Tom Waits

I have been playing a Tom Waits disk in my car.   I dug it out of my collection because I have not heard anything from him for years.   I went to one of his concerts in Perth some 35 years ago and immediately became a fan of his gravelly voice cultivated by many bottles of whiskey and thousands of cigarettes.  I googled him and it seems that he has lost that course voice and has sort of joined the crooners.  Pity!       I  guess my favourite TW number is Kentucky Avenue which is sort of an autobiographical song about growing up. Here are the words. 

Eddie Grace’s Buick got four bullet holes in the side

Charley DeLisle sittin at the top of an avocado tree

Mrs Storm will stab you with a steak knife if you step on her lawn

I got half pack of lucky strikes, man come along with me

lets fill our pockets with macadamia nuts

then go over to Bobby Goodmanson’s and jump off the roof

Hilda plays strip poker and her mama’s across the street

Joey Nafinski said she put her tongue in his mouth

Dicky Faulkner’s got a switchblade and some gooseneck risers

That eucalyptus is a hunchback, there’s a wind up from the south

let me tie you up with kite string and I’ll show you the scabs on my knee

Watch out for the broken glass, put your shoes and socks on

and come along with me

Let’s follow that fire truck, I think your house is burning down

then go down to the hobo jungle and kill some rattle snakes with a trowel

we’ll break all the windows in the old Anderson place

and steal a bunch of boysenberries and smear em on your face

I’ll get a dollar from my mama’s purse and buy that skull and crossbones ring

and you can wear it round your neck on an old piece of string

then we’ll spit on Ronnie Arnold and flip him the bird

And slash the tires on the school bus now don’t say a word

I’ll take a rusty nail and scratch your initials in my arm

and I’ll show you how to sneak up on the roof of the drugstore

I’ll  take the spokes from your wheelchair and a magpie’s wings

and I’ll tie them to your shoulders and your feet

I’ll steal a hacksaw from my Dad and cut the braces off your legs

and we’ll bury them tonight in the cornfield

Put a church key in your pocket, we’ll hop that freight train in the hall

We’ll slide all the way down the drain to New Orleans in the fall

You can listen to it here....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bTCOQsupY0

The Ups and Downs of medicine

I am waiting around for my son-in-law to deliver me to hospital for a Gastroscopy and Colonoscopy.  I have had them before, but this time is the first time because of a positive in a Faecal Blood test.

I haven’t really eaten anything in the last few days and the bowel cleanser seems to have done the job...as it were.  I won’t crack the old joke about hoping they do the Gastro first.

I know that when I come around I will be offered a sandwich and a coffee but I will really be thinking of a nice meal I have already prepared at home.  

Daughter Helen is collecting me from the hospital and I am hoping that I have good news to give her.

PS:  All is well.

Mitch in rehab at Fiona Stanley Hospital

My niece from Esperance has been staying at my place whilst visiting her son in rehab at Fiona Stanley Hospital.  Mitch is undergoing rehab after a major road accident where he had three breaks in a leg, a broken arm and two knee reconstructions.  When I saw him on Sunday he was on a machine to exercise (stretch) the ligaments in his right knee on a CPM (Continuous Passive Motion) machine.  He is a long way off being discharged; probably another month before he will be able to walk unassisted.   Fiona Stanley is a relatively new hospital of probably three years.  It is huge and up-to-date with all the latest medical facilities.

Last night I advertised an Apple Mac G5 tower on a trader paper, Gumtree.  This model is very popular with people building a ‘Hackintosh’ where the Apple Mac’s guts is removed from the solid aluminium G5 and a fast Windows computer packed into the empty space.    I didn’t want any money for it and overnight, I had 185 views of the page and 16 people wanted to come and collect it.  One fellow finished work at 10pm and fronted up to take it away.    I restore Macs and give them to needy folk for free.  This one refused to run properly so I sacrificed it to Hachintoshville.

The Inoccents

Daughter Helen had me over to dinner last evening.  Her husband James was on a mining site; week on, week off.

She had made a lovely curry and after finishing the meal we adjourned to the lounge to watch a bit of TV.

Helen complained that one of the staffies (Ruby and Rosie) smelled like urine.  She did a bit of sniffing of both of my grandkids and was a bit perplexed about which of the girls had done a Number 1.  Helen asked me to come and investigate the smell and after a short sniff-around I determined that is was on her.     We  both realised that she has spilled some Fish Sauce on her blouse when she was making the curry.   The girls were forgiven.

Getting old

Yes, growing old isn’t for sissies.

   

My Psoriasis has returned and I have made an appointment with the dermatologist to recommence the UV light treatment, which to a large extent worked, earlier in the year.  

I had a blood faecal test which came back positive and I am booked in to have a colonoscopy .  My GP tells me that the presence of blood  doesn’t necessarily mean I have bowel cancer.  Thanks Doc.

Daughter Helen and my late wife Joan. 

circa 1983

Letters to the editor

I always read the letters to the editor in our daily newspaper. There are other minor weekly papers serving specific areas surrounding Perth City.  A recent letter to the editor of The Fremantle Herald had Barry having a bit of a whinge about homeless people camping in his leafy suburb of Applecross.

Tina replied to Barry in the next week’s edition and Bazza shot one back to Tina the following week..  I’m not sure this exchange is totally finished.  In any case it’s a good read.  Click to enlarge text