February 25th

George already has a picture somewhere on this blog, but it's his birthday today, so we'll give him another. Actually, there's some uncertainty as to whether Feb 25 is his birthday or not. He said once that he thought it might have been the 24th. I guess it doesn't really matter when or if you celebrate your birthday, so we'll say it's the 25th.

Back to George...he would have been 64 today. He was the ugly Beatle, but in my opinion, the second most talented. I rather like listening to his guitar solos, and some of his songs weren't half bad. The funny thing about the songs he wrote is they were either really good (like Something, or While My Guitar Gently Weeps, or Here Comes the Sun) or really not so good (like Blue Jay Way, and Only a Northern Song, and I Want To Tell You). George died at age 58 on November 29, 2001. His death was ascribed to lung cancer that had metastasised to the brain (thanks Wikipedia!) I remember hearing about his death on the radio either that day or the next while getting dressed to go to school. It was a sad day.

I was reminded that George's birthday was coming up because I found my Rubber Soul CD that Melissa burned for me on February 25th, 2005. I remember that day as if it were yesterday. I went to Michelle's basketball game with her family, and afterwords we went out to eat at Golden Corral. I sat across from David and Melissa and watched them talk to their aunt and uncle about politics, and some dentist somewhere that has his office decked out in Star Trek stuff. I remember thinking to myself that Natalie had told me about the very same guy. Michelle had hurt her ankle in the game that night, so she was a bit limpy and unable to play foot tag with me in the parking lot. Again, it was a sad day, but perhaps she was happy for the excuse. I also discovered that night that David is really good at that game, even with sandals.

Melissa didn't give that CD to me until Feb 26. That was a sad day too, because the Lady Miners lost to Layton in the state championship final. It was the first game I had ever seen Bingham lose. After it was over, the team's families waited for over an hour to meet them outside the locker room. I occupied myself by watching David and his cousin run around chasing each other with invisible guns. It was also during this wait that Melissa bestowed upon me probably the best of all the Beatles albums.

After muchos tears and hugs went around when the girls came out, Michelle's parents took her grandparents out to the car, and her siblings walked her to the bus. It was really cool to observe, actually. I looked over to see just Daniel, Jonathan, Melissa, David, and Michelle walking and talking together. I bet that doesn't happen much these days. Anyways, I took Michelle's place for a bit and rode home with her siblings. They drove to KFC to grab some stuff to take home, and formed a "No Chicken Left Behind Pact" in the car to make sure no food would be wasted. Melissa had run 23 miles that day, and her knees being sore became evident when David and I tried to include her in our backseat game of Tag, You're It. When we got back to the ranch, we ate dinner and watched 101 Dalmations with the chilluns. A friend came by the house to take Melissa and David to see Hitch, and she gave me a ride home on their way out.

Wow. I didn't mean for this to be a boring journal-like type entry about days gone by, but that's the turn it took. Some things just stick in the brain. The moral of the post was going to be: No matter how good you are at the guitar, don't smoke. It'll getcha.