Sting Me

Hello all, and Welcome to the Working Week, as a Mr. Declan MacManus once put it.  Just wanted to take a moment to say hello while I work on several longer posts.

My Monday was relatively good; I say "relatively" because I had a run-in with a bee while out for a brief walk at work. Somehow it managed to fly into my cupped hand (I was carrying my sunglasses). It was one of those one-in-a-million occurrences - and unfortunately for me, it stung me before I could react.

I'd been stung once before, all the way back in first grade, but never since. I cursed reflexively (apologies again to the gentlemen who were inadvertently subjected to  the un-ladylike stream of invective I unleashed as they walked past me lol), then immediately turned around and went back inside.

I had a pair of tweezers in my pocketbook (the better to pluck rogue eyebrow lashes with), and fortunately was able to pull out the stinger without a problem. I washed it thoroughly and applied some Bactine to be safe. Within a few minutes it looked and felt fine. And now, ten hours later, it's as good as new.

Hopefully the rest of your week (and mine as well) doesn't involve any wayward encounters with our insect neighbors (with the obvious exception of The Beatles, who are welcome any time). Hoping to have another post up in a few days, so watch this space! Ciao 'til then...

(Oh... I don't have any tops with yellow and black stripes, so I'm afraid the photo above is as close as I can come to today's bee theme...)

***

While getting stung was less than pleasant, it did give me a chance to post a great track from The Black Crowes - 1992's "Sting Me," from The Southern Harmony & Rhythm Companion:

Also from the same album, an absolutely ferocious version of "Remedy":

I was fortunate enough to see them on this tour, which featured the original lineup (with Marc Ford on guitar); they were absolutely on fire.

I subsequently saw them a number of times after they reformed in 2005, with Luther Dickinson of North Mississippi All-Stars fame filling Marc Ford's spot, and they were as good as ever. Want proof? Sure - here you go. :c)

And lastly, here's Rich Robinson (brother Chris was the singer) taking over the vocals for a phenomenal version of The Velvet Underground's "Oh! Sweet Nothin'" - 11:17 of utter bliss:

Sigh... I miss The Crowes... Oh well, at least Chris and Rich are still making music, I suppose...

Look Sharp(?)

Hello all. :) I'm working on several other posts at the moment, at least one of which I hope to post by mid-week. I think you'll like this one. :-p

In the meantime, I thought I would share some new-found wisdom I gleaned last Friday, albeit unintentionally. Follow along after the jump for the latest installment of Miss Cassidy's Follies. :c)

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Vignettes: Of Fingernails, Cocktails, and Ponytails

Greetings from steamy New England. This has been one of the longest stretches of exceptionally hot and humid weather that I can recall. Boston has already had 17 days with temperatures over 90F/32C, often with dew points in the 70s (think Alabama, Florida, etc.). At least it isn't snow, I suppose...

What follows is a mishmash of topics that don't really merit a full post, but that I thought would be fun to share. So follow along on to the other side for the details!

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Vignette: Red-Headed, Strange(r)

Hello all, and a Happy Saturday to you from steamy Boston. Once again, this is NOT one of the posts I've mentioned I'm working on... well, for a while now. :c) Instead, this is another one-off about a funny incident that happened Thursday evening. Follow along below the jump for the details. :c)

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Old Friends

Hi everyone - your eyes do not deceive you; two posts from Cassidy in a single week! Who woulda thunk it?

I originally intended to write about this subject several weeks ago, but came up with other topics that were a bit more timely. And I have two others in the pipeline as well; hopefully I can finish and post them shortly as well.

I'm writing this on Sunday evening; with my manager L's permission (and have I mentioned lately how much she rocks?) I'm taking tomorrow off. I've been dragging a bit lately, partly because the weather here has been unusually hot and humid for an extended period, and partly because I've only taken a few days off so far this year. So it will be nice to sleep in a bit later than usual tomorrow. :c)

This actually makes a nice segue to the main topic of this post. Follow along below the jump for more. :c)

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Hot, Legs

So, I have a handful of partially-written posts, with varying degrees of completeness, but I thought I would share a funny story from Saturday evening. Thank you to my electrologist M, who suggested this would make a cute blog post. :-p

It's been unusually hot and humid here in the Boston area for the past two weeks; we just had our sixth straight day with temperatures well above 90F (33C) and dew points in the mid-60s, with at least two more days to follow.

We had an incredible microburst late Saturday afternoon, the likes of which I have never seen. We had torrential rain, 65 mph/104kph winds, and quarter-sized hail. The rain and hail were literally horizontal. It was surreal - and even more so when it ended barely five minutes after it started. Amazing.

We lost power in my neighborhood for nearly 10 hours, which made for a stiflingly hot sleepless evening. (We lost it again Sunday night/early Monday morning, but I'd had my air conditioner on for several hours already, which helped my bedroom stay reasonably comfortable until the power came back on at 3:00 AM.)

But I digress. :c) The story takes place early Saturday evening, shortly after the power went out. It was a limited outage; the other side of my block never lost power, nor did downtown.

I decided to simultaneously run an errand and reward myself for managing to exercise in this heat by picking up my favorite, toffee nut iced coffee. I took a quick shower and threw on a dress I'd had for several years but had never actually worn before. I grabbed a pair of flip-flops and headed out to my car.

There was an outdoor concert taking place near downtown, so I decided to park a few blocks away and walk over, rather than hunt for a parking spot.

As I was making my way downtown, a car was passing the other way. I wasn't really paying attention until it slowed down and the driver side window lowered.

I glanced over and saw a middle-aged gent (and rather nice-looking, actually) whistled appreciatively.

"Damn... those legs must go all the way to heaven!" he said with a wink.

(For the record, here's what I was wearing:)

Somehow he avoided coming off as a leering jackass lol, so I felt comfortable replying.

"Thank you," I said with a smile. "But actually they're just going to CVS."

(CVS is a drugstore, for anyone outside the States who may not be familiar with the name.)

After a split-second he laughed out loud, then replied "Touche!"

I grinned, thanked him again for the compliment, and wished him a good night. He bowed theatrically behind the wheel, raided his window, then beeped twice as he drove off.

The grin never left my face the rest of my walk, needless to say. :c)

***

Here's a bonus photo, in case you were wondering just how humid it's been here. This was taken  Sunday evening:

Yes, somehow my hair was even bigger than the previous post. :) I did nothing to get it this way, incidentally - no gel, mousse, hairspray, etc. This is Mother Nature's doing entirely. Any bigger and I could be a Southern Belle the way I used to dream about! lol

***

As you can imagine, I had no choice but to post this tune:

That is one hell of a great song, even if you don't like Rod Stewart. I do, incidentally, as you probably guessed. :-) His first five solo albums, and his tenure in The Faces atone for nearly all sins committed since.

Here's one more to demonstrate what an incredible live band The Faces were. Be sure your seat belt is fastened and your tray tables are in the upright and locked position before watching this one:

RIP, Ronnie Lane and Ian MacLagen...

Hair, Meet Humidity

This isn't the post I mentioned previously (I actually have *another* one I need to write before that one, in fact). But a photo I snapped yesterday (Monday) amused me greatly, so I thought I would share it.

It was VERY hot and humid here over the weekend, and particularly on Monday. Think Southern Florida hot and humid.

I had a fascinating chat with TDMM (The Divine Miss M - hey hon! :-p) at work about some of the differences I've noticed between "him" and myself. My perspiration certainly differs, which we both found intriguing.

I still perspire quite a bit, but its feel, and taste, are totally different from "his." I mention this because after work on Monday I went for a long walk. (I'd run both Saturday and Sunday.) I'd had my hair up all day, as I typically do at work, mostly so it isn't in my way. When I came in from my walk in the steam bath we call a New England summer, I took my hair out of its bun, sat for a few minutes to cool off a bit, then got dressed and headed home.

I'didn't think anything of how I looked until I stopped at Starbucks for my toffee nut iced coffee, my daily post-exercise reward. A fellow customer glanced at me and said, "Pretty humid out there today, huh?" I smiled and nodded while she stared at me, apparently in wonder, for a moment more. I filed it a way after a moment as one of those odd moments.

No sooner had I done so than one of my barista friends came over and said, "So... just a bit muggy, huh, Cass?"

I must have looked baffled, because she laughed and suggested I go look in the mirror.

So I did.

And when I saw this I burst out laughing:

Oh. My. God.

This is hair you measure by its wingspan.

We are talking Southern-Belle-Closer-To-Heaven hair.

This is the only salvageable photo of the lot; I was giggling so much the others are all useless. lol

I think my dear friend Alice summed it up best when I sent her this shot via text:

"Wow."

Just so. :c)

Anyway, I know many of my posts have been fairly somber. The past 8-9 months have been difficult. So when a moment of much-needed levity arrives, it should be treasured. And this one was. :c)

***

A quick shout-out to a special someone (let's call her... oh, I don't know, Miss SBS) for a most memorable evening late last week. Hope you enjoy the little memento I left and file it away for future reference. ;c) Thank you again, hon!!! xoxoxo

***

Here's some Otis Redding to help celebrate Hump Day (a/k/a Wednesday):

And here's Peter Gabriel's stunning cover version of Lou Reed's gorgeous "The Power of the Heart."

It's from an covers album (which is excellent) that he recorded in 2010... although I can't quite nail down the title... :c)