Happily Deranged

I'm $1.98 poorer in cash, but much richer in music, now that I've downloaded two versions of Plastic Jesus, one by Ernie Marrs and the Marrs Family and the other by the Young Norwegians. Neither of them incorporate all the lyrics I've come across, but between the two of them is a nice mix. A couple of verses I especially like include this one, which finds its way onto the iTunes songs I bought:

When pedestrians try to cross
I let them know who's boss
I never blow my horn or give them warning
I ride all over town
Trying to run them down
And it's seldom that they live to see the morning

and this one, which never seems to make it to the recordings:

When I'm goin' fornicatin'
I got my ceramic Satan
Sinnin' on the dashboard of my Winnebago Motor Home
The women know I'm on the level
Thanks to the wild-eyed stoneware devil
Ridin' on the dashboard of my Winnebago Motor Home
Sneerin' from the dashboard of my Winnebago Motor Home
Leering from the dashboard of my van

I know, I'm deranged, but that's just the way I am.

I've accomplished quite alot this morning (and it's not even 11 o'clock), aside from buying music online. I've washed and dried a load of cloths; washed the dishes; showered, brushed my teeth and shaved; and learned all manner of good and bad news from around the world, thanks to my lifeline to the real world, the Internet.

Oh, not to forget the article I read (using an actual paper magazine) in Texas Observer about the demise and rebirth (at least temporarily) of Pig Stand #29 in San Antonio, Texas. You can ready the article online, too, by clicking here. But I would encourage you to subscribe, instead of just reading it online. If you're interested in a liberal view of Texas or simply want to see Texas become more liberal, it's money well spent.
It's only $32 for a year.

My wife and I are getting excited about our upcoming trip to Chicago. We'll leave Thursday morning and return late the following Tuesday afternoon. Five days wandering around our old stomping grounds of Chicago and environs. One of the first things we're going to do, though we've done it before, is to take a Chicago Architecture Foundation tour of downtown Chicago on a boat on the Chicago River. It's an incredibly interesting tour and allows glimpses of some truly remarkable architecture. We plan on having an old style Chicago hot dog at The Doggery, a tiny hot dog stand adjacent to one of the apartment buildings we lived in while we lived in downtown Chicago.

We're getting together with friends for dinner on Thursday night (don't know where) and then will spend a day or two with my wife's sister and her sister's boyfriend [both now from Boston](who will then zip off to Aurora to see the boyfriend's mother), and otherwise we'll just act like tourists.

Food is one of the things we're looking forward to in Chicago (it's not like we don't get any here, but...we like food). We'll go to a tapas place we used to frequent (still there after 18 years!) and will jump off the buses whenever we see a place we want to explore. We'll get transit system passes so we can use the trains and buses at will, without having to worry about change, money, etc. with each ride. That's one of the things I miss sooooo much about Chicago; the city has a wonderful public transportation system, something Dallas will never duplicate, no matter how hard it tries.

It's now AFTER 11 o'clock, so I better get in gear and finish washing clothes, do other odds & ends, and get set to blow this popstand!