Robin's Reign is Over

      

     I was saddened to hear of the passing of Robin Gibb, who most of you probably know was a member of the Bee Gees. It was bad enough I didn't even know he was sick, and heard he was in a coma and had made a marvelous comeback.  If you have only heard the Bee Gees from the disco era, please make an effort to listen to some of their early music. They were top notch, and I was a fan way before the disco era and the high pitched squealing that people associate with them. (Even worse, that Sargent Pepper movie they did with Peter Frampton- ill advised at best) 
    The original fans of the group never thought they were copying the Beatles (They were around before the Beatles, after all!) and loathed the notoriety they gained from the disco music and those white jumpsuits and  big hair, when their early music was clearly superior. I was only a kid when "Saturday Night Fever" came out, but was a seasoned Bee Gees fanatic since day one, or before, according to my Dad, since he played their albums constantly since before I was born.
     I could write pages about what the Bee Gees music means to me. Their music was not only beautiful to listen to with the harp, orchestra, and amazing harmonies, but the writing was great too. I don't hear it much anymore, since the record player started gathering dust. The sound on CDs is just not quite the same.
     I saw them in concert once, in 1988. They were very good, and I was surprised at how funny they were, naturally funny.  My Dad still tells me once in awhile about a concert they did outdoors in Boston, in a raging thunderstorm. They kept on playing, even with all their plugged in instruments, risking electrocution. And they sounded great. Wish I could have been there! 
     I generally don't idolize famous people, but in rare instances I do wish I could reach certain musicians to let them know how much their music means to me. Imagine the feeling of knowing how many people are positively affected by your voice, music or words. It's kind of creepy to think about.  It's sad to think that Barry Gibb is the only Brothers Gibb who is still alive- much like the Beach Boys losing Carl and Dennis, and leaving Brian Wilson all alone.  
     If there is any consolation,it is that the music lives on- I always think of that song by the Kinks, "Celluloid Heroes", except it's Vinyl Heroes! The music never dies.
With You Tube, we have almost any song at our fingertips, so I advise you to go there and listen to some early Bee Gees songs, or even "Stayin' Alive". For what it is, it's a good song too.
     Robin was only 62  years old, and died from cancer. He had recently completed a musical project with his son, Robin-John.It was about the Titanic, and I think they were raising money for families of people who lost  someone in that disaster, but I'm not sure about that.  I never even knew he had any children (he has four). 
    I am going to leave with a couple of clips-hope you like them.

   Robin, rest in peace. You will never be forgotten, nor your twin Maurice. I hope you have been reunited and  are working on a new song!
Karin

Happy Birthday, Blackie and Grace!

  Today is a special day, the anniversary of Blackie and Grace, two of my many kitties. They were born on this day in 1984. I was still a teenager, in the tenth grade, and the Celtics were well on their way to Championship #16.  

    We were not irresponsible pet owners, we had Foster, who was a pretty money cat, and stayed strictly indoors. I wasn't there, so I don't know who the father or fathers were, but I assume that Grace was Bigfoot's daughter. She was the spitting image of Bigfoot's mom Katie, who was a gray tiger with double paws. We had to bring her to the cat farm when she kept on killing birds. But that's beside the point. We were very surprised when we noticed Foster getting chubby. Before you know it, four lovely kittens were born. There was Grace, Blackie, who obviously was all black, an adorable pale orange tiger I named Max (Get Smart was on all the time back then), and Junior, who was a tortoise-shell like her mommy. They didn't get their names right away, of course.

      We ended up keeping Blackie and Grace, and found homes for Max and Junior.  I really wanted to keep Max, he was my favorite. But in retrospect, I have no regrets. Blackie and Grace were very special.   Blackie was a real character, and he had challenging behaviors at times. He was extremely sensitive, and sweet.  Grace was shy and feminine. Together we called them "The Cat Twins" even though they did not look alike.

      Blackie lived to age 15. He was an indoor cat all his life, except for the last year or two, we started to let him go outside, and he always stayed in the yard.  Grace outlived all the cats we ever had, living to be 19. She was the healthiest cat we ever had.

All my best pictures are in a photo album I can't get to right now, but here are some good ones, I'll just save the others for next year!

This is a poor quality image, but I wanted to include Blackie and Gracie's Mom,  Foster.

You can barely see Max, on left, Junior is under him, Grace is on the right, and Blackie . Not sure how old they are, but not long after their eyes opened.

Here is Blackie all grown up, circa 1986. Isn't he beautiful?

Here is Grace, in all her fluffy glory. You can't see it, but she had double paws like her Dad.

They spent a lot of time doing things together, especially naps.

She almost looks like a stuffed animal!

Is he smug or what?

Nap time again!

Blackie and Grace, I miss you! Happy Birthday!

Random thoughts for a May weekend

     It's another weekend, and I'm trying to squeeze in enough time to write the blog. I don't like to go longer than a week between posts. I get lots of ideas for articles, but if I don't write them down, I tend to forget.

     So, what's on my mind this weekend.....I'm a little worried about the Red Sox. Not that long ago, they were the darlings of the media and fans alike. Look at them now? They have been exposed as selfish, greedy, egotistical idiots. They have won two in a row, but their record is terrible, and they keep finding new ways to blow leads. I don't know how long Bobby Valentine is going to last, but he has his work cut out for him!
     Well, it's Sunday now, and for the first time in ages, I feel like I got the most out of myself. I actually accomplished something! I got up very early this morning (7:30, I must be crazy) and worked in the yard until noon. God knows there's plenty to do...I tried taming the wisteria vines, which is a 40 hour position once it gets out of control. I picked up a lot of dead leaves along the wall that goes down the driveway, and for some reason, a lot of soil has accumulated there. So I used a shovel to push it closer to the wall, and now I just need some ready to plant annuals to throw in the ground to make it look nice. I've lost my faith in seeds, they never seem to do well anymore. I always think there are flower seeds sprouting, but they turn out to be weeds! Not this year.  I do have some heavenly blue morning glory seeds, I do think I will take a chance on those if I can find them.  Lastly, I managed to plant about 50 daffodil bulbs, around our ornamental pool. If they all come up next year, it will be beautiful. I still have a few more to plant, along with some mini iris.
     I am really on a roll, I am so pleased that I took the time and trouble to make some chocolate chip cookies! I had recently bought some finely chopped macadamia nuts at Trader Joe's, but put off making the cookies. When I was finally ready on Saturday, I discovered that I was out of brown sugar. Lo and behold I checked the Internet because I remembered something about making your own. It's true, you can make homemade brown sugar by stirring one Tablespoon of molasses into one cup of sugar. Hot Dog! It smelled a little strong, but it was delicious. And so are the cookies.
    The McDonald's I used to frequent on a daily basis for coffee has been closed for several months as they tore down most of the building, and are doing it over.  It looks like it might be half completed. Makes you wonder what was wrong with the building. It's only been there since the 70's, the late 70's at that. Think of all the money they must make in a day. By the time they open again I wonder if I'll still have a taste for the soft serve sundaes and the Paul Newman organic coffee. I rarely bought any fries or burgers, I stuck to the dollar menu. Meanwhile, I have to be saving money. I can't stand Dunkin' Donuts coffee, it's awful, in my opinion. 
     It's Mother's Day, and I hope everybody had a wonderful day!

This is the area where I want to plant flowers.  You wouldn't believe how many worms are under there!

This is where I planted most of the daffodils.

Cindy had three rides this weekend. Here's a picture from earlier this spring.

This is an old picture of the wisteria when they were out of control,. I must say they are still beautiful.

Another shot of an intense vine. This guy is dead now.

This will give you an idea of what I'm up against. It's nowhere near this overgrown now,  but give it a week! I want to wait until the flowers bloom. They smell SO good!

I hope you had a nice weekend. My life is pretty trivial sometimes, but I enjoy it most of the time. At least I was home, and didn't think about work hardly at all!

     

Look out for the Super Moon Saturday Night!

     This is just a quick post to alert you of the Super Moon that will be rising at 7:38 EST tomorrow night, May 5, 2012. I had never heard of that before, which is hard to believe, but true. From the bit of research I did today, it happens about once a year when the moon is the closest to the Earth.  If you want to Google "Super Moon 2012" you can get all the technical details and see lots of cool photos from years past.

     I am going to try and get some decent photos. I really have to buy a tripod. It's maddening to try and get a picture of a distant planet like Jupiter when the camera doesn't stay still.  A couple of months ago the moon was huge coming up at dusk. But when I tried to get a clearer view by walking to the top of the hill , it got smaller!

     Even if you don't get any pictures, try and get outside to see it, if you have clear weather. Why not get a picture and send it to me so we can share them?  If I get any nice ones, I will post it. The moon is one of those things that I love to photograph. It's different every day. One time when I was vacationing in Maine, the moon was huge and bright red, over the ocean. I got pictures with my binocular camera, but unlucky for me, the batteries died before I could transfer the pictures. The ones in my regular camera were too tiny.  Below is a collage I made with Picassa- as you can see, I need to get some different shots.

As Jack Horkheimer used to say, "Keep looking up"!