The More Things Change...

Home for the holidays and what an interesting experience that is.

You know that old saying, "you can never go home"?

While its true to a point (time marches on, the river continually flows and we can never cast our net into the exact same river again) I think there must be some middle ground, somewhere between "never" and "always".

The past doesn't just dissappear - elements remain - only they're mixed in with the here-and-now so that a strange hybrid results. And that's what makes for the off-kilter sensation - being lulled in by the familiar, only to have the familiar spun on its ear. Like a dream.

Dekalb is like that for me, at least right now...

Right now I am hanging at Dad's place (under remodel for the past ten years and known, tongue-in-cheek, as "Palatial Estates") listening to my Dad's oldest and best friend, Bruce, play the guitar.

Bruce can pick up just about anything and start playing, but he tends to focus on one instrument at a time - currently the lead guitar. As I write this, he is laying down a bluesy riff and ever-so-slightly f*cking with the playback so it sounds almost backmasked.

Back when Bruce still owned the place, he gutted the place and hired Dad to do the remodel. There was a big hole in the living room floor, going down to the basement, and crap all over the place, but Bruce would sit in a chair, non-plussed, and thump out a funky bass beat. Once in a while, after Dad was done for the day, we'd sit around, drink beer, and listen.

Then Bruce got the wanderlust and after his kids were old enough, he sold the place to Dad for a song (not literally) and started moving around. First New Mexico, then California, and then London, to be closer to his daughter. We didn't hear much from him and weren't even sure we'd see him again.

Yet here we are, Christmas time, and I am sitting here listening to Bruce play. He's only here until his next sojourn, "Honolulu, maybe" and its the lead guitar he's playing - but I am sitting here listening to him play.

And I don't know when I will see him again.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Merry Effin' X-mas!