Service Stations

Nowadays, there are gas stations, where you pay-at-the-pump with your card, with a convenience store there at the cash register, where you can buy potato chips or a microwavable burrito. And usually you pump your own gas...
When I was little, I remember when there were "service stations"...oh, there's still some around, with 'full-serve' but not very many. You would pull into the station and run over a cord on the ground, *Ding-Ding* and an attendant would come out and pump the gas for you, "fill 'er up with regular, please"...
Also, there were mechanics on hand, with service bays where you could get your oil changed, or have your brakes done, or many other repairs, usually for a reasonable price.
I discovered such a station very close to where I live, so I had my battery re-charged for only 9 bucks...such a deal! And the guys there are old-school, with a ton of cars being worked on, so you know this is a popular place to get your car serviced.
It's like a blast from the past, I'm glad it's there!

Do you ever go read your old posts?

I did this recently, go back and read the original posts when I first started on here, and ohhh maaan! my only reaction was...did *I* write that?? Was I that eloquent? that estute?...did I write those things with a certain passion and precision, with an instinctive need to express things in such a way, that I didn't even realize it at the time?...
And in reading later posts...I noticed they de-volved into ramblings about this and that...historical observances that maybe were a little too esoteric....
my musical posts...my family history in the third person...
But I'm thankful for the handfull of those who have read them!...thanks everybody!

The Road to Shambala

"Wash away my trouble
wash away my pain
with the rain of Shambala,
wash away my sorrow
wash away my shame
with the rain of Shambala"

These are the opening lyrics to the old chestnut, "Shambala" by the band Three Dog Night back in...oh, around 1972 or so...I heard it again the other night in the current tv show Lost, and I thought, oh my! what a cool song that was!...
Well I guess at the time when it was written, when the whole eastern mysticism thing was in vogue, like when the Beatles traveled to India and all that...others jumped on the bandwagon.
But at this point it doesn't matter!
A cool song is a cool song, and they stand the test of time...

"Everyone is helpful
Everyone is kind
on the road to Shambala
Everyone is lucky
Everyone is fine
on the road to Shambala..."

May you all find this same kind of road...no matter what your faith in life might be, I hope you find your road to Shambala, however you define it....and I'll keep looking for mine!

October 14, 1982

Little Danny had grown up...having graduated from college and was now traveling throughout Europe, there was one thing going on with him....he was lonely, and feeling a bit empty....
He was used to doing things and going places on his own, he'd done it his whole life. But the immense distance had an effect on his sense of isolation. Even then, he was only a 24 year old man...or more likely, still a boy.
Danny took the bus from the Salisbury station to Glastonbury, England...where the
burial remains of King Arthur himself was said to be buried, though of course, just a legend...but there was also the legend of Joseph of Aramathea, who came by boat to England, carrying the Holy Grail itself...and landed there all those years ago. It was were the very first cross was planted in Britain.
Well, Danny absorbed the legends and soaked it all in when he got to Glastonbury, until he came upon a small chapel there, with a small sign that said, "Offer a Simple Prayer"...
Danny got on his knees, and...not being an overly religious person, though having been to Sunday School and all that, Danny found himself earnestly praying...
"Jesus, forgive me, I feel as though I am so far away from you. Please help me find my way back, please help me to come to know you again, and stay with me....just...stay with me" and Danny was in tears....and they flowed. Tears of shame, joy, lonliness...emotion.
But he knew...whether or not this site contained actual relics or not, or if the ground he was on contained a spiritual energy, he wondered where those spiritual feeling came from ....well, those were real enough. And when he climbed up on Glastonbury Hill where an ancient cathedral stood, he looked out at the horizon, rolling green hills and an endless sky...and he believed.

All the Places You've Worked

Can you remember all the places you've ever worked?
Do you remember your very first job? Do you remember the best job you ever had? Do you remember your LEAST favorite job ever?
Now....if you can remember them, what do you remember most about those jobs? Was it the work itself? The building?
Think about it now!...way back when, when you think about any place you used to work, what do you remember the most about that place?
Well, for me it's the people I was there with....It's the People! of course! the one's with whom you would spend an entire day...day after day...and month after month...and year after year.
I remember specific tasks from nearly 20 years ago, but I remember mostly the banter Tim and Jeff and Jody and I had in the Art Room twenty years ago.
Nearly all of my best friends in the world, I've met them there...at work...
And there are those who I think *really* could have been great friends, and had there been a certain connection or circumstance...or maybe persistence in either of our parts at the time...who knows what could have happened then?
Well, those friendships didn't happen for one reason or another...and I lament that.
But I AM grateful for the people I have found...and I found them at work...I think that no matter what you find there...sometimes Fate brings us together...I'm certainly not an expert in any of this...but I do know that in a certain way, fate brings some of us together.