Neanderpundit

Please welcome Desert Cat back to the blogroll. I thought he had gone dark but he’s back at it, go and visit.

Most of yesterday was spent crawling in and around a machine somewhat smaller than me, and I am somewhat the worse for wear as a result. I’m retrofitting machines to do something they wouldn’t have liked to do 25 years ago when they were made, and they probably won’t like it very much now.

Meanwhile I’m covered in filth from the first moment I walk in the door, and in packing I didn’t account for the smeg so I only packed a few extra shirts. At least the hotel has a washer and dryer.
When I left the house it was very nearly 50, and now there’s snow on the ground. Thank God I brought a hoodie.

Listening to Emmylou Harris singing “Leaving Louisiana” the other night it struck me how the rhythms of the song really retain the flavor of zydeco while remaining- for it’s time- a very mainstream song. In 1978 I don’t imagine too many people knew what zydeco was, or what a coonass was, or what a Cajun was. I did, because half the people my dad knew at work were transplanted coonasses.

So it got me thinking how many people listened to that song and went from there to listen to Boozoo Chavis or Clifton Chenier or Queen Ida. It made me remember how if you are half in the bag anyone can dance to zydeco, and will It made me think about the original song and the fact that it’s about a daughter leaving home with a travelling man and that brought me full circle, thinking about the daughter’s pending high school graduation.

Then that melancholy that settles in on me each fall as the planet dies for another winter took hold- I had completely avoided it until now- and the snow last night did not help, dammit. Neither does being away from home or doing a filthy job. Still, I suppose it’s a wonderful thing to have a job and a home to return to.