Death Of An Icon

The events of the last two days have left me emotionally exhausted. When I left work yesterday I was very tired and I couldn't get home fast enough. Everyday when I leave work I must drive a few blocks to my wife's office and wait for her. At that time of the day five minutes can greatly impact the traffic flow. I waited in the car and tried not to fall asleep. She was fifteen minutes late which put us in bumper to bumper traffic all the way home. I thought I would never get there. By the time I finally got home, cooked dinner, changed clothes, and read the morning paper, I was losing it. Soon I was fast asleep until almost two hours later when my wife walked into the room and asked if I was ready to watch "The Alaska Experiment" on the Discovery Channel. You can measure people's age by how many shows they watch on the Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, and the Animal Planet. In "The Alaska Experiment" three groups of city dwellers are trying to survive in the Alaskan wilderness. I was freezing the whole time I watched as they trekked through the ice and snow trying to find food. As you might expect, most of them aren't coping well. I was happy to finally get in my warm bed in suburban Kentucky. I spent the next seven hours doing the "Kentucky Experiment" also know as sleeping.

Temporarily lost in the shadow of my friend's death was the death of a rock and roll icon. Bo Diddley died on Monday at age 79. Bo Diddley was only four years younger than my father! Bo Diddley, along with Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and Little Richard, was a significant influence on the rock and rollers of my generation. The famous "Bo Diddley Beat" can be heard in many classic rock songs. In honor of this great musician I played his music last night including a recording I have of him playing with the Grateful Dead in 1972 at a venue called The Academy of Music in New York City. Heaven's Rock and Roll Revue now has one more player. Where do the peacemakers go to get peace?-from one of the eulogies given at my friend's funeral