Now I slipped out the door and I'm runnin' free

It's hard to believe, but a couple of weeks ago my Dad would have celebrated his 94th birthday. So much of his later years were filled with health issues that sometimes it's easy to forget how vibrant he was during my childhood.

Of course, a lot of that vitality disappeared when my Mom died. After that, things were never the same for him, or us. 

This Dave Alvin song tears me up, every damn time. Unfortunately, some of my strongest memories are of my Dad, lying in that bed. I wonder what was going through his mind then -- I like to think it went something along the words in this song.