Question About Military Benefits

I may completely crazy about this but I thought that the spouses of military veterans were entitled to their retirement even after said veteran died. I'm not talking about in times of war or even if the death occurred while he (or she) was still serving. I thought this was one of the benefits that was offered to our troops. I know it's not true now. Once my Dad died, his retirement stopped, in fact they went back for the month they had paid and pro rated the month to how many days he had lived in it and my Mom had to return some of the money for that month.

Am I crazy? Do I remember it rightly? Or is it just something I imagined? Someone else told me I was right and that the current President put an end to this benefit. While that wouldn't surprise me, it would just add one more reason that I cannot stand him.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. If only for my peace of mind.

Next Up on DVD: Smallville

Now that I've finished Angel what do I watch next? Well, I guess it's not that much of a secret. Smallville Season 6 just came out and I just purchased it so I figure that's what I'll watch. I'm not going back and watching the entire series, I'm just going to watch the newest season. I've got a couple other series sitting to the side, waiting for me to watch: Heroes and Friday Night Lights and a bunch of other new ones coming out and just come out.

Finished with BuffyVerse (For Now)

I've finished with last season of Angel. So that's the end of the Buffyverse for me. I watched the entire series of Buffy and than Angel. Watching both shows again I have to say that I still think they hold up as two of the best shows on television. And I think both shows had really good endings. Both endings wrapped up a lot, but left the promise of greater things to come.

Goin' Home

On Sept 25 a tribute album to Fats Domino will be released. The track list includes:

Disc 1:

1. Ain't That a Shame - John Lennon
2. I'm Walkin' - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
3. Goin' Home - Ivan Neville DumpstaPhunk
4. Blueberry Hill - Elton John
5. My Girl Josephine - The New Orleans Social Club
6. Every Night About This Time - Joss Stone
7. I Want to Walk You Home - Allen Toussaint
8. Whole Lotta Loving - Troy Andrews
9. Don't Leave Me This Way - Dr. John

Disc 2: 1. Walking to New Orleans - Neil Young
2. Valley of Tears - The Soweto Gospel Choir
3. My Blue Heaven - Norah Jones
4. Honey Chile - Lucinda Williams
5. Rising Sun - Marc Broussard
6. When I See You - Donald Harrison Jr.
7. Be My Guest - Ben Harper
8. Let the Four Winds Blow - Toots & the Maytals
9. I Hear You Knockin' - Willie Nelson
10. I Just Can't Get New Orleans Off My Mind - Irma Thomas
11. Don't Blame It on Me - Bruce Hornsby
12. I'm Gonna Be a Wheel Someday - George Porter Jr.
13. The Fat Man - Los Lobos
14. So Long - Big Chief Monk Boudreaux
15. When the Saints Go Marching In - Theresa Andersson

It's The Little Things

Sometimes I forget he's gone. I'll be doing something, like I was thinking about a section at the end of my bar, a cabinet right at the end, would be perfect to store a few more things in the kitchen. I thought to myself, I'll have to tell Dad, he can build that for me.

Shannon at JazzFest 2007

Shannon McNally: A Change Is Gonna Come

One of Shannon's earliest albums is Run For Cover, an album of all cover songs. The songs on the album are:
1 A Change Is Gonna Come
2 It's all Over Now Baby Blue
3 I'd Rather Go Blind
4 Honest I Do
5 All My Tears
6 Bring It on Home
7 Going Back to Memphis
8 You Really Got A Hold On Me
9 Brother Worrier
10 Lowlands

Here's her version of "A Change Is Gonna Come" and while it is very good I'm not going to suggest it compares to Sam Cooke's version. But still it is very good and worth a listen.

I'm Tired of the Fine Print

I was trying to bundle my Mom's phone, internet, cell service and Direct TV all together and save her some money. Since my Dad died her income has slashed by over half, with his retirement and Social Security gone she's having to watch her spending. So I went to AT & T's home page, where you can bundle everything together to save money. The first part is getting phone service. I clicked on the local and long distance plan and it comes up in the right hand corner of the page with a big WHAT YOU PAY and tells you how much the plans costs so far. Than you go to internet and it adds in the amount for the plan you check, than cell and finally direct tv, until it gives you a final price for the package. I decided to call and talk to an operator too while I was looking online, since it wasn't my services I wanted to hear what was best. Well I clicked on the phone services and came up with a number that was about half of what she was paying now. Great I thought. No, the person on the other end of the phone told me, read the fine print...that doesn't include tax, wire line service, and a bunch of etc and etc. Well, if all that has to be included in the price, shouldn't that price with all this extras be what shows in the WHAT YOU PAY box? No, that's the fine print, she tried to explain it to me, but what it boils down to is that when you add all that fine print mumbo jumbo the price comes up to what she is currently paying. I don't know, to me this is all pretty jerky, it runs close to bait and switch as far as I'm concerned. It lets you think you're going to save all this money and get it at a great price and you end up almost paying twice what it shows you. All I know is I'm disgusted and upset that I couldn't help my Mom.

Shannon McNally: Waylon Jennings Song

She's learned who wrote this song since this video, she did it last week at her concert. Steve Jones wrote it she said.

The Man In Black

Well you wonder why I always dress in black

Why you never see bright colors on my back

And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone

Well there's a reason for the things that I have on

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down

Livin' in the hopeless hungry side of town

I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime

But is there because he's a victim of the times

I wear the black for those who've never read

Or listened to the words that Jesus said

About the road to happiness through love and charity

Why you'd think he's talking straight to you and me

Well we're doin' mighty fine I do suppose

In our streak of lightning cars and fancy clothes

But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back

Up front there oughta be a man in black

I wear it for the sick and lonely old

For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold

I wear the black in morning for the lives that could have been

Each week we lose a hundred fine young men

And I wear it for the thousands who have died

Believin' that the Lord was on their side

I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died

Believin' that we all were on their side

Well there's things that never will be right I know

And things need changin' everywhere you go

But till we start to make a move to make a few things right

You'll never see me wear a suit of white

Oh I'd love to wear a rainbow every day and tell the world that everything's okay

But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back

Till things're brighter I'm the man in black

The Best of The Johnny Cash TV Show

From 1969-1971 Johnny Cash hosted his own variety show on TV. Can you think of any tv show, than or even now, that would feature such diverse musical guests as George Jones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Dylan, Loretta Lyn, Derek and the Dominoes, Neil Young, Pete Seeger, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles....the list goes on and on. Now I wish they were put out the entire two seasons on DVD.

On a related note to show how dumb I am: they put out a two DVD set and a single DVD issue of the Best of. I grabbed the first DVD I saw and bought it, not even thinking about it. I ended up with the single disc set, when I want the double. Sometimes I don't really pay attention to what I'm doing.

Storm to be named later

According to sources:

"Most forecasters say that the storm will most likely come ashore with less than hurricane strength near the Louisiana-Mississippi border on Saturday morning — but they warn that this is a complex weather system and that it could still take a more southerly path that would leave it over warm Gulf waters, allowing it to intensify and strike more to the west."

But it's still too early to know for certain. These storms have a mind of their own and decide what they want regardless of what we wish.

Still Jumping From That Sinking Ship

"President George W. Bush lost another senior member of his administration on Thursday when Mike Johanns resig­ned as agriculture ­secretary."

- MSNBC

Senate Fun and Games

The Senate must not read the Constitution too often. I think they forgot about the part about Free Speech in those pesky ten add-ons. They recently voted to condemn MoveOn.org for an ad that the organization took out criticizing General Petraeus about the Iraq war.

They've set this vote up as a straw man to use against anyone that votes against it. Once again, if you say anything bad about the war in Iraq or the people running it you're immediately labeled as being against the troops. Hillary voted against it and is now being denounced as against the troops and anti-American. Last I checked it's pretty American to stand up against the status quo and question authority.

The Senate has enough time to vote against a newspaper ad, but when it comes time to really support the troops they're going to vote against the effort. Senator James Webb introduced a bill that would make sure the troops got the same amount of time away from the war in Iraq as they got in country, but the Senate didn't want to vote for that.

I guess the Senate is too busy trying to step on our rights for free speech to worry about the troops.

How Many Hours In A Day?

I know I keep saying I'm back and I have been blogging, but not quite as much as I used to. And I've got to kick start the Words-A-Day, Rock n Roll History and Book Fun back into gear. I enjoy doing those and it helps to get me posting on a daily basis. But truthfully, since my Dad died there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day. I'm not sure what's changed, but it seems I never have a spare moment. Today was my day off and from the moment I got up to now, after ten at night I haven't stopped. I laid down on the sofa this afternoon and feel asleep for about twenty minutes and than the phone rang which got me up and moving again. Plus I have a toothache, which I went to the dentist for today, but he said it's an old root canal and he has to send me to a specialist and they decide what needs to be done. Which I can't get in to see until Tuesday. Don't these people realize what a tooth-ACHE is? So I have a fun weekend to look forward to.

Not trying to whine here, just to let everyone know what's going on. I am getting back into the blog, it's just taking me a little longer and going a little slower than I thought it would. I try and visit some blogs whenever I get a chance, but I haven't been able to make my rounds quite as much as I'd like either.

I will make my visits soon and get some of my regular posts back to being regular soon. I promise.

Shannon McNally: Hombre

Shannon McNally: The Hard Way

Shannon McNally: This Ain't My Home

Shannon McNally Albums

Shannon McNally Concert

Continuing with the theme of this month I just got home about two hours ago from a Shannon McNally concert at the Parish at the House of Blues. The Parish is the room upstairs where the acts that can't sell out the main hall perform. Shannon was great tonight, singing her old stuff and quite a few numbers from her new but still unreleased album. One highlight from the new album, that is a great live song, is "Jack B. Nimble." So while I should be in bed at this hour I'm up finishing up my column for TopBlogMag and a story I'm writing for the new issue this week. Than I'm off to bed.