Song Challenge: Get Well, Aine!

Subject: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: SharonA
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 10:39 AM

Amos says I've been elected to start this thread, since I asked if such a thread existed yet. There are details of Áine's long recovery from surgery, and some dental setbacks, on the following threads:

Áine Springs Forth (or is that Back?)

BS: - Mmm Not! Is Aine Okay?

...but here are a couple of details, from the "Mmm Not" thread:

On April 14, kat said: "Okay, just got off of the phone with Aine. She has not been well, but is getting better. She had an infection in one of her teeth. Went in for a root canal about two weeks ago and they couldn't finish it because the infection was so bad and her roots so high. So...she's been on antibiotics to kill the bacteria and steroids to reduce the swelling. She goes back to finish the root canal on Thursday. In the meantime, her inner ear and sinuses are so swollen, she is basically bedridden due to vertigo, ringing in her ears, and nausea. But, as she assured me, it IS better than it was! All good thoughts, prayers, etc. are welcome and appreciated."

On April 15, Amos said: "She is gradually getting better -- but the combination of significant surgery [for a herniated disk], with anaesthesia, serious sinus infection and root canal operation has left her pretty battered, understandably. She can still laugh, though, given the right provocation! She's awful tired of being sore. Plus there was Spring break which added to the pressures. She's pulling through slowly but surely, I think..."

So here's the Song Challenge: write a get-well song to give Áine "the right provocation" to laugh! No Cow Chips to be awarded here; the only prize will be the easing of Áine's recovery with some giggles. Have at it, fellow Challenge!rs!!!

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: SharonA
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 11:11 AM

Copied from the "Mmm Not! thread:

From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15-Apr-02 - 10:57 AM

On a rocky hill in Texas there's a patch of Irish green,
Where the Irish tongue is spoken, by an Irish cowboy queen,
And she held a distant kingdom in a score of distant lands
Where she set our pens a-racing when she issued her commands

Now Áine, sure we need you, cry the Mudcat's frozen tongues
Where are the threads you wove us, to make us write our songs?
We'd be fighting away like ferrets, about any damn old thing
Then she'd step out with a story, and she'd challenge us to sing.

Well it might be something comic, and it might be something strange,
Where you'd think to write a song on that you'd need to be deranged
But from all around the planet while you count from one to ten
The songs would trickle through the wires, and she'd done it once again.

Now Áine, sure we need you, cry the Mudcat's frozen tongues
Where are the threads you wove us, to make us write our songs?
We'd be fighting away like ferrets, about any damn old thing
Then she'd step out with a story, and she'd challenge us to sing.

But she took a pick and shovel ,
To make a Texas garden for the poppies and the greens


(More to come?)

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 11:40 AM

There is - that slipped out on the Get Well thread when I pushed the wrong button somehow.

Anyway, here's a more considered version. (I was thinking of Bobby Sands' song McIlhatton as I wrote it. The one about a notable poteen maker.)

On a rocky hill in Texas there's a patch of Irish green,
Where the Irish tongue is spoken, by an Irish cowboy queen,
And she held a distant kingdom in a score of distant lands
Where she set our pens a-racing when she issued her commands
Now Áine, sure we need you, cry the Mudcat's frozen tongues
Where are the threads you wove us, to make us write our songs
We'd be fighting there like ferrets, about any damn old thing
Then she'd step out with a story, and she'd challenge us to sing.

Well it might be something comic, and it might be something strange,
Where you'd think to write a song on that you'd need to be deranged
But from all around the planet while you count from one to ten
The songs would trickle through the wires, and she'd done it once again.
Now Áine, sure we need you, cry the Mudcat's frozen tongues
Where are the threads you wove us, to make us write our songs
We'd be fighting there like ferrets, about any damn old thing
Then she'd step out with a story, and she'd challenge us to sing.

But she took a pick and shovel and she swung it like a fiend,
To make a Texas garden for the poppies and the greens
And she swung that pickaxe breaking rocks, like the men who built the West,
But John Henry could have told her, there's a time to take a rest.
Now Áine, sure we need you, cry the Mudcat's frozen tongues
Where are the threads you wove us, to make us write our songs
We'd be fighting there like ferrets, about any damn old thing
Then she'd step out with a story, and she'd challenge us to sing.

Now Áine, take it easy, we'll be waiting here for you
And Áine take it easy, though that's hard enough to do
There'll be songs galore to greet you, and stories we can share
And when you're good and ready, you'll have some for us to hear.
Now Áine, sure we miss you, cry the Mudcat's frozen tongues
Where are the threads you wove us, to make us write our songs
We'll give over with our fighting, we'll be gentle, meek and mild,
Till you'll step out with a story, and you'll drive us all half wild

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: MMario
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 12:09 PM

okay - I know this isn't much of a "get well" song - but between one thing or another lately - not the least of which was news of Aine's renewed/ongoing health problems this is what came out:

CORINTHIANS 13,2002

If I could be a child again, If my viewing glass were clear;
Would charity enlarge my world, Ease the pain of those held dear?
Face to face is a child's grace, Out of sight is out of mind
Why does knowledge have to hurt, before true peace we find?

I daily speak with many tongues, by wire the world is wound;
and music through the aether, as a gong or cymbal sounds.

With Prophecies the angels speak, of friends both near and far,
And the tears flow down in sympathy, as I wish upon a star

chorus

My world is so much larger, then it was when I was small,
And yet 'tis so much smaller, now that I have grown so tall
Was ignorance so truly bliss, when you tell me of your pain,
There's nothing that I wouldn't give, to free you of that strain.

chorus

Miracles may happen, you hear tell every day,
Can't a few please happen, for friends along the way?
Let the voices I have come to hear, in the chorus that is life
Be raised in laughter and in joy, not discord or in strife.

chorus

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 04:29 PM

Now has that one got a tune yet, Mmario? It's worth singing.

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: MMario
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 04:32 PM

sorta - I've been running it thorugh my head - but since I'm at work haven't been able to vocalize. And my printing is down - but I *WILL* try to get this audible for Paltalk and/or a cassette.

and now I see I "thtuterred" when I thpelled Corinthians.

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: GUEST,Irish Sergeant
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 06:22 PM

Get well Aine.

The eyes of Mudcat are upon you/ So get well Aine, get well./ The eyes of mudcat are upon you 'cause we only wish you well./ We'll keep 'catting beacasue we're troupers but it just ain't the same with out you/ So get well aine down in Texas or we're all gonna come and stay with you!

Best I can do on short notice. Sung to the eyes of Texas and meant in a most loving and humorous vein (Didn't Dracul say that?) Kindest regards, neil

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 07:50 PM

"we're all gonna come and stay with you!" - well if I ever heard of a better get well incentive than that...

Anyway here's a link to that song I did up there which I've just put on my website, with chords - "A Rocky Hill in Texas - and here is a rough and ready RealAudio rendering. (Though I wrote it with McIlhatton in ind, thta'snot the tune I used here.)

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Amos
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 07:58 PM

LOL!!! This is too rich!!! You guys are champs.

Thanks,. Sharon, for rising to the dare!! You're super!

A

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Amos
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 08:32 PM

She's definitely on the mend fighting her way upward although still wrassling with pain. When I told her about this thread she actually chortled!! She says she'll be over to read it as soon as she can sit up comfortably and run a mouse!

Way to go, guys.

A.

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Amos
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 09:10 PM

The stage is dark, with faint flittering lights, such as fireflies, or perhaps fairies would make in a forest. Slowly from the wings comes the tall, graceful but weathered form of Richard Dyer-Bennett. He carries a classic Elizabethan lute with a long neck oddly cocked back at an angle above the nut. He sits on a stool in stage center front, and slowly, a pool of light rises around him, revealing a backdrop scrim of deep forest in silhouette. Dyer Bennett raises his instrument and wraps his hands into playing position. There is a moment of enthralled, deep silence. Then his clear, rapid movements catch the eye as the entire auditorium is filled with the sweet plucked notes of the lute in a gentle but lively tune in a modal scale, the sort of music dreams are made in. Dyer Bennett begins to sing, sending waves of the sweetest tones out to the rafters and down and around until every listener feels their heart floating to the music:

O, then I see Queen Áine hath been with you.
She is the songsters' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than a fingerpicke
On the forefinger of a Fielding clone!,
Drawn with a team of little eighth notes
Into men's soully depths, as they lie asleep;
Her Taylor's  frets made of long spinners' legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
Her strings of the smallest spider web,
Her tones of the moonshine's wat'ry beams,
Her capo is of cricket's bone, the ties of philome,
Her tuning fork,  a small grey-coated gnat
Not half so big as a round little worm
Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid;

Her workstation is an empty hazel nut,
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out a mind the fairies' engineers.
And in this state she plays on,  night by night
Through songster' brains and bids them dream of song,
On courtiers' knees that songs of cursies write
O'er lawyers' minds, who paeans write on fees,
O'er ladies' lips who straight of kisses sing,
Which oft the gentle Áine tenor sings
Because their tunes draw closely to her heart!.

Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's thought
And he writes couplets to his love, in suit,
And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail
Tickling a.parson's nose as 'a lies asleep--
Then he writes psalms of benefice.
Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck
And ballads bold he writes, of derring-do,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,
And with his work enthralled, sends her a prayer or two
And sleeps again. This is that very Áine
That finds our strangest stories in the night
And tales of tortured souls in trials bizarre
Of souls in thunderjugs and pigs in film
A thousand myriad tales of laughter rare,
And brings them to her songsters, offered there
To make of every song the sweetest air.

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: MMario
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 09:30 PM

bravo! most excellent well sir!

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: catspaw49
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 09:33 PM

Bravo again Amos........

And Aine.......Try to stay well huh? You get onto one of these runs of wacky problems and it gets hard to get off!

Luvya!

Spaw

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 Apr 02 - 08:37 AM

Kevin....Your song scans exceptionally well to "Yellow Rose of Texas" ........

Spaw

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Apr 02 - 08:47 AM

You're right there. Of course, so do most things, but in this case it's pretty appropriate, as well as being a tune we all know.

So that's fine by me. All together now...

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Amos
Date: 16 Apr 02 - 08:54 AM

I sang it to her over the phone to that tune yesterday evening, Kevin. She was hurting from laughing!!

A

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Apr 02 - 06:45 PM

Thanks for that, Amos. (So long as the hurting wore off.)

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Amos
Date: 16 Apr 02 - 11:34 PM

The Goddess walks!! She talks!! She heals!! She's actually gonna finish that root canal tomorrow. And the old digestive turmoil was solved with a little yogurt, because that long string of antibiotics had taken a toll on her natural bacilli. So she has turned around and will quickly be out of patient status altogether!!

But, no sooner did she turn around and get some energy back than she started messing around with her green magic. First thing she does is drum up a damn Texas tornado to come dancing through the neighborhood!! But fortunately it was just a "two-bit tornado", which means a piker by Texan standards -- only 150 miles an hour winds, ya know -- why you could walk through it just to get a haircut!! So she shooed it away with no harm done and no sad songs needing to be written about it. Then, having gotten bored with the creation of strange Texan weather effects, she did the laundry. I told her she should move to California -- it's safer!

She is working on an absolutely humdinger pretty tune for the Sampler CD -- "If...", by name -- which just had me melting all over the phone.

She promises to come by real soon and say her own piece, but, see, well, the tornado kinda took down the internet connection for a bit...but as soon as THAT's fixed ... real soon!! Keep them fingers crossed and get ready for a little lime-green frothy hell-raisin'!!

Regards,

A

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: CapriUni
Date: 17 Apr 02 - 12:22 AM

Great news, Amos!

Yogurt is a wonderful, and magical thing... Gotta love those little microbeasts! I thank my colonies every day!

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Apr 02 - 06:09 AM

Good on ya Aine, get some culture in ya gal
That ould Mudcat's gettin lonesome, and misses his wee pal
For better than a pill is, that wonderful bacillis
And the places people stick it, make me quite hysterical
Slainthe.....Giok

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: SharonA
Date: 17 Apr 02 - 03:46 PM

Thanks for the good news, Amos. I'm still trying to resurrect my songwriting muse ("Rise! Rise!!!") and I've got a few lyrics started; I've just got to "get it together"...

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: MMario
Date: 17 Apr 02 - 04:00 PM

when will Sharon's muse she rise again? rise again! Rise again, that her songs not be lost to the knowledge of...

oh never mind.

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Apr 02 - 04:03 PM

That's a parody of the words of "The Hairy Melon Farter" if I'm not nistaken.

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Genie
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 02:01 AM

There is a previous thread with the same title except it has "BS" in front of it, presumably because it did not fit into other categories. BS: Get Well, Áine

Genie

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 01:55 PM

Well come on folks, is she any better or what?

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Amos
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 03:18 PM

Giok:

She is a lot better, with a lot less pain, "weak as a kitten but rarin' to go", as she put it yesterday.

However she does have one or two more root canals she has to get through due to wee abcesses in a coupla teeth. She's really delighted with that, you can bet! But she sounds cheerful, if weak and tired. I think this is definitely the way out and up!! We should see her with her natural ebullience in full form soon.

A

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Áine
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 12:33 AM

Geez, y'all – I really don't know how to respond to your wonderful songs and your lovely messages. So, here goes (and if I start gushing, blame it on Amos . . . ):

I am 4? years old, and in all my life, I can count on one hand the people I've let see the 'real' me (other than my dear mother, Dear Hubby and my children). I've always been a loner, afraid to allow anyone to know me too well, lest they disapprove of me. A few of you know the reasons why. Let's just say there are quite a few scars, physical and emotional, that I've carried around for many years.

But a strange thing happened four years ago . . . I found the Mudcat Cafe. And little by little, this unfamiliar person started showing herself, more and more; and lo and behold, even though she never planned it, she found friends from around the world. It was (and still is) very hard for her to accept that these folks give a damn about her – she's just not used to that at all. But, at the same time, she realizes how much they have given her. Gifts of love, acceptance, support, and a few kicks in bum that she needed to come out of a very hard shell she'd grown for so many years. She's found her voice, and perhaps even her soul again; and like a seed blown in from the prairie, she's taken root and is beginning to grow. The blossom may be small, but it's reaching for the sun a little more everyday.

I have no words to say how much you all mean to me. I carry each of you in my heart, and you all have brought joy into my life. And for someone who has not known what joy truly is for most of her life, you can't imagine what a gift it is.

'Thank you' seems such a small way of saying what I mean; but, I'm guessing you all know what I really mean.

Love, Áine

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Amos
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 01:20 AM

Dang it, Tex, yer shortin out my keyboard. So I guess that means you get some kinda mantelpiece thingamabob fer that now, huh??

An ancient Greek elder once said to me, "To the good people in life -- they always find one another!"

And I have always found that to be true, and you surely qualify as livin' proof!

Love,

A

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: MMario
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 11:30 AM

{{{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: CapriUni
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 01:37 PM

{{{{{{{{{ Áine }}}}}}}}}

You know, back when I was in college, I had to write a credo on my religion for a world religions class -- explaining my beliefs about the origin, nature, and destiny of God, the natural world, the individual, society and religion in 15 pages or less (including the bibliography). Since I don't base my faith on any scripture, I couldn't just cite chapter and verse for my reasoning.

The question of destinity for the natural world (and humanity) -- the "Why the %^&*!!? are we here, and what are we supposed to do about it?" question was the hardest one for me to answer.

So I started at the "beginning" -- my own personal experience, and changed the question to: "Why the %^&*!!? do I fight to exist? Why do I bother putting up with all the petty (and not so petty) frustrations and pains? Wouldn't it be so much easier to go to bed and not get up again?"

"Well," came the answer, "sunsets are pretty cool, and laughter is terrific, and singing, and chocolate covered strawberries... and love ... and ..." And the common denominator in all those things is Joy -- the small joys and large. And if that is true for me, then chances are it's true for others. And if it's true for other humans, it's probably true for sperm whales, and sea sponges, and oak trees, and ...

Conclusion: The purpose of life in general is the pursuit of joy. The purpose of human society is to help the individuals live well. Therefore, the responsibility we have as a society is to help each other find joy.

But that doesn't mean it's ever easy -- after all, the purpose of a cactus's roots is to find water in the desert, and the plant may be dormant for years. But when enough water is found, the blooms are spectacular!

I don't know you at all in 3D space, Áine, and I've only just met you in cyberspace, but from what I've seen, it seems that you have done a lifetime's work in bringing joy to others, and I am really glad (make that joyful! ;-)) that you have finally begun to feel yourself bloom. Revel in it. You deserve it!

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Amos
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 01:41 PM

Capri:

Ya hit it right on the G-spot, lady!!

Áine is more pure-dee joy 'o livin' in one l'il package than most people stuff into six generations! And she's infectious, too! :>) Which, in a purely spirichooal sense, is not only okay, it's the best part!!

Love,

A

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 04:48 PM

Here's a getting well song I wrote today for a cat called Tilly. I thought it might fit in here. (I haven't quite worked it out as a song yet - I have a feeling it'd like a James Taylor style approach, and that's not my normal approach to songmaking.)

Well, here you are once more,
And here we are together.
We thought you'd gone for ever,
And we didn't like the thought.
You've never been away before,
You've not been on your own.
And we couldn't help but wonder,
Would we ever bring you home
But, here you are once more,
And here we are together.
We thought you'd gone for ever,
It's so good to have you home.

When first you came to stay
You weren't the least excited
We weren't too sure you liked it,
But you liked it in your way.
You always were a bit reserved,
Your feelings you would hide
You didn't care to purr out loud
But you always purred inside.
And as the time went by
We settled down together
As if you'd been here for ever
As the years went sliding by.

You'd lie there in the dark
Rest your head upon my shoulder,
But we all of us grow older,
Though you never seemed to change.
But change must come to all of us,
There's nowhere we can hide.
And we know some day it's coming,
The thought can't be denied.
And I took you to a stranger,
And I'd no way of explaining.
And I left you there, complaining -
And I came on back alone.

But, here you are once more,
And here we are together.
We thought you'd gone for ever,
And we didn't like the thought.
You'd never been away before,
You'd not been on your own.
And we couldn't help but wonder,
Would we ever bring you home
But, here you are once more,
And here we are together.
We thought you'd gone for ever,
It's so good to have you home.

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Áine
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 05:20 PM

Oh Kevin, that's so beautiful -- Tilly is one lucky kitty!

And I'm one lucky 'Catter to have friends like all of you ;-)

-- Áine

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: technission
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 11:30 PM

I've been away a bit and mostly a lurker anyhoo so I just came upon this thread.
I see Sir Kevin's song is mentioned as scanning to Yellow Rose of Texas but I just wanted to declare it also works with "Ballad of the Alamo" (as sung by Marty Robbins and part of the John Wayne movie The Alamo) - - - and it also seems to work with "Ghost Riders In The Sky"

Anyway ma'am, from a fellow Texan, glad you're doing better and sounds like you will be getting about while the bluebonnets are still a-bloomin'
At least they're still thick in parts of the I-10 corridor between Houston and San Antone but I couldn't make it to the hill country myself this spring.

All the best to ya and a tip of the 10-oz ballcap, michael

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Apr 02 - 01:23 PM

Ghost Riders...I like that idea. But it'd need a chorus. (Though maybe the tune's got the wrong associations for a Get Well song.)

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Aidan Crossey
Date: 26 Apr 02 - 07:49 AM

Áine ...

Bit late in the day ... but hope it gives you a laugh anyway!

To the tune of "Finnegan's Wake".

Áine's Wake

Áine lived out Texas way, where she carried a torch for the dear oul' sod
Her gaelicness you can't deny, though I'd draw the line at the female God!
And now and again she'd throw the gauntlet, write a song at my command
And there we were, a-liltin', strummin', scribin' – woman, child and man

Whack fol da da do, dance to your partner, round the floor your trotters shake
Isn't it the truth I tell you, lots of fun at Áine's wake

One day the awful truth it dawned, sight of Áine we'd not seen
For weeks or months, the cry went out, "Where are you Áine, mavourneen"
But no reply, the lonely echo rippled home across the void
"Ah, holy Jaysus bless and save us! The oul' TGG has up and died!"

Whack fol da da do, dance to your partner, round the floor your trotters shake
Isn't it the truth I tell you, lots of fun at Áine's wake

We started threads and tore our hair out, bashin' out the oul' PMs
Weepin', keenin' blurtin', bawlin' … wrote laments and sad po-ems
Seekin' solace, consolation, from our comrades on the Cat
(And some of us, I'm shamed to say, went on a bender after that!)

Whack fol da da do, dance to your partner, round the floor your trotters shake
Isn't it the truth I tell you, lots of fun at Áine's wake

But when at last the truth it dawned, we scarcely could contain our glee
The word went out, there's been a sighting in the thread about Drumcree (not literally, couldn't resist the rhyme!)
"Away to hell, ye hape o' nancies", says Áine, tossing her red head
"The 'mount o' guff youse boys are talkin' you'd think to Christ that I was dead!"

Whack fol da da do, dance to your partner, round the floor your trotters shake
Isn't it the truth I tell you, lots of fun at Áine's wake

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: MMario
Date: 26 Apr 02 - 08:18 AM

I would say "in Aine's wake" rather then "at" - but love it!

(It changes the meaning a lot - but less morbid!)

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: CapriUni
Date: 26 Apr 02 - 09:08 AM

Heh-- yeah, you're right, MMario -- it's amazing how much of a difference swapping one little pair of letters can make ;-)

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 02:48 PM

If she needed waking that'd do it sure enough, derry.

(And here's a link to that get-well cat song I put up there, with a streaming sound file attached.)

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Amos
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 02:56 PM

Hey, hey -- if anyone can rise from the dead, it's our TGG. Nicely turned, Derry!!! LOL!

A.

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: MMario
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 09:28 AM

I sang two of these onto tape for NightOwl over the weekend.

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Áine
Date: 02 May 02 - 06:22 PM

Hey y'all!

Just a wee note to thank you all once again for getting me through these tough times. I've brought up this thread numerous times since my last post; but, I've been unable to gather myself and/or the words together to express how much your support and your songs have meant to me.

Kevin -- that's a fantastic song you wrote for Tilly. I listened to the streaming file, and kept replaying it while I played along on my guitar. Talk about puttin' a big ol' grin on my face!

And derrymacash, a chara chóir -- nach bhfuil tú an fear glic! Thanks so much for your hiliarious musical interpretation of my wake '-) Mo ghrá thú. Let's just hope when and if the 'real' thing happens, there'll be enough of you eejits left to come and party 'till the roof shakes!

Seems like I had to reach the bottom to start marching toward the top again. A few days ago, poor Amos called when I'd finally run out of physical and emotional resources. Amos, I do hope your shoulder has dried out by now '-) I've finally started to eat again (after losing 22 pounds in four weeks - not good) and I'm able to exercise a wee bit (outside of cleaning my kitchen cabinets - hahaha). And I'm letting the garden go 'au naturale' this year, and it's fascinating watching plants come up that I thought were gone for good. Maybe that's the best way to garden, eh?

Once again, I'm giving you all a great big virtual hug and snog for keeping my spirits up and my guffaw in working order through the pain and the recovery process. Well, that's enough gushing for today, so --

Keeping playing, writing and singing, Áine

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Amos
Date: 02 May 02 - 06:33 PM

Hey, gal, that's what Gawd gyamme big shoulders for!! Besides, I think it was mutual! :>)

You're a first-class piece of sunshine and an International Treasure of the 'Cat, so it's a high-order duty as well as a pleasure to help where we can, and stand around and grin stupidly where we can't!! LOL.

Baked Beans 1 Through 9,879, but who's counting?

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: CapriUni
Date: 02 May 02 - 10:38 PM

Yes! Absolutely, Áine! au naturale is the way to go, at least, every once in a while.

I call it (at least, now I do... I just thought of it ;-)) "The Zen of Un-Gardening"

Because of this philosophy, I have a yard full of wild strawberries and clover (and therefore bunny rabbits and birdies) and a little magnolia tree that a bird donated... I think s/he carried the seeds over from the local public library which has a stand of magnolias by the entrance... If I pulled it up when it first sprouted (and I almost did, cause it looked so weedy) then I wouldn't have a future elegant centerpiece to my yard that it is now becoming...

Come late summer/autumn, you might want to try this little experiment with Un-Gardening: Plant-a-sock

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Amos
Date: 02 May 02 - 10:45 PM

Well I find the notion of Áine au naturale out there in that garden kind of...distracting, actually!! But I'll just shut up now, okay???

A

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: CapriUni
Date: 03 May 02 - 10:51 AM

So what's wrong with being a little distracted, now and then... after all, this is the month to go a-Maying!!! ;-)

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Amos
Date: 03 May 02 - 11:30 AM

Well.. I kinda agree, sweet Capri -- but I think I have learned that with distraction, as with all wonderful things, there can be too much of a good thing!!! :>)_;

A

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Get Well, Áine!
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 03 May 02 - 03:34 PM

Aine; Glad you're back amongst us! Stay well kiddo and at 42 you're still young I have a few years on you anyway. Welcome back! Neil