Every Little Bit

I recorded this tonight - it's not great, but it's getting better - I love this song.

Content removed

Words and Music by Patty Griffin

Yes, Brownies

...or...

The Album That Cost Me The Proper Use Of The Joint Between The Metacarpal And First Philange Segment Of the Pinky Finger Of My Right Hand:

Yes - Tormatos

It was a dark and stormy night, and I had spent the last two days making Kief butter and then nummy hash brownies. I was living in a mobile home about 5 miles outside of Buchanan, Michigan; just across Redbud Trail from the Bear Cave campground. When I say it was dark, I mean no visible light- no sodium or mercury lamps, no car lights on the road, no house lights, no moon for its utter obscuration by dense cloud cover. When I say it was stormy, I mean it wasn't storming, yet.

The brownies were delish and the night wore on... My friend Scottopotomus and I ate most of them, we kept forgetting they were dosed.

There was a small problem in my crackerbox utopia - I had left my copy of Tormatos sitting in the front window, and the summer sun had melted it. It niggled at me, this step short of perception, so I asked scott what we should do.

Scott said, "Let us give it burial by sacrifice - it was a good album." I agreed, and went into the kitchen for the fire extinguisher.

We walked out of the house; me with the 50 pound can, Scott carrying the album. We exchanged items, and he emptied the extinguisher in the driveway, swinging it around until it was exhausted. The lack of wind, the chill pre-storm air, all combined with the low barometric pressure to give us a fogbank of portentous density. I then wandered around until I came upon (kicked) a rock about the size of a baseball, picked it up, and strolled back to scott, handed him the album and told him to hold it over his head.

The night was dark, and I'm half blind, the black vinyl swirled in and out of the fog, but I bravely took aim. "Stop!" Scott shouted, sounding scared and a bit shaken "What the Hell am I doing? You're half blind, give me the rock - I mean it! Please?" I realized the error and laughed, gave him the rock and held the album above my head. "Good-bye old friend, I muttered as Scott took aim. "Good-by old friend!" I shouted and scot let loose the stone.

It tore off the back of my pinky finger at the metacarpal / philange joint - it hurt like holy hell, somewhere in my mind, I could feel it, but the brownies made it OK - barely. We went into the house and I cleaned up my messy hand, ate another brownie, and watched the rain come down. The power went out and we sat, ate the rest of the brownies, talked, smoked, and Scott played his guitar. The pieces of the record lay scattered in the weeds, forgotten.

My finger sticks to this day 22 years later - it aches a bit sometimes, and every time I feel a twinge I remember that album, that dark and stormy night, and those brownies.

Frustration Defined

I started a pot of ham & bean soup yesterday - it smelled really good, just enough grrlic, pepper, onion, I added potatoes and carrots an hour ago, and turned up the soup to stabilize the temperature - got busy, and forgot to turn it back down.

The soup is ruined - it smells like fried wood now. I am very frustrated!

Simple???

I am having a real problem keeping things simple lately.

• I get so busy I forget to take showers
  
• I forget to hug my kids.
  
• I forget not to chainsmoke.
  
• I forget that I can't stay up until 1 AM pouring stress into guitar strings - and get up at 5:45 AM to meditate with my family.
  
• I am not meditating

I'm seriously off-track - just thought I'd mention it.

Goodbye, Julie...

As I listened to Simon and Garfunkel begin to sing "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" I got the call...

Julie was my friend, and I'll miss her.


Julie said...

“I think that it's really important to have close friends who you can really speak from your heart with, you know, establishing those deep connections.

It's so easy today to be isolated and alone…just going through the motions in this fast-paced society.”

The Ann Arbor News wrote:

Woman fought but lost battle with depression
What appeared to be survival story ends in tragedy

Thursday, December 1, 2005

BY AMALIE NASH
News Staff Reporter

Four years ago, her story was one of a survivor who persevered and had hope for the future.

Today, it is a story of tragedy, of succumbing to the depression she battled for years.

In January 2001, Julie Harrison jumped from the upper levels of a parking structure in downtown Ann Arbor and lived. She was left partially paralyzed and hospitalized for two months, but a year later told a reporter she had turned her life around and wanted to live.

On Wednesday, Harrison made her way in her wheelchair to the top of a different parking structure, and she again jumped. This time she died.

She would have been 30 on Dec. 16.

Ann Arbor Detective Sgt. Richard Kinsey said this morning that it appears Harrison went off her

anti-depression medication in July, and her family had been concerned about her.

"It's so sad," Kinsey said. "People around her said she was always pleasant and good to everyone."

R. Patrick Harrison, Julie's father, said the family would be making funeral arrangements today, but he declined to speak this morning about his daughter's death.

Police said Harrison had just parted ways with her boyfriend before 4:25 p.m. Wednesday when she jumped. She said she was going to the People's Food Co-operative on Fourth Avenue for groceries and would meet him a short time later.

There's much more to this, there always is...