October 31, 2003
Remembering a friend
Lara and I lost a dear friend this week. We knew Boogie's health was failing. She'd been given only a few years to live. But we were stunned when she was robbed of even those few precious years. Rather than dwell on the sadness of losing Boogie, we spent a lot of time talking about the good times and how she brightened our lives.
One of my favorite Boogie stories dates back to the Birmingham days, when we were all hanging out in the kitchen. I was banging on a guitar. Lara was being her cheerful self. And a beleaguered Boogie was trying to make daiquiris. As she struggled to make the drinks, we started heckling her from the peanut gallery.
"Y'all shut up and drink," she said, just as she hit the start button on the blender.
Without missing a beat, I pounded out a few blues chords on the guitar and howled:
"Y'all shut and and drink/
She said from the sink"
Unfortunately, my lyricism ended there and those are the only words I was able to put to the song. But it lives on in infamy.
You left us too soon, Lynn. But you live on in thousands of fond memories and two incredible children. Thanks for the years you did give us. They were a gift.
Here's the obituary that ran today in the Montgomery Advertiser:
EVANS, Carol Lynn Rollings, 43, loving mother and award-winning journalist, known affectionately as “Boogie” by some, will be remembered at 11:30 a.m. today at Dalraida Baptist Church in Montgomery where she was an active member. After graduating from New Hope High School in 1978, Ms. Evans attended the University of Alabama where she served as Managing Editor of the student newspaper, The Crimson White, and as Life and Academics Editor of the student yearbook. Ms. Evans was Features Editor of the Alabama Journal when it was named a finalist in the 1987 Penney-Missouri Awards, a prestigious honor recognizing features writing. Ms. Evans also was Sports Editor at the Arab Tribune in Arab, AL and the Entertainment and Arts Editor at The Valley Morning Star in Harlingen, Texas, during the early and mid-eighties. Burial will be Saturday, November 1 at 11:30 a.m. at Walker Cemetery, Hebron, Alabama. She is survived by two children, Kimberley Rose Evans and Trey Evans; her father, James O. Rollings and two sisters, Elizabeth Potter (Jerry) and Debbie Renfroe (Harry) and several nieces and nephews. She will be missed by many whose lives she touched, especially Lara Edge and Bob Benz. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Dalraida Baptist Church, whose members rallied around Ms. Evans and her family in their time of need, at 3838 Wares Ferry Rd., Montgomery, AL, 36109, or to the Diabetes Foundation. Leak-Memory Chapel Directing
Posted by Bob Benz at 9:59 PM | Comments (11)
October 26, 2003
technical ecstasy
I got to put my latest gadget to the test yesterday. Lara and I are in Dallas visiting Wes. Wes and I decided to look for a cigar store. But he didn't know where the nearest one was, and we were already on the road. So I pulled out my new cell phone and started surfing the Internet looking for one. It was far from a flawless search. The first one I found in the directory didn't exist. We plugged the address into his car's GPS, and when we got to the location where the cigar store was supposed to be it was a residential interestion.
So I tried again.
This time it worked. I found the address, we plugged it into his GPS and the car took us right to the place. I was a little worried that the Internet availability wouldn't be too useful, but I'm starting to rethink that, especially given how much I travel. It will allow me to check flight schedules and weather reports online, and having instant access to online yellow pages is pretty handy. I also liked that GPS system. Again, it isn't flawless. But it's pretty useful. And that's really the key gauge of a gadget's worth.
Posted by Bob Benz at 8:13 AM | Comments (1)
October 24, 2003
we're only in it for the money
Outrage of the day: I've been using 1800PetMeds to save A LOT of money on prescriptions for my pack. It's convenient, too, with the drugs being delivered right to the door. But now my veterinarian has decided that PetMeds isn't reputable and I have to come to the vet's office to get a written prescription each time I want to refill my dogs' medication.
We're talking 275 pounds of dog here. Four of them, two of which are senior citizens and consume a lot of medicine.
Basically, the vet has decided to make it so difficult to get cheaper prices on these meds, that I'll have to go back to being charged through the nose at the vet. I went round and round with the fine folks at Pellissippi Veterinary Clinic, reminding them how much I spend on routine exams and other services each year. But there were adamant.
Then I called another vet. They, too, have decided that PetMeds is dangerous. Well, it might be dangerous to their unscrupulous practice of overcharging pet owners for medication. But I don't see how it's dangerous to the dog. The dogs have to have medical records at the vet. PetMeds calls to confirm that the dog is current on its shots, etc., and really should be getting the prescription.
Looks like the vets of America are aligning against PetMeds and other low-cost providers of medicine. Fortunately, I finally found a vet who is willing to work with PetMeds. I'll be stopping by Pellissippi today to get my dogs' records and move them to the new vet. Bastards.
Posted by Bob Benz at 11:59 AM | Comments (5)
October 18, 2003
Hell among the yearlings ...
Lara and I saw Gillian Welch and David Rawlings last night at the Bijou, a small, very intimate theater in Knoxville. It was incredible. I still think her "Time (The Revelator)" CD is one of the best I've ever heard. I haven't picked up a copy of the new one, Soul Journey, but the cuts from it that they played last night were great.
Highlights:
-- There was a lot of banter with the audience, and Gillian and David departed from their set list almost as soon as the show began. It felt very impromptu and informal. After David played a scorching guitar piece, someone in the audience hollered: "What kind of guitar is that?"
"A good one," David deadpanned.
-- Beautiful encore version of "I'll Fly Away."
-- After "I'll Fly Away," they came back out one more time, stepped out from behind the microphones and stood at the very edge of the stage to do an acoustic-beautiful version of "Long Black Veil." The theater was dead silent. Totally sublime. It was like having Gillian and David in your living room.
If Gillian comes to your town, check her out. You won't regret it.
Posted by Bob Benz at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)
Perrier and pork rinds
OK, I'm coming out of the closet. I've been on the Atkins diet since late July, and it's working. In my carb-counting madness, I've settled on a favorite snack: Perrier and pork rinds. Or, as I prefer to call them, chicharrones (it doesn't sound as nasty as pork rinds). I can have something fizzy and something crunchy without adding any carbs, despite the disparate food combo it takes to get there.
This came to a head last week when I ended up in hospital for a few days. After a colonoscopy, I woke up in the middle of the night exhibiting all the symptoms that the take-home sheet said: Get immediately to an emergency room. But it was 1 a.m. I was freezing and chilled. And I decided to see if I could live till morning, wake Lara and then go to a hospital. I made it till morning. We went to the emergency room and a very concerned doctor decided to admit me to the hospital.
I spent a few days on an IV and having antibiotics pumped into me. After the first 24 hours, though, things evened out. Then came the rub: My staff was trying to decide what you send a hospitalized Benz. Flowers were out. I'm definitely not a plant kinda guy.
Then it came to them: an Atkins basket, packed with lots of low-carb stuff, including two bags of chicharrones. It was the perfect gift, though I had to wait several days before I could indulge.
When all is said and done, I've lost 26 pounds since July. Lara's lost even more. And I'm convinced there's a there there with Atkins. I actually like eating this way and feel better than I did when I was loading up on carbs. I still eat a lot of veggies. I just steer clear of potatoes, rice and pasta.
As for the colonoscopy, don't misconstrue the above as a horror story. Apparently, mine was the exception, not the rule. The actual procedure really was no big deal, and I'll do it again as the doctor advises. Beats the hell out of cancer ...
Hospital oddities:
-- I saw a woman "code" while I was gurney-bound in a hallway waiting to have a CT Scan. Pretty creepy, especially since I was feeling awful and things were all a little blurry. I didn't fully realize what was happening until the guy who was wheeling me back to my room apologized for the fact that I'd witnessed this.
-- My sense of smell seemed to improve. I don't know if this was imaginary or what, but I could swear that I could smell things more acutely while I was in the hospital and for a day or so after I got out. That's faded now, and I'm still not sure if it was real or imaginary. But it was strange.
-- Fort Sanders, the hospital I was in, was awesome. The staff was very competent and friendly, the room was pretty nice and I was impressed with the overall state of health care, at least from the perspective of someone who gets dumped into it with full insurance.
-- Lara rocks. She was totally there for me and was determined to stay there the first night until I told her to go home and feed my dogs. It's a lot easier being ill when you have that kind of support.
Posted by Bob Benz at 9:55 AM | Comments (5)
October 14, 2003
Pissy pinball
Last night, after I got done watching one of my new favorite shows ("Worlds Apart" on National Geographic) on Tivo, the end of another National Geo show was on live TV (yes, I do watch non-Tivo'd TV once in a while). It's called "Taboo" and delights in gross out footage of people eating live snakes, etc. Last night, the fine folks in China were eating bull penis (with detailed descriptions of how you have to clean the urinary tract to make sure the meat doesn't taste like urine).
Then I went to bed. Where I dreamed I was in an arcade full of pinball machines, and I had to urinate. So I started urinating on one of the machines, right on the button you press to set a new game. And half way through, I realized the machine had a couple of dozen free games on it. Du-oh! Now I couldn't get the free games without mucking around in my own urine ...
OK, all you Freudians out there. What's going on in my head? Clearly the Taboo show was an influence. I'm afraid to think what else might be going on here ...
As for World's Apart, this one is worth checking out. They take a totally yuppie family, complete with stereotypical soccer mom, and dump them into the middle of some so-called primitive culture. Each episode features a great scene where the yuppies get to see their food killed before their very eyes and another scene where the soccer mom breaks down in tears. I'm not sure if they're out there trying to find the soccer mom stereotype, or if the stereotype is just so prevalent they can't miss.
Maybe the most interesting part is how little control the Americans have over their children. While all the village children listen and do what they're told, the American kids whine and moan and are generally a pain in the ass.
It's definitely interesting to see how different we are from much of the rest of the world.
Posted by Bob Benz at 7:41 AM | Comments (2)
October 7, 2003
School of Rock
Go see "School of Rock," people. It will remind you that rock was supposed to be fun and rebellious, a way to stick it to the Man instead of helping the Man sell stuff.
And Jack Black will have you laughing out loud.
Posted by Bob Benz at 2:29 PM | Comments (1)