Neurons.
No, they didn’t respond, but I knew that it was about words. First, words in the news about polls, politics, and elections; then words about wars, killings, and death; and finally, words in my novel-in-process and where it stands and what I’m gonna do with it next.
It’s such a strong and lovely song, though, well sung and produced, I’m happy with it in the MMMS.
Every day is so wonderful Then suddenly it’s hard to breathe Now and then I get insecure From all the pain, I’m so ashamed
I am beautiful no matter what they say Words can’t bring me down I am beautiful in every single way Yes, words can’t bring me down… Oh no So don’t you bring me down today
To all your friends you’re delirious So consumed in all your doom Trying hard to fill the emptiness The pieces gone, left the puzzle undone Is that the way it is?
You are beautiful no matter what they say Words can’t bring you down…oh no You are beautiful in every single way Yes, words can’t bring you down, oh, no So don’t you bring me down today
No matter what we do (No matter what we do) No matter what we say (No matter what we say) We’re the song inside the tune Full of beautiful mistakes
And everywhere we go (And everywhere we go) The sun will always shine (The sun will always, always shine) And tomorrow we might wake on the other side
We are beautiful no matter what they say Yes, words won’t bring us down, no, no We are beautiful in every single way Yes, words can’t bring us down, oh, no So don’t you bring me down today
Oh, yeah, don’t you bring me down today, yeah, ooh Don’t you bring me down ooh… today
It’s a song worth listening to and thinking about. I hope you’ll listen and agree.
On to the day. Stay pos, be strong, lean forward, and remember that you’re beautiful. Coffee is at hand once again to bolster my will. Here’s the video. Cheers
It seems like the United States’ GOP is working hard to divide the nation. Through actions like dictating what pronouns and genders must be used, and what can be read and taught in schools, they’re narrowing the boundaries of freedom and undermining intellectual thought and creativity.
Once the Republicans were happy to merely oppose the Democrats. Now they oppose personal freedom and choice, forging deeper and sharper divides based on the formulation of ‘us’ and ‘them’, far from the Founders’ vision of ‘we, the People’. Congress under the GOP, and as en extension, the Federal government, is obstructed from governing as Republicans do all they can to stop anything and everything the Democrats attempt to do, treating everyone outside of the GOP’s narrowing scope as enemies. They demand compromise while offering none. Even Republicans who do not heel hard to the line, “Our way or no way,” are ostracized as enemies.
It is one thing to disagree and debate, and another to throw tantrums and hold parts of the government hostage. Holding the government hostage is the modern Republican way, whether it’s:
the US military (Senator Tuberville’s ongoing blocking of senior officer promotions until they make changes Tuberville wants);
the Federal budget (the GOP Freedom Caucus threatening to shut down the government again and again, as the GOP has done before);
reading and education (the GOP embraced ‘Moms of Liberty’ and their advocacy against school curricula that mention LGBTQIA+ rights, race and ethnicity, and ‘critical race theory’, as well as Governors Abbott (Texas) and DeSantis (Florida) and their bids to ban books and forbid teaching certain aspects of history);
or the ability for the Federal government to execute and enforce laws (Speaker Johnson’s moves to cut funding for IRS agents and their investigations of tax fraud).
In the GOP’s latest vision of the United States, the vision of who the people are and who may vote, and what rights ‘they may have’ is diminishing in front of the GOP’s idea of God, their idea of religion, their idea of science, and their idea of culture and history.
In so doing, they drive the United States further and more deeply away from being a welcoming melting pot of freedom, independence, and equality for all. Their tools to accomplish their vision are fear, intimidation, discrimation, and bigotry, fortified and encouraged by lies and hypocrisy, often done under cover of ‘religious freedom’, citing the Bible as the source for things it never mentions, in a nation where separation of church and state are supposed to be a foundation of our nation’s existence.
Ironically, the GOP marches down a path that is directly against the words of their party’s founder. President Lincoln declared in his House Divided speech (June 15, 1858), “A house divided against itself, cannot stand.”
It’s an insight which the GOP in its right-wing, short-sighted zeal, has chosen to ignore.
Congratulations; we are now into November, 2023’s eleventh month. Hope your November Eve went well. Ours was a quiet one, just a pot brownie and some streamV and reading.
Today is Wednesday, November 1, 2023. Ashlandia, where winters are mild but brisk, is chilly this morning. 37 F has climbed into the low forties under gray yarn clouds wearily highlighted by tepid sunshine. Amazing me, the weather masters declared that our high will be in the low 70s before the sunny period goes away — sunset, I think it’s called.
As it is now November, we’re preparing for turning back the clocks this Saturday, thinking about how we’ll spend that extra hour.
Politics occupy much of my gray mass again. Well, I call it politics but much of it has to do with the trials involving the former POTUS, DJ Trump. His children are testifying in one trial this week. As none of them seem able to keep the story straight and tell the same thing under questioning, it’ll be interesting to see if or how the stories explaining the property valuations will differ.
Meanwhile, I was thinking about how I’d like to see us move forward and move on toward solutions for the many problems besetting us, but the GOP has become so radicalized under MAGA leadership that I don’t believe this nation has forward gears any longer. We’re just stuck spinning our wheels, slowly slipping backwards toward a new era of white heterosexual male dominance.
You’d think that I, a WHM, would say, gee, that’s cool, my people will be in charge. First, many white males are not my people. Our values diverge too completely. Second, I’m one of those people who believe in equality and justice for all, and that it shouldn’t be predicated on sexual orientation, gender, pronouns, education, wealth, skin color, or religious beliefs. Someone should start a country based on those principles. From my point of view, intellectually, morally, spiritually, culturally, our nation is only as free as the least free of our peole, only strong as the weakest of our people, and we can’t advance as needed to solve our problems if we keep spending resources and energy trying to fight ourselves.
But that’s just me.
Catching wind of my thinking, The Neurons are offering Olivia Rodrigo and “Vampire” in the morning mental music stream (Trademark indeterminate). See, Olivia is singing about her relationship with another. That other is manipulative, using her and abusing her, sucking her dry, she sings, just as the GOP is doing to the United States. Take Sen. Tommy Tuberville. Please.
Tuberville, a MAGA Repubican Senator working alone, has deciced that the US military was too woke. It’s such a bullshit concept that I gag just thinking about his projection. But this upsets poor Tommy. So, to make the military, which has existed for 200 years plus and developed its policies continuously throughout that time with expert input, into his own image, Tommy has decided that he will decapitate the military by blocking senior promotions until the military gives in. This has been going on for months.
What’s bunching Tommy’s panties up now is that the US Senate has grown concerned about how this affects military planning and readiness, you know, because fucking war takes few breaks. I’m not for war, and the way I see it, cutting off the military leadership’s head emboldens other nations whose leaders think that waging war is a good way forward. So, back to the main point, the Senate, led by Democrats but supported by Republicans, are going to change the rules and terminate Tommy’s tantrum. More or less. There are exceptions.
This, to Tommy Tuberville, a man of the people, is very unfair. See, it’s all about Tommy, in Tommy’s mind, and now he’s whining, wah, look at they’re trying to do to me. Wah, they’re not including me in any talks. They are so unfair and uncompromising, not even willing to negotiate with me, just because I’m a senator terrorist holding our military hostage. They’re mean and un-American.
Yeah, suck it, Tommy, you vampire.
So here’s Olivia Rodrigo with the soft but emotional “Vampire”. Hope you enjoy it.
Stay positive, remaing brave, and keep leaning forward. I have coffee; here’s the video. Cheers
Yes, it is too a thing. People dress up in costumes in many places. Children in costumes often scurry from house to house being given candy and pumpkins are curved and lit up to welcome November. November is the eleventh month in our calendar, and eleven is a power number, so, to summon good energy and dismiss dark forces, we celebrate November Eve. November 1st is more seriously and somberly feted on the actual day, as the forces of the universe are frequently nursing cosmic headaches. If you’ve never had one of those, it’s like lightning and thunder.
BTW, November finds its name from the Latin, novem, which means nine. It’s comfortably fitting for the modern era that our eleventh month was originally the ninth month, and we kept that name.
Well, if this is November Eve, then this is October 31, 2023, the last day of the tenth month of this year, and also Tuesday.
Talking with folks the other day — I was more listening than speaking — many were mourning the current state of crap in regard to politics, various wars, inflation and the cost of existing in the US, gun violence and mass murder — you know, just an average day in 2023 — when The Neurons woke up. Sniffing out the general tone of comments and agreements, they injected “Black” into my mental music stream, where it still plays in the morning mental music stream (Trademark dark) today.
“Black” by Pearl Jam (from 1991) is a love song. Starts gently and then rises to a wail of emotional pain as the narrator/vocalist acknowledges that he and the woman he loves can’t find the balance to live together. He’s saying goodbye to her in his mind, wishing her the best and reconciling fate even as he rails against the moment.
So I can see why Der Neurons played “Black”: it’s an assessment of the present and sadness for the future and what will be. Actually, despite its status as a love song, it’s an accurate theme song for many people in the US and beyond who, as our singer does, ends up wailing, “Why,” and “Why can’t it be?”
The particular version is accoustic, from MTV Unplugged. Hope you enjoy it on this November Eve, where it’s 37 F in Ashlandia and the November Eve parade, colloquially called the Halloween Parade, is average. Gonna spark up into the upper sixties before the sunshine cuts its engagement with our town in the valley.
Be strong, don’t worry, be happy, if you can. Now I’m gonna smack my brain with a heavy douse of black coffee. Get it stirring. Here’s the video. Hope you enjoy it and follow my logic for making this song today’s theme music.
Just the facts, folks: 47 F and sunny. This is Sunday, October 29, 2023 in Ashlandia, where the marijuana is local and above average. We’ll be in low sixties as our high point today but all that sunshine and blue sky makes it bracing and invigorating. Across the street, the huge, very old maple remains festooned with golden brown leaves. Soaked in sunlight, standing tall against blue sky, the tree seems majestic and steadying.
Stepping out with the cats, though, a determined northern wind delivers the taste and smell of winter. Papi, the ginger blade, still launches himself into the outdoors, foraging for summer for a bit before returning to the house’s protection and surrendering to the change. Tucker, the older black and white fellow, has probably felt the change in his bones and tucks for more sleep on the bed.
Once again, so many, many dreams. They leave me thinking and sometimes typing to understand what I’m thinking. Altogether, they were convulsive, erratic pastiche of experiences with a huge cast of people. What a trip they were.
After the latest US mass shooting — Lewiston, Maine, a forty-year-old shooter, 18 dead, dozens injured — I’d been thinking about the world’s state. Wars, greed, selfishness, and the rise of white supremacy, antisemitism, racism, sexism complicates our fragile existence on this rock. A small but growing number of people seem to think that the answers to our complex problems are in the past. Some claim that it’s all about God and religious and cites things like Christianity and religion as the answer, even as their behavior toward their fellow humans often stands starkly opposite of Christianity’s tenets against greed and for helping your fellow human.
Between the dreams and the the world’s state, The Neurons ended up plating up “Helter Skelter” in the morning mental music stream (Trademark comical). The Beatles wrote and released the song in 1968. One of their hardest rockers, the song became associated with Charles Manson and the murders committed in his name in 1969 in Los Angeles, CA. With that, the song has become embedded with ideas of chaos and destruction.
That’s true with me. I originally thought of it as a druggy come on about sex, based on the words about going up and coming down, then doing it again. The drug part arrives on the song’s feelig of changing moods and disorder.
And there we are: disorder. That’s how I see us now. Polarized and disordered, confused as a civilization about where we’re going and even where we want to go.
Ah, sorry for the pessimistic vibes. Maybe coffee will save me. Be strong and positive, and keep leaning forward. Here’s the music, a recording of a live version of Paul, without the rest of the Beatles. Cheers
Slipperday, October 28, 2023, skated into Ashlandia, where people walk carefully in the shadows, wary that their feet will find ice and take them down. Spiky clumps of green grass stand tall, sprayed white, and stiff with cold. A wind keen with an icy edge lashes the house. It’s 31 F outside but no fear; sunshine is lifting over the trees and mountains. Soon the sun will gain enough elevation to pump some heat into the moment. We’ll be sizzling in the mid-50s F by the mid afternoon.
Warmer weather is on the way. November’s early days next week will take us into the mid to upper sixties as autumn entertains a last hurrah before December flexes in. All we can do is watch and adjust, and brace for holidays.
I have “Burning Down the House” by Talking Heads ringing out in the morning mental music stream (Trademark burning). The Neurons put it in there after a convo with friends and general remarks made about GOP intentions. Some thought they were burning down the house, others posited they were burning down the government, burning down the country, burning down the world, through their calculated disinterest, continuing efforts to manufacture and stoke divisions and fears.
The song title and repeating phrase, “Burning down the house,” is a metaphor as I understand it, about the house not burning down but being torn apart. In an interview heard years ago, David Byrne, who wrote the song, said it was also about schizophrenia.
[Verse 2] Hold tight, wait till the party’s over Hold tight, we’re in for nasty weather There has got to be a way Burning down the house
[Chorus 1] Here’s your ticket, pack your bag, it’s time for jumping overboard The transportation is here Close enough but not too far, maybe you know where you are Fighting fire with fire, ah!
[Verse 3] All wet, here, you might need a raincoat Shake-down, dreams walking in broad daylight Three hundred sixty-five degrees Burning down the house
[Chorus 2] It was once upon a place, sometimes I listen to myself Gonna come in first place People on their way to work say, “Baby, what did you expect?” Gonna burst into flame, ah
Burning down the house
[Verse 4] My house is out of the ordinary That’s right, don’t wanna hurt nobody Some things sure can sweep me off my feet Burning down the house
So it seems apt as a theme song. We have elected officials in the form of Republicans (Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mike Ross, Lauren Boebert) who don’t understand the Constitution or are willing to dismiss it (and people’s rights) for the expediency of their own religion, rights, and privilege. There’s the schizophrenic part – elected to serve but instead tearing the government down – as well as the tearing down the house aspect.
I think The Neurons made a superb choice, and this live video is sharp with sound and energy.
Stay pos, be strong, and keep moving forward. Freshly delivered coffee will fuel my flight today. Here’s the music. Cheers
Winter stepped closer to us today. Though it’s Thursday, October 26, 2023, in Ashlandia, where the animals are heading for hibernation, and so are quite a few people, the lows are now in the thirties at night. Our present temp here is 38 F, and it’s blue-sky sunny. Today’s high will be in the low to mid sixties, but tonight will drop to 32 and more snow will kiss the elevations.
Snow on the els is a good thing, though. Snowpacks require replenishing, as do all the ways we save water to support ourselves through the dry, hot summer.
Today’s mood (disappointed) results from the House GOP Speaker vote. With Rep Johnson installed, another right turn toward the dark edge was taken. Yeah, pessimist, aren’t I? No reason to believe otherwise. Modeates went along with him because they realized that the GOP’s naked dysfunction was ugly optics. Voters no like, markets no like, allies no like. Had to change those optics somehow. And Rep Johnson, a hard right conservative who preaches religion to save us while stamping out abortion choices and rights but affable enough to get along with all the GOP factions, is their Missouri Compromise, a temporary peace with nothing resolved.
My internal optimist suggest wait; see. My pragmatist laughed at my optimist.
Feel like we’re just bleeding the Earth dry. Suck out all the fossil fuels. Drink all the water, bottle it up and sell it for a few dollars more, or throw it on landscaping and golf courses. Douse the crops and fill the swimming pools. We keep butting up to limits. So what will be cut? Who will stop getting water? The wealthy and powerful will keep getting water. ‘Cause they’re the ones with the most say in a capitalistic democracy. Some voters and citizens will shrug it all off as a temporary setback or completely deny it’s happening. Others will desperately fight to change our course but will be blocked and obstructed every time, on every initiative. That’ll go on right up to the bitter end, when even the wealthy start singing the out of water blues.
Speaking of vampires and blues, The Neurons eavesdropped on my whining and dropped Neil Young and “Vampire Blue” into the morning mental music stream (Trademark fading). It’s a classic Young song, spare of chords, simple structure and words, delivered in a weary tone. At least, that’s how I har him.
Stay pos, vote, be strong and keep getting up after you go down. I’ll do the same. Just pour some coffee down my throat first, would’cha? Say, how much water does coffee take? I’m as addicted as the rest to the way it was.
I’m careening along through the year, charging toward the next month with barely time to notice this month. So it feels, and has felt.
Today is Tuesday, October 24, 2023 in Ashlandia, where cheese, bread, and wine are made locally and taste above average. Leaves with fading colors litter the ground, crowding against curbs, huddling in storm drains and taking shelter against buildins and in bushes. High cirrocumulus offerings mark the blue sky’s ceiling like small pieces of popcorn. They’re moving east at an impressive clip as more serious looking stratus flow in from the east, heading west. 52 F now, 61 F is the purported high, according to those who know. Rain showers are forecast for this evening.
Songwise, I have “It’s Ok” buzzing in my head, a gift from The Neurons. Overhearing a person actually saying those words in the coffee shop, The Neurons immediately slotted them into the morning mental music stream (Trademark fabricated).
Released by Imagine Dragons in 2021, the song is about feeling different or being different. You know that feeling, right? Probably. I think most people feel it at one time or another, a sense that they’re either lost or out of step with everyone else, maybe confused about the beat they’re marching to because no one else hears it. The song reassures us that being so is acceptable.
It’s okay to be not okay It’s just fine to be out of your mind Breathe in deep, just a day at a time ‘Cause it’s okay to be out of your mind, mind
Another Monday is about us in Ashlandia, where the rain falls mainly in the valley, and the streams and rivers swell with the results.
The weather is 52 F, cloudy and rainy. Forecasters warn that today’s high will be 65 F, with intermittent clouds, but it won’t rain. It’s a good coffee and reading day.
As for the world outside of Ashlandia, there were no overnight miracles. The news reports that the ongoing wars are still ongoing, one in Europe, and one in the middle-east. Besides those two, the GOP still wars with the GOP in the US. I don’t look for a quick or happy resolution to the war in the middle-east, but expect it to trudge on as has happened with Russia and Ukraine in Europe.
To summarize, led by the hardline Gang of Eight, the Republicans outsted their own guy as Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, even though they’re all part of the majority party nominally known as the GOP. Since booting McCarthy, the House has not been functioning much.
Note: the House wasn’t doing much before losing its Speaker, mostly because the GOP was determined to be the Grand OBSTRUCTIONIST Party. This is largely because a Democrat is POTUS, and most of the GOP’s ideas involve stripping rights from others, banning books, and keeping fossil fuels as the nation’s primary energy source.
Steve Scalise, House Majority Leader, R-La, tried and failed to become the new House Speaker, and withdrew after that one attempt.
Jim Jordan, a hardliner from Ohio, tried and failed after three rounds of voting to become Speaker. Just couldn’t find the votes. He’s considered too hard right and has never been known to compromise. Besides that, he has a poor legislative record.
“Critics of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) have increasingly pointed to this – most notably the fact that he has yet to get a bill signed into law since being elected in 2006.” h/t to UnionLeader.com.
A line during Saturday Night Live’s cold open captured the essence of Jim Jordan’s attempt to be Speaker: “I want to be Speaker so that government starts functioning again so I can shut it down.” That’s the gist of Jordan’s politics. He doesn’t like ‘big’ government.
These wars complicate the world’s already precarious situation. The biggest crises we face in 2023 is growing food shortages and rising food costs, per ReliefWeb. Food shortages are worsening because war is tearing up farms and arable land, and growing extreme weather is damaging crops and disrupting growing seasons.
What a mess we’re in, and so much of it is brought on by our own actions. But just as so many addicts of drugs and addictives are helpless to save themselves, so it seems, are we.
Let’s go on to more pleasant matters, like music.
My wife was telling me a story about a conversation between her and some friends. I thought, “Oh, shit, sparks are going to fly now,” as I laughed, because I knew the husband and wife involved and how they were going to react.
Boom, The Neurons pounced, delivering “Master of Sparks” by ZZ Top into my head, where it remains in the morning mental music stream (Trademark sagging). This feels like a case of needing to play it for others to unloop it from my mental music stream, so here we are, me presenting it to you as Monday’s theme music.
The song is part of the first ZZ Top album I ever listened to, Tres Hombres, from 1973. I was seventeen. My buddy, Scott, brought it into high school art class as part of the established routine of listening to music while drawing and painting. One take of that album and I was smitten.
“Master of Sparks” turned out to be one of those songs that caught my attention as I was drawing because I was struggling to figure out what it was about. “What are they singing, Scott?” I asked. He brought it in, so I thought he’d know.
Sweeping his long bangs off his face, he grinned at me with big eyes. “I don’t know. Sounds cool, though doesn’t it?”
Scott introduced me to many new rock bands during that time, and shaped my musical preferences. Highly intelligent, athletic, and creative, Scott started at our school in my junior year after being tossed out from a well-regarded prep school. We shared multiple classes and were on several sports teams together. We also were both very rebellious.
Taking the question seriously, Scott returned two days later and told me that “Master of Sparks” is telling a story about a ball-shaped steel cage that the narrator was in. My reaction was basically, “Whaaa?”
Scott explained that he and Rick listened to it again and again at Scott’s house, and decided that’s what the song was about. Thanks to the net, I know they were right.
High class Slim came floating in Down from the county line Just getting right on Saturday night Riding with some friends of mine They invited me to come and see Just what was on their minds And then I took my first long look At the Master of Sparks on high
In the back of Jimmy’s Mack Stood a round steel cage Welded into shape by Slim Made out of sucker gauge How fine, they cried now with you inside Strapped in there safe and sound I thought, my-o-my, how the sparks will fly If that thing ever hit the ground
Slim was so pleased when I had eased Into his trap of death He had slammed the door but I said no more And I thought I’d breathed my last breath We was out in the sticks down Highway Six And the crowd was just about right The speed was too, so out I flew Like a stick of rolling dynamite
When I hit the ground You could hear the sound And see the sparks a country mile End over end I began to spin But the ball started running wild But it was too late as I met my fate And the ball started getting hot But through the sparks and the flame I knew that the claim Of the Master of Sparks was gone
Michael Seidel, writer 