BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.

Subject: BS: MudKat LaughingTavern special opening
From: GUEST,LTS on an android
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 03:27 PM

Dear friends,

I've been away for a while so I don't know how the old Tavern has fared - the smell would suggest that someone at least has fed the squid regularly...

Today, however, I am opening up the doors, windows, cellar, bar, attic, space/time portal and the Rainbow Gate to the Other Place for one very special lady.

We never met in person, but I know we would have been friends if we had. She had the biggest heart, the warmest smile and the greatest wisdom, coupled with the most generous nature and loving personality of any I have met online.

So... the bar is open, the squid has been provided with fresh jello, there's a row of instruments waiting to be played and a candle burning in the window. It's cool, fresh and comfy inside so come on in and join me, whichever time zone you are in, whichever continent you are on, raise your voices and your glasses to the heavens and give thanks for the life of Kat Laughing.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: KT
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 03:33 PM

"...and give thanks for the life of Kat Laughing"

Hear, hear!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 03:38 PM

Well, it has been years since I've been in the Tavern.
Here is a toast to Kat Laughing, at peace and free from pain.

Alice

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 03:39 PM

Cheers!...Bottoms up!

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: ClaireBear
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 03:42 PM

Oh, thank goodness someone's here. I can't begin to express how much I need a Mudgather today. And a song circle. And a good cry. And a glass of something refreshing. Not necessarily in that order...

Here's to Kat.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 03:49 PM

I will be back here later, when it's time for the Belter ceremonial drunk.

I am more distressed than I would have thought possible at the loss of someone I never met. I was surprised at my reaction to Lady Diana's death, but this is way more personal.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Nancy King
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 04:13 PM

What Mrrzy said.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: jacqui.c
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 04:46 PM

Raising a glass to my friend right now.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: frogprince
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 04:49 PM

When I saw this thread, I instinctively knew what it would be. It's a nice way to share our feelings. I can only think of a couple of times before in my life when I've actually wept for someone I had not met in person.
Kat sent us that collection of old cowboy songs she put on CD years ago; I linked her to This, and she expressed her enjoyment of it on a couple of occasions. Just sang it for her.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 04:59 PM

ClaireBear: "...I need a Mudgather today. And a song circle. And a good cry. And a glass of something refreshing. Not necessarily in that order..."

".....And a good cry...." This ones from me....and a half hour long.

I performed this at a concert, and the lady next to Joy, (my sweetheart), began crying. Joy noticed it, and looked at her, several times then asked, "Are you okay".

She replied, "My husband of 37 years, died about a year ago. This is so beautiful...it's the first time I've ever been able to cry since." (True story!)

So here's to you, Claire...somehow we struck a resonate chord.

The piece wasn't intentionally a 'sad' one....but it does get 'inside'! (read the notes, you'll understand.)

Cheers!....until we meet again!

Guest from Sanity

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 05:13 PM

Pour me... oh ... I don't care. Make it something that will help me sing in spite of the tears... Kat would like us to keep singing...

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: ClaireBear
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 05:28 PM

Wow, GfS. That's some wonderful, powerful work there. Just beginning my listening journey -- and as it does its work for me, I'll confide in you that I've been unable to cry for two years, through ending my marriage, losing my house to fire, finding and losing love, and now this. Deep thanks for sharing it.

Production-wise, it's at the opposite end of the spectrum, but here's my humble offering for Kat -- a song that wrote itself under my guidance many years ago, mostly out of thoughts gleaned from the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

As its last line says: "May we love and laugh and sing together; may we live forever, may we live forever."

Your health!
Claire

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: ranger1
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 05:45 PM

I just need a hug, a good cry, some single malt, and the company of friends. I will process later, when I'm not playing host to my nephew.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 06:02 PM

Bob Franke's Thanksgiving Eve is a song I liked to sing to honor special friends who have crossed the bar. Since my heart-healthy diet won't allow me to have more than one drink with you, let me sing while the rest of you raise a glass to Good Old Kat:

What can you do with your days
But work and hope
Let your dreams bind your work to your play
What can you do with each moment of your life
But love 'till you've loved it away
Love 'till you've loved it away.

She lived that well, didn't she? Farewell, Kat.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 06:03 PM

When my brother died two years ago this past March all I could think of -- a mindworm, if you will -- was this. Turn your speakers all the way up.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 06:04 PM

Oh, yeah -- GROG!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: LilyFestre
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 06:14 PM

I have no songs to offer as I am not a singer and I no longer play tunes on my fiddle so I'll just sit here near the candle and remember.

LuvYaKat!

XOXOXOXO

LuvYaLily

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: GUEST,DOH!
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 06:59 PM

Posted this through my tears in the wrong thread. Guess I'll do a copy and paste after I have joined in the toast.
SINS

---

Moved it, then saw you'd posted it there, so deleted it. If you want me to do anything else, please say so. Hugs, J

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 07:09 PM

Down the hill behind the Tavern, a creek rushes through a crowd of cottonwoods which whisper among themselves in the warm summer breeze. If you wend your way through the trees, you'll come to a large oval rock that looks like nothing so much as a fresh loaf of baked bread, still warm from the sun's oven. if you pause here and wait, at the moment just before you have given up, you'll hear the distant sound of a mountain dulcimer. Turn your head slowly until you have determined from which direction it has come, and then go toward it.

You can't be in a hurry, as nothing worth finding is ever found while in a hurry. If you follow the sound through the course of a long afternoon, the music will find you, and that is just as it should be. And when it finds you, it will lead your steps down along a cool stone path to a small half-timbered cottage overgrown and tangled in roses, ivy, and fragrant wisteria. You can try the door, and you will find it open, and within it there is an old wooden rocker with cat sleeping on it's padded seat. As you enter in and are enveloped in an atmosphere of fragrant herbs, the cat will surely hear your tread, and disappear into room's dark corner. And now you will have the pleasure of resting in the rocker, and if you are lucky the music will grow some louder, and the cat will slowly creep toward you, it's purring like a soft chant against the melody. Close your eyes, stay very still, and you will feel the sudden light pressure of the animal on your lap, it's purring like the whirl of the stream over the rocks, or the leaves brushing each other in cottonwood trees.

And some very lucky wanderer, who has followed the music with a gentle and joyful heart, will hear, like a summer rain starting on a moss-covered roof, between the flutter of the dulcimer notes and the cat's purring, the light patter of soft and distant laughter.

Leej

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 07:13 PM

Well, phooey. I have started several posts and erased every one of them.

Just give me a beer. I'm drinkin' hearty tonight.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: ranger1
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 08:07 PM

The song that ran through my head when my dad passed: When I Go

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Bert
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 08:23 PM

I will be singing HER song.
Pour me a whisky and leave the bottle, tonight I get drunk.


"That's not my Colorado
With the blue skies up above,
That's not my Colorado,
Where the school ran with blood.

That's not my Colorado
Where my parents grew up proud
That's not my Colorado
Senseless killing was not allowed.

Colorado was the beauty
Of the Rocky Mountains high
Colorado was the quiet
Of the river's gentle sigh.

Colorado meant a home to me
And now, I know it not
That's not my Colorado
Where the children felt the shot."

kathleen lafrance 4-20-99

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: MMario
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 08:43 PM

Pour me something, I don't care what - as long as it is large and really really strong.

oh damn.

And that Morgan thought to post to mudcat...

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Janie
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 09:35 PM

I know this. Kat was not existentially afraid. Whether Kat still existentially is or isn't, she still is not afraid. It occurs to me that as long as her influence lives, she existentially "is." Love the songs folks are "singing." Keep them coming!

A bit of fluff to make you chuckle, Kat. In and Out Cat Song

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: gnu
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 09:42 PM

Thanks kat. Yer one a tha good ones.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 09:45 PM

Change for the jukebox? I wanna play "One for my Baby (And One More for the Road)" - Billie Holiday's version.

And four fingers of Four Roses. Hell, just bring me a glass and the bottle.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 09:46 PM

She lived beside the Anner at the foot of Slievenaman,
A gentle peasant girl with mild eyes like the dawn.
Her lips were dewy rosebuds, her teeth of pearls rare,
And a snowdrift 'neath a beechen bough Her neck and nut-brown hair.

How pleasant was to meet her on Sunday when the bell
Was filling with its mellow tones lone wood and grassy dell.
And when at evening when young maidens strayed the river bank along
The widow's brown-haired daughter was loveliest of the throng.

Ah, cold and well nigh callous this weary heart has grown
For thy helpless fate, dear Ireland, and for sorrows of my own
Yet a tear my eye will moisten when by Anner side I stray
For the lily of the mountain foot that withered far away.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 09:53 PM

For Katlaughing, you, darlin', at the foot of the mountain.

http://youtu.be/nP8NUvvu5J8

Alice in Montana

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: GUEST,alison
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 09:57 PM

haven't been in this tavern for years - but today it seems like the perfect place to be to raise a glass to an old mudcat friend.

Pick up that low whistle Mick - I'll duet with you on "Hold me close".

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 09:57 PM

did something I rarely ever ever do ... got some Jack Daniels ... pass over your glass and I will pour you a tall one for our Kat ...

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 10:38 PM

This is my first time inside the tavern. I don't know what I'll drink. I do know that a lot of the drinks tonight are going to taste salty. It's all the tears, you know.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 10:52 PM

Four Roses? That can only be one guy, and wouldn't Kat be tickled that Blake was here.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 11:01 PM

I'll have some of that wine -- the stuff that's in the cask in the basement, the stuff served at Cana, the good stuff. About a gallon would be almost enough.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 11:05 PM

A jigger of a smoky Scotch, something I haven't had much of lately. In our mutual cheering threads (the "de-clutter" ones) Kat reported a lot of everyday things that I will miss so much. We have personal goals we are working toward, and offered each other support and sometimes a shoulder to cry on.

There were many family members mentioned in her posts. I just looked back to June and see mention of her brother helping to weed her garden. Rog, her daughters, Morgan, the dogs and cats, and there were all of those posts years ago about her father. Would that she had been so lucky as to live as long as he, if it could be pain free.

Her favorite stone was Amethyst. I discovered it by accident, when she spoke about feeling "purple" regarding pain versus energy to approach the day. I thought about purple and decided a small pendant would help her focus. I think her response made me feel as good or better than that small stone made her feel. She could do that for people.

Of all the money that e'er I spent
I've spent it in good company
And all the harm that ever I did
Alas it was to none but me
And all I've done for want of wit
To memory now I can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all

If I had money enough to spend
And leisure to sit awhile
There is a fair maid in the town
That sorely has my heart beguiled
Her rosy cheeks and ruby lips
I own she has my heart enthralled
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all

Oh, all the comrades that e'er I had
They're sorry for my going away
And all the sweethearts that e'er I had
They'd wish me one more day to stay
But since it falls unto my lot
That I should rise and you should not
I'll gently rise and softly call
Good night and joy be with you all

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Janie
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 11:47 PM

cut out the promo, huncle phred. Just go on and play!
She'll be an angel by and by....

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Janie
Date: 23 Jul 13 - 12:10 AM

Sail on, Miss Kitty. You always will in my heart and the hearts of many.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Bert
Date: 23 Jul 13 - 12:33 AM

OK everyone. OUTSIDE NOW. We are all going to howl at the moon for our beloved Katlaughing.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Jul 13 - 12:46 AM

hooowllll

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 23 Jul 13 - 12:48 AM

Shhhhh...which one of you three am I talking to?..you all look the same...

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Janie
Date: 23 Jul 13 - 12:57 AM

Hooowlll.....

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 23 Jul 13 - 12:57 AM

This old beer tastes like cat piss! It's OK, it's OK, I'll drink it anyway.....

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Bert
Date: 23 Jul 13 - 03:00 AM

It's the little things that get you.

Many months ago Kat posted a message about how a blind friend of hers taught her to feel if dishes were clean by touching them with her hands.

Well everything I ever needed to know I learned at Mudcat, so now when I do the dishes I run my hands over them to feel if they are clean. And of course every time I do this I think of Katlaughing.

Kat, you are going to be with me for a long time.

And then there's this howling at the moon thing. One time I told Kat that I often go out and howl at the moon and she said that so does she. So we had this kind of unspoken pact, that when there was a full moon we would go out and howl at it and think of each other.

As long as there's a moon in the sky, there will always be a Katlaughing.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Bert
Date: 23 Jul 13 - 03:01 AM

Can I cry again now?

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: MBSLynne
Date: 23 Jul 13 - 03:33 AM

Hello everyone. Haven't been in here for a year or two. Still looks the same though. Pour me a large sloe gin with ice please. Here's to KatLaughing. May your forward journey be peaceful but at the same time exciting. New things before you and no pain.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: Fossil
Date: 23 Jul 13 - 03:58 AM

And mine will be a nice dark Guinness with a Jameson chaser. Too many have passed this year, there are fewer of us and we are all diminished.

Oh well, at least the music is still there. Cheers Kat! Never met you, but I liked you...

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: GUEST,LTS on an android
Date: 23 Jul 13 - 04:02 AM

Good to see so many people stopping by,

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: fat B****rd
Date: 23 Jul 13 - 05:22 AM

Kat sent me her love and good wishes in my post about Ann's (my wife) transplant. That's all I need to know about a wonderful lady. I will be raising a glass of Lamb's Navy.
Charlie

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: ranger1
Date: 23 Jul 13 - 06:40 AM

I didn't know about the howling at the full moon thing, but I did notice that she left us shortly after moonset on a full moon. And it seemed appropriate somehow.

Poem for Kat

Last night the moon rose
Big and yellow in the sky.
Bright silver, she set again
And you followed her home.

I know you'll never leave us
I know you're free as the wind
You've cast off earthly bonds
And you're off following the moon

You'll visit in the night
Traveling on the wind
And dancing in the shadows
Cast by the moon's silver light

TB 7/22/13

It's not all that and a bag of chips, but I don't think it's finished yet, either.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Jul 13 - 08:04 AM

Seamus - that old beer is piss. Old Dude is deep into the JD and was using that stein rather than stumbling off to the gents. Sorry...but I suspect it's not the first time.
Now, Dude. It is 24 hours and I am feeling a bit better. Pass the JD and screw the gout!
SINS

By the way, if I hear one line of Candle In The Wind I will take out the offender.
M

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Tavern special opening.
From: MMario
Date: 23 Jul 13 - 09:13 AM

If anyone is getting peckish I threw the last haunch of brontosaurus into a low oven last night with some really great sauce and the pulled dino should be ready in a few minutes....

Do you think 800lbs or so will be enough?