still alive and well...

One of my favourite lyrics of all time were in the song Rock Derringer penned for friend Johnny Winter: "Every time I take a look to see who's left around/everyone I thought was cool is six feet underground/doncha know they tried to get me lots of times and now they're reaching out for you/I got out and I'm here to say - Baby, you can get out, too..."

I have always felt a kinship with those words when I am coming out of a dark time...a failed relationship, for instance. Maybe I am just an optimist, but there is something out there, moving in the shadows...not because it is dark and malevolent, but because it is not yet close enough for me to make out the details...but it is out there...I am hoping it is a person, perhaps someone from my past who never really gave me the opportunity to uncork the genie.

In any case, I am very tired this evening, long day working the special election. Ran into some people I knew, including one of my students and our member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, Cindy Frich. She's pretty nice for a Republican. Even somewhat cute. And smart.

Tomorrow I have a schedule that would kill a mortal. Glad I gave it all up for lent (remember my words from "My Electric Lady"...written in 1974? "I once gave up my poor and mortal birthright/so that I could touch the sky and see true things/My love, I'm not so sure I would have started/if I could have seen the pain this voyage brings.") No, no delusions of grandeur here (put down that strait jacket...does anyone who aspires to more than mediocrity offend you that badly?)...I just know what I can accomplish when I am in the groove.

The next eight weeks will test everything I am, hope I never have to do so much with so little in so short a time. So, if you're a reader, a friend or a lover, strap yourself in...this will be a ride you'll tell your grandchildren about having witnessed.

(the opening chords of "Rust Never Sleeps" begin...)