Livingston Taylor - Somewhere Over the Rainbow

2-23-12 Boy did I get lucky today.  the weather forecast was calling for rain, starting around noon, heavy winds and severe storms later in the day and in to the evening.  I went to the office, thinking I would come home at 2:00, in between some meetings and finish my day at home so that I could run around 5PM.  It rained lightly all afternoon but we never got the heavy rain or high winds.  I got ready to run and when I headed out the door, the rain stopped and the sun came out.  I don't know how I got so lucky but it turned out to be a beautiful run.  It was 48 degrees and I really enjoyed being outside.  I was shocked to see what looked like daffodils starting to pop up in many yards along my run.  It is February.  This is just crazy!  Can you see the big green patch?

I ran down the 18th fairway and past the chicken house.  There is a shelter on the golf course that the boys thought was a chicken house when they were little and every weekend when their Dad was golfing and we would drive by they would ask me if Dad was in the chicken house.  I have no clue how that started but I was reminded of that today and got a good laugh.

I also ran past the house that was "almost" Eric Clapton's house.  He married a girl from Ohio State and they do have a home in Powell.  This is a house on our golf course that he looked at and supposedly, almost bought.  My guess is that he bought something a little more secluded than a huge house on the 18th fairway that can also be seen from the road.

Anyone that knows me very well, knows that I love Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  It is one of my all time favorite songs.  Please play it at my funeral, but not soon/  Sometime in the last year, while listening to Pandora radio, I heard a recording by Livingston Taylor.  Honestly, I didn't know who he was, but immediately knew he was related to James Taylor, before I saw his last name of course. (that would sort of be a dead give away)  I downloaded that one song of his to my iPhone.  Around the same time I also heard the version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow done by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.  It is actually a medley, part Rainbow and part Its a wonderful world.  I like that a lot too.

I had to change my plan a bit this week.  I had to work a long day on Wednesday and never got a chance to run.  Saturday is supposed to be pretty nasty and we have the boys swimming party at the Y, so instead of Tues, Wed, Thurs, Sat, I am doing Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sunday.  It is supposed to be sunny on Sunday and I have no plans, so that will be a better day for my long run (10 miles this week).

Livingston Taylor sings the traditional lyrics, sort of, except for where he says "Bluebirds gonna fly& you gonna find me".  And for where he leaves one of the best lines, "and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true"  Jeez!!!  He was born in Boston but raised in Chapel Hill, must be that southern influence that says "gonna".  Makes my fingernails curl.

Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high

There's a place that I've heard of, once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds gonna fly

Birds fly over the rainbow, why, oh, why can't I?

[ Lyrics from: http://www-over-the-rainbow-lyrics.html ]

Some day I'll wish upon a star

And wake up where the clouds are far behind me

Where troubles melt like lemon drops

Away above the chimney tops

That is where, that is where you gonna find me

IZ does not sing the traditional lyrics at all!  That sort of bugs me.  He has totally shortened it and skipped lines.  He sings it like this:

Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high

And the dreams that you dreamed of

Once in a lullaby

Judy Garland is still the best, always will be.