'Twas A Happy Birthday...

...for my beautiful wife!  Not allowed to say what number it is or I might have to spend the night shivering in a snowbank, but she looks 20 years younger than her chronological age...I've taken to introducing her as my daughter when we're out and about, since that's what everyone assumes anyway.

Karen with a homeless octogenarian that wandered onto our property earlier today...

To celebrate I took the day off from work...

...and Karen wanted to visit Curragh's Irish Pub in downtown Holland...ethnically confusing I know, but apparently the Dutchies here carved out a small patch of land for the fighting Irish, as long as they keep the mayhem confined within the four walls of the pub.

Music and Drink at Curragh...and so there was.

A very enjoyable lunch in the warm environs of an authentic Irish pub...why even the leprechauns were friendly.

We sat by the warm fire and enjoyed some good food and drink...

...then motored back home and celebrated with chamapagne and cake...

...a good time was had by all...I mean both...

The definition of Irony...

...wishing someone happy birthday while reminding them of our ultimate destination.

As the keeper of the MOTD (message of the day), I've been accused more than once of manipulating what saying shows up when to suit my nefarious purposes, but I'm innocent I tell ya...a friend born on Groundhog Day sent me the above but I assured him that particular MOTD was just how the cookie happened to crumble...don't know if he believed me or not.

So #1 son Micah and two of his sons, Marcellus and Isaiah, came over last night and completed the demo of the ceiling in our guest room:

A lot of work due to the wire mesh and stucco that was used when putting the ceiling up many moons ago.  Thank you gentlemen for all your hard work!  Next step will probably be to deal with some electrical issues here...need another light or two, a switch placed by the door, and a few more outlets in the room.  Gonna hafta sell a few thousand books to finance this project...

Now that the kitchen is finally complete, Karen decided she wanted a Western Electric Sculptura rotary phone in there to complement the look...

Got this very cool phone from Ericofon, a great website filled with classic phones.  If you have any interest in these communication icons from the past - whether long past or recent - I highly recommend you visit this site.

Richard Rose is the proprietor...he's very knowledgeable and a nice guy, too...he even supplied phones for the Mad Men series:

Check out his site...www.ericofon.com...you'll be glad you did.

Here's a cool Lawson clock I have by my bedside:

These date back to the 1930's, though this particular model is probably from the early 1950's.

Love its art deco stylings, and it is often identified as a KEM Weber design.  More likely it's the work of a couple of designers named Ferher and Adomatis.  Let's see if Alex Trebek knows that...

On a somber note - and in memoriam of this day Don McLean famously tagged as "The Day The Music Died" with his 1972 megahit "American Pie" - Karen and I watched two movies last night...The Buddy Holly Story and La Bamba...

Besides being great movies with outstanding performances by (brace yourself) Gary Busey as Buddy Holly (yes folks, that's actually him performing and singing in the movie) and Lou Diamond Phillips as Ritchie Valens, they are of course tragic, representing as they do great musical potential cut down in its youth.

As someone trained in flight (commercial pilot's license with an instrument rating), I am just sick at heart over how totally unnecessary their deaths were.

 After enduring freezing temperatures on broken down buses for days on end, Holly was finally fed up with the horrible traveling conditions of their Winter Dance Party Tour.

He decided to charter a plane for himself and two others in the hopes of getting to the next stop in Minnesota early enough to sleep in a warm bed for once. 

So shortly past midnight on February 3rd, 1959 the air charter company's 21 year old pilot and his three passengers took off in a 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza V-tail...

...into deteriorating weather that soon became IMC (instrument meteorological conditions).

Almost inexplicably, the pilot was only VFR (visual flight rules) rated and was flying into a growing snowstorm...in short, they had no chance and died within six miles of the airport, slamming into an Iowa cornfield at 170 mph in a downward turn to the right.

The three passengers - Holly, Valens and Richardson - were thrown from the cartwheeling plane; the pilot died entangled in the wreckage.

Sometimes stuff just happens...you take every precaution, do all the right things, but within God's plan it's simply Time.  Those events are still difficult to take, but what can you do?  The best laid plans...

But when fools rush in where angels fear to tread and the predictable ensues...those are the true tragedies...the senseless waste of Life's Grand Potential.

One of Holly's band members gave up his seat on the flight so JP "The Big Bopper" Richardson, who was suffering with the flu, could fly instead.

That band member was country music hall of fame member Waylon Jennings.

When Holly found out Jennings had given up his seat to Richardson, he jokingly told him "I hope your ol' bus freezes", to which Jennings replied in a similar vein with "I hope your ol' plane crashes".

Had he only known.

and on that sorrowful note...

later, mcm fans...