BB King / Gary Moore - The Thrill is Gone

You Are Only As Old As The Music You Listen To

I was noticing on facebook how everyone changes their profile picture so often. I guess they actually enjoy having their picture taken. I don't. I will continue to deceive myself and never look at any recent photos taken of me. No, I haven't aged, and I'm not over weight, and I will win the lottery having never bought a ticket.

Seriously, I think I will play it like Ann Landers. Remember how she was 102 years old but in her pictures she had that big black hair do and what appeared to be a forever youthful smile? If Ann could pull it off, so can I. I will never, ever change my profile picture.

The thing is, I don't look that bad in the mirror, but my pictures are awful. Why is that? If I'm just kidding myself, why can't I kid myself all the time?

Well, anyway, Tuesday night I am going to see the greatest blues guitarist of all time, B B King. He's older than my dad and almost as cool.

When I first started listening to the blues, I brought home an album by Fleetwood Mac. This was before Lyndsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Christine Perfect joined the band. They were a blues band through and through. My Mom was listening and said "Have you ever heard of Muddy Waters? I think you would like him" I couldn't believe Mom knew anything about music but I worked at a record store so I looked him up and she was right. It turned out Mom was a blues fan from way back. Anyway, I was hooked. I guess it has been my favorite kind of music since.

I hope you enjoyed The Thrill Is Gone.

Time to Get Back Home

Well we fly home tomorrow, and I am ready. I've had a wonderful time, but honestly, I'm ready to get back to normal. I miss my dad and I miss my dogs. I miss the people I work with and I really, really miss watching the Rangers. I just read they swept the Yankees, which is great, but I wish I could have seen it.

The dolphins were thick in numbers this morning. They are so beautiful and graceful. I know I will miss the mornings and evenings on the beach, but we'll come again someday.

Savannah is such a lovely city, with it's history and architecture. I'll be able to bore friends for hours with all the pictures we took. Every where you go, restaurants, shops, whatever, you always feel like a guest. The people are just classy. Whether it's a plate of buttermilk biscuits and whipped butter or complementary champagne with brunch, you just feel welcome.

Rambling Thoughts

The bad thing about Tybee is, they don't get the Rangers games. I saw on the sports highlights this morning that Nelson Cruz hit a walk off home run in the 13th to beat the Yankees. That would have been a great game to see. Although, I'm certain I would have turned it off before it was over, too nervous to see how it turned out.

The best thing about Tybee has to be these mornings. The sound of the ocean and the birds, it's like music.

Oh, and on the subject of music, we heard another great band last night. Probably my favorite so far, it was two young guys with an acoustic guitar and a stand up bass. the sound of just those two instruments was incredible. They played The Grateful Dead, Buffalo Springfield and some original stuff.

Yesterday, we went to the beach early, like we have every morning, and there were a lot more surfers out. It looks like so much fun. It makes me wonder what it would have been like to grow up here.

We met a guy in Savannah, who just bought a bookstore. He was a photographer and had published two books. We bought the one on the cemeteries of Savannah. I said maybe that made me weird that I was so fascinated with such. He didn't think so because they are so beautiful and interesting. He said his publishers wanted him to do a book on the plantations of Savannah. He said, in the deepest Georgian draw, I love to hear this guy talk, "There aren't any plantations, because Sherman burned them all". Seriously, I felt like I should tell him it's okay and we need to try to move on now. Most of these people still refer to the Civil War as The War (pronounced wowaa)

There are two cats that live here at this condo. I was thinking this would be a great place for a cat, but I don't know. Cats hate water so I guess they still depend on the kindness of strangers. (sorry I'm stuck on Sherman's army burning the plantations) Anyway back to that food chain thing. If God had made cats great swimmers or if they had thumbs and could hold a fishing pole, they would rule the world, or at least the water ways. Also I've always wondered how a cat born in West Texas, miles from the water, knows it wants fish. Think about it.

I think maybe it's time for a swim.

A Porpoise Driven Life

My new favorite thing to do is sit on the beach and watch the dolphins
play. There are so many, it's just incredible. I also enjoy the pelicans diving hard into the water to catch a fish. But the dolphins are the big show. They swim as families. Babies stay with their mothers until they are 7 years old. They get so close you think you will be able to touch them.
Ive watched fish jumping out of the water and I wonder why. Don't they know they're just making it easier for the seagulls and pelicans to find them? I guess in order to make this whole food chain thing work, God had to make some creatures stupid.

Yesterday we went to the Bonaventure Cemetery. We saw the old Colonial cemetery on Tuesday. It's very interesting. Graves go back to the Revolutionary war. But Bonaventure has the most incredible statues. Some people spent more on their final resting place than most of us spend on our homes. Johnny Mercer is buried there. If you don't know, he was a song writer and he won academy awards for his sound tracks. He wrote Moon River and The Days Of Wine and Roses. He also wrote Come Rain Or Come Shine and Accentuate the Positive. In the movie Midnight In the Garden Of Good and Evil, Kevin Spacey lived in his house. His monument says, "Buddy, I'm a kinda poet and I got a lot to say"His wife's says "You musta been a beautiful baby" I'm becoming quite fascinated with him.

Yesterday, I got stung by a jellyfish, both feet and ankles.g It wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be. I thought maybe it wasn't a jellyfish, since it didn't hurt that bad, but the life guard said it was. I mean it hurt, but just not like I thought it would. After about a half hour it quit hurting and my feet were just numb. So, no biggie....

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

Sunday was a series of naps. We were still pretty tired from the airport marathon so we took it easy.

Down on the beach we saw what looked like a family reunion. All different ages of kids and adults.

Some were fishing. Some were sunning and others playing in the sand and water. There was a boy about 8 years old fishing with the men while what appeared to be his older brothers looked on. Suddenly his line went taught and it looked as though he had a big catch. Everyone was telling him what to do as he reeled it in. We waited to see how big it was but it broke loose and got away. The older boys yelled "Psych" in unison. I guess brothers are the same everywhere.

Later that evening, after a good nap, we went down to the beach to hear some bands. We walked into a little patio bar where a group of old guys, about our age, were playing a Beatles tune. They looked like they had spent most of their days in beach bars. Surfer meets bar fly, if you know what I mean. They were called The Samuel Adams Band, but I think they must have been history buffs because they were drinking Corona. Pretty good guitar players, they played Pink Floyd, Lynard Skynard, Beatles and of course, Jimmy Buffett.

I got into a conversation with a guy from Tybee who proceeded to tell me everything that was wrong with Obama. I thought, oh no, I do not want to talk politics. He said being from Georgia, he had to compare him to Jimmy Carter, did I know who that was. I said yes, being young and idealistic and taking all my info from Rolling Stone magazine, I voted for Carter. He said "you couldn't be that old." I said, "yes I could" He said, "I was born in 75". I said, "I voted in 76".

I was wearing my Michael Young Texas Rangers shirt and standing in line with the inebriated at the rest rooms, when a severely intoxicated fellow pointed at me and said "Josh Hamilton!" I turned around and said "Michael Young."

After so much stimulating conversation, we were tired so we strolled down to the pier just in time to hear the Land Shark Band play my favorite Jimmy Buffett song, Come Monday. Well, really the only Jimmy Buffett song I like.

On Monday we went to Savannah to walk around and see the sights. We saw another little band down on the market square. They were old guys too, and played 60's stuff. They played Under the Boardwalk, This Magic Moment and Stand By Me. It's not so much what they played, but the sound. That distinctive 60's electric guitar, like in Del Shannon's Runaway. It makes you miss people you haven't seen in a long time and may never see again. Then they played Georgia On My Mind and for some reason that song always makes me think of my sister. So we moved on.

Tomorrow I will tell you all about how much a jellyfish sting hurts, but Jon is waiting for me now, so....

I thought I would try to write a little every day while on vacation. The condo people forgot to mention that the wi-fi was down everywhere except the pool. I hadn't spent much time at the pool since I had the whole Atlantic ocean at my disposal, but I guess I will now.
So anyway, here we are on Tybee Island. Getting here wasn't as easy as we thought it would be. We got up early Saturday morning and drove to the airport where we waited and waited, then waited some more. Finally we boarded an airliner I can only describe as a school bus with wings. Even the flight attendants reminded me of school. There was the tight faced tired of your crap English teacher who hated me, and the very professional, let's just get through this day without any violence principal. I really liked him.
After 45 nauseating minutes, we landed at DFW, where we waited. Having only flown into Love Field, I was quite impressed with DFW. The trams were really cool and sort of reminded me of I Robot, the Will Smith movie. I ate a $12 salad, yes, I said a $12 salad, before boarding a much roomier plane. The flight attendant on this flight, was wider than the aisle she was trying to maneuver. I wondered what is the criteria for the job. She was rude and impatient with all the passengers. I guess maybe I expect too much.
Anyway we landed in Charlotte NC around 5:00 and waited. The cool thing about that airport was the rocking chairs. It looked like somebody's front porch. I thought I would see Adicus Finch at any moment. I did see a lot of soldiers at all the airports, and being a mother I had a crazy urge to hug all of them.
After a 3 hour lay over in Charlotte, we boarded the smallest plane yet, for a 35 minute flight to Savannah. There were more rocking chairs in that airport. They've got this whole southern thing down. We picked up our reserved mid size
rental car which seemed more like a clown size car. It was a Ford Focus but my husband called it a Ford Feces. Anyway we drove to Tybee and went to bed because it was 11:00.
It has all been worth it, so far. I'll write more later.