Aww…some Monday

Raise The Bar!!!

Yes, our college freshman grand daughter has won her second straight high jump competition and raised the bar one inch over her previous victory. At this rate, she will be jumping between 5′-7″ and 5’9″ by the end of the outdoor season. She is ranked No. 1 in the conference. Yes, Papa is proud. We’re not talking major college, NCAA championships or Olympic Trials here, we are just thrilled that she has been able to continue her athletic career in college after what COVID did to her senior year in high school. We are excited about her success as a freshman and how athletics has enhanced her college experience and brought her new friends. The great news is that we will be traveling to see her compete later in the season and yes, I am loading the camera, my lenses and will try to find a reasonable place to sit and capture the moment. Stay tuned for further developments.

Monday’s Music Moves Me

Our hostess at 4M for the month of March has been Marie at XmasDolly. For the final installment of the month she has chosen to honor her mother with songs by Dean Martin, Glen Miller, and Frank Sinatra. My mother was a big band Glen Miller fan and she loved Dean Martin’s voice and dad liked him for his sense of humor and roles in western movies. She was never a fan of Ol’ Blue Eyes. When Martin and Sinatra were in their prime many songs were not recorded by a single artist. A song might be written and several vocalists would record it at the same time. You might find different arrangements of the same tune on the top 40 in the same week. I thought I might try to find a couple of lesser known Dean Martin numbers for your enjoyment. Dean’s acting talents landed him co-starring roles in several western movies, including The Sons of Katie Elder, and Rio Bravo. One Dean Martin you probably have never heard comes from a scene in Rio Bravo, My Rifle My Pony, and Me.

In 1965 Dean had a hit with “Houston”. While the song was written by Lee Hazelwood, it sounds as if there is a Roger Miller influence.

Speaking of Roger Miller, here is Dean doing Roger justice with a unique arrangement of King of the Road.

World War II gave us the Big Band era of music and the Glen Miller Orchestra was among the biggest of them all. Big bands is where a lot of recording vocalists started their careers. One of Glen Miller’s lesser know hits a number with a patriotic feel and title to it, “American Patrol’.

Arguably the biggest hit and signature song for Glen Miller was “In the Mood’.

Well, since neither of my parents were big Sinatra fans, I’m going to let the other blog hoppers post the music of the Chairman of the Board. Have a blessed week.

Encore;

Among Christians this is Holy week. It was Christ’s last week on earth prior to his crucifixion. Yesterday was Palm Sunday marking Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Today is the day that Christ cleansed the temple by throwing out the money changers. Tuesday Christ taught in the temple and was confronted by the religious leaders of His day. Wednesday, Judas met with authorities and betrayed Christ for thirty pieces of silver. Thursday, Jesus prepared to celebrate the Passover. On Friday He was arrested, tried and crucified. Our Lord spent Saturday in the tomb and Sunday morning He rose from the grave and declared victory over death. All of this was done that you and I might have access to eternal life in His presence in Paradise. Please consider finding a place of worship this Easter Sunday and celebrate the Good News.

Aww…some Monday

The girl behind the mask is our youngest granddaughter. She is now a freshman in college and on the track team as a high jumper. Her senior year in high school she finished second in the state indoor tournament and then, Covid closed everyone’s season. This past week she is the No. 1 ranked jumper in her conference. That’s her proud parents behind her. Unfortunately the closest meet to us is nearly a six hour drive, so I doubt if we will get to see her compete this year. We will just have to cheer from a distance, but it is shaping up to be and Aww…some season.

Monday’s Music Moves Me

This week at 4M is free choice week. I had so much fun with the old rock ‘n roll tunes from last week, I think I’ll just do Oldies Volume 2. Here we go.

If I say Mac the Knife, will respond Bobby Darin. It was his signature song. However one of the top songs of 1958 was Queen of the Hop by Mr. Darin. You can certainly hear the influence of Chuck Berry, Little Richard and others in this tune.

There were some great groups in early rock ‘n roll, so let’s give a listen to a few.

Aww Mondays

The same day and in the same location as the model train show that I recently posted, there was a horse show. For some reason I felt like I needed to get on with my day and I did not give in to the urge to stop and photo the competition going on inside the arena. This pony was tied to his trailer, taking a break from the activities in the show ring. Next time I will stop and smell the roses…or something like that.

Spring Sports!

Basketball season is over and that can only mean one thing, time for spring sports. We no longer have any grandchildren playing sports at the high school level, but that doesn’t mean that I have stopped enjoying photographing high school sports. I do have a friend whose daughter is playing softball for one of the area high schools, so I drove out to one of their recent games to capture a few images.

Soccer and track are just getting started so there will be more to come, there just won’t be the personal attachment to the players that I used to have. Have a blessed week.

Monday’s Music Moves Me

The honorary co-hostess/conductor/dj for this month is Marie at XmasDollie. This week the theme is old rock and roll songs. No problem. I am as old as rock and roll itself, so let’s see if I can find some tunes that have been gathering dust for far too long. Time to drag them out of the closet and put them back on the turntable.

While Elvis may be recognized as the King of Rock ‘n Roll, it was artists like Little Richard that had been playing this music for several years in dives, juke joints and honky tonks who introduced rock ‘n roll to the world. They were the influences that Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis drew inspiration from and covered their songs.

Perhaps the ultimate showman/guitar player of the 50’s was Chuck Berry. Chuck had an influnce on artists like Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and the Beatles. 60’s artist Johnny Rivers covered several of Chuck Berry’s songs and made them hits of his own.

One artists whose music seems to have fallen through the cracks of oldies radio is Del Shannon.

A classic duo that blended country with rock ‘n roll was the Everly Brothers. While most of us may think of Linda Ronstadt when we hear this song, but it was written by Phil Everly and recorded by the Everly Brothers in 1960. It asks the age old question, “When Will I Be Loved”.

Let’s face it, I could do this all day long. I think I will bring this playlist to a close, but I will definitely return to early rock ‘n roll in the near future. This was really fun.

February saw winter come to Arkansas and much of the country with a vengeance. Locally, the temperatures plunged into sub-zero territory for the first time in a decade and night wind chill reached -20 one night. Believe me, we are not prepared for that kind of weather. Our house and our daughter’s family were fine, but there were a lot of frozen pipes and power outages for several days. My back yard bird feeders were kept busy as you have seen from previous posts, but one evening we had a new visitor to the neighborhood.

Late one afternoon I looked out the back window and saw this critter on the neighbors fence. From a distance, he kind of looked like a cat. As soon as I figured out it was a possum, I grabbed my camera and headed out the door. “Opus” let me get very close to him for the portrait shoot. He watched my every move, but made no attempt to escape and there was no hissing involved. I captured the images posted here and went back in the house. A short time later Opus was gone and I haven’t seen him since.

As you can see, Opus is colored more like a raccoon or cat than what you normally think of a possum. He was really very cooperative and I think I actually got a little smile out of him.

Monday’s Music Moves Me

This week our assignment at 4M is to build a playlist of Johnny Mathis songs. Johnny Mathis was a favorite of my mother. Mom liked Dean Martin, Perry Como, and Andy Williams as well, but she was not a fan of Frank Sinatra nor Tony Bennett. So on with the Johnny Mathis picks. First up is a recording that became the signature song of The Carpenters. Yes, “Close To You” was the title cut of a1970 album which is the same year The Carpenters had a mega hit with the same song.