Heeeeee’s Baaaaack!

           Well, that was a nice little break there!

It’s been quite the time out at the Kammrad Manse, the past 5 months. Let’s see, what happened…got the ceiling fixed in our bedroom, then in July Lynn went in to Cancer Treatment Centers for a hysterectomy and several days after being released, almost bled to death at Sherman Hospital when CTCA sent her to the ER at Sherman and they stuck her in a room and left her for several hours, never checking on her, until she felt herself losing consciousness and called in a nurse who found her bleeding out and it took 2 pints of blood to get her back. Nice!

She still is exhausted throughout much of her day and needs 9-10 hours of sleep a night to get through it.

Summer was nice. We belong to a community pool (in our backyard, it was part of our property when the house was built in the 50’s) and it was nice to go over with the kids and sit after work.

As summer wound down, Lynn decided to use some of the money she got from her mom and dad, so we bought a small hot tub and a gazebo to put it in. We had them delivered and set up on the cement pad patio in the front of our house and when I went to get the permit for the electrical work, found that because of how our house is situated on a corner lot, we couldn’t have either the hot tub, or the gazebo anywhere in front of our house.

We called the Great Escape to move them, they said sure, for $600, When the moving day came they said they couldn’t move the gazebo because the slab of concrete in back of our house (part of a full court basketball court that had cracked and settled over the past 60 years) was not level.

Luckily, the company doing the electrical work has a construction division and they moved the tub and gazebo for the same $600. All they had to do was shim one corner of the gazebo; the vast majority of the slab was level.

So now we go to the hot tub 4-5 days a week. Very nice after a long day at work. And the relaxation extends to my time after the kids go to bed and I can take notes for this blog, so without further ado…

58 - Brothers in Arms – Dire Straits – 1984

     Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits  

 Hearing this song always reminds me of what I think must be my favorite episode of “The West Wing”, “Two Cathedrals.”

       Those of us who watched “The West Wing” saw it as the government we wish we had, especially after the 2000 appointment (Yes…George W. Bush was appointed by the Supreme Court, don’t get me started…he lost the popular vote by over 500,000 and a consortium of newspapers/universities looked at the ballots from Florida and agreed that by almost every method, hanging chad or no hanging chad, Gore would have won a recount and thereby the Presidency).

At the end of almost every episode it would leave me on the verge of misty eyes as I contemplated what it would be like to have people in government like Toby, Sam, Josh, and especially, President Bartlet.

       Maybe we do have people like them, but when the memoirs come out after the Administration is gone they always seem so self-serving and CYA boring.

       “Two Cathedrals” was the second season closer. In it President Bartlet must attend the funeral of his long time secretary, Mrs. Landingham, who was killed in a car accident with a drunk driver in the episode before. I remember that episode as a gut punch because it came out of nowhere.

       He is also dealing with a major decision, whether he will run for a second term, with the news starting to come out that he has MS, and has been hiding it from almost everyone but his wife, a doctor; Leo McGarry (the great John Spencer), his chief of staff; and several others.

       Told through flashback, we see how President Bartlett came to meet, bond with, and rely on the counsel of Mrs. Landingham.

       After the funeral in the National Cathedral a clearly upset Bartlett stops in the nave, takes a final puff from a cigarette, and crushes it on the floor of the cathedral and in Latin says,” I give thanks to you, O Lord. Am I really to believe that these are the acts of a loving God?  A just God?  A wise God?  To hell with your punishments. I was your servant here on Earth. And I spread your word and I did your work. To hell with your punishments. To hell with you.” (translation from Television Without Pity’s recap).

            As President Bartlet later readies to face a national press conference he sees Mrs. Landingham and says,” I have MS and I didn't tell anybody."

Mrs. Landingham: "So you're having a little bit of a day."

He asks whether she's going to make jokes. She reproaches him, "God doesn't make cars crash and you know it. Stop using me as an excuse." He says the party's not going to want him to run. She assures him that the party will come back. He sits down and says, "I got a secret for you, Mrs. Landingham. I've never been the most popular guy in the Democratic Party." She sits down as she says, "I've got a secret for you, Mr. President. Your father was a prick who could never get over the fact that he wasn't as smart as his brothers." She continues, "Are you in a tough spot? Yes. Do I feel sorry for you? I do not. Why? Because there are people way worse off than you."

Bartlet: "Give me numbers."

Mrs. Landingham: I don't know numbers. You give them to me.
Bartlet: How about a child born in this minute has a one in five chance of being born into poverty?
Mrs. Landingham: How many Americans don't have health insurance?
Bartlet: Forty-four million.
Mrs. L: What's the number one cause of death for black men under thirty-five?
Bartlet: Homicide.
Mrs. L: How many Americans are behind bars?
Bartlet: Three million.
Mrs. L: How many Americans are drug addicts?
Bartlet: Five million.
Mrs. L: And one in five kids in poverty?
Bartlet: That's thirteen million American children. Three and a half million kids go to schools that are literally falling apart. We need a hundred and twenty-seven billion in school construction and we need it today. [At this point, there's a brief shot of the room from above, showing the Prez sitting across from an empty chair, talking to himself.]
Mrs. L: To say nothing of fifty-three people trapped in an embassy.
Bartlet: Yes!
Mrs. Landingham: You know, if you don't want to run again, I respect that. But if you don't run because you think it's gonna be too hard or you think you're gonna lose, well, God, Jed, I don't even want to know you.

(This sort of banter/conversation is Aaron Sorkin at his very best)

Mrs. Landingham walks out and President Bartlet walks to the door to see a downpour and he steps into it. “Brothers in Arms” begins.

       Here I’d like to abrogate my duties as a blogger (whatever that means!) and use the more succinct recap of Deborah of Television Without Pity to describe what happens next along with their use of “Brothers in Arms”

“As the President strides out to his limousine, with Charlie, Leo, Sam, Josh, Toby, and numerous Secret Service agents accreting to him as he goes, the lyrics of the song "Brothers in Arms" begin: "These mist-covered mountains/ Are a home now for me/ But my home is the lowlands/ And always will be/ Someday you'll return to/ Your valleys and your farms/ And you'll no longer burn/ To be brothers in arms."

“We hear C.J. assuring a very large crowd of reporters that the President will address their questions as soon as he arrives. We cut back and forth between Jed and his staff getting into the motorcade and C.J. fielding questions: "Through these fields of destruction/ Baptisms of fire/ I've witnessed your suffering/ As the battles raged higher/ And though they did hurt me so bad/ In the fear and alarm/ You did not desert me/ My brothers in arms." In the back of the limo, Jed looks much less sad and more determined; Leo tries to read his expression but they do not speak.

“C.J. tells the clamoring crowd of reporters that a list of prosecutors is given to a three-judge panel, and that the prosecutors as well as the panel were all appointed by Republican Presidents. The reporters shout and compete for C.J.'s attention; over the din, C.J. shouts, "Please! I can only answer fourteen or fifteen questions at once!" On paper it has the sound of her usual snappy patter, but you can hear the strain in her voice. Donna and Margaret arrive at the press conference, looking stunned at the commotion.

“At the National Cathedral, a janitor is cleaning the floor in a dim light. Of course, it only reminds me of the janitor in the Nirvana video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit," which provides me with a minimal amount of unintended levity. The janitor finds Jed's cigarette butt and stoops to pick it up, puzzled. He looks up and out the door as a car with sirens blazing passes; it could be the motorcade, although the cathedral is not en route from the White House to the State Department. Jed could have requested that the motorcade pass the Cathedral, and his sidelong glance out the window at this point would seem to support this theory. "There's so many different worlds/ So many different suns/ And we have just one world/ But we live in different ones."

“Back at the press conference, C.J. is saying she imagines subpoenas will be issued to most senior White House staff, including her. As the motorcade arrives at the State Department, Jed gets a bit more of a soaking. As they walk into the building, someone hands Jed a towel to wipe his face. "Now the sun's gone to hell/ And the moon's riding high/ Let me bid you farewell/ Every man has to die..." C.J. is telling the reporters that she can't comment on what kind of hearings Congress has in mind as Carol sees Jed and the boys coming and gives C.J. the nod that POTUS has arrived. C.J. announces, "Okay? Here now, the President of the United States." Everybody stands. "But it's written in the starlight/ And every line on your palm/ We're fools to make war/ On our brothers in arms." It's really quite a beautiful song, and I know the use of pop music in such high-quality dramas is controversial, but I think the creative minds behind this show always give it a great deal of thought, and are selective and restrained in their choices. As Jed passes C.J., she reminds him, "Front row, on your right." Jed takes the podium, looking literally weatherbeaten and quite determined. Amid a volley of flashbulb fire, Jed puts his arms up on the podium, catching his breath, steeling himself. He makes eye contact with Lawrence Altman, the Chief Medical Correspondent for the Times. He looks into the crowd and points to another reporter, saying, "Yes, Sandy?" C.J. looks slightly anxious but not altogether surprised. Sandy asks, "Mr. President, can you tell us right now if you'll be seeking a second term?" He pauses, and says, "I'm sorry, Sandy, there was a bit of noise there, could you repeat the question?" Charlie watches Jed intently. Sandy: "Can you tell us right now if you'll be seeking a second term?" C.J., Josh, and Sam are standing together; none of them breathes. Donna and Margaret don't either. Leo and Toby are watching on a monitor off to the side, and Leo turns toward the President and tells Toby, "Watch this." Jed's hands slide off the podium and into his pockets. He looks ever so slightly off to his left, and smiles the barest of smiles. As the storm rages on, he looks straight ahead at the crowd. There are some droplets on his face; probably both rain and sweat, at this point. The guitar refrain continues. Still, he says nothing. The lines around his eyes are crinkled and there's a gleam in his eye. He smiles a very little smile.”

God, I loved that show!

Update #2 – March 7, 2014

            Time again for another update to explain the dearth of postings in the last few weeks. I usually have 3 or 4 in the pipeline in various stages of completion. Due to circumstances around the house, I have burned through my backlog.

            In late January we noticed that our semi-flat roof over our bedroom was leaking due to ice dam build-up. It was leaking in the doorways of our closets, through to the basement where Zay sleeps. We called a roofer and put buckets down to catch the drips. The roofer said the ice dam in the gutter was likely backing up and causing the problem (there was over a foot of ice in the gutter and icicles hung down to the ground).

On a Friday we had a service come out with a device that used steam to cut up the ice and open up a downspout so melting ice and snow had somewhere to go.

Little did we know that that somewhere was into our bedroom ceiling.

At 2AM that night, Lynn and I were awoken by a dripping sound in our bedroom, not in one of the buckets in the closet. The drip became louder and I saw it was coming through the ceiling at the foot of our bed.

As I got up and came around the end of the bed, a whole section, about 3x8 feet, along with 5-10 gallons of ice water and soggy insulation, came crashing down on my head.

As I scrambled to pick up pieces of plaster and dry wall, I slipped and mashed my little toe, dropping a large chunk of plaster on my bare foot, cutting it.

I was drenched to the bone and went to our bathroom and shivered uncontrollably for 10 minutes while Lynn began cleaning up and throwing towels down.

           

She would have her first student at 8:30AM, so we spent the rest of the night cleaning up as best we could, dissembling our bed to get the now wet rug out from under it.

Alicia slept in her crib next to the foot of the bed where the ceiling had opened up, but the opening did not reach her crib. She was standing there looking at the hole and listening to Mommy and Daddy yell and whine. We took her out of the crib, changed her diaper, and she went to sleep around 3AM in a chair in our family room.

  I went downstairs to see what was coming through into Zay’s room, and placed a bunch of buckets and a cooler to catch the water dripping through the ceiling tiles.

He didn’t wake up until later in the morning.

About 8AM, just as we were finishing up with our cleaning, Alicia woke up, so I stayed awake to watch her as Lynn taught. I was awake until midnight that night.

About 9AM I called our insurance company and they were great. They sent out a ServPro team and they pulled down about half of the ceiling in our bedroom and about 10 ceiling tiles in the basement.

  

They then taped 5 pads onto the floor and hooked them up to a device that pulled the water out of the hardwood floor, and they put 4 heavy duty fans to move air around our bedroom and Zay’s room in the basement.

These contraptions stayed in our rooms for a week, making sleep somewhat problematic.

Lynn now sleeps on an air mattress in Alicia’s bedroom, with Alicia (it got her out of her crib at least) and I’m sleeping on another air mattress in the basement with Zay. This we will do until the weather warms up and they can replace the roof (we had an $800 repair done to the roof so that it stopped leaking; turned out it wasn’t just ice dam backing up, but the roof itself was leaking as well) and we can fix the ceiling in our bedroom.

Bills so far: $800 to repair roof, $1800 for steaming the ice off, and $4200 for ServPro. Insurance gave us $1800 to repair the bedroom, but will likely pay nothing to replace the roof (normal wear, not an event covered by insurance) which will be anywhere from $4000-$7000.

Consequently, I have not had much time to ruminate about the past, when the future is in flux.

57 – Do Ya – ELO – 1976

Do Ya - ELO

       This song takes me right back to Tom W’s room at Blackburn College in 1976. We played the living crap out of ELO’s “A New World Record” and it was always played at 11. The only other song I remember playing this loud was the Beatles’ “Back in the USSR” (especially that jet plane sound effect at the open).

       Tom had one of the better Amp/Speaker/Turntable set-ups in our dorm (very few cassette players in 1975, though I had my TEAC deck). Tom also had a master key, passed down to him from a graduating senior the year before that gave him access to every building on campus. This led to two of my favorite pranks at BU during my 2 years there (being a transfer student from Elgin Community College).

       1. One weekend, Tom got us into Hudson Hall, the three story classroom building where most classes were held. Tom, his roommate Wes W, Mike H, some visiting friends, and I carried every desk and chair from the third floor onto the roof. (I know, but it seemed funny at the time). There were 4 classrooms on the 3^rd floor as I recall, the most important being Dr. John V.G. Forbes’ (see #33 – Six Months ina Leaky Boat) tiered room used at 8:00AM Monday for US History.

       As was later reported back to us, Dr. Forbes walked in, saw not a single stick of furniture in the room (we moved teacher’s desks as well), turned on his heel and walked out to place a call to campus security.

       I was in a classroom on the second floor at the time and recall hearing a huge amount of banging and scraping at 8:30 or so as the desks and chairs were returned to the classrooms above. Someone asked, “What’s that noise all about?” I looked around like Ralph in “A Christmas Story” when the teacher asked, “Has anyone seen Flick?”, and Ralph, knowing his best friend Flick was outside with his tongue stuck to the flagpole due to Ralph’s triple dog dare, internally asks, “Flick? Who’s Flick?” glancing around with total innocence.

       2. I don’t know if it was as a result of story 1, but campus security began to lock a student into each building at night. It was actually one of the jobs of the Work Program. You’d be locked in for 3-5 hours and you could read or study for that time. My senior year at BU my roommate, Kevin K, worked security and one night he was scheduled to be locked into the Olin science building. Tom W. decided we would get in there before him and wait about an hour for him to get settled in before we would try to scare him by making noises, etc.

       We hid in the lecture hall where Biology and Chemistry were taught, ducking down behind the teacher’s desk in front of the chalkboards and waited for Security to bring Kevin in and lock him in. He came into the lecture hall and sat down and began reading as we tried not to laugh as we prepared to make noises and throw things around the room. I had a roll of toilet paper I wanted to lob around. However, trying not to laugh or make a sound became a losing proposition. Trying not to laugh only made me want to laugh more and I was about to wet myself when we finally started moaning and tossing things around the podium.

       Instead of scaring him, Kevin got pissed at us, and after having a good laugh we went back to our rooms and went to bed (it was about 2 AM by then) while Kevin stayed behind to do his job, make the building safe for the next day’ classes.

       Funny how I can recall the goofy stuff we did in our downtime so much better than classroom stuff. As I sit here I can think of about 10 things that were done to my first roommate, Big Al (#5- God’s Song), and I can remember almost nothing of 2 years of French classes.

56 – I Don’t Like Mondays – The Boomtown Rats – 1979

I Don't Like Mondays - The Boomtown Rats 

       This song takes me to 1979 and the Steve Dahl Rude Awakening on WLUP-FM. The Stever played this song a lot and he and Garry Meier talked about its back-story. A 16 year old girl in San Diego, California, Brenda Ann Spencer, shot at a school, killing two adults and wounding 8 children. When she was apprehended, she showed no remorse, her response to the question of why she shot at the school was, “I don’t like Mondays. It livens up the day.” The shooting occurred in January 1979 and the song was written soon afterward, it was released in July 1979.

       It reminds me of the writer of the song Bob Geldof, lead singer of the Boomtown Rats, soon to be St. Bob and then Sir Bob, after 1984’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and the whole Band Aid movement (which basically built on work Harry Chapin had been doing for several years, before his untimely death in 1982).

       I will discuss Harry in an upcoming song (actually number 105, so it may be awhile at my current rate).

       In between “I Don’t Like..” and “Do They Know…”, Bob Geldof starred as “Pink” in the movie version of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”, another album Steve played a lot (and based his infamous parody song, “Another Kid in the Crawl” on, his take on “Another Brick in the Wall”, but Stever’s was about John Wayne Gacy).

       I was at Southern Illinois Law School when I saw “The Wall” (see #33-Six Months in a Leaky Boat) and I was not that much of a Floyd fan. I liked some of their music, but had never bought an album. After seeing the film I bought “The Wall.” (Then “The Final Cut” and “The Division Bell” when they came out; then went back to “Dark Side of the Moon”). All are albums I have yet to digitize so I have no Floyd on the Zune.

       Several years before I had attended a midnight movie presentation of “Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii” with my friend from Accu, Viktor S. and it was dull…stultifyingly dull…so dull I fell asleep, something I’d done only once before (nor since), at a showing of the film “Lucky Luciano” a 1973 snooze-a-thon starring Rod Steiger.

        I was quietly napping in the Woodfield Theater (They had comfortable, high-backed, rocking seats. Sadly, the theater no longer exists. I first saw “Close Encounters” there, the only movie I have ever sat through twice) during “PF@Pompeii” when someone lobbed a firecracker and it went off in the air about 10 feet from where we sat. It didn’t make the movie any better, but it did wake me up.

       I always thought it was interesting that Pete Townshend’s “Tommy” and Roger Waters’ “The Wall” had so much in common…

       Both main (English) characters lose their father in WWII; both are kids who are abused (Tommy by his Uncle Ernie and Cousin Kevin and the Acid Queen, “Pink” by his mother and teachers in “The Wall”); both become shut off from the world (Tommy goes deaf, dumb, and blind on seeing his father killed by his step-father, “Pink” builds an emotional wall around himself); both become the leaders of cults (Tommy’s based on his uncanny ability to play pin ball using only his sense of touch, “Pink” becomes a Neo-Nazi, or some sort of authoritarian figure ): both cults have violent, hammer-like imagery (“Tommy’s” have metal “T”s with a pin ball soldered to the top, “The Wall” has the “walking hammers” of Ronald Searle’s surreal animation); both are redeemed in the end, after a catharsis (Tommy’s acolytes run amuck and kill his mom and step dad (with the “T” hammers), “The Wall” comes down after “Pink” is put on trial* and the judge and jury find him guilty).

       Great minds think alike? (Townshend and Waters, sounds like an accounting firm)

*from thewallanalysis.com: Pink puts himself on trial - conducted by the exaggerated and personified bricks - and ultimately orders his wall be torn down when he judges himself both responsible for the making of the wall as well as capable of reconnecting with the outside world.