April 18, 2015

• Farewell, Yoo-Hoo

  Farewell, Yoo-Hoo

  Today's a sad day.  Yoo-Hoo is my Jack Russell - rat terrier mix that I brought home from the Humane Society in August of 1998.  It was that month that I met my wife Barbara, when I took Yoo-Hoo in to meet the vets and techs at the Village Animal Clinic.  Barbara had just moved to Vero Beach, and when on our first meeting she addressed me as Mr. Lipton, I asked her nicely to call me Bob and she said, "OK, Mr. Lipton."  The rest is history.

  Yoo-Hoo is now 19, going on 20, and I don't want her to suffer a single day of infirmity and pain.  We've been watching her, and it's time.  She'll be going to Doggie Heaven on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge, around 4 p.m. this afternoon.

  *********************

  There was a post I created on October 5, 2005.  If I have time, I'll try to repost it here.  But in the meantime, readers can use the calendar on the left side of this page to find that post.

  Ah!  Here 'tis:

   

  Five Songs That Knock Me Out

   

  Libby (Iby1014) has tagged me to list five songs that I am "currently passionate about."  I retitled the category in tribute to my friend Lionne, who uses that phrase -- "knock me out" -- in a way that, well, knocks me out.  Coincidentally, Libby tagged Lionne at the same time as she tagged me.

   

  In no particular order:

   

  "For Once in My Life."   The recording I most remember is by Tony Bennett, but Google emphasizes Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra.  Either my memory is whacked or Google is.  What is special about this song?  Here's the story.  There's this little Jack Russell Terrier/fox terrier mix at my house named Yoo-Hoo.  I fell in love with her during my five years of volunteering to work with the adoption dogs at our local Humane Society.  Yoo-Hoo had already flunked out of two homes.  I mean, she was adopted twice, and returned twice to the Humane Society as being incorrigible.  She had separation anxiety, and could not be left alone in a house.  She'd claw down the drapes, she'd howl till her people came home, she was impossible to live with.

   

  Because of some special talent I have, the Humane Society people asked me to work regularly with the difficult dogs.  I took personal charge of Yoo-Hoo for nine months, but every potential adopter was scared off by the stories of her previous behavior.  Finally, I couldn't stand the thought of her being put down eventually, so I took her home with me, even though I already had two dogs and two is the number of dogs I like to have.  (Ever since that day, there have been from three to five dogs in this house.  Someday it'll be two again.  I can only dream.)

   

  Anyway, I was taking Yoo-Hoo to a nursing home for a pet therapy visit.  She was in the passenger seat and that song came on the radio.  The lyrics so incredibly fit her situation.  For once in her desperately unhappy life, she had someone (me) who needed her and wouldn't desert her.  That song has knocked me out, ever since.  Yoo-Hoo is still intractable and difficult to live with, has to stay in a crate unless I'm home to supervise, and no matter how tired and busy I am, she gets her walkies twice a day.  But the love in her eyes, you have to see to appreciate.

   

  For once in my life I have someone who needs me,
  Someone I've needed so long.
  For once, unafraid, I can go where life leads me
  And somehow I know I'll be strong.

  For once I can touch what my heart used to dream of
  Long before I knew
  Someone warm like you
  Would make my dreams come true.

   

  For once in my life I won't let sorrow hurt me
  Not like it hurt me before.
  For once, I have someone I know won't desert me
  I'm not alone anymore.

  For once, I can say, this is mine, you can't take it.
  As long as I know I have love, I can make it
  For once in my life, I have someone who needs me.

   

  *********************************************

   

  "You Light Up My Life."  This has to be listed for two reasons, besides the fact that Debby Boone did such a wonderful job with it.  There's a music box on our bedstead that plays that song when you wind it up.  It was one of the first gifts I ever bought for Barbara, back when we were courting.  A glass bubble with snow that falls after you turn it upside down and back again, and a cat sitting on a throne, on the inside of the bubble.  At the base, outside the bubble, is a sleeping cat whose head is against a ball of yarn and its paws are entangled in two loose strings of the yarn.  And the second reason this song knocks me out is that it reminds me of my late wife Marvis.  One day when she was away from the house, she called home just to tell me to turn on the radio.  "Our song" was playing.

   

  So many nights, I'd sit by my window,
  Waiting for someone to sing me his song.
  So many dreams, I kept deep inside me,
  Alone in the dark, but now you've come along.

  And you light up my life,
  You give me hope, to carry on.
  You light up my days
  And fill my nights with song.

  Rollin' at sea, adrift on the waters
  Could it be finally, I'm turning for home
  Finally a chance to say, "hey, I love you."
  Never again to be all alone.

  And you light up my life,
  You give me hope, to carry on.
  You light up my days
  And fill my nights with song.

  You, you light up my life
  You give me hope to carry on
  You light up my days
  And fill my nights with song
  It can't be wrong, when it feels so right
  'cause you, you light up my life

   

  ********************************************

   

  "Slip Slidin' Away" Words & music by Paul Simon

   

  All of Simon's lyrics are amazing.  This is just one of many I can name.  What do these words mean to me?  They're about how elusive our goals are.  About how difficult it is to choose the right path.  About how after we get what we think we wanted, we realize we went down the wrong path in the first place, and have to start all over.  About how we're so afraid we'll actually achieve our goals, there might be nothing else to aim for, nothing else to aspire to, no reason to go on living.  These stanzas say all those things to me, and more.

   

  
  Slip slidin' away
  Slip slidin' away
  You know the nearer your destination
  The more you're slip slidin' away.

  I know a man
  He came from my home town
  He wore his passion for his woman
  Like a thorny crown
  He said "Delores,
  I live in fear
  My love for you's so overpowering
  I'm afraid that I will disappear."

  Slip slidin' away
  Slip slidin' away
  You know the nearer your destination
  The more you're slip slidin' away.

  I know a woman
  Became a wife.
  These are the very words she uses
  To describe her life.
  She said a good day
  Ain't got no rain;
  She said a bad day's when I lie in bed
  And think of things that might have been.

  Slip slidin' away
  Slip slidin' away
  You know the nearer your destination
  The more you're slip slidin' away.

  And I know a father
  Who had a son.
  He longed to tell him all the reasons
  For the things he'd done.
  He came a long way
  Just to explain.
  He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping
  Then he turned around and headed home again.
  
  Slip slidin' away
  Slip slidin' away
  You know the nearer your destination
  The more you're slip slidin' away.

  God only knows.
  God makes his plan.
  The information's unavailable
  To the mortal man.
  We work our jobs,
  Collect our pay,
  Believe we're gliding down the highway
  When in fact we're slip slidin' away.

  Slip slidin' away
  Slip slidin' away
  You know the nearer your destination
  The more you're slip slidin' away.

  Slip slidin' away
  You know the nearer your destination
  The more you're slip slidin' away
  Mmm...

   

  ********************************

   

  What am I up to?  Three songs?  Two left to choose?  Hell, I can't choose just one OR two from the many antiwar songs that move me.  Here's however many I feel like hunting up the lyrics for:

   

   

   

  "The Last Farewell"

   

  There's a ship lies rigged and ready in the harbor
  Tomorrow for old England she sails
  Far away from your land of endless sunshine
  To my land full of rainy skies and gales
  

   

  And I shall be aboard that ship tomorrow
  Though my heart is full of tears at this farewell
  For you are beautiful, and I have loved you dearly
  More dearly than the spoken word can tell
  For you are beautiful, and I have loved you dearly
  More dearly than the spoken word can tell

  I've heard there's a wicked war a-blazing
  And the taste of war I know so very well
  Even now I see the foreign flag a-raising
  Their guns on fire as we sail into hell
  I have no fear of death, it brings no sorrow
  But how bitter will be this last farewell.
  
  For you are beautiful, and I have loved you dearly
  More dearly than the spoken word can tell
  For you are beautiful, and I have loved you dearly
  More dearly than the spoken word can tell

  Though death and darkness gather all about me
  My ship be torn apart upon the seas
  I shall smell again the fragrance of these islands
  And the heaving waves that brought me once to thee

   

  And should I return home safe again to England
  I shall watch the English mist roll through the dale
  For you are beautiful, and I have loved you dearly
  More dearly than the spoken word can tell
  For you are beautiful, and I have loved you dearly
  More dearly than the spoken word can tell

   

  ***************************************

   

  "The White Cliffs of Dover"

   

  There'll be bluebirds over
  The white cliffs of Dover
  Tomorrow, just you wait and see
  There'll be love and laughter
  And peace ever after
  Tomorrow, when the world is free.

  The shepherd will tend his sheep
  The valley will bloom again
  And Johnny will go to sleep
  In his own little room again.

  There'll be bluebirds over
  The white cliffs of Dover
  Tomorrow, just you wait and see...!

   

  ***********

   

  And the next one you might not consider an antiwar song, but it always sounds that way to me, somehow:

   

   

   

  "Danny Boy" 

   

  Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
  From glen to glen and down the mountainside
  The summer's gone and all the roses falling,
  'tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.
  But come ye back when summer's in the meadow,
  Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow,
  'tis I'll be there in sunshine or in shadow,
  Oh, Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so.

   
  And when you come and all the flowers are dying,
  If I am dead - as dead as I well may be -
  Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying
  And kneel and say a prayer for me;
  And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me,
  And all my grave shall warmer, sweeter be,
  And ye shall bend and tell me that you love me,
  And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.

   

  ****************

   

  And speaking of flowers, and antiwar, there is of course:

   

  "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

   

  Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
  Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
  Where have all the flowers gone?
  Young girls have picked them everyone.
  Oh, when will they ever learn?
  Oh, when will they ever learn?

  Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing?
  Where have all the young girls gone, long time ago?
  Where have all the young girls gone?
  Gone for husbands everyone.
  Oh, when will they ever learn?
  Oh, when will they ever learn?

  Where have all the husbands gone, long time passing?
  Where have all the husbands gone, long time ago?
  Where have all the husbands gone?
  Gone for soldiers everyone
  Oh, when will they ever learn?
  Oh, when will they ever learn?

  Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing?
  Where have all the soldiers gone, long time ago?
  Where have all the soldiers gone?
  Gone to graveyards, everyone.
  Oh, when will they ever learn?
  Oh, when will they ever learn?

  Where have all the graveyards gone, long time passing?
  Where have all the graveyards gone, long time ago?
  Where have all the graveyards gone?
  Gone to flowers, everyone.
  Oh, when will they ever learn?
  Oh, when will they ever learn?

  Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
  Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
  Where have all the flowers gone?
  Young girls have picked them everyone.
  Oh, when will they ever learn?
  Oh, when will they ever learn?

   

  **********************

   

  And the granddaddy of them all:

   

  "Blowin' in the Wind"

   

  How many roads must a man walk down
  Before they call him a man?
  How many seas must a white dove sail
  Before she sleeps in the sand?
  How many times must the cannon balls fly
  Before they're forever banned?

  The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
  The answer is blowin' in the wind.

  How many years must a mountain exist
  Before it is washed to the sea?
  How many years can some people exist
  Before they're allowed to be free?
  How many times can a man turn his head
  And pretend that he just doesn't see?

  The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
  The answer is blowin' in the wind.

  How many times must a man look up
  Before he can see the sky?
  How many ears must one man have
  Before he can hear people cry?
  How many deaths will it take till he knows
  That too many people have died?

  The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
  The answer is blowin' in the wind.
  The answer is blowin' in the wind.

   

  ********************

   

  Somebody please tell me it was Bob Dylan who wrote this song, or if he didn't, who did?

   

  ********************

   

  [Thursday edit]  I forgot the rules, I think.  Am I supposed to tag somebody?  Some have tagged five, some have tagged two, I'll tag three:

   

  MyKiWhatzerface
  raguslil
  baldmike2004

  • 9:51 am
  • 9 Comments