Positively "K" Street

"Positively 4th Street" was the first 45 rpm record I ever bought. It was my introduction to Bob Dylan around 1966. Last night I watched the Republican debate in Iowa. It was the first debate I watched this year. This morning I was driving and thinking about the debate when "Positively 4th Street" came on. This Dylan tune although not one his famous "finger-pointing" songs kind of summed my whole attitude towards Washington D.C. and "K" street especially.

You got a lotta nerve
To say you are my friend
When I was down
You just stood there grinning

You got a lotta nerve
To say you got a helping hand to lend
You just want to be on
The side that’s winning

You say I let you down
You know it’s not like that
If you’re so hurt
Why then don’t you show it

You say you lost your faith
But that’s not where it’s at
You had no faith to lose
And you know it

I know the reason
That you talk behind my back
I used to be among the crowd
You’re in with

Do you take me for such a fool
To think I’d make contact
With the one who tries to hide
What he don’t know to begin with

You see me on the street
You always act surprised
You say, “How are you?” “Good luck”
But you don’t mean it

When you know as well as me
You’d rather see me paralyzed
Why don’t you just come out once
And scream it

No, I do not feel that good
When I see the heartbreaks you embrace
If I was a master thief
Perhaps I’d rob them

And now I know you’re dissatisfied
With your position and your place
Don’t you understand
It’s not my problem

I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment
I could be you

Yes, I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
You’d know what a drag it is
To see you

Kahuna Snow-Blower

The Almanac predicts a brutal winter on "YOMAMA DRIVE"

Shower Faucet Part Deux

All week I waited patiently until Sat. came to replace the mixing valve in our bedroom shower. Since I couldn't isolate the shower from the rest of the plumbing it was stressful.

What I did right:
1) bought the right part (thank you, Amazon)
2) used plumber's grease
3) turned off the water
4) didn't break a pipe in the wall
5) didn't once mention "your sister's rear end"

What I did wrong:
1) installed the valve a hundred and eighty degrees off
2) didn't once mention "your sister's rear end"

I put it in and looked for leaks and turned it on; it seemed fine. I brought CP in to see it. When one drop fell from the shower head, she said "It still leaks." I explained to CP how with the double shower head and my heated shower mirror one could expect a single drop of water after it's turned off. Then I turned it on full and waited for the hot water that never came. After considering all the possibilities and remembering which plumber I wanted, I realized that the valve was in upside down. I could have gone back to my Polish roots and just left it like that; eventually we would have gotten used to the HOT coming on first and then the COLD. However, I reluctantly did the job over again and now it operates the same as all the showers in the Northern Hemisphere. The final touch was to remove the safety stop that keeps the water from getting hot enough to burn little Johnny's bottom. In a year from now I'll know exactly what to do when the other bathroom bath faucet starts to leak.

Hey! Who's that guy having an "experience" in my shower?

I Hate Kohler Products

I hate Kohler plumbing fixtures. I replaced the kitchen sink fixture with a Delta faucet and then a few months later I have a dripping shower in my bed room. Short of removing the whole shower stall I have to fix the existing P.O.S. Kohler mixer valve. This is a bit scarier than the kitchen sink because I can't isolate the water supply to the shower. I have to shut off the main valve and fill up a few 5 gallon buckets of water to guarantee CP five good flushes.

I watched the repair on YouTube so I feel totally capable of doing this whole job in thirty minutes. The part is available on Amazon for half the cost of buying it at Lowe's. It's not that I'm some kind environmental-commie-lib-vegan-global warming-aquifer bathing-socialist (I realize it would take ten years of drip to make up the cost of the $26 valve) it's just I grew up with dripping faucets. As a child janitor I played with re-seating tools, lamp-wick and a tin of assorted rubber washers on a monthly basis.

One thing I've learned in sixty years is don't work on the plumbing right before Thanksgiving. There's nothing like a house full people and no water to bring down the mood. Well like Red Green would say, "If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."

I Just Got Tired Of Waiting David

If you're tired and confused
And you don't remember who you're talking to
Your concentration slips away
Because your baby, sweetheart, sugar's so far away

And there's a rose in a fisted glove
And the eagle flies with the dove
And if you can't be with the one you love
Honey, love the one you're with (that's right)
Love the one you're with

Bo

The Babba One "G" Network

This is my cell phone that I've had for five years. I'm sure it's a dinosaur but I get my calls nevertheless. I went with Ben to Verizon for his i-Phone with the 5G network and voice recognition that tells you you're fat when you pick up a doughnut. Now with SIRI formally IRIS allows you to stop talking to idiots all day long and just talk to your phone. It's sort of replaced the magic Eight Ball of the 60's. There's nothing as fulfilling as walking around with a hand held device that has more information than the New York Public Library.
Poor Babba, "One G", goes into the Verizon Store hoping to see some cell phones. The store is full of Droids, Blackberries, iPhones and Smart-Phones. Off in some dark corner marked bargain-bin are three primitive cell phones. The message is clear: if you only want a cell phone you must be some low-life Cretan that only needs a phone in case you break your hip on the way to the day-room.

Since I don't want a desk-top computer on my hip, or an eight pixel camera, or a GPS, or a talking friend, perhaps I should pick up a few Motorola W-385 cell phones before they are kept behind the counter and carried in brown paper bags.

Latest Read

I'm halfway through a book about the Italian artist Caravaggio. I reserved
the book thinking it was more of a biography than an art history text, but I'm being pleasantly surprised.

What I'm surprised to learn is how religious art was created as an aid to prayer and meditation. The commoner would meditate on the the painting and put themselves into the story. That answers a question I always had as to why the great artists mostly paint anachronistically. That's why one sees pictures of the Madonna dressed like Mary Queen of Scots.

So I'm making my way through this 450 page book which is mostly about art. I'm almost halfway and the book is due back in a week. It is weird to read about Rome, the eternal city where I walked and visited the churches, the squares, the neighborhoods and the ghettos. The city is a museum with its art displayed in every chapel, church, cemetery and plaza. I hope to return in the spring.

Maybe by then there will be a new Caravaggio. Maybe his next fresco will be "The Holy Family Escapes To Egypt In A Punto."