Expected later: 23* and up to 2o mm of rain
It's reunion weekend for several groups at the university this weekend and there area whole lot of activities planned. One of them is a golf tournament on Friday. All week they've been predicting rain for Friday but maybe it's arrived early. It's supposed to rain a lot today and this morning they've now taken the rain out of tomorrow's forecast. Let's home they're right. I spent all of yesterday and probably will spend all of today helping Sarah with reunion stuff. I'm supposed to have tomorrow off but I've agreed to help at the golf tournament in exchange for NEXT Friday off instead. It certainly works better for me, as I'm going to Toronto anyway, now I can leave earlier.
Back in January when Tracey announced that we were getting our birthday off as her gift to us, I joked that my goal was to stay long enough to take advantage of that little perk. When she asked me when my birthday was and I told her, we all laughed at how absurd that was. Well, here we are, and I'm still here. I guess it's time to move on, as I've achieved my goal!
Brenda will be getting home today after a brief visit with Meghan yesterday. I'm sure she'll need a few days to catch up from jet lag.
I'm a little glad that it's going to rain today, I really need to do some work inside. I've been sewing and everything is still all over my table, and the floor has bits of grass all over it from the dog and I tramping in and out. It really needs some damage control.
Yesterday Lloyd called me in the afternoon to tell me that Sir Paul was going on to be on PBS - his performance at the White House when he received the Gershwin Award for popular music from President Obama. I'd read about it on the macca radio site but it was great to watch. It totally blows you away at the vast array of music that has been created. I turned up the TV really, really loud, and this was one of those times I truly love living in the country. You can make as much noise as you like and no one complains. Now I'm really pumped for next weekend!
Speaking of music, Linda gave me a music book with guitar chords in it that is all Stan Rogers music. I only have one CD so last night on my way home from work I stopped into the Confederation Court Mall and picked up his CD that the book is named after. The songs on the CD are in the book but so are a lot more. I need to pick up some more of his music. I was listening to it on the way home and it was amazing. I really only knew a few of his songs and I have to say I'm totally hooked on it! I had it cranked up all the way to work this morning. I had no idea how he died so I did some research on line and it was horrible. He was a passenger on a commercial airline. Apparently there was a fire that started in the bathroom. At that time it was not uncommon for this to happen as it was back in the days when passengers could still smoke on board. Here is what I found:
Rogers died alongside 22 other passengers (23 fatalities in all) most likely of smoke inhalation on June 2, 1983, while travelling on Air Canada Flight 797 (a McDonnell Douglas DC-9) after performing at the Kerrville Folk Festival. The airliner was flying from Dallas, Texas to Toronto and Montreal when an in-flight fire forced it to make an emergency landing at the Greater Cincinnati Airport.
Smoke was filling the cabin from an unknown source, and once on the ground, the plane's doors were opened to allow passengers to escape. Halfway through the evacuation of the plane, the oxygen rushing in from outside caused a flash fire. Rogers was one of the passengers still on the plane at the time of the fire.
His remains were cremated and his ashes scattered in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nova Scotia.[1]
As a result of that incident a lot of changes were made in the airline industry. You have to wonder how successful a career he might have had if he had survived. He truly was a very gifted singer and songwriter. I'm just sorry it's taken me this long to discover his music. It was the same with Harry Chapin, although I always loved his music. Another gifted performer gone too soon.I found this old video online of Stan Rogers and others sitting around a kitchen table, with him singing Barretts Privateers - truly the definition of a kitchen party. It's old and really grainy but amazing.
Hi I am Home. and my favorite airport in the whole world is by far Charlottetown. 300Ft from car to plane and the same from plane to car. No fighting crowds, waiting in long lines, or walking /running marathons to get on a plane. A note about your Stan Rogers video it was shot at Dennis Ryan's house in Lower Montague with Ryan's Fancy. And I heard that after the plane landed Stan stood by the door and roared.so the people could follow his voice to the door. He had such a booming voice. It was a very sad day. I was living in Grand falls at the time and people didn't know who I was talking about because they all listened to American stations.
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