I'm still here.....

I've been absent....well, not absent so much as just not posting. Lots going on. First part of the month means budget, bills, and work. I've started clipping coupons. Yeah, I know. About time! Been married for nearly 17 years! Well, right now it's kind of a game. How much can I get deducted from my grocery bill at the register. Cashiers are going to learn to hate me QUICK! LOL! I'm just cheesy enough to let them ring all the crap up, then hand them the coupons, then hand them my store card! I saved $55.00 yesterday. Pretty cool! Well, I need to get back to work. Fear not! I am alive!

There's a town in Georgia.....

“They say 'Home' is a place you go where they always take you in.”

That’s a line from the song “Augusta” by Pinmonkey. Ironic, no? Well, OK, so I’m not from Augusta, I’m from Aiken…but Augusta is not but a few miles away. This song isn’t a hit. I don’t even know how mainstream it is. I’d be willing to bet it’s never been played on an Augusta radio station. It is a slow, country music type song which is certainly not my normal type of music. There’s not a bongo drum or a screaming guitar to be found in the whole thing! But how can you resisit a line like, "Savannah River from the overpass shining bright in the morning light like a fire in a whiskey glass?" I found it on iTunes after downloading the song “Graniteville.” I don’t think I’d even googled the band until just this second. They aren’t even FROM Augusta! Looks like they’re from Tennessee. Well, they sure knew enough about the town to name a place or two I recognized…like Sand Bar Ferry Road. Why anyone in their right mind would be standing on the side of it without a broken down vehicle in front of them I assuredly do not know. Sand Bar Ferry Road is a stretch of road that goes from the Broad Street terminus all the way to Beech Island where it ends. It’s not a beautiful piece of ground. Once Broad Street stops and Sand Bar Ferry begins, there are some scattered businesses in a lower income neighborhood. There is a junk yard over there I’ve been in….more than once. Mike loves the place! Anywho, the road becomes sort of uninhabited except in spots. There is one or two scattered homes, a factory, and an abandoned building or two until you hit Beech Island. Then it’s a low income neighborhood with gas stations, used car lots, etc. Not a lovely place. It does cross the Savannah River. I’m sure they looked at a map and said, “Sand Bar Ferry Road! Yeah that’s it!” But why? Why write about a place you aren’t from? The guy who wrote “Graniteville” isn’t from there either. He’s from Texas. He heard about the train wreck (I’m not talking about Graniteville itself, Debrine!) and decided that that sounded like a song that needed to be written. He fictionalized a lot of the facts about the accident but it still strikes a chord because it’s here. It’s Aiken. I have family and friends there. I have history there. The accident happened almost right in front of the mill. My grandmother worked that mill for years as a weaver. She retired on October 7, 1973. How do I know that? She retired a month to the day after my birth. Back to the music. In the song “Graniteville” Doug Burr writes from the prospective of a husband trying to get his wife to wake up after a chemical spill. Although the spill did take place about 2:40 AM, the song was fiction. 9 people died total, all were men. 5,400 residents within a mile of the crash had to evacuate for two weeks. My first reaction when watching the nightly news from my home in Virginia was, “THAT’S GRANITEVILLE!” The TV was muted and it was an aerial shot and I STILL recognized it. Thankfully, my Aunt Sara and Uncle Tommy were fine. They evacuated with everyone else. Grannie Rhinehart was fine also. She stayed with Debrine.

In the song, Mr. Burr uses the line, “We were always watching, watching the train go by.” Honestly, that is all there is to do in Graniteville. He also calls it “a quiet little city.” Hardly. Quiet, is right but Graniteville isn’t a city really. Not in the normal sense. It’s more of a village but we don’t really use the term "village" here in Aiken County. The term “City” makes it sound like it has a grocery store and a police department. Er, no. "The whole town dies while it's still sleeping." As much as I hate to admit it, this was a bit prophetic on Mr. Burr's part. After the crash and chlorine spill, the town did die.....not literally but for all intents and purposes. Know what chlorine does to stuff? It destroys it. It literally ate the mills from the inside out. Machinery was destroyed. Pipes too. Wiring, everything. Gone. The mills were struggling as it was but staying afloat. The accident killed them. The company who owned the mills could not afford to repair the damage the chlorine gas had done. Jobs were lost. The doors simply closed. They had the mills up for sale and a company bought one or two but it wasn't enough to save everyone's jobs. "It's a black train rolling through the middle of the night. Finds us sleeping. There's no where to hide."

I'm still here. I got busy and was waiting on inspiration to hit and was off killing spammers on another board, and blah blah blah. Back soon I swear. I can still see the bottles off-shore.

I’ve started playing Sudoku. Yeah I’m a big old weenie and am still doing (and having issues with) the easy puzzles. I got sick of Mahjong and Solitaire got old many years ago. I need a puzzle to keep my brain active. I can get through about half of a Sudoku puzzle before I start scribbling out numbers. Vince is a little amazed that I am messing with this. Truth is, I’m kinda concerned that as I get older, I will lose some of my mental dexterity. Contrary to popular belief, I’m pretty darned smart. I think the puzzles will help keep my brain from melting into ooze and sliding out of my ears! HAHA! I need to keep myself sharp to keep up with Vince and Jeff!