Juke Box Friday - Be Still My Heart

Ah young love....Major crushes....Tiger Beat Magazine posters....Those were the years.


Donnie Osmond - the cutest boy EVER


The DeFranco Family - more family cuteness


And of course, the one and only made for TV family - No, Hannah Montanna is not original!

Jukebox Friday

Wow! What a short week!!

This was my very first 45. Enjoy....

Life

I'm not ignoring this blog - there is just too much on my heart and mind to write about any one thing clearly. After losing Diesel last week, I didn't think anything worse could happen. But life always has a way of showing you just how wrong you can be. So, while I deal with grieving for a child gone too early and other things happening to my family, please say a prayer for us.

God really needs to show me that green line to follow NOW!

Juke Box Friday - For Diesel

It's Friday - the end of a long hard week.

Today's song isn't old. It really isn't popular. He's not in it, but he would have wanted to be there. It's for Diesel.

No music - but this is our Diesel and his beloved truck.


My son and Diesel - doing what they did best....

Grief

Yesterday I told you about my friend, Diesel. Today I want to tell you about Diesel's friends. I am totally amazed and blown away by these kids. For the most part Diesel hung out with 18-21 year olds. Kids who have never had to experience anything like this before. I heard someone say yesterday that these children don't know how to grieve so that's why they are doing "strange" things. I say, adults needs to step back and learn from what these "children" are doing.

Car window paint is the rage of the day. Messages to Diesel adorn every window. They tell the world they are proud to be Diesel's friend, they love him and they miss him. The colors are loud - they are shouting their loss to the world - but the paint is temporary, and so is their pain. They know that as the rain washes the paint away, their pain will diminish also.

They also are getting stickers made - In Loving Memory - that will be more permanent; a lasting tribute to their friend, Diesel. Because he will always be in their hearts and minds. The pall bearers and friends will wear t-shirts to the funeral with a photo of Diesel's truck and messages on the back. "Throttle Jockey" was one of Diesel's stickers on his truck and now it adorns several t-shirts. "One Shot, One Kill!...Git U Sum" was another Diesel trademark. They wear these shirts to proudly proclaim their love for their friend.

There is also a little vengeance on their minds. The tree that Diesel hit is now logs headed for a bonfire that will be held to say goodbye this weekend. While it may seem a loss of a good tree, these kids were amazed and the amount of nails, old crosses, and ribbons they found while cutting the tree. Yes, it has been stopping cars and lives since I was a child. Now, at least a car will have a clear shot to an open field if they miss this curve.

Some have learned that words spoken in anger or spite sometimes can't be taken back. Petty disputes can last forever and aren't really worth it. A true friend loves you to the moon and back.

They are planning to give a memorial tree to Diesel's grandparents. They are organizing food for after the service. They are investigating options for Diesel's truck. They really want to repair it and then give it back to the grandparents so they can keep it or sell it. However, if it is beyond repair, then they know the value of the parts and will help the family make sure they get what it is worth. They have already stopped some of the parts from disappearing and others that were gone have been returned.

Yes, these kids are grieving and hurting. But they are wearing that grief proudly and openly. Time will ease their pain and their lives will go on. Each one with a touch of Diesel.

PS. Being kids, they have been forbidden from 'hanging out' at the majority of places in our town. However, the local Steak and Shake has been very hospitable, giving them a place to park their trucks, rev their engines (within reason), and bond together. Managers and waitresses were at the hospital and are watching over these kids as they work through their grief. I want to thank them and let them how much I appreciate their kindness.

Diesel

One Saturday morning, I walked into my living room to find a large boy in a white, wife beater shirt asleep on my floor and my son asleep on the couch. I fixed breakfast for them – a rarity in my house – and Dustin carried his plate to the sink and offered to help clean up the kitchen – another rarity in my house.

Dustin, or Diesel, as he is better known has been in and out of my house ever since. Last winter, during a big snow storm, Diesel brought the hood from one of his old trucks, which was then hooked to a 4-wheeler and became the Super Sled (don’t try this at home! Only trained stunt men or bored teenage boys should attempt this feat!!) When my son’s truck was stuck in the snow, it was Diesel who came to the rescue. On the Saturday mornings when I would find myself alone, I would curl up on the couch in my pj’s with a coke and watch all the Saturday morning tv that I never get to watch when anyone else is home. I could almost guarantee that about mid-morning, Diesel would be knocking on my door, wanting to show his newest toy.

Diesel had a talent for bargains. He bought cars for $400 that everyone else had to pay thousands for. He traded a $400 car for a motorcycle about the same time my son bought one that cost every cent he had made working that summer. Of course, I was the only one home when Diesel came by. I told him how nice his bike was, but he said my son’s was nicer and looked better. I still disagree with that, but that was the kind of kid Diesel was. He never bragged about what he had and he always appreciated yours.

Was. On Mother’s Day, while the sun was shining, a dark cloud formed over our lives. Diesel was in a terrible wreck and was killed. His diesel truck that he loved so much was destroyed and the laughter was taken out of our lives. Diesel was always laughing. He was always smiling. He would go out of his way to speak to you. He never forgot a face. Or a friend. Diesel was known for his white, wife beater shirts, but he was always kind and easy going. He was one of the best kids I have known.

Yesterday, as news of his death spread, his friends gathered at the hospital. They stood in groups, crying, talking softly, or standing silent vigil. They spoke of the good times and how much they loved this soft spoken, bear of a man/child. Diesel was 20 years old. Yesterday I saw 18-25 year olds age before my eyes. They met death, stared him in the face, and they stood strong for their friend. They planned memorials and they remembered good times. They stayed as long as Diesel did. When the funeral home left with their friend, they moved to where they hang out every night, hoping this was a dream and that big, red diesel Ford, would coming roaring in - Power Smokin' everyone in sight. It didn’t.

Diesel, we miss you and whenever we see that black smoke roll from a big, chrome diesel stack we will know that you are up there - watching and laughing.

What's On My Jukebox?

I have always wanted a Jukebox. I have enough 45's to fill one, but I don't have the room, the money, or the type of house to really get one. So...I'm going to build a virtual Jukebox here, on-line. Stay tuned. I will even teach you what a 45 is, although I really, really hope you know.

My first attempt to "own" music didn't work out so well. I was in grade school - either 5th or 6th grade and Bobby Goldsboro had a great song out. "Honey". I really, really loved that song and I wanted it so bad. After enough hints my mother finally gave in. She had quite a had quite a nice collection of records herself and that was where the problems began.

Her records were from the 1940's and were known as 78's - meaning they played on a record player that rotated them at 78 RPM's/ Evidentially in the 1940's an artist would record songs and then another artist would record the same songs on their record and you could buy the artist that you preferred. However, I didn't know that, so when she kept asking whose album I wanted that song on, I kept saying I just wanted the song.

So I got the song. On a "new" album that was 33 1/3. (which means that it played at 33.33 rpm's ya' know). However, it was not a Bobby Goldsboro album. It was Kate Smith. Now, if you are at all familiar with the Billy Graham crusade's of the 1960's and 70's you will know who Kate Smith is; otherwise click here. Now I'm sure that my mother had the best of intentions and that if Kate Smith was good enough for Billy Graham, then she certainly should have been good enough for me. And I love Kate on some songs - no one can sing How Great Thou Art like Kate Smith (except George Beverly Shea, but that's for another time), but "Honey" just wasn't the same.

My dad sang one song over and over again all through our childhood, we all knew the words. When we got older we discovered that it was really three different songs that he just rolled all together. With this great musical background, Dad decided to come to my rescue. He bought me another album. (Listen - it's not what you think it is. This is on the album and was written by an inmate at Folsom Prison.)

Just what every pre-teen desperately wanting to fit in needs. It was almost enough to make me quit, but instead it was just the start of a classic collection. (Of course there was never and will never be a juke box that plays this size record.) However, it did open my world to country music and I now have quite an extensive collection of Johnny Cash albums. This is a reminder to keep an open mind and what you hated at one point in your life, you may love at another point.

After the Johnny Cash Album, I was able to convince both of my parents that at 45 was a "cooler" option for me and at only 79 cents it was a bargain too. First 45's in my collection? Tune in next week.

Technology

This isn't really a blog post, but more of a cry for help.

We have lost the remote. The satellite remote. The one my son and I share because his father thought it would be a good idea to hook "my" bedroom TV up to the same box as my 18 year old son. Our routine is usually he uses it at night, I slip into his room sometime between 3 am and 8 am and take it to "my" room, because I watch it when I can't sleep and to catch the morning news as I wake up.

So, I took it and now it's gone. I have looked everywhere. My son has looked everywhere. His father has looked under the pillows - he doesn't mind because he really doesn't like me watching TV at 3 am.

I went on-line to get another - $36 and a week to get here. Excuse me?!??!

Please! Does anyone know if a regular satellite remote will work with Dish's new one box system? We have one box - in the living room - that really has 2 channels on it. We can record one channel and watch the other from the living room. The second channel is also controlled by the (lost) remote from either "my" bedroom or my son's. I miss my TV!!!

Water Gardens - Take 2

You may remember about my fledgling water garden last year. Well, it made it through the summer and fall. During the winter it froze and for some reason the fish did not go to the bottom or move behind one of the rocks, so they also froze solid – just under the surface of the ice. During a thaw all the ice melted, but the fish did not revive (so much for cryonics!)

So when the weather warmed and we foolishly thought winter was over, we drained the pond, cleaned out all the decaying leaves that had accumulated over the fall and winter. We re-filled it, installed the pump, and started the fountain. It was very pretty for about 15 minutes or so. I went inside but my 5-year old granddaughter came and told us the pond was pouring water over the sidewalk and was almost empty. My husband caught it just in time to keep from burning out the pump. I re-filled it, reset the fountain, and turned it on again. Fifteen minutes later it’s once again watering the sidewalk. So I gave up. For the time being.

A few days later, on a whim, I bought a water lily (also because the same 5-year old granddaughter thinks I should have one). I sat it in the water, just below the surface and the green leaves have been reaching for air ever since. It was looking good.

Yes, was. We received twelve inches of rain this weekend. You would think that with a water garden that wouldn’t matter. But it does. I think. My water lily is gone, I think it drowned. I’m sure the torrential amount of rain has knocked it off the shelf it was sitting on, but I can’t seem to find it in the bottom of the pond. I was skimming with the net, but I couldn’t find it. Now that rain has stopped I will drain the pond again – just turn on the fountain, because the rain also knocked it over too – and hopefully find a soggy, but semi-happy water lily just waiting to be rescued. And we will start once again.