My Canned Heat Mental Block

I was out to eat last night and the subject of Canned Heat came up, thanks to me having bought a greatest hits CD earlier in the day.

Canned Heat? Yes, I explained, you probably know three of their songs. Then I could only think of two of the titles. It was one of the longest and most unsuccessfully mental blocks of my long life. I can usually overcome these mental blocks with a little time, a little thought, and going through the alphabet, and who knows what other hidden brain activity.

But not this time. I could only get the two I already had, "Let's Work Together" and "Going Up The Country." I said I was going to forget about it and enjoy the pizza, but I couldn't really do it. I did enjoy the pizza, but all the while I was going over it in my head, trying to visualize the CD case, etc., but the two songs were all that occurred to me, and by now I had the tunes in my head, blocking out any resolution of the third song.

Finally, I called someone who was at my house, and asked her to run up to my room and look up something for me. No, nothing on the computer. Just a CD. There's a CD on my desk. Read me the list of titles and I'll stop you when I hear the one I want. Well, it turned out to be the very first song on the disk! It's "On The Road Again." Of course. I said that's it! Thank you.

My bigger concern is why this mental block happened. I really know these songs.

Tammy Wynette

I was at a used record store/book store today and picked up a copy of a Tammy Wynette CD, "Anniversary: 20 Years of Hits."

I have a Tammy 45 that I really like, and I think it's the B side I really like, which is, "Soakin' Wet." I see that song isn't on this CD, but it's still a very cool song. "The tears I cry are always dry, but my heart is soakin' wet." I love it!

On the CD, I've listened to the first six songs, including a couple huge hits that I remember, "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and of course "Stand By Your Man." The latter song figured in the Clinton campaign in some way, I remember, with Hillary having mentioned it.

I love Tammy's voice ... even though I'm not always a big listener of country music.

An Interesting Swami Name

Sri Masturbananda.

Anyone feel like having that for your monastic or new yogic name?

Next Plane To London

Well, friends, I'm getting ready for my big business trip to London. I'm on the next plane, leaving on runway number five.

I'm hoping to see all the sights: Carnaby Street, Twiggy, the Pendulum Do.

I've got my pants zipped up and my cockney accent tucked away.

You know I play guitar. I've got a few demo tapes and am hoping for some face time with George Martin. I'll be the toppermost of the poppermost, the biggest thing since the Potato Bug, luv.

I Seriously Could Take A Nap

There's always a combination of things that makes me sleepy.

Lately, I've felt a little morose while also having a good appetite. So after I eat, that, combined with the moroseness, puts me in a mind to sleep. The lethargy is so real, so thick I could cut it.

But I hate myself for having slept, after I wake up. I need to have a little more some way to stay awake when it's day.

Still, it's those mid-morning, early-afternoon naps that come so easily. I can lay down and almost immediately pass out. Plus, there's no sweating like the sweating of a midday nap!

Watching Price Is Right Reruns

I saw a picture of Drew Carey one day, and he's lost a bunch of weight.

I've been watching The Price is Right almost everyday since April. I'm looking forward to the new shows. It's been reruns for quite a while. But they're all new to me since I didn't see them when they were originally on.

Drew Carey, if he's anything like he is on TV, has to be one of the nicest guys in the world. He seems to take an actual interest in the people and their fortunes on the show. And he's very engaging. I definitely like him.

Attacked By Pitbulls -- A Get Well Card

I've heard of people attacked by pitbulls -- one just the other day. But I don't think there's a greeting card for that.

Catching Crazy Spam

I'm glad to see Google (Blogger) has finally gotten some kind of automatic spam catcher in their system.

I'd love to enable comments all the time but the comments are just spam for the most part. And lately they've been Chinese or Japanese, which I can't tell the difference of.

Just today, on the one blog I have comments enabled for, I had two of these nutty looking "comments," and thankfully, finally, someone else intercepted them and put them in a spam folder ... where they belong.

The spammers obviously have my comments thing in a program (or something). I don't suppose they're showing up everyday and typing it in manually.

Suspenders

A country artist whose albums and songs all have to do with suspenders.

No Global Warming

I don't believe in global warming. It's only 101 degrees today and it's supposed to be 100 again tomorrow. That's relatively cool, compared to boiling water.

If Maury Ever Retires

If Maury ever retires, entire generations won't know who their true father is.

An Extra Taco Bell Nachos

I went to Taco Bell today. I ordered two orders of nachos and seven softshell tacos.

I got home and discovered they got the tacos right but I had three orders of nachos. I looked at the receipt and I was charged for the third order.

Isn't that terrible? They can't get a simple order like that right.

My Dog Beat The Odds

We seriously called the vet on June 15 to have our dog put to sleep. She was coughing, hacking, acting about dead.

The vet did some things. Said she had congestive heart failure, etc. Since then I haven't put the halter on her, because every time she sees a squirrel she pulls and that causes more coughing. Her heart is enlarged and must be obstructing something.

Anyway, without the halter, she's quit coughing. And it's the middle of July and she's still alive and seems to be doing very well.

A whole 'nother month anyway!

Bait Car

I watched a couple episodes of "Bait Car" on Tru TV tonight.

It's amazing how many lowlife losers there are out there. Just skulking around the city and within minutes stealing someone's car.

How terrible it is that some people have such crappy morals and/or such a crappy outlook on life that they would do that.

Gas Stations And The Failure Of Values

Tonight I stumbled on one of the explanations for why our younger generation has lost all of its values, many of which it never had. Thinking it over, I think there's a definite connection.

When I was a kid, the Standard station was the Standard station forever, the DX station the same, the Mobil station, etc. You went by them when you were a newborn and you went by them when you graduated from high school. It was a life you could depend on.

I got to thinking about this tonight when I was in my old hometown, and a lot of the gas stations I saw were different than they used to be. Some of them were even closed! I was driving by, and this one was some crazy off brand, some local brand, and this one was something new that we didn't even have when I was a kid.

As for Phillips 66, this has to be the most gypsy gas station of all. Because they come and go with great regularity. You just get used to be place being a Phillips 66 station and invariably it will soon be something else. I heard one of the old time gas station managers ruing this one day, complaining that Phillips 66 wanted him to put in a $75,000 automatic credit card reader and he just couldn't swing it. So he became Pop's Gas Station (or something).

The big boys up at the top are pulling the strings. And I would guess the sign dealers are in on the scheme somehow too, because then the owners, who probably change too when a million dreams are shattered, have to constantly be shelling out for a new sign. And by the way, whatever happened to the Shell station?

I think it has to do with the failure of values because the younger generation hasn't got gas stations that stay put. And a lot of our mental stability in the United States is related to the car and that which makes the car go, what the Europeans call "petrol" but what we rightly call "gas."

So, come on, gas companies. Get your act together. If you're going to build a gas station, how about staying there for the long haul! If you can't make a go of it, just don't bother in the first place.

The Undies Family

It's always surprising to me that there's a lot of words that, to the best of my knowledge, are not someone's surname. Like Doe. How could a simple word like Doe not be someone's name? It seems like it's not a name but then can stand for the generic name, John and Jane Doe. How is that possible?

Then there are the words that stand for something else but never made the switch (or stood prior to common usage). Like Undies. That's the nickname for underwear, a diminutive word, like Fundies for fundamentalists.

I've never met anyone named Undies, for either a last or first name.

But if you had someone, of course the kids in school (me included, regrettably) would've had a field day with it, until the novelty wore off.

Theodore Undies, nicknamed "Dirty."

Getting My Attitude Together

I was getting my attitude together today. I've had a bad one lately.

I go in spurts, sometimes a great one, then an abysmal. But today I made a conscious choice, NO MORE.

So it was a happy day ... and I kept it that way. I almost ruined it a couple of times, came very close, but managed to pull it out of the encroaching fire.

Seeing Baby Birds

Tonight I was mowing the yard, and I saw the second baby bird on the lawn within a week and a half.

The other one I saw a week and a few days ago later died. Because I saw it the next day in about the same place, dead. Then other little creatures took over its decaying body, and it's either almost gone now or about gone.

Tonight there was another one, in a different place. This one I only saw once, hopping around. Then the next time I came back around I didn't see it.

I'm not ever going to try to "help" these creatures, because I don't know what to do, and because it goes against my philosophy, more importantly. They need to fend for themselves. And nature has its way, which is fly or die, get with the program or bye bye birdie.

It makes me a little sad to see it -- but that's just sentimentality, I know. They need to do their thing in life, like we all do.

A Breathing, Seething Monster

My few Twitter "friends" -- of whom I don't know a single one at this point -- come and go. Like breathing in and breathing out.

It's a breathing, seething monster.

Fire Extinguishers

I did something today that I have never done before. At least I can't remember having done it. So I probably haven't. Which is to buy a couple of fire extinguishers.

I have an upstairs, a downstairs, and a basement. There was already a fire extinguisher that was okay, so I kept it. But to have one on each floor I needed two.

So I went to the home improvement store and improved my home, with two brand new fire extinguishers. This is one of those things, like insurance, that you never want to get any good out of.