"oh no, not again"

News from the home front: Suddenly, over the past week, Grandma has gone from being somewhat old-agedly losing track of conversations from time to time and forgetting where she's put stuff &c. to utterly gone behavior--paranoia, fighting (my grandma? Fighting *anyone*?!?), wandering around in the middle of the night, etc. She was taken to the hospital over the weekend, they found nothing wrong (though didn't look very hard), and now is back again, as her doctor suspects there *has* to be some physical cause to trigger this quick a downslide. Where she is refusing to eat, because "they" are trying to kill her. She recognizes Mom, but doesn't want her to stick around because "they" might get her, too.

So, yes, may need to make sudden trip to Ohio. I am not as fashed about the idea that it's Grandma's time--I mean, she's been pretty much ready since Grandpa died, and has just been patiently finishing out her shift, and I've had some while to resign myself--but I HATE HATE HATE HATE that she's not to be permitted to go with the dignity she has always possessed in life.

Less-than-Instant Concert Review: The Hoodoo Gurus

A week ago Sunday (that's the 9th, for them as don't obsessively have Google Calendar open), we went to see the Hoodoo Gurus at Maxwell's. You may not have heard of them. Because why? Because they're an Australian band from the 80s, mostly. I hadn't heard of them before moving in with Steve, Your Source For Curiously Obscure Rock. Indeed, they broke up in 1998. And what where they doing in some wee bar in Hoboken? I have no clue, and it was the sheerest serendipity that I discovered it. A timely browse of Wikipedia => their web site => Y HELO THAR, tour info!

And so we went, and it was good. No: it was Awesome. They seriously rocked the house. And at the start, Dave-the-lead-singer apologized because they were only going to play stuff from their first two albums. (I rejoiced, because those are the only ones I have. Nor did the rest of the audience seem woeful.) A small bit of sadness was that they did not play two of my favorite cuts from Stoneage Romeos ("Tojo" and "Zanzibar") but they played damn near everything else, so I can't complain.

Awesome, yes, and very likely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So glad I seized the chance.

ObCute: Directly in front of me were a group of some half-dozen youngish Australians, who were excitedly phoning their buds in Sydney in the "Guess what WE'RE doing right now!" fashion.