Time to put up and decorate the tree yet?

Long day at work. There was call after call making it feel like a Saturday or a full moon. What is with people? The best call of the day had to be two brothers who got into all out brawl -- over video games. One of 'em threw the Playstation or Xbox or whatever the heck it was (Atari 2600 it was not, I know that) and practically popped his brother's eye right out of the socket. That didn't stop him from chasing his brother outside and beating him in the face with a lamp he carried with him. Nice. Video games, guys ... they're just video games. You'd a thunk for Dumb & Dumber the fate of the world rested on one of these idiots winning. They wouldn't shut up, they wouldn't let it go, and since they each needed to be seen by a doctor a second ambulance had to be called to take Fool #2 to the hospital. So the police babysat while my partner and I took Fool #1 in. Gotta love meth ... that's what they were probably on. I couldn't assume that then since there was no evidence ... but I wouldn't doubt it.

Yay, fun day. There are Tuesdays when there might be 3 calls in an entire 12-hour shift. Today it was just non-friggin'-stop making 12 hours seem more like 20. Oi!

A White Halloween and a White Thanksgiving...
most definitely a White Christmas ... and a White Easter, too...

now with some fresh snow from yesterday and temperatures remaining below freezing -- 12° now (-11 C) -- it's a Winter Wonderland outside and so tonight I'm in the mood for a little Christmas music. 'cause after all who says ya gotta listen to it only in December?! A new log has been thrown into the wood-burning stove, hot chocolate is made, time to relax, decompress, and just be.

Lorrie Morgan

Merry Christmas
From London

featuring The New
World Philharmonic

1993

My Favorite Things

A Christmas Festival (Medley) [with Tammy Wynette]

Jingle Bells/God Rest You Merry Gentlemen/Deck The Halls/ O Come, All Ye Faithful/Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/ Joy To The World/Silent Night/The First Noel

Little Snow Girl [with Andy Williams]

Up On Santa Claus Mountain

O Holy Night

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Blue Snowfall [with Johnny Mathis]

Toyland

Sleigh Ride

Ave Maria

Take one Nashville country music singer, dress her in slaughtered animal fur, bring her to London, merry old England, and put her in front of a symphony orchestra and what do you get? Something that sounds more like Julie Andrews with an American southern accent than country yee haw. Labeling this as country is actually completely erroneous. Labeling it as classical, well, that seems to make more sense. What it really is in my opinion -- easy listening, like Frank Sinatra or Billie Holiday or someone along those lines. Ms. Morgan has definitely completely left behind everything that would make one think of country music.

For the most part I really like the songs layed down for this album. There's a very Christmasy feel here. One that I don't care for, but anyone who gushes over children might love it, Up On Santa Claus Mountain... it seems like it would fit right into some TV Christmas variety show special hosted by Bob Hope. The acted dialogue that the kids have is just so fake and lame. Like, gag me with a spoon. On the other hand, O Holy Night is as beautiful as they come. The same is true with the Silent Night part of the Christmas Festival Medley, actually pretty much the whole thing is so nice to listen to. Let It Snow! and Sleigh Ride are two more that are so traditionally Christmas sounding.

I'm not sure why this can be found in the 10¢ bargain bin. Overall it's a really good album that would be perfect when opening presents on Christmas morning.

	dload @ 256 kbps
	Lorrie Morgan - Christmas In London (1993)

mp3 download 320

Hoooo, Boy... Tough Today.

After having my previous two runs be wicked shorter than what I've been striving for, twas time to get back to a full length run. And, boy, was that not easy. I'm not sure why but at the end of my run time I was so beat, so much so that I pretty much completely stopped moving for a brief moment, hunched over, hands on knees, the classic, "Oh my God, I'm so glad that's done!!!" while gasping somewhat, seeking to regain some semblance of normalcy. Pure joy, I say with nothing but sarcasm. It really is no wonder why so many millions of Americans would rather sit around and get fat and face fat-related illness later in life -- this running crap ain't easy! I'm sure for a few people it is. Not for me. I'm an athlete but not a runner. I'd rather be roped into and climbing a rock face on a mountain, going straight up... or hiking on a beautiful trail or mountaineering on anything in the Alaska or Brooks Range, or, if you bug me enough, maybe something down in the Lower 48 just so long as there's no yahoo on a cell phone.

Anyway... Trail Time -- 79 minutes

Running Time -- 19 minutes & 5 seconds

music...

Lorrie Morgan

Leave The Light On

1989 debut

He Talks To Me Five Minutes It's Too Late (To Love Me Now) Dear Me If I Didn't Love You Out Of Your Shoes Train Wreck of Emotion Gonna Leave The Light On Eight Days a Week - Far Side of the Road I'll Take The Memories

	dload @ 256 kbps
	Lorrie Morgan - Leave The Light On (1989)

and...

Grateful Dead

a few more from: Go To Heaven

Antwerp's Placebo (The Plumber)

Easy To Love You

Lost Sailor, Saint of Circumstance

Don't Ease Me In

Alright, I'm having a sort of unpleasant time with trying to run to country music. The problem is with so many friggin' mellow ballads. I've come to the conclusion that a medium to faster paced song is easier to pay more attention to in order to pay less attention to how much I'd rather not be running and also how much I just want the run to be over already. I don't like to be thinking, "Alright 1/6 of the way done... 1/3 there... halfway there... 2/3 done, getting closer, one more song after this one..."

It might be helping with discipline, though. It takes me extra work to not just pull up and call the run a Failure. It also takes extra work to keep a good pace when a song is so slow I think snails prefer a more upbeat tempo.

On the bright side, the cover of the Beatles' tune Eight Days a Week is pretty darn barnstompin', hillybilly yokel, kinda bluegrassy country good and made for a great last running song 'cause it made me wanna speed up and finish on a great note, no pun intended. I didn't speed up during the last minute this time but ending my run with something I know that's fast-paced is always a good thing. Five Minutes is pretty good, too, which apparently, and I didn't know this until a moment ago, was her first Number 1 song on the Country charts.

Maybe for running a different order of songs would be preferred. But basically it's a really strong album and she's got a great voice!