64
When I go home, I go down Highway 64. It takes me a little longer (it's a four-hour drive) but it's prettier, more interesting than the northern Miississippi wasteland 4-lane.
Problem is, specially on Xmas -- because I loathe holiday music -- my radio runs out, basically suffocates, coughs the piddlingest shit. The station that hung in there with me the longest was FUN 91. They kept me in some of the pappiest, most forgettable music ever. I imagined that all the singers were in the car with me: Whitney Houston (a lot of her), Collective Soul, Billy Ocean, Wang Chung, and Willie Nelson, just looking out the window, taking bites of some apples a co-worker gave me, brushing each others' legs occassionally.
I drove very fast.
*
Other tidbits from my holiday trip home:
* A father of four that goes to my parents' church was killed a few days ago in a farming accident. He was moving down a hay elevator, tripped, caught the neck of his coat in the wheels, and his head was struck against the machinery. Died almost on contact.
* My youngest brother and his girlfriend will be moving in together next month. She pulls me aside and says, "Looks like we'll get to be the bad kids for awhile." Grins evilly. I said, "I've upped the ante."
* Same brother's girlfriend just survived her second match with cancer (she's 28) and tells me that after doing so much chemo they had to use fucking ... drumroll ... leech therapy on her. It's fucking 2003, not 1235! (Fucking leeches?!)
* My grandfather found out about a man my age who lives in a nursing home and has been given one year to live. My grandfather only knows him vaguely through other people. My grandfather now goes to visit the man for a few hours a week, because no one else does. (My grandfather is one of the truly best-hearted people I know.)
* My straightest brother gave me watch and sunglasses set this year. He went back and got another one for himself. But he got the purple tinted as opposed to the green. He was afraid I'd be really upset if he got us the same colors. (Queeniest.)
* I picked up a T-shirt that says "Carter's Drugs", the store that sponsored my Little League team. It has my last name on the back. It must've been my Dad's (as a coach) cause it still fits. :) I wore it last night.
* I kept up my most personal Xmas tradition of going out and getting D-runk as soon as I get back in town. If anybody could throw a few pain-killers, a bottled water of gargantuan proportions, and a honeybun in the general direction of the public library here in Memphis, please, please fuckin' do ...
:)
Happy holidays! (He smiles genuinely although his bloodshot eyes go untouched.)
Problem is, specially on Xmas -- because I loathe holiday music -- my radio runs out, basically suffocates, coughs the piddlingest shit. The station that hung in there with me the longest was FUN 91. They kept me in some of the pappiest, most forgettable music ever. I imagined that all the singers were in the car with me: Whitney Houston (a lot of her), Collective Soul, Billy Ocean, Wang Chung, and Willie Nelson, just looking out the window, taking bites of some apples a co-worker gave me, brushing each others' legs occassionally.
I drove very fast.
*
Other tidbits from my holiday trip home:
* A father of four that goes to my parents' church was killed a few days ago in a farming accident. He was moving down a hay elevator, tripped, caught the neck of his coat in the wheels, and his head was struck against the machinery. Died almost on contact.
* My youngest brother and his girlfriend will be moving in together next month. She pulls me aside and says, "Looks like we'll get to be the bad kids for awhile." Grins evilly. I said, "I've upped the ante."
* Same brother's girlfriend just survived her second match with cancer (she's 28) and tells me that after doing so much chemo they had to use fucking ... drumroll ... leech therapy on her. It's fucking 2003, not 1235! (Fucking leeches?!)
* My grandfather found out about a man my age who lives in a nursing home and has been given one year to live. My grandfather only knows him vaguely through other people. My grandfather now goes to visit the man for a few hours a week, because no one else does. (My grandfather is one of the truly best-hearted people I know.)
* My straightest brother gave me watch and sunglasses set this year. He went back and got another one for himself. But he got the purple tinted as opposed to the green. He was afraid I'd be really upset if he got us the same colors. (Queeniest.)
* I picked up a T-shirt that says "Carter's Drugs", the store that sponsored my Little League team. It has my last name on the back. It must've been my Dad's (as a coach) cause it still fits. :) I wore it last night.
* I kept up my most personal Xmas tradition of going out and getting D-runk as soon as I get back in town. If anybody could throw a few pain-killers, a bottled water of gargantuan proportions, and a honeybun in the general direction of the public library here in Memphis, please, please fuckin' do ...
:)
Happy holidays! (He smiles genuinely although his bloodshot eyes go untouched.)