Chauffeuring My Father

My father is getting whiny again, as I have earlier reported. So when he asked me to go to Gaithersburg so he could sell some books. Since Bette was out of town (starting to move stuff out of the vacation house), I volunteered to drive. So this morning, I got up early, grabbed a pile of Gordon Lightfoot CD's (which is one of the few musical acts we can agree on), and headed out for the day.

I got to their house after walking (93 days in a row!) to find that Bette had already gotten home. He still insisted that I drive, so I loaded these two huge bags of books into the trunk of my car. I was hoping that I wouldn't be doing a wheelies all the way to Maryland.

I really think that he is overreacting to Bette selling this house. He was almost in tears a lot of the time, and it just annoyed me. I suppose this trip gives me brownie points, but I really didn't need this kind of stress, with all that is going on right now at work.

The bookstore had been bought out by a different used book dealer, and they totally lowbrowed him on the offer (without even looking at the books). I was marveling about how much they were charging for these books, none of which held any appeal for me.

We then had lunch at Silver Diner, and I drove him home. Another eighty miles toward my warranty expiring. Sigh.

Then I got to thinking; we were listening to Gordon Lightfoot, and I told him about how long it took them to release these albums on CD, finally releasing the last of them in 2002. And the other day I was on iTunes, where the pickings were always slim for Gordon Lightfoot, but when I clicked on some of the various albums, they were listed as "no longer being available on the USA iTunes store." So I went onto Amazon this afternoon. Sure enough, every single one of these albums, including any reissues, is out of print. I just was on iTunes now, and the ones that were listed as no longer available are now not there at all. Yet, only some of his albums are affected; others are not.

This bothers me. For starters, what was the point of putting them out onto CD just to withdraw them later? And why were the albums pulled from iTunes? Lightfoot's record company (the dreaded Warner Music Group) doesn't have to do anything to manufacture, promote, or stock music in a store with iTunes; they just have to put it out there for folks to download. And what is it that makes "Summertime Dream" or "Summer Side of Life" worth preserving but not "Dream Street Rose" or "Shadows", which, in my opinion, was one of his best? 

I guess I have to be thankful that I bought all of them while they were still in print; all of them, that is, except for "Salute." I never liked a single song from "Salute". I might have to buy a used copy anyway, for a sense of completeness.

I suppose I should also go see him in concert one more time, since he is now seventy-one years old. He is coming to town this month, but I won't be here. Oh well.

This is my last day off before I work an eight-day stretch, and then I am going on vacation. Let's hope this stretch comes and goes without incident. Our "challenge" will be gone for seven of those eight days. Let's hope for the best.

Eric Out.