Scrambling

That’s what I’m doing these days—scrambling around trying to buy Christmas gifts and plan for all the festivities coming up and for some reason I have managed to schedule my annual physical exam for December (what was I thinking? I think it’s been slipping a month later each year since it used to be in March, near my birthday, so I could remember it!) But it’s today. Also my mammogram. Don’t you just love ‘em? I’m sure some guy invented the darn thing. But back to scrambling...

Last weekend a friend of mine from Memphis met his daughter in Jackson, Mississippi for the weekend. (She was there for a business trip.) He asked me for suggestions for entertainment, and I put him onto Hal and Mal’s… which has really good shrimp and oyster po boys and great down home music. Did I mention that the friend is Bill Stanek, a singer-songwriter himself?

Well, Saturday night at Hal and Mal’s a group called The Scramblers was playing, and when Bill got back to Memphis he emailed me to say that he and his daughter both thought the woman in the band looked like me, and wondered if it was a relative of mine down in Mississippi. He sent me a link to this picture.

And this closeup, and I thought oh, my gosh! My alter-ego! She really could be my younger sister, if I had one. Look at her face compared with me, when I was closer to her age. (left) Just imagine me in my wire rims.

Oh, here's one of me with a cowboy hat and glasses, which might show the resemblance a bit more, although I'm a few decades older (right).

I know what you’re thinking, that all those trips I’ve been making to Jackson haven’t really been to take of my 80-year-old mother with Alzheimer’s, that I’ve been using that as an excuse to jam with The Scramblers at Hal and Mal’s. In my dreams.

Sixteen days ‘til Christmas—hope everyone is enjoying peace on Earth and goodwill towards man while you’re out there in the crowds at the malls. Or maybe, like me, you’re opting for more online shopping and even the ever-beloved but oh-so-impersonal gift cards. I always love getting them, don’t you? And today, I’d be happy to get anything but a mammogram. But here I go….