A Colorful Bend in the Road

It's still raining here. I don't think it will ever end, but I'm keeping my whiny little YAPPER shut because WE are the lucky ones. There are so many people in the southern U.S. who are adversely affected by this big storm, which is still raining itself out here in central Pennsylvania.

Hurricane Helene made landfall on Florida's panhandle, roared up through North Carolina, and left an 800-mile swath of devastation in its path. What we're getting is just the remnants. It's rained every day here for the past week. It promises to rain some more. 

I am writing this blip on Monday morning. I have just heard from my friend Celia in Asheville, North Carolina, which has been cut off from the world by waters. Celia and I have been friends since we started out as co-workers at Penn State's "Independent Learning" in the mid-1980s, when we both owned and were besotted by our big orange kitty-boys: hers was Kedgee, and mine was Gremlin. 

Those cats' temperaments were as different as night and day. Kedgee was a lover, an indoor-outdoor cat who routinely came home smelling of other ladies' hand lotion. Gremlin was a scrapper, with a pink mark on his folder at the vet (to identify "a biter") and a rap sheet as long as my arm, including a charge for assaulting an officer of the law (long story), during which Grem got maced. I last saw Celia in August, when she and her husband drove back up to PA through a hurricane!

You will recall she is the one who adopted my kitty-boy Dexter's brother, Skeeter; both our boys have since departed this Earth. My friend and her husband lived in Pennsylvania for a long time but after retirement moved to Asheville for the music scene, for Celia is a musician. She and her husband Wayne recently adopted a pair of twin orange kitties.

Old poet Mr. Frost thought the world might end in fire or ice; none of us suspected that plain water might wash a bunch of us off the map. Here is my friend's note, which she posted on Facebook. Celia, I hope you don't mind my sharing it here:

Everybody! Wayne and I are safe here in Asheville, and our house is undamaged. You've all seen more news than we have, since we are cut off. The Army Corps of Engineers is here. FEMA is here. The governor is here. The situation is being described as "apocalyptic damage." Power may be back on by Friday, but the water system is broken and won't be back online for WÈEKS. If we have enough gas, Wayne and I may set up a weekly 2-day escape plan 3 hours or so away to get a motel room, do laundry, clean up, and get real food. It's going to be a very long haul.

My friend has been so heavy on my mind these past few days, as we've watched the horrible news of the hurricane devastation unfold. I was relieved to hear from her. I wish there was more I could do than pray and worry. I just read that they are now sending supplies in to Asheville (which is way up in the mountains in western NC) via airlift, truck, and mule.

I saw on Instagram this morning that Mercy Chefs, who has boots on the ground in the Florida Gulf to help Hurricane Helene victims there, was deploying a team to Asheville, North Carolina, 18 hours ago. Their mission is simple. They go to disaster scenes and provide hot meals to people in need. A donation link may be found here. Here's another link to a list of ways to help.

In any case, that's the news from the good ol' U.S.A. And here is a photo of a colorful bend in the road up on Tow Hill, where I've been walking frequently, mostly with my umbrella as my constant companion. There is a gorgeous yellow tree on the left that I visit almost every day. I can be strange like that, but I don't apologize. You worship where and how you like. I will do the same.

On this day, we also learned of the passing of Kris Kristofferson. So I decided that our song link has to include him. I'm a big fan of his song writing abilities, as was Johnny Cash. For him as a singer, I like some of his stuff and others not so much; he can run a bit flat at times, but his voice has loads of character. 

One of his best songs was probably Me and Bobby McGee, which Janis Joplin famously covered. Before he was a singer and an actor, Kris was a part-time helicopter pilot for a Louisiana oil company. He wrote most of his songs while sitting on oil rigs, including Me and Bobby McGee.

Since I'm a fan of all of these guys, I'm going to include the bizarre, marvelous, reincarnation-themed song Highwayman, sung by the Highwaymen, which is to say: Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings.  I'll also include a link to the song sung by Glen Campbell.

I've also come back to add a story from the guy who wrote that song, Jimmy Webb:  

After I recorded it, the song languished for years. This is encouragement for young writers with great songs and nothing happens to them. You can’t sit around and brood about it. You move on and write more. Eventually, Glen Campbell did “The Highwayman.” He actually left Capitol Records, because they wouldn’t put the song out. So the song not only didn’t get recorded—the only guy who recorded it couldn’t even get his label to release it (laughs).

Eight years later, Glen played it for Johnny Cash. He was making a quartet album with Willie, Waylon and Kris Kristofferson. There were four verses to “The Highwayman.” Talk about predestination. I don’t know how they decided who would take which verse, but having Johnny last was like having God singing your song (laughs).