Gentle On My Mind, Glen Campbell

John Hartford, 12/30/1937-6/4/2001

I Fall To Pieces, Patsy Cline

Snowbird, Anne Murray

Let's Drop The Big One, Randy Newman

It Sure Can Get Cold In DesMoines, Tom T Hall

You Never Even Called Me By My Name, David Allan Coe

1913 Masacre, Arlo Guthrie

The Dance, Garth Brooks

Dark As A Dungeon, by Merle Travis...

...who was born 99 years ago today.

There's A Long, Long Trail, John McCormack

The Thrill Is Gone, B.B.King and Eric Clapton

Doin' My Time, Flatt and Scruggs

I Ain't Got Nobody, Louis Armstrong

Nevertheless, Frank Sinatra

Wildfire, Michael Martin Murphey

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, The Pogues

Pancho and Lefty, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard

Stripes, Johny Cash

Crazy, Patsy Cline

Goin' Back To Texas, Bobby Bare

He Thinks He'll Keep Her, Mary Chapin Carpenter

The Whiskey Ain't Workin' Anymore, Travis Tritt

Ghost Riders, Johny Cash

Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning, Alan Jackson

Blind Willie Harper, Bobby Bare

The End Of The World, Skeeter Davis

Werewolves Of London, Warren Zevon

Walking The Floor Over You, Ernest Tubb

Walkin' Away, Clint Black

Set 'em Up Joe, Vern Gosdin

I Should've Been A Cowboy, Toby Keith

I'd Rather Be A Cowboy, John Denver

Classical Gas, Mason Williams

Angel From Montgomery, (John Prine), John Denver

Whispering Pines, Johny Horton

O Mio Babbino Caro, Puccini, Joshua Bell

Lyin' Eyes, The Eagles

Sweet Alice Chalmers

Bony Fingers, Hoyt Axton

Some Days Are Diamonds

Love's Sorrow, Love's Joy, Joshua Bell Plays Kreisler

Come Monday, Jimmy Buffet

Give Back My Heart, Lyle Lovett

Nineteen Eighty Two, Randy Travis

Get a grip, Randy; she ain't comin' back no matter how much you wish!

Mandy, Barry Manilow

Poke Sallet Annie

Autumn Leaves, Doris Day

The Boxer, Simon and Garfunkel

Young Man Blues, The Who

That's easy to fix; go out and get a job. Show up every day.  Don't steal from your employer.

Me and Bobby McGee, Kris Kristofferson

Blue Tail Fly, Burl Ives....

...in a live performance. Interesting. When did the PC era actually begin? The vinyl records use the word "Boss." This version is (more)* traditional, and also very enjoyable with the audience participation.  *The Blue Tail Fly comes from the mid-Nineteenth Century and was a song used in minstrel shows.  Black dialect, as it was done in the Minstrel Era would be traditional.

Lightning Bar Blues, Arlo Guthrie

My Old Kentucky Home: John Prine

As sad as Darling Nellie Gray...

My Old Kentucky Home (Turpentine and Dandelion Wine), Johny Cash

Randy Newman wrote this song and recorded it in 1970.  Johny Cash recorded it a few years later.

Della And The Dealer, Hoyt Axton

Trip To Hyden: Tom T. Hall

Nashville Is Rough On The Living, Bobby Bare

Summer In The City, Lovin' Spoonful

Wanted Man: Johny Cash at San Quentin, and Flatt and Scruggs!

It's Hard To Be Humble, Mac Davis

Galveston, Glenn Campbell

Sixteen Tons, Tennessee Ernie Ford

Maggie's Farm, Flatt and Scruggs

Lester and Earl did an entire album of Bob Dylan and Johny Cash songs before they went their separate ways.  Look for Final Fling if you like this sort of music.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Guy Mitchell

Kawliga: Hank Williams

Bubbles; Campbell and Burr

This is one of he most depressing songs ever.  It's a nice tune, but it never should have made it as a popular song with its dreary theme.

Send In The Clowns, Judy Collins

I Sang Dixie, Dwight Yoakam

Sam Stone, John Prine

Come Back To Us, Barbara Lewis.....John Prine

Man Of Constant Sorrow, Ralph Stanley, June 23, 2016

I Don't Remember Loving You, John Conlee

Sonny Boy, Al Jolson, 1928

Misty, Johny Mathis

My Old Man, Steve Goodman

Lili Marlene, Marlene Dietrich

Stardust, Played By Hoagy Himself!

Bulls Get Lonely Too! Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass

TV Dinners, ZZ Top

Whiskey Bent, Hank Jr.

Ode To Billy Joe, Bobby Gentry

Drive, Alan Jackson

Sail Away, Randy Newman

Every Which Way But Loose, Eddie Rabbit

I Fall To Pieces, Patsy Cline

Ten Years In Menard...

The heinous perpetrator who invaded our lives is going away for a while.  I hope he uses his time to get a few degrees and to read a mountain of books.

Ain't Living Long Like This, Waylon Jennings

Our housebreaker/car thief had a two week continuance and will be in court on May 19 to announce his wishes for the plea deal or a trial.  He's been offered a heck of a discount on possible time and I hope he takes it.  I really don't want to have to testify along with the wife and her mother at a trial.  We'll update you all as soon as we know the news.

Best Of All....Kris Kristofferson

$100,000 In Pennies, Bobby Bare

A life of crime ain't what it's cracked up to be!  $100 in copper pennies weighs 65 pounds.  That's a problem!

Smile, Judy Garland (Song by Charlie Chaplin)

Bonus! Nat King Cole!

Rainy Night In Georgia, Brook Benton

Good Ole Boys Like Me, Don Williams

Back Home In Hunstville Again, Bobby Bare

The guy who stole and wrecked two cars before he came to our door, broke our windows, and stole our car (and did not get shot by anyone) will stand in front of the judge on May 5 and decide whether he will enter a plea or stand trial. He brought in on himself, and he is a blessed man to be alive after his misadventures. Maybe there is a plan for him.

Copacabana, Barry Manilow

February 27, 1971, Tom T. Hall

Yesterday, The Beatles

My Old Yellow Car, Dan Seals

Cherokee Fiddle, Johny Lee

R.I.P,, Merle Haggard

TB Blues, Jimmie Rodgers

The end of winter seems to have brought in bronchitis and pneumonia all around us.  We are fighting off the end of pneumonia in our house, and some of our friends have had it, too.  It's no fun at all.  At least you can beat it.  I wouldn't want to mess with TB.

Hello In There, John Prine

Bottles And Boxes, Bobby Bare

A Picture From Life's Other Side, Woody Guthrie

Jesus Was A Carpenter, Johny Cash

Love At The Five And Dime

Feed Jake: Pirates of the Mississippi

Both Sides

Piano Man, Billy Joel

Solace, by Scott Joplin, Performed by Joshua Rifkin

Sounds Of Silence, Simon and Garfunkel

Tom T. Hall and Earl Scruggs; Engineers...

Bill Monroe, In The Pines

If You Feel No Pain, You Might Be Short On Passion

An Outlaw's Lucky Day, or Five Chances To Die

Pattie's front door is where the night of horror began for us, but we were just the end of the line for the criminal that came into our lives.  Eric Hall of Carmi had been in police custody and had a psych evaluation by Skype in McLeansboro.  The doctor who interviewed him gave him a clean bill and told the police to release him.  He stole a car and went north on IL Hwy 242, wrecking the car at Rube's Liquor Locker, and then burning it.  He stole another car and wrecked that one at our driveway.  We knew none of this, and I was stoking the basement stove.  When I was outside picking up wood, Lightning the feral dog was in the lower yard, obviously disturbed and not barking. That was unusual but did not alarm me.  I finished up with the stove, locked the basement door and went upstairs where Susan had gone to bed after tucking in her mother.  The dogs were all in bed in the proper places.  I emptied my pockets and was untying my shoes when there was a loud pounding at the door. Susan got up as I went to the door.  The person pounding outside shouted that there had been a wreck, and like a dumbie, I opened the door.  (Mistake!) The perp was wearing a red t-shirt, no coat or hat, and he lunged at the storm door making unintelligible noises.  I slammed the door and turned the bolt.  He started pounding on the storm door.  I told Susan to call 911 and to tell them we had drunks outside, and to stay with her mother.  At that time I did not even have a pocketknife on me.  We heard glass breaking, and that was the storm door; pounding on the door began, and I told Susan I was going to the office to get a gun.  (Mistake: All of our guns were at the far end of the house from our living space, locked in a gun safe.)  I opened the safe and reached in for my Redhawk, which I knew the location of.  It was unloaded, but cartridges were right next to the safe.  Loading it was difficult with shaky hands. (Mistake: House guns should be ready to use in an emergency.) I locked the safe and went back to the bedrooms. (Mistake: I should have grabbed a second gun for Susan.  There were three loaded .22 revolvers in the safe, plus two .357's, but I would have had to sort through a stack of cased guns.)

 I got back to Pattie's bedroom and windows were being broken there.  These windows are across the room from Pattie's bed, and they were being broken out right then.  The curtains were drawn so we could not see out.  The perp could not see in, and that was good.

Susan was on the phone with a 911 operator throughout this ordeal, and she was sitting on the side of her mother's bed.  The perp next went to the porch on the opposite side of the house where he attacked the three big windows with chairs and trash cans.  I had turned on the porch lights and turned off the interior lights so I could watch him during this phase.  We thought the windows would go at any time, but they held.  He also tried to kick in the library door, which you can see just beyond the third big window.  Had any of these points broken he would have been right into our living space.

A trash can full of sunflower seeds did not break the windows and I saw him throw it over the porch rail in frustration.

My point was here, at the end of the hallway with bedrooms (Pattie's is on the right.) behind me,

The front door that was the beginning of the attack on my left,

and the dining, kitchen, and living space was ahead of me.  The big windows face the porch, and there is a door at the end of the counter that he did not try.  The door at the far end of this room goes into the library, and a few feet beyond that is the man-door into the attached garage.

He returned to Pattie's room and threw more wood through the windows, and then made another attack on the porch. I was able to move a few feet back and forth between this room and the living space to defend in two directions from cover and concealment from the outside.  Noise continued, but we could not tell what was happening.  He had gained access into the attached garage through a broken window.  He ransacked the pickup truck, stole two ham-hocks, a tub of lard and fried okra from the freezer, took a bag of paperwork from the truck and put it in the car, and backed out of the garage with the passenger door open.  It took three attempts for him to batter his way through the garage door, and he laid rubber with all four wheels twice. We knew none of this at the time.  He took a joyride through the yard east of the house, and we saw car lights go by Pat's bedroom.  Then things got quiet.  Pretty soon lights went by, going north, followed immediately by red and blue lights.  The 911 operator told us that police were arriving, and after a long wait, police lights came by the house again.  We still knew nothing about the activities outside at this point.  The 911 operator told us that police were coming to our door, and we responded that I was disarming and would open the door with empty hands.

The State Police took me outside and asked me if the Thermos in the driveway was mine, and it was! That was odd, because it had been in the pickup in the garage, and I said so.  They then shined their lights on the south end of the house and I saw the broken garage door.  They walked me over to the door and shone a light in.  I saw the ransacked truck and then I realized the car was gone.  They asked what kind of car we had, then the color and license number.  Then they asked if I had a tripod in the car.  Odd Question!  Why yes, we shoot videos, and Pattie uses a tripod when she is shooting pistols.  Well the tripod almost got the guy killed.  They told me that he had crashed the car up north and got out of the car wielding the tripod like a gun.  The Hamilton Sheriff's deputy that had pursued him north realized at the last possible instant that the tripod was not a gun, holstered his weapon, and used the Tazer to take down the perp.

Think of the chances this lowlife criminal had to die that night!  Three stolen car wrecks, an unsuccessful campaign to gain entry into the living space of a home with an armed resident, and then a deputy  who would have been very justified to use deadly force. Well, we are very fortunate and are blessed that the guy did not get into our space in the house.  Our troubles are very manageable and this guy will be put away for a good, long time.  The police at the scene were exhibiting some giddiness that there had been no bloodshed, and everyone was in a good mood, considering the circumstances.

We had a few things wrong, all in preparation.  Guns should have been more readily accessible for an emergency situation, and that is being corrected.  Most things were done right.  We stayed in, utilizing the barrier of the walls for our safety.  We knew not to shoot except to defend life, and our gun never became part of the crime scene because it never was seen by the perp, nor was I except for the brief encounter when I opened the door.  I followed the State Police as they cleared the house and told them what was behind every door, including at our bedroom, where I warned them that dogs were in that room, and a pistol to the right on a dressing table.  That was not a problem since they were told in advance of seeing it.

The Illinois State Police, the Hamilton County Sheriff and his deputies exhibited the very best of professionalism at our home, and we are grateful for their quick response to a very busy crime scene. The training we have had from Mike and Valinda Rowe of the Carmi Rifle Club served us well.  Training from the Appleseed Project was also quite valuable.  We have studied much of Massad Ayoob's knowledge over the years, and have learned much from other bloggers in the gun-blog community.

We are making changes to improve our home security, and your comments with helpful observations are of course welcome.

Don McLean, Crying

Anne Murray, Broken Hearted Me

Look Out, Thelma!

The Way Of Love, Cher

Only The Lonely, Roy Orbison

Roger Miller, Husbands And Wives

A Great One By Emmy Lou; Lost His Heart

Naturally...

That Slippery Slope Is Just As Sure As A Cliff