No Retreat, No Surrender

At the gym yesterday, this song popped on my mp3 player and it reminded me of a thousand different things, mainly growing up in Pennsylvania and then growing up again after college in the 'real world'. What a great song. I felt it was appropriate to the theme here.

Here's an mp3 of the Boss doing it live.

Bruce Springsteen
No Surrender
Born In The USA

We busted out of class had to get away from those fools
We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school
Tonight I hear the neighborhood drummer sound
I can feel my heart begin to pound
You say you're tired and you just want to close your eyes and follow your dreams down

We made a promise we swore we'd always remember
No retreat no surrender
Like soldiers in the winter's night with a vow to defend
No retreat no surrender

Now young faces grow sad and old and hearts of fire grow cold
We swore blood brothers against the wind
I'm ready to grow young again
And hear your sister's voice calling us home across the open yards
Well maybe we could cut someplace of our own
With these drums and these guitars

Blood brothers in the stormy night with a vow to defend
No retreat no surrender

Now on the street tonight the lights grow dim
The walls of my room are closing in
There's a war outside still raging
you say it ain't ours anymore to win
I want to sleep beneath peaceful skies in my lover's bed
with a wide open country in my eyes
and these romantic dreams in my head

Copyright © Bruce Springsteen (ASCAP)

Thanks For Everything And Few Shout-Outs

Before being hauled away, the Wevorado wanted me to thank EVERYONE who every ever sat on the tailgate, kicked the tires, rode, drove, slept, sang, snoozed, unloaded a massive cooler of beers or a grill, hoisted a pirate flag, shoveled dirt off the bed, worked on the body, engine or brakes or any other part of it, tested the k-value of the springs, dirtied and subsequently cleaned out the run-channels or built a fire on, near, on top of, it or around it. It has NO regrets and whatever feelings you have are mutual.

Special thanks go out to the following:
-Troy for being a great co-pilot and taking the controls at opportune times
-Jeff & Bill for a few great road trips to Wisco
-The United States Cups Federation for always needing beer and something to haul it in
-Storrs, Shebek and Irwin for needing a truck to bring the Cups Table (long live the Wevodome)
-Lil' Kim, The Will Brothers, The Machens, The Battaglias, The Elliotts, Knue, Danger, Hendrix, Hertzinger, Turner, Kucious and everyone already mentioned and everyone we forgot for being great road-trip warriors if was just to Little Brother's and back or from Atlanta to Texarkana and back in 28 hours.

And finally, to that hotel in Cincinnati. We are SO sorry.

Via Con Dios, Amigo. Because the road goes on forever and the party never ends.

A Sad Day

It's a sad day, friends. My continuously serving running-buddy, my 1999 Chevrolet Silverado 4x4, has brake trouble. And not the kind of brake trouble you can fix by turning the rotors or replacing the master cylinder. It's the kind of trouble for which the dealership no longer sells brake lines and the cab has to be taken off the frame to fix.

Of course, this isn't the first major trouble it's seen. I had the engine rebuilt two years ago after it bent a push rod. It's had some minor brake work done over the years and been broken into a time or two.

Despite all that, it has been a GREAT truck for 9 years, 1 month, 21 days and change. I realize the impossibility of a truck having a soul or a personality but I like to think of any inanimate object I rely on regularly as having its own soul. The Wevorado has been there for me for a long, long time.

It's got 167,000 miles on it and tells the tales of countless escapades from Hico to Honda and Chicago to Corpus. The Wevorado will be missed.

Like a wise man once said

Here for a good time, not a long time

And like another wise man once said

We can't live forever, so it's here and now or never