Re-print of posting telling about Billy and Ellen

It took some looking backward through my postings but I found it! Remembering I had picked up Ellen's framed work from Great Hang Ups, I finally looked in my check book register from last year to get a reference point. So, ta da! Forgive any similarities to my previous posting today, it seems I have nothing original to say!

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Saturday, October 11, 2008
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Saturday and I've got ants in my pants!
Well, not exactly, or I should say, not yet, but they are having their way with my desk! Last week I opened a bag of cough drops and it, too, was alive with ants. I've put a double ant trap on my desk which will hopefully eradicate them. The ants are teeny tiny and fast as all get out, but not quite fast enough to outrun my thumb or pointer as I squish them. The Douglas family would have a fit with me squishing and trying to kill these ants. It's either me or the ants, me or the ants!!!! I hear the theme from "Pink Panther" as I chase them around my desk: dead ant, dead ant, dead ant, dead ant, dead ant.....
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The housekeepers were here yesterday when Justin was hooking up the Internet for me, and after he was gone, Angela just went on and on about how handsome and tall he's gotten since she first knew him. I've used this company since the lake house so they knew him in high school. She remembers how I'd say not to worry about his room because it wasn't clean enough for the cleaners to walk through! Every now and again I'd have to work my way into the room and work with him, much to his delight. Oh, yes, those were fun times!
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I'm listening to a "Seinfeld" episoda which includes more chanting: "Mandelbaum, Mandelbaum!" Jerry gets into an unwilling competition with an extremely aged trio of grandfather, father and son who want to show Jerry they are stronger than he is. Jerry's dad loves the T-shirt Jerry brought with him, which Kramer bought from a street vendor that says "#1 Dad", about six sizes too small, saying it's the best gift Jerry ever gave him. Jerry says, "You do remember I bought you a Cadillac, don't you? Twice!"
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Kramer asked Jerry to bring him back some Cubans from Del Boca Vista (Miami), and he agrees, only to discover they are not cigars, but human beings! When Jerry calls to tell Kramer they are people and not cigars, Kramer says, "Jerry, Cuban cigars are illegal in this country" in a real righteous tone, saying he's bring in Cuban cigar rollers to make his own!

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The Mandelbaum's are in the crepe business and to make a long story short, the cigar rollers, who are really Dominicans, end up in the crepe business, but blow the whole thing up by rolling the crepes too tightly, like you would a cigar. "Try to take a vacation, you come back and the whole operation is in a shambles!" I feel that way, too, when I get back from a trip.
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My neighbors and I are not able to coordinate our Saturdays to allow for going to the movies and my Sunday is full to the brim. I gave them permission to go ahead without me because with Jeff's flying schedule, they aren't as flexible with their time. Yesterday I went to see Ellen, my neighbor and friend, taking her framed piece and touched up photos. Ellen has been ill, doctoring with stomach ulcers and such. She was in bed, sleeping, but Billy took me in to see her anyway. We ladies had a nice visit although I had to carry much of it, but no problem. She is still groggy from her medications and has no appetite or ambition. I left her to her nap, but Billy was evidently tickled at having someone to talk to. I was treated to a lovely private concert on his rehearsal keyboard, which sounds exactly like a grand piano. He played original compositions in his favorite genre, classical. Billy's training was in classical music and it's his passion, he told me all about his teachers and such when he was growing up on the Westside.
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He showed me, again, his special guitars and other pieces of memorabalia, some with autographs of the original band members, those killed in the crash. Billy told me the reason he needs to wear the dark glasses is because his tear ducts were damaged in the plane crash, but fortunately, his vision is not affected. He is a walking story, let me tell you!

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I, of course, launched into the framing and preserving abilities of Great Hang Ups and offered to have him come down to my home some time to see what they've done for me and to see my glass pieces from there. He said, "I can come right now" so off we went. I am so glad the housekeepers had just been here! He loved the place, and went crazy, figuratively speaking, about my house. I might not have gold records on the walls, but I do have other treasures.
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One thing that caught Billy's eye was the arrangement of plaques on my dining room wall about faith, hope, love, integrity, trust, etc., which Justin had gotten me for Christmas a few years back. As I opened the plaques, Justin said, "I got these because this what you are all about." Talk about a gift! Obviously, the fact he thought that about me was gift enough, but then he, in his inimitable Justinisms said, "They had your eye prints all over them!", since they were from Kirkland's, one of my favorite stores at the Mall. That kid! Anyway, Billy loved the plaques and he loved the story behind this gift. He kept saying he had to bring Ellen down here to see my glass and all that, but Ellen has already been here a number of times. He said it was like being in a museum.
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Well, after he left, I got busy in my office making good use of my new Internet connection. All of a sudden, I heard this bang, bang, bang at my door. I dashed to see if perhaps I had a delivery or something, and there stood Billy with a tin of cookies and some caramel apples for me. Wow! He said the cookies had to be frozen or eaten immediately so I told him that I'd sit down and eat them right away! He thought that so funny! It was a huge tin of David's Cookies, and I popped it into my freezer. One of the apples had caramel, nuts and tiny chocolate chips on it, but the apple was very difficult to cut apart. What a sour apple it was under all that good stuff! Don't tell him but I only ate part of it, and it was mess---chocolate chips and nuts all over the place. Hey, that might account for the ants!!!

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Posted by Kim Lahaie Day at 9:58 AM

Oh, my heart!

This is a photo taken in late summer of 2007 of Billy Powell "modeling" my beautiful red leather coat purchased in Ephesus, Turkey. Ellen, his wife, has such gorgeous shawls and coats so I went to show her my latest find. Billy felt left out of the fashion show so took a "turn" trying it on. Ellen took the photo with her cell phone and sent it to me. In his hand is a fancy walking stick, so he reminded me of Kramer when he was wearing Joseph's technicolor dream coat in "The Wig Master" episode! First, Billy had grabbed a guitar out of the display thing but Ellen made him put it back because it was too valuable to fool around with. It had signatures and such all over it, so I imagine it was quite valuable. Behind Billy on the wall you can see gold records hanging. Billy usually always wore colored glasses which he explained to me this fall, when he brought me some chocolates and caramel apples, that his eyes are sensitive since the plane crash, because he nearly lost them. That day he also played a private recital for me of classical and original music he had composed, being a trained classical pianist. Now that time spent with him is that much more special to me. And I hope it was to him, too!

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I just got back to my house after having lunch with my friend, Christine, over at Pengree's. I had made up my mind not to let the phone interrupt our time together as so often happens but when I saw Justin's name come up on the screen, I opted to answer. He is the one who told me that Billy had died last night!!! What???

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Apparently Billy called 911 reporting chest pains and shortness of breath, as Justin heard reported on the radio. Justin was distraught. He and I both think the world of Ellen, Billy's wife, and only this a.m. I had thought I should give her a call to see how she was doing. Ellen was staying at their daughter's house for a while to help out with the dogs, leaving Billy here with only one dog. I just had a visit with him last Wednesday and now this Wednesday, he has gone home, too.

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On Wednesday, Billy told me about the good time they had on the recent cruise tour Lynyrd Skynyrd took. The first time they had a cruise tour like this, he told me it the easiest money and the best, he ever earned because it was so simple to do. The downfall was that he was given one of the best cabins on the ship which offered no privacy from the other decks. So, unless they wanted to be called to, waved at, or observed from vantage points, they had to stay inside with curtains closed. I understand there are no fans like Skynyrd fans! It was the same day when he told me about this cruise that I expressed to him, apologetically, that I was not a Skynyrd fan, sorry. Billy told me not to apologize and that it was actually refreshing to have a friend who was NOT a fan, but just a good neighbor!

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This Sunday after I left the bouquet of flowers at the cemetery, I drove out past the big marker where the bodies of Lynyrd Skynyrd band members were buried in 1977. Almost daily is someone there with a piece of paper and a pencil, tracing the names and dates of the lead singer, another member and his sister, a back-up singer who were killed in the plane crash that Billy survived. Sunday was no exception, and as I got closer, could see a man at the grave, paying homage. I sort of snickered, inwardly or outwardly, that the guy was wearing a stars 'n bars T-shirt, typical of a Skynyrd fan. (Sorry if I offended anyone by pointing this out...) This group was known for their Southern rock so it was nothing unusual to see stars 'n bars all over the place.

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When Ellen met Billy he was with a Christian rock band, Vision, prior to the group having their reunion tour after the plane crash. He had expressed to me his belief and faith in the Lord and His work so I am comforted thinking of him in heaven. My heart aches for Ellen, though, and I cannot wait to talk with her. When I went to the door after getting the news, her friend, Maggie, who took water aerobics with Ellen and me, said Ellen was resting but would tell her I had stopped by. Their daughter, Maggie (not the same Maggie as above) had gone home to rest, too, and the other daughter, Ashley Rose, was flying in from San Francisco today. I only know Maggie but look forward to meeting the rest of her kids.

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A while back I wrote a posting about listening to Skynyrd music after Justin had sent me a link to a re-make of a song called "Simple Man". He felt I would like the song because it talked about the things that I admire. The song, re-done by Shinedown, tells about not being hung up on rich man's gold, to remember God above, to be content, and to be 'a simple kind of man'. Do you know what I loved about that song? I love it that Justin said it made him think of me!

My neighbor died, too, last night.................

Skynyrd Keyboardist Dies
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One of the last remaining members of Lynyrd Skynyrd passed away early this morning at his Orange Park home.
The band's original keyboardist Billy Powell dialed 911 shortly after midnight, complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath.
Police and Rescue found Powell in his bed room where the musician was pronounced dead.
He was 56 years old, and he was one of the band members who survived the band's 1977 plane crash that killed lead singer Ronnie Van Zant.

I started to write this the other day

Between the blog site and facebook I have had some interesting discussions regarding life, death, and the parts in between. One thing came up recently when my friend, Cindy, had a close-call with the safety of her little grandson, CJ. He had found a way out of her house and walked around toward the backyard in the direction of the pond. His escape and the danger was thwarted by a vigilant grandma and mama but it scared the daylights out of Cindy for days! This made Cindy remember Timmy's accident and the times that followed, and she stressed that his influence remains in the front of her brain and on her heart to this day.

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This brought to mind another scary story we experienced after Timmy's death in our pool. My former spouse installed a pool alarm that would make a huge noise if some one or some thing landed in the pool and caused a wake. The security people installed window and door alarms on the pool-facing openings which would make a loud signal if they were opened when they should not be. This type of accident was not going to happen again.

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Meanwhile, there was a young father at our preschool named Jeff who had a darling son named Thanos. Jeff had asked me to babysit for a weekend when he had to go out of town for a meeting and I agreed. Justin was not happy about that situation because he had already told me once, "No substitutions!". He was afraid I was bringing Thanos in to replace his brother, as though that could ever happen. I assured him I was only being helpful and instead of putting Thanos in Justin's room in the bunk bed/futon, I put him in the first floor guest room. Proper distance from Justin's room, and from Timmy's, which was still untouched.

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My former spouse was working out in the yard or something into the late evening and was still outside when the rest of us had gone to bed. He came into the house to change into his trunks, saying he was going to rinse off and cool off before coming into the house. Forgetting all about the pool alarm, he dived into the pool and the alarm fired up. I sat up like a shot and heard Justin's feet hit the floor and come flying down the stairs. He was hysterical, thinking that Thanos had gotten up and was in the pool. Thanos never stirred, thankfully. My former spouse was incredibly sorry for freaking us out, and bringing all that back to us like that. Poor Justin!