Three Beautiful Things 06/15/16: Mom Improving, The Deke Improving, *Runnin' Down a Dream*

1. From all I can tell, things are stable with Mom after her fall. She had a good night.  She got the blood work done she needs for her heart appointment on Monday. She and Christy figured out some ways to make things better in her bedroom so that it's safer when she has to get up at night.

2. I know from listening to her and from first hand observation that the Deke is improving. She saw the chiropractor again on Wednesday and goes in again on Thursday. He was pleased with her progress. I am very happy that the Deke slept much of the day. (Actually, now that I think about it, I got in a very good coma nap myself during the afternoon.) The only bummer is that the doctor has barred her from knitting until next week.

3. I didn't know it was streaming on Netflix. I was doing the digital equivalent of flipping through the channels and there it was: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers:  Runnin' Down a Dream, Peter Bogdanovich's four hour documentary film. I had no idea it was streaming.  I've wanted to watch this movie for several years and tonight I seized the moment, thinking I'd watch part of it and pick it up again tomorrow, but, no, I stayed up until one a.m. and savored the whole movie.

I might write a separate blog post about Tom Petty at another time, but, for now, I'll say this. Tom Petty has been working on me quietly and intermittently for about thirty-three years. I never bought his music and I've never been to a Tom Petty concert, but I know now that I was hearing it a lot on the radio and on MTV and the songs were embedding themselves inside me without my conscious knowledge. When I was a subscriber to satellite radio, starting over ten years ago, Tom Petty came on the stations I listened to a lot -- and he has his own radio show, Buried Treasure -- and I realize now that his music had taken residence inside me. I know this because I can be somewhere -- a tap room, the Old Line Bistro, certain grocery stores, a mall -- and I'm hardly aware of the recorded music playing in the house. A Tom Petty song will come on and suddenly I stop and I stare into the great wide open and if the Deke is with me I'll mutter, "Man. (Long pause. Slow head shake.) Tom Petty." I'll leave it at that.