Elvis is STILL dead, And I'm not too happy myself.

Happy New Year from the Holiday Inn East, in Memphis!

Apologies to the late Lewis Grizzard for corrupting his title.

I'm stuck in Memphis. Me and apparently several HUNDRED other Northwest passengers.

There's 70+ in the hotel I'm in, according to the desk clerk. And, from what I observed at the information counter at the airport, and from talking to many of those travellers in the lobby and restaurant, at least two other hotels in town have at least that many.

NONE OF THESE FLIGHTS MISSED OR NOT FLYING ARE CREDITED TO WEATHER PROBLEMS.

They are people who missed connections because they got to Memphis late, or failures to take off due to "maintenance issues".

But the local paper has a story in it that refers to Northwest's "return from bankruptcy" despite it's ongoing "union struggles".

And nobody stuck here seems to be flying with anyone but Northwest.



Hmmm.

All I know is five flights in five days, and not one left the airport on time. (Updated New Year's Day, 6:30 p.m. HOME)

And the first two were after the Denver weather mess was cleared up.

On the plus side? The Memphis airport seems to have a good barbecue joint about every 300 feet. I had a pulled pork sandwich for breakfast earlier this week.

Now that's airport food I can get behind.....

Ah Texas.. It's like a whole different country.

In Texas for a between holidays visit with the family.

Wait, It's my blog, I get to do my joke first.

Actually, not a joke at all.

West of Fort Worth, near a town called Weatherford (birthplace of Mary Martin, btw) is a large, faded billboard advertising:

Rivercrest -
A planned residential community and Rattlesnake Ranch.

Judging from the ancient, peeling condition of the billboard, I'm not the only one whose first thought wasn't "Good Plan!"

I've got to stop on the way back and try to get a picture of this sign. If so, I'll post it up later.

Happy New Year all!

Who are the people in YOUR neighborhood?

(with all appropriate apologies to the folks on Sesame Street... wait a second, they have giant freak birds, talking socks and cookie monsters!)

Who are the people in your neighborhood?


The banker is a person in your neighborhood...

The minister is a person in your neighborhood...









The postman is a person in your neighborhood....









We don't talk to these folks.

It's been a long time since a' rockandroll....

Hadn't realized how much time had passed.

November was tied up with novel writing. I finished. YAY!!

December was tied up with being... December.

Did manage to write a short piece (500 words) for the monthly writer's challenge. You can pull down a .pdf of it here.

And now, Christmastime is here.

I remember a time when Christmas meant a jolly fat man was going to come down the chimney and bring me presents.

And, I remember a time when I was the jolly fat man, for my little girl. Just for the record? We used the stairs.

And this year is the first year where our little girl is not only not so little, she's not home. She's stuck in a far away land being an adult in her own right. They didn't tell us about that in the Christmas songs.