Drive the Carrot, Don't Let It Drive You

My father recently had to go into a nursing home because his dementia has gotten to the point where he needs full time care and my mother asked me if I wanted any of my father's old records, most of which I had given him anyway when the CD revolution hit the music industry and I got rid of my record player.

Among those records was the Eddie Rabbit Horizon LP, which was one of my favourites, and I wondered why I never got around to buying it as a CD.
My favourite song off it has always been "Drivin' My Life Away" followed by "I Love a Rainy Night".

And having recently gone through a divorce after 25 years of marriage, it wasn't lost on me that track 4 "Short Road to Love" (Rabbitt, Stevens) - 2:37, goes for two minutes and thirty-seven seconds ... now where have I seen that number before, I wonder?-)

Room 237?-)

I recently bought a cheap record player that converts the songs from the record to MP3 files, so I could play the songs in my car while I'm on the road.
I especially wanted to play "Drivin' My Life Away" in my car because looking back at my life that's all I seem to have done for most of my adult life, whether it's been driving to work, driving at work (forklift) and driving home again chasing a dangling carrot to a brighter future, supposedly.
Drivin' My Life Away
Well, the midnight headlight blind you on a rainy night
Steep grade up ahead slow me down makin' no time
But I gotta keep rollin'
Those windshield wipers slappin' outta tempo
Keepin' perfect rhythm with the song on the radio
But I gotta keep rollin'

Ooh, I'm driving my life away
Lookin' for a better way for me
Ooh, I'm driving my life away
Lookin' for a sunny day

Well, the truck stop cutie comin' on to me
Tried to talk me into a ride, said I wouldn't be sorry
Oh, but she was just a baby
Well, waitress pour me another cup of coffee
Pop me down, jack me up, shoot me out flyin' down the highway
Lookin' for the morning

Ooh, I'm driving my life away
Lookin' for a better way for me
Ooh, I'm driving my life away
Lookin' for a sunny day

Well, the midnight headlight blind you on a rainy night
Steep grade up ahead slow me down makin' no time
But I gotta keep rollin'
Those windshield wipers slappin' outta tempo
Keepin' perfect rhythm with the song on the radio
I gotta keep rollin'

Ooh, I'm driving my life away
Lookin' for a better way for me
Ooh, I'm driving my life away
Lookin' for a sunny day

Ooh, I'm driving my life away
Lookin' for a better way for me
Ooh, I'm driving my life away
Lookin' for a sunny day, yeah

Ooh, I'm driving my life away
Lookin' for a better way for me

Fabulous Mrs Fox

On Easter Sunday I saw an old creepy looking gift shop that could have come right out of a Stephen King novel.
It was in the town of Brunswick Heads, where I was staying, while the Byron Bay Bluesfest was on.
It was called Fabulous Mrs Fox, which I saw as a sign, because I just happened to be reading the Robert Moss book called 'Sidewalk Oracles', where the fox is a major theme in Robert's book.

So, I had to take a look inside this unique shop to see if there was anything that spoke to me personally.
Oddly enough, there was a couple in the motel room next to me who were going to Bluesfest all weekend, too. 
And when I was telling them about my mum battling lung cancer, the lady told me that she too was battling lung cancer.
Weird thing also is that I only found out today that Eddie Rabbit died of lung cancer, and I didn't even know he was dead.
That news must have passed me by in the late 90s. 

I found a rabbit driving a carrot soon as I walked into the shop, and it wasn't lost on me that I had been playing Eddie Rabbit's song 'Driving My Life Away' quite a bit in my car lately.
Not only that, but it was Easter Sunday, or Resurrection Sunday, a day symbolic of resurrection and what should be on the record label of Eddie Rabbit's album 'Horizon'?

A butterfly, a sign of transformation/resurrection.

I loved this rabbit that had a "pissed-off" looking expression on its face, like it was determined not to chase a carrot, but to drive it and be in control of his life. 

So, I bought the rabbit and placed it on a shelf in front of my picture of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road and next to my white rabbit as well as a book I picked up from Fabulous Mrs Fox called   
'100 Days Happier'.
"So many people are waiting to feel happy. 
They think they will be happy when they have this or they’ve done that, that perhaps money, a partner, or that new position is the key. 
But the truth is, lasting happiness is something that you create, each and every day, through the simple choices that you make. 
Based on bestselling book The Happiness Code and its Ten Keys, 
100 Days Happier invites the reader to make small daily changes in the way they think and act; changes that will ultimately create a fundamental shift in the way they feel about who they are and the life they are living to achieve a happier, healthier self."

There are some rather bizarre gifts in this little shop, too.

Mickey's skull?

Did Superman just steel Robin's man?-)

And you can even stay here
overnight if you a game

I found it personally fascinating that the home webpage of the store has Sacred Kingfishers scattered among other birds on its background wallpaper, as the Sacred Kingfisher hitting my window was what got me blogging in the first place.
The Bird that Flew into the Window
And in Robert's book he writes about the kingfisher -
"You learn that the birds are a whole telephone system.
Night-hunting birds, like owls and frogmouths, are powerful spirits whose call can mean that someone close to you is about die.
Kingfisher can see ghosts."
That passage was from a chapter in the book titled 'Speaking Land' about the Nhunggabarra tribe in Northern New South Wales, which was also a coincidence, as I would be seeing some indigenous dances at the Boomerang section of Bluesfest on Easter Sunday, as well.

Easter Sunday at the Boomerang section of Bluesfest.

Robert Moss also writes that Jung's spirit guide Philemon had the wings of a kingfisher.

I would also be seeing Jackson Browne play my favourite song of his,'Running on Empty' at Bluesfest on Easter Sunday. 

Hmm.

Jackson Browne on the Crossroads
  stage Easter Sunday

It's certainly an Easter Sunday that I won't forget in a hurry, that's for sure.
Now out of my way, as I'm late for a very important date;-)