From the Past, a Real Blast

Tea: Vanilla Chai

Music: The Rainmakers, "Small Circles"

Time: Night.

A week ago, during that kind of important pointy-ended football game, a friend (who, like me, prefers futbol) and I were talking about commercials. I brought up the Emerald Nuts spot with Robert Goulet, which is ten kinds of funny. Then, of course, the subject of Elvis shooting the TV came up.

And I said, "It's a TV with a bullethole ..." and he said, "It's autographed ..."

I realized then that the wages of sin ... sorry, that's another song entirely. I realized I'd found a fellow Rainmakers fan. I'd quoted a line from "Doomsville," and he'd picked right up on it.

To make a long story short (naturally) -- and yes, that's yet another Rainmakers song reference -- we spent about an hour reliving our favorite shows and citing our favorite lines. (Bob Walkenhorst, who was the band's primary songwriter and has an amazing solo album as well, is a freaking awesome lyricist.)

So I'm burning him copies of a couple of CDs (almost all of which are out of print), and he loaned me a VHS copy of "Archive," which has all of the band's videos.

Sometime over the next couple of days, I'm going to kick everyone else out of the house, pop it in and relive a few decades' worth of memories.

Because, as any fan can tell you, clocks are slow and hearts beat on and on ... long gone long.

Cup XXI: The Skin of the Earth is Moving, and the Continents are Adrift

Tea: Arctic Storm, ginger added, with honey

Music: Bruce Cockburn, "Lovers in a Dangerous Time"

Time: Afternoon

I'm still stuffed up, but the tea is helping. So are my Reed's Ginger Chews, a long-distance gift from a dear friend.

As I'm sure you've noticed by now, musical references in post titles don't always match the musical selections in the posts themselves. Such is the case today, as it was here and here and here. Here, too.

Today's lyric is borrowed, slightly adapted, from the Rainmakers' "A Million Miles Away" -- not to be confused with the (also excellent) Plimsouls song of the same name.

Tomorrow will mark one month since I left my old job. Today would have been my tenth anniversary there. The fact that I wrote "tenth" instead of "10th" is an indication that I'm already comfortable with shedding some of the old ways.

Freelancing is a challenge. The hunt for story ideas, and for people who will pay me to put them into words, is a daily effort. But I'm glad I am where I am now. I've met good people, some of whom already have become part of my life.

Today's story:

J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla

Just because.