Vacation Mode is Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

As you can see from the date on this cartoon...this was a vacation I had back in January 2008. I seemed to take great pleasure in flattening the seat cushions on my chair and couch, so pleased I even wrote a poem about the beauties and virtues of it all.

It got a little busier around here yesterday though. Had a drawn out discussion on Facebook, reminiscing about that great beverage of the unwashed...

...Lucky Lager Beer. A 12 pack of the little stubby 11 oz. bottles used to run just under $4 back as recently as the late 80's. I remember our consternation when the price skyrocketed to $4.29!

The real draw to this little brown bottles of amber nectar of course were the bottle caps. The Lucky Brewing Co. would print rebus' like you see below in each and every cap.

I'm sure it wasn't the real reason, but they helped you gauge your drunkenness! If you were too drunk to solve the pictogram, it was a sign for you to cut out other things you were trying to accomplish in your stupor.

And if you noticed one of your cohorts pitching the cap away without trying...it was time to cut them off. They obviously weren't in it for the sport anyway and you probably didn't want to be around them in the first place.

Ahhhhhhhhh, back when breweries cared enough to go the extra mile. It was like the prize inside the Cracker Jacks.

Reviewing the below cartoon from the same vacation in January '08, the weather wasn't quite as nice as it is now. So I forsook the high 60's January temps and cloudy skies for more couch time. I am actually leaving the house today and meeting an old friend for lunch..this is summertime after all and the temp should reach the high 70's accompanied by cerulean blue skies.

What's that? Only a ten degree difference in temperature between January and August??? God I love living near the ocean...eat your hearts out you sorry inland-land-locked bastards!

And if it turns out I don't venture off the couch for the remainder of my time off. I got proof below that life is good either way.

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Man...look at the time!

The day got away from me I guess...it's been a hectic one. I got up early and had my coffee and Raisin Bran on my front porch while I watched all the neighbors go to work...then I took a nap. Then I got up and made some chili and biscuits for lunch and got distracted watching the hummingbirds feed outside my window. Whew! I am beat!

You see, today is the first day of a weeks vacation for me. It's important not to jump into these things too quickly, remember the warm-up and cool-down are the most important parts of your work-out. You don't want to hurt yourself.

I'm having my favorite kind of vacation, the kind where you stay home and make no plans. I hear this type is becoming more popular during our current economic crisis, they even have a nickname for it, the "Stay-cation". I'm not trying to be trendy here though, this has ALWAYS been my favorite type.

I've never really understood why people work as hard as they do just to find a way to leave their home when they finally have free time. When I go to work, the whole point is coming back home again. All my stuff's here. It's where I like to be. Around my stuff. Home shouldn't be a place where you put in your time until you can afford to be somewhere else. It should be where you most want to be.

Which brings us roundabout to the final movement in my little musical interlude spotlighting love songs from different points of view. There are a lot of folks out there who work to make money to get things, just so they can say they got things that have some kind of monetary value to them. I work to get things I like to have. I don't care what the bankers and accountants say they're worth...I know their worth to me.

That set of "good" china or silver tea set your Grandma gave you shouldn't be valuable to you for it's antiquity or precious metals dollar return you hope to some day claim. It should be valuable because your Grandma gave it to you as a gift and you should be enjoying it. By the same token, that "good" friend of yours over there should be valued for the friendship they've given you, not because he/she is a valuable "network contact" that you can one day gain something from.

This is a song written by Guy Clark and Rodney Crowell about the value of things. I hope you like it. I do. Recorded in a dark and empty room...'cause sometimes you can see things better that way.

I'll see y'all tomorrow. I'm on vacation from work (the kind that pays the bills) not from this (the work that the bills get paid so I can enjoy).

Man...look at the day getting away from me. I almost missed my Fudgicle break. Damn!

的音乐插曲由Jeff Overturf ，运动6 7

Thanks for dropping by for the Sixth Movement in my Seven part Musical Interlude spotlighting "Love Songs from Different Points of View".


This is another "Jeffy Original". A song that I probably wrote way back in the very first days of learning the guitar.


That's it. No heady introduction. A love song that speaks for itself.






Someday I'll really learn to play the thing. But it doesn't matter. This is unconditional love. Like you get from your Mom or a good dog.


Wood sounds good. It's about the happiest I ever am.

מוזיקלי הפוגה על ידי ג 'ף Overturf, החמישית התנועה לשבעה

For the fifth movement in my musical interlude of "Love Songs from Different Points of View" I bring you an original song of mine that was requested a few days ago in Blog Comments.


A few years ago (more like a decade) I was dating this girl who was recently separated from her husband. She was also a born again Christian.


As my old friend T.C. used to say, "Excuse me for getting it right the first time." But I digress.


Most of our "dates" involved me accompanying her to church. Let me point out that "going to church" for a "born-again" going through a personal crisis, doesn't mean on Sunday morning, it means dang near every day. Sunday and Thursday services, Wednesday "Celebrity Guest Preacher" services, women's bible study Tuesdays, Monday Church coffee klatch and so on.


I didn't go much more than Sundays though and I really didn't mind that, as up until that point I had only ever been inside a church about 3 times if you don't count weddings and funerals, and it was a good experience. I like the story telling when it's well done and I like the singin'. We usually had a good lunch afterwards too.


A ritual that happened at the end of every service was for the preacher to ask something like, "If anyone out there has never given their lives over to Jesus Christ, now might be a good time to do it.", and then a procession of folks from the pews would line up and go down front. I assume to sign up for the newsletter or recite an oath or something.


The girl in question, at one time asked me if I'd ever done this, and I told her I hadn't. She told me that she couldn't be with a guy who didn't love Jesus as much as she did. I went on home.


This was a hell of a thing. I've rarely actively competed with anyone for a woman's affection and attention, yet here I was competing with the Son of God! I can't run in that race.


Then I thought that maybe Jesus was the perfect guy to fight over a woman with. He'd never jump out of the bushes at you taking swings. He'd never show up at her house drunk in the middle of the night. Of course, if you married the girl you'd have to celebrate her ex's birthday every December 25th and make a big stink out of it.


Either way, I figured I'd dodged a bullet. So I wrote this song.





When the divorce from her husband was final, she took off her wedding ring and got a cross tattooed on her finger.


I guess I never had a chance.


P.S. I'm sorry this post was so late today. I was having camera troubles then uploading troubles. It was almost like someone was trying to smite me down.

Un Interludio Musical por Jeff Overturf, Cuarto Movimiento de Siete

Happy Saturday to you and welcome to the 4th movement in my little musical interlude spotlighting "love songs from different points of view". This is the closing song in my trilogy of "Rusty" love songs. For who "Rusty" is click here, for part one of the trilogy here and part two here.

The sensitive part of me still says "for shame" on all of you for giggling at this poor soul (myself included). You see, there's no folly in growing older, the folly is in the way you do it.

This goes for you guys as well as the ladies.

A couple of years ago, I was seated at "The Irish Mist" one of my favorite watering holes, and I kept being annoyed by a loud voice just to the left and slightly behind me. It was some idiot attempting to flirt with the bartendress and using every bad cliched line in the book. I didn't just say cliched...I said BAD cliched. From a VERY OLD book. And because she wasn't reacting, he assumed she hadn't heard him so he kept repeating every one. Over and over.

I turned to see who it was and saw a chunky man in his late 40's with thin and greying hair. I remember thinking to myself "Man, I'm glad I'm still cool." and as I turned back to my beer I caught my reflection in the barroom mirror.

The next day I went around to all my haunts and removed my name from my "reserved for Jeffy" barstools.

This song was written by John Prine and Donie Fritts (yes, "Funky Donnie Fritts, the Leaning Man from Alabam'") and it goes out to everyone at any stage of life, who's trying to find the graceful way to step up to the next stage. And still keep who they were in their youth intact and a part of them.

Quit looking around for someone else. Try looking in the mirror.




Aw hell. One more cheap shot.


I can't be sensitive all the time. :)