Jeff Healey - 1966 - 2008 R.I.P.

On March 2nd, 2008, Jeff Healey died of cancer at St. Joseph's Health Centre in his home town of Toronto; he was 41.

Healey, died in a Toronto hospital of a rare cancer - retino blastoma - that he had fought since birth and which claimed his eyesight at the age of one.
"Visually, Jeff was an intriguing player to watch, because he played guitar - by any conventional standard - all wrong, with it flat across his lap," his publicist Richard Flohil told broadcaster CTV. "But he was a remarkable, a virtuoso player."
The Jeff Healey Band's 1988 Grammy-nominated album See the Light, which included the hit "Angel Eyes", sold more than 1 million copies in the United States.
He played with blues legends BB King and Stevie Ray Vaughn, and recorded with George Harrison, Mark Knopfler and Jimmy Rogers.
His death came a month before the release of his new album, Mess of Blues, which will be his first rock album in eight years.

Jeff was much too young to be taken from us; another in the line of Rock and Roll tragedies. He will be sadly missed.

The Wizard Of Destiny

Have I mentioned before that I love to write? If not, I probably also didn't pass on this little tidbit: I have had a novel published. It is the historical/fantasy you see pictured below:

Yes, it was published in May 2005 and I was quite happy with the way it turned out. I should have been, because I had a great relationship with my publisher. They were E-BookTime and let me have things the way I wanted them. I designed and created the cover art, did all the artwork inside and they even made sure that the words First Edition were prominent on the copyright page, just like I requested. That was probably the most important thing with me. First editions are always the most valuable!

First off, you have to know that I'm a big fan of the whole fantasy genre. The Lord Of The Rings cycle, by J.R.R. Tolkien, has always been my favorite fantasy books. To me, it holds the perfect recipe for a fine and engrossing fantasy novel - lots of magic, a fabulous quest, colorful characters and poetic writing. When I wrote The Wizard Of Destiny, that's the style I most emulated. Not that it's anything like it, mind you, but it is that type of quest-fantasy that I so adore. Above, you can see the map I drew for it; and like every good fantasy novel must have, I, too, have a map with places and names so you can follow along in your head wherever the characters go.

Seeing as I wanted to have a realistic background as it's setting, I chose medieval England, during some indeterminate year. I left the era vague for the simple reason that I wanted to speak about real people and places, but didn't want to be tied down to a specific year. As to the plot, it's about a young boy who becomes the great Wizard Simon's apprentice. Well, here is the blurb I wrote for the back cover:

Young Alfred doesn’t realize what lay in store for him when he goes to visit his local Wizard. But soon, through a strange quirk of events, he becomes the great Simon’s apprentice. At first, the lad has doubts as to his abilities to learn everything he will be taught. And to compound matters further, their King needs the services of his Wizard just then for a dangerous quest of great importance. With just a Friar to accompany them, they begin a journey that thrusts Alfred into an important and hazardous time in his young life. Does he have what it takes to become the Wizard of Destiny?

And of course I injected some humor into the whole melange. I hate reading those deadly serious and dry fantasy novels with characters who have such complicated names as to be unpronounceable by human tongue. Those kind of books are just so boring. Needless to say, if you want to find out all about how and why the people of Stonehenge lived, how to use a magic spell that will turn someone into a bagel, the beginnings of four lads from Liverpool - long before rock and roll came along, or the further tales of that bandit from Sherwood Forest, then this book is for you! It may not be 100% factual, (wink, wink!), but it will have you smiling as you get pulled into and along with their quest.

Why haven't I said anything about it before? Modesty, I suppose. I never liked pushy people myself, so that's something I try to prevent from happening in me. But.... if you happened to see this little blog and were more interested in my book.... here's a link where you can pick it up from my publisher's website: The Wizard Of Destiny, by Kenneth Dwain Harrelson. By purchasing it from them, I get a higher royalty rate, don't you know. But, you can also find it on any other online bookstore.

The Rockford Files - Season Two

As I related in my previous Rockford Files post, an important part of the 1970's was watching this show and all the other detective shows of the era. I even almost became a private detective myself - no fooling! I still think I would make a good private eye, if only because I have the skills for long, tedious tasks, which Jim Rockford so eloquently described detective work to be like. Nevertheless, I do have some news to report in this post, and it is Rockford Files related.

If you've been on Jupiter for the last few years, you probably haven't heard of eBay or some of the other online auction sites available. If not, you probably know all about them and how addictive they can be at times. Have you ever thought of some item you wanted, or a toy you had as a child and went to eBay and found exactly what you were looking for? Chances are, if you're anything like me, you have - many times! Well, I have a well-used account with eBay.com and have purchased several items I didn't really need. The most recent acquisition was one I just sent off the payment for today. A little back story first.

The Rockford Files was on television for 6 seasons, but the last one was truncated because James Garner, who did his own stunts, was just too tired to continue. So, he quit mid-season, after only 11 episodes had been filmed. This was a sudden occurrence, and as such, the studio had no inclination the series was going to end so abruptly. They kept the production end of things going, the writing of further episodes, so that they would have enough ready for when they would be filmed. When Garner quit, they had at least two finished episodes that I know about, and they were ready to go. I just happened to find somebody that had these last two episodes, in shooting script readiness and they were offering them for sale! Of course, I often wondered if there were any kind of unfinished episodes or anything. One rumor I had heard was that one more episode had been filmed, but before post production could be completed, a warehouse burned down and took the footage with it. I don't know if this is true or not, but it did give me cause to think. No television show can continue without available scripts - written, edited, rewrtitten and polished for filming. The recent writer's strike has brought this crucial point to the public's attention in a big way. After a little online research, I found that these two scripts that were being offered on eBay were the real McCoy, so I grabbed them. I can't wait to get them so that they can be read and, using the stored collections of memories I have of the show, bringing them to life in my mind. I'm sure they'll be good. After all, they were ready to be filmed and they were going to be real episodes at the time if things hadn't happened like they did.

The names of these two scripts are Never Trust A Boxx Boy and Some People Are Trouble. After I have had them awhile, I'll try to relate my impressions of them in my next Rockford Files post. And now, for something really special for all you fans of the show out there - here is the second collection of The Rockford Files telephone answering machine messages, from Season Two. Be sure to get them and add them to the ones from Season One that I posted in an earlier blog. I recently purchased the newly-released Season Five set, so expect to see the answering machine messages from it and Seasons Three and Four as well. Stay tuned!

Lunar Eclipse - February 20th, 2008

Wednesday nights are my regular gig at the Moose Lodge in Fairfield, Illinois, so as I was driving there that afternoon, I happened to notice that at the exact time the sun was setting in the west, a beautiful full moon was rising in the east. This is what it looked like when I got to Fairfield:

I always make a stop at my sister's house when I play the Moose, so this trip was no exception. I stopped there before the gig this time, as I had a picture I wanted to drop off for her. When I got there, she told me about a lunar eclipse that was due to take place that night. Now, I hadn't heard about it, but things like this always interest me. I took a few pictures of the moon for her, using their camera, which is identical to mine, and adjusted it's settings. By setting it up for night photography, she would be able to use this same basic manual setting to get some shots of the eclipse, because I figured I wouldn't be able to while playing that night. As it turned out, however, I did manage to get a few during some breaks. Below is a composite of some of those shots:

As you can see by the first one at 8:10 p.m., the eclipse had already covered about half of the disc of the Moon. About 20 minutes later, about 5/6 of it was in shadow. The one at 9:16 p.m. was when it was near totality and it didn't show up as well. You'll have to remember that I was using my camera, hand-held, and was just stepping out the back door of the Moose Lodge. The city lights obscured the skies to a certain extent, but I managed to get some pictures despite the conditions. At least it wasn't cloudy during the eclipse. Over an hour later, the total eclipse had happened and was now in the process of revealing the lunar surface again. By 11.01 p.m., it was almost completely past and a few minutes later, the effects of the Earth's shadow could hardly be seen. All in all, it was something that I was glad to have been able to personally witness.

I can only imagine the horror, the uncertainty and the fear something like this must have had on the people of Earth thousands of years ago. Looking up to their skies to see something they were familiar with as it slowly started to disappear, as if some evil god must have been devouring it. I wonder what it must have felt like. Thank goodness we have progressed enough so that we know an eclipse is a natural phenomenon and it's nothing to be worried about. But, we still don't know about everything that's up there in the night skies. I find that extremely fascinating as well. The citizens of Earth may soon discover a new object in the sky that has been spotted before by those same ancient peoples thousands of years ago. Stay tuned! (Keyword: Niburu.)

Irony

I just happened to look up the other day whilst I was driving through my little town and saw this sight:

What made it so funny to me was the fact that here was this huge pile of snow sitting in front of something that was called "Tropical Sno," which around here, is mainly a treat we enjoy during the summer. It seemed quite ironic at the time.

Road Trip To Utah - Day 6

Day 6 - February 9th, 2008

Starting point: North Platte, Nebraska
Finishing point: Home (Fairfield and Norris City, Illinois)
Starting time: 8.30 a.m.
Finishing time: 11.30 p.m.

Miles travelled: 843

When we woke up on the morning of Day 6, the sun was shining brightly and it looked clear and warm. We found the dining area and had a leisurely breakfast before checking out and getting back on I-80.

The breakfast selection at the Ramada.


This sign could be seen all the way from the interstate.

The front of the Ramada as we were leaving.

Since the weather didn't appear that it was going to be a factor today, we took time to get more pictures of the sights to be seen along the way. Interstate 80, at one time, used to be part of the Pony Express route. We noted what the sign said, but didn't stop there.

The Pony Express station.

Now, there had been one thing we had passed on the way through that we couldn't explain. We had seen this structure that spanned the entire length of both sides of the freeway and on each end, what appeared to be gargoyles or something. We never did figure out what it was. But, we knew that on the way back, when we got to it, we would stop and see what it was all about. It turns out that it wasn't gargoyle statues that adorned it, but something else to commemorate a long-past event in the history of that particular area.

The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument.

It turned out to be a place to honor the pioneers that had passed through the area. That very spot was where several trails such as the Pony Express, the Overland Stage, the first transcontinental railroad and the first transcontinental telegraph had converged. To commemorate the event several statues and plaques had been erected, as well as the Archway building itself. Inside it, you could take a tour over the interstate.

A replica fort of the era.

There was a huge buffalo statue out front, and of course, I had to get Phillip to take my picture standing beside it!

The Buffalo and I.

Once inside the pavillion, the first thing we met was this grizzled prospector type. I asked if he got many requests for people to take his picture. He said yes and posed for yet another one.

The Grizzled Pioneer with 6-guns blazing.

They really honored the buffalo around these parts, I swear they must have practically worshipped it. We saw images of them just about everywhere - they even grew their shrubbery to resemble this majestic beast!

The mighty Buffalo - in shrubbery.

After seeing all we needed to see at the Great Archway Monument, we got back on the road and drove east some more.

One of the countless million I-80 markers we passed.


Cows!

As promised, above you'll see some of the cows we saw while travelling through Nebraska. It seems like all they had there was wide, open spaces and cows. Not much else to see.

A Nebraska license plate.

Once we had reached Lincoln, Nebraska, we found out that they had dug out from underneath the snow they had gotten while we had passed through the first time. The streets were fine. I wish I could say the same about the drivers. The above license plate actually belongs to a guy that didn't even have the courtesy to let out-of-staters into another lane. And we saw a huge 3-car accident just after we met this driver. Fortunately, it was on street we weren't using, so traffic wasn't affected by it much.

The Missouri River, which separates Nebraska and Iowa.

This time, we were going to pass through Iowa during the daylight hours, so since Phillip was doing the driving for the first half of the day, I prepared to get plenty of pictures of this state. Once we crossed the Missouri River, we were then in Iowa. And would remain so for at least 4 and a half miles again!

The people of Iowa welcomed us. That was nice of them.


A huge polluting smokestack in the corner of Iowa.

There wasn't actually that much to see in what little of Iowa we passed through. I'm sure it's quite a lovely state, but all we saw was one big building with a huge smokestack sending up a cloud of pollution in the air. Nothing to really write home about.

The Kansas City skyline.

And then we were in Missouri. I have to point out that on the way up, we didn't see much due to the fact that it was night. But, we did notice a whole bunch of new and used car lots. We witnessed many more of the same during the daylight hours, too. We headed southward until we got on I-70 East and veered toward St. Louis and then home.

I-70 East.

Once we got past Kansas City, Missouri, we witnessed two car accidents. Both times, the ambulances passed us on their way, so they must have just happened in front of us. Before we came to the second one, I saw this bumper sticker on the back of a car in front of us:

Relax....

Five minutes later, then we came upon the wreck itself:

Another accident, at least this one wasn't caused by snow.

I looked out the window and suddenly, there was the Kansas City Chief's stadium. I got a quick picture of it, but it wasn't a very good one because I wasn't prepared for it. You can't see it in this picture, but the Kansas City Royal's baseball stadium is directly behind.

The home of the Kansas City Chiefs NFL team.

We had calculated out our last mileage and it figured out that the halfway point would be somewhere past Kansas City. So, we looked for a good place to stop and eat and take a break, and pulled off the road. We had hoped to find a Long John Silvers because we were in the mood for fish, but there had only been one and it had been in the heart of Kansas City. Instead, we settled for a Hardees. It was right next to a family restaurant and we could have had a good sit-down meal there, but nobody but me seemed to be interested in fresh gizzards. Go figure.

Gizzards. Yum Yum!

When we got back on the road, I took over for the home stretch. We knew we were going to make it now. And aside from some road construction on I-70 in St. Louis, which didn't apply to the part we were going to be using, we had a straight shot from there to I-64 which led us all the way to our exit for Fairfield, Illinois. We reached there at about 11.30, unloaded a few things of Phillip's and then I put Sarah's things in my car, which I left parked there, got my camera and clothes, and then drove to Norris City, where I live. I was never so glad to see home in my life. But, we had made it all the way to Utah and back, in one of the worst blizzards of recent years, and were in one piece. Sarah and her hamster Nora made it safely, so we had achieved the goal we had set out to do. I can mark off 3 more states now that I've travelled through in this great country of ours, knowing that I'll never go to Utah again in the winter. And the people said 'Amen!'

Road Trip To Utah - Day 5

Day 5 - February 8th, 2008

Starting point: Evanston, Wyoming
Finishing point: North Platte, Nebraska

Starting time: 1.30 p.m.
Finishing time: 1.30 a.m.
Miles travelled: 719

Having known the road we were wanting to use had been closed the night before, we were anxious to hear if it had been reopened when we woke up. And of course, it wasn't. We ate breakfast and hoped there would be some word coming soon.

The breakfast buffet at the Holiday Inn Express.

We checked out of our motel and when I did, I met up with two other groups wanting to go in the same direction as us - due east on Interstate 80. We heard that in a storm such as this, I-80 could be opened just after noon or it could be closed for 2 or 3 days. One guy I met in the lobby said it was usually cleared by early afternoon. He was born and raised in a town along the closed stretch of interstate ahead. But, Phillip and Sarah both thought it could be closed for days and wanted to get home. Not that I didn't want to get home, because I did. Well, we waited in the motel parking lot until after 1 p.m. to see if the road would be cleared. The laptop that Phillip had brought was still able to connect to the hotel's wireless connection from the parking lot, so we used it to get continual weather updates from the Wyoming Department of Transportation. Every one we got was unchanged - the road was still closed. After a 2 to 1 voite, with me being in the minority, it was decided that if we were moving it would be better than sitting still, so we devised a plan that would take us around the closed part of the interstate and come out just at the point where it was passable the rest of the way. We used the hotel's bathrooms one final time and with directions for getting out of Evanston I got from the desk clerk, the minivan was pointed due north.

Phillip coming out of our hotel.

Our Holiday Inn Express.

A Wyoming police truck.

The first thing we encountered after we left Evanston, Wyoming, was another semi truck off the side of the road. That halted our forward progress for about 10 minutes. We also learned that Wyoming uses pickup trucks for police cars. Very strange.

Mountains on the Wyoming/Utah border.

Part of our journey north to get around the blocked section of interstate actually took us back into Utah for a few miles - go figure. But, the road curved back to the east and eventually, we were going through small towns on the path we most wanted to be on: Woodruff, Kemmerer, Fontenelle, Farson, and finally Lander. Don't let those sedate town names fool you. This was some of the worst driving conditions on our trip. Between seeing the very first store that J. C. Penney built, back on April 14th, 1902 in Kemmerer, and getting lost on an oil lease road in the middle of nowhere, it was quite some journey!

The very first J. C. Penney store.

Our view for half of Wyoming. That's a snow plow in front of us.

From an oil lease road, this is what the middle of Wyoming really looks like.

Another snow-related accident.

There were still vehicles stuck off the side of the road, we were almost one of them once. There were plenty of natural wonders to see, in between periods of total white out.

Far off bluffs in the heart of Wyoming.

This cloud sat above a high mountain peak all afternoon.

Some of the rock formations of central Wyoming.

We had several deer encounters.

Phillip was driving through this part of the trip and he managed to get us safely and in one piece to Rawlins, Wyoming - the town located on I-80, which was where it was opened and passable again. We arrived there about 8 p.m. and stopped to check on conditions. We hoped they hadn't gotten worse and actually closed the road by the time we had gotten there, because we had taken over 7 hours to get around to where, if we had been able to use the interstate, it was only a 3 hour journey. There was a Kentucky Fried Chicken that looked good, so we stopped to get some food and it was there we learned that Interstate 80 had been opened about a half-hour after we left Evanston, and that a huge pile-up on the same road had caused a four-hour delay. So, either way you figured it, we would have either been at Rawlins at 8 p.m. like we found ourselves by going around all that extra way or could have saved us all those extra miles by waiting that extra 30 minutes in the motel parking lot before we left and arrived at the same place, at approximately the same time. If we had encountered the wreck that halted traffic, we could have possibly been delayed and not reached Rawlins until 8 p.m., but if we had somehow gotten through before the wreck, we could have saved about 4 hours. Well, it just goes to show that the majority isn't always right. They both had said that their reasoning for taking the long way around was that they thought they would be right and at least we were moving. The reason I wanted to wait and see if the interstate would be opened was because I thought I was right. Neither faction thought the other was right, but as it turned out, somebody had to be right. From Rawlins on east, it turned out that all we had to deal with weatherwise that night was gusts of wind up to 70 miles per hour. I took over the driving chores there and since there wasn't any blowing snow in the equation, I felt good about travelling onward. Let the four winds blow!

Another night, another hotel - a Ramada this time.

With the threat of the storm following us, I felt that the more space between it and ourselves we could put that night, the better it would be for the next day. I ended up driving till after 1 a.m. and we had reached a town along the interstate that was past the panhandle of Nebraska. In North Platte, there were plenty of hotels to choose from, so we pulled off the interstate and chose a Ramada. I think the main reason we did choose it was because it had a Chinese restaurant adjacent to it. We booked two rooms and settled down for the night. Nora the Hamster was easy to smuggle in at this place because where our rooms were located, there was an entrance all to itself - and it was a long way from the front desk. Through all of it, we hoped we had gotten far enough ahead of the storm so as not to have to worry about it the next day. If we had, we were certain that we could make it all the way home on Day 6 of our journey. As it turned out, it was the best weather of the whole trip and we made it safely. But, stay tuned for the final chapter of our road trip.