Another story of Miracles, Mayhem & Friendship... with Johnny Cash thrown in!

Bob, Bob's caught from Wisconsin, Barb Keough & Pat Utter.

Some weeks are unable to be described…this was one of them again.  I am still without boiler...just stopping leaks right now as pipes froze like everything else in the cold world in Eaton. Anti freeze was good to 20 below..but it was 35 below without the wind chill!  The nights have been subzero for 2 weeks plus for the most part, but the cold is just half the story.

When asked how can someone cheat death…well ...here...I will explain. 

I was away from the house again when everything froze because there was no heat…we are talking far below zero...and I had little money to work with…but what would you do if a friend was dying and had no one with him?  The same friend (Bob Betz) I might add, who had inadvertently caused my pipes to freeze the first time because I was trying to help him and his furnace and pipes. (See blog link below)

So the second horrible week started with an early morning call and me rushing to Hamilton Hospital as Bob was taken there looking blue.  Yes and he then arrested in the emergency room.  He was so bad he was sent via Air One Helicopter to Syracuse…where he arrested 3 more times in the air and once on the ground.  I of course followed to Syracuse, and as I sat in his hospital room with him waiting for a family member to arrive, he was given zero chance of life and a doctor recommended pulling the plug. Which of course, I could not do…up to family.  I managed to call all his kids leave messages and then tried to reach my friend Barb to get some pellets and take them over to my house…I was out, and woodstove was only real heat without them and that would be out when I got home…and I had none in reserve.

As the day wore on his son arrived and finally I was on my way home in the freezing sub zero evening…my friend Barb was still there had managed to find pellets (most stores were out) drag the heavy pellet bags in house and get some in the stove.  She was also trying to revive the fire…with wet wood.  Of course it was wet… I was not home and did not get wood in from the huge pile of wood dumped (finally) prior to the huge wind and snow and subzero night of the days before. (See other blog) As I recounted the story to all of the members of our museum group via the phone, I said a prayer to Mother Cope for both he and another members son with cancer.  A short time later Bob's son called from the hospital and said his father just woke up, and wrote him a note…and the Doctors could not believe it!  Hmmm…Drs.?... Hmmm Mother Cope?

So back to work trying to stay alive...boiler repair in frigged temperatures - as boiler is outside in attached shed…chopping wood out of ice and snow…and praying we (my cat & a few homeless ones) can stay warm enough…41 inside the house one night.  I was also trying to prepare for a lecture in Syracuse on Monday, money I really needed. 

After getting things together cleaning all the filters, nozzle etc, (water in fuel...I won’t say where I bought it…but their pump froze!) I drove off to Hamilton and Blue Ox to buy clean Kero.  The roads were dry except for a few patches…it was sunny and cold… and then… BAM!  My plastic car was hit by wind in a whiteout and spun into a ditch.  I got out as if nothing happened…sat in a Sherriff’s car until a friend and tow truck arrived…  So now I had no money, no heat,  and the totaled car is worth nothing. Ah me!

So my friend Barb offered to drive me to Solvay the next day so I could make the money…I offered to cancel…”NO WAY” she said.  Of course, that was Monday and she and I were trapped on the highway at 20 miles per hour in the worst road conditions I have seen in Syracuse in years.  We had no way to turn back so we went on to the library where I was to speak, and there we found three wonderful members who had patiently waited for us…of course the talk was cancelled! 

We all talked and laughed about my week...waiting out the storm and waiting for the plows.  We actually had a good time as I recounted my week and they prepaid me for the lecture, which will be rescheduled to March.

We made it back to house where the fire was out and cold, but we were safe as Barb is a good driver… although she looked 5 years older because of the drive.

So the cold continues, car is gone, I still have another baseboard radiator to replace, wood is still wet but drying by stove, house is still cold but warmer… car it totaled.  But on the bright side I have water to the toilet and bathroom sink…food in refrigerator…coffee in my cup and a computer to write this… However I am alone on another Sunday Coming Down! (See other blog for more details - http://backstreetmary.blogspot.com/2015/01/kris-kristofferson-johnny-cash-nys.html) And laugh!

Ahhhh...life is good…right?

Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, the NYS Police, and the freezing cold on this Sunday morning coming down!

What a week…like many before in someway…yet like none before in others.  The temperature here at my house, which is one of the lowest houses on the street, was far below zero every night including last night.  The man who was paid to deliver me wood, and owed me wood, kept promising to show up but never did.  I have been hand to mouthing it trying to keep warm, having to stay up most nights to put in a piece of wood here, a little kerosene there.

I had to pick my friend Bob up from the Crouse Community Center supposedly to take him home…. We got to his house at temperatures with wind chill far below zero, only to find his furnace out and everything frozen.   So back he went to the nursing home and I tried to get someone to get the furnace running and find out what was going on with the plumbing. 

To add to this nightmare I parking my car and Barb’s at a friendly neighbors empty driveway, so they wouldn’t be in the wood deliver’s way when he backed his truck in.

I was unsuspecting that some crazy neighbor (Who did not recognize the cars and although I have  lived here for thirty years?) would call the owner reporting that we were there and the shed door was open...so the owner called the police. "Thieves?"

So two handsome NYS Troopers were dragged to Eaton to find two old ladies…old Back Street Mary and Back Street Barb pulling out to go… as once again the woodman called and said sorry he wasn’t coming.  After a chat we were off…”they let us off the hook” to go the store to try and buy food and kerosine for the second time… since that morning when I went to the store, I found that my debit card had been cancelled.  No not because of being short of funds, but because I had requested a new card as mine was having trouble swiping.

All in all it was not my best week….frozen pipes…40 degree temperatures inside the house, no food, trying to get heat and water to another house...Yikes!

So even though it was below zero last night…I got the old woodstove revved (he finally delivered wood) and fell asleep for a bit between stockings….ahh!!!

Kris Kristofferson

So when I woke up this morning I had a song running around in my head…”Sunday Morning Coming Down”…  Since it was too cold to drink beer and I don’t do drugs I found it curious…but the words were right as I sat here…”Nothing like a Sunday…to make a body feel alone!”  Yes!  So I was off on my next history quest!

The song was written by Kris Kristofferson in 1969 and was released by another singer, Ray Stevens.  Later Kris released it himself on his first album…there it was heard and picked up by legendary Johnny Cash who recorded it after singing it on his TV show, he made it part of a live album he did.  Cash won the Country Music Award with his rendition that year and he kept it in his repertoire ever after.

It is said that during an interview years later Kristofferson remarked that doors were opened for him with that song, and that its success allowed him to quit working and obviously go on to a great career as an artist and songwriter!  Yes I am singing it Sunday morning coming down!

(Did you know Kris  earned a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University?)

"Sing along!"

Lyrics Well I woke up Sunday morning, With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt. And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad, So I had one more for dessert. Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes, And found my cleanest dirty shirt. An' I shaved my face and combed my hair, An' stumbled down the stairs to meet the day. I'd smoked my brain the night before, On cigarettes and songs I'd been pickin'. But I lit my first and watched a small kid, Cussin' at a can that he was kicking. Then I crossed the empty street, 'n caught the Sunday smell of someone fryin' chicken. And it took me back to somethin', That I'd lost somehow, somewhere along the way. On the Sunday morning sidewalk, Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned. 'Cos there's something in a Sunday, Makes a body feel alone. And there's nothin' short of dyin', Half as lonesome as the sound, On the sleepin' city sidewalks: Sunday mornin' comin' down. In the park I saw a daddy, With a laughin' little girl who he was swingin'. And I stopped beside a Sunday school, And listened to the song they were singin'. Then I headed back for home, And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringin'. And it echoed through the canyons,  Like the disappearing dreams of yesterday. On the Sunday morning sidewalk, Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned. 'Cos there's something in a Sunday, Makes a body feel alone. And there's nothin' short of dyin', Half as lonesome as the sound, On the sleepin' city sidewalks: Sunday mornin' comin' down.