Celebrating my ties to "terrorists"

I've been whining about it in private, but I should send out some thanks in public. Today is my birthday. Double nickels on the dime. I am 55. That seems old to me. I am prepared to age, to change and even to die someday, but I'm not prepared to be 55. I've only had 55 years to prepare for this, give me some more time.

There are two alarming facts connected with my 55th birthday. First, if I manage to make it all of the way to the American statistical average, I've only got 19 more years. I can remember when 19 years seemed like an awfully long time, but that was an awfully long time ago. Second, if I'm 55, then punk rock really is music for old people. You can't do this to me! These young whippersnappers coming up today don't know the first thing about being young rebels. They've got it all wrong. Besides, I still own the franchise on being a young rebel. Actually let me check the papers on that, I might have let them expire.

Really, I need to take the time to thank some lovely people. I especially need to thank my friend Dear Kitty. Kitty has got to be one of the most prolific bloggers on Earth. I've known her since the days of my long defunct blog, The Weblog of Wonders. Kitty recently gave me "Brillante Award". I don't know what it means, but I've got to take it as a compliment. Kitty is so thoroughly anonymous in her postings that I'm not really sure she's a woman. I do know she's a poet a naturalist and a friend of justice. I also know that her band once opened for Crass, back in the long ago and the far away. Pretty cool.

I also need to thank my friend Jack from Lake County, the pipe bomb capital of California. Jack is one of the few people I know in real life who also reads this blog regularly. He never comments, but he calls me up at odd hours and refers to things that he's read here. Always a pleasure to hear from you Jack.

Also, I can't thank Ib from SiblingShot on the Bleachers enough. Ib is always friendly, always offers encouragement and is always appreciative of every little effort on my part. I am very pleased that Ib wrote me a poem for my birthday. What a great guy.

Finally I need to thank John McCain for reminding me of my old friend, Neil Sealy. Neil was a pal, a drinking buddy and a co-conspirator back in Indiana. Of my closest friends from those days, Neil is the only one left alive. What does Neil have to do with John McCain? Well, Neil has gone on to be the Arkansas organizer for Acorn, a "terrorist" organization that does things like register poor people to vote and get them organized into unions. Good work brother, keep up the "terrorism".

There's a bunch of other bloggers I should be thanking more often: Mike Whybark, RJ from Nightlight, David from Bus Driving, Stacy from Hagar's Daughters, Frank from Ex Con Alcoholic's Struggle, not to mention BFP, Mick Farren and of course, Mr. Beer N. Hockey from Dope City Free Press. I'm sure I've forgotten some other people. Put it down to senile dementia.

That's just the folks I want to thank on the internet. Stay tuned tomorrow for a giant gratitude fest. I'll be so choked up I might forget my little blog persona and forget to say "fuck".

In the meantime, let's have some more Merle Travis.

I've never quite gotten it down to "no regrets".