Classic Rock magazine recently held a poll of 70,000 readers and asked them to list the ten best live rock albums of all time. Here is the results:

1. Live and Dangerous - Thin Lizzy - 1978

2. Strangers In The Night - UFO - 1978

3. Made in Japan - Deep Purple - 1972

4. Exit Stage Left - Rush - 1981

5. How The West Was Won - Led Zeppelin - 2003 *

6. Live at Leeds - The Who - 1970

7. Unleashed in the East - Judas Priest's - 1979

8. Comes Alive - Peter Frampton - 1976

9. If You Want Blood - AC/DC - 1978

10. Irish Tour - Rory Gallagher - 1974

How many do you own? I have all ten! Lets Rock !!!!

Remember these were readers of Classic Rock Magazine * recorded in 1972

Fathers Day 2009 was the
BEST Fathers day I ever had.

Last year on August 2nd mid afternoon I talked to my dad on the phone. He lives about 45 minutes away in Georgia. Dad is a retired electronics engineer with broadcast experience. We were discussing the then pending switch to digital television. We chatted a bit then wrapped up our conversation. It was the last phone call I made to him.

A couple hours later Kristie and I were at a church Homegroup cookout when we got a hurried call from mom saying dad had fallen and was being taken to the hospital. No one really knows what happened. Dad went outside to check on the weather, he wanted to see if it was going to rain. Sometime passed and mom went to check on him, finding him face down on the pavement of his driveway, bleeding seriously.

Dad had fallen face first and had fractured his skull around his cheek and eye socket. It was very serious. He had bleeding on his brain and the surrounding areas. Dad also fractured his collarbone and shoulder. It was serious enough that after only a few minutes dad was transferred from the local hospital to the Neurological hospital at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta a couple hours away.

Dad stayed there a few weeks and was then sent to the first of several care centers to complete his recovery. He had suffered serious brain injury which compounded his until then very mild Parkinson's. There have been a lot of up's and downs, mentally, physically and emotionally. And on twice between Thanksgiving and Christmas we were told he was in his final hours.

But dad wasn't ready to give up. And he has fought back. After the first of the year we were able to get him transferred closer to home and that seems to have triggered a miracle like change. Dad still can't swallow, every thing he receives is via a feeding tube, and he still can't walk, but dad has gotten stronger both in mind and in body.

Last week the doctors released dad to venture on short trips about once a week. When we ask him where he wanted to go his only wish was to go to church. So he did. After 292 days inside all dad wanted was to go to church. Dad was there right down front wearing his brown pants and sport coat and tie. The first time he had worn "Street" clothes. I know the angels were rejoicing as we sang.Pastor Todd and wife Amy

Liberty Church , dad's home church is in a massive building program the old scantuary seats around 90 to 100 people. The new one will seat 450. I am amazed 450 seats. This is in a little rural town of 850 people. At the new construction they had dad sign his name to his favorite scripture, on the stud which support the main entry door frame. It was an honor I'll always remember.

Dad was tired afterward but happy as I've seen him. We still have a long way to go in his recovery, but days like this are better than medicine. For the whole family. I am so proud.


So after almost a year of trials, I got to be with my dad at church on Fathers day. And that makes this the

BEST FATHERS DAY EVER

approaching geezerdom

I’ve learned there is one rule of senior living that's as immutable as gravity, God's Commandments, or Star Trek's Prime Directive.

It's the First Rule of Geezerdom: Never ask, "How you doing?"

Why?

If you ask, they will tell. And tell. And tell.

I always thought folks talked mainly about people, things, and ideas. Not so. In AARP World, we seldom speak of anything but our own aches and pains.

And we're darn proud of it!

The vocabulary of elder illness, both real and imagined, is vast. Violate the First Rule with a 70-year-old just back from seeing her doctor, and she'll go on for an hour on everything from dandruff to death.

She'll render you speechless, obligated to pay heed to her diabetes, dermatitis, depression, delirium, dementia, deafness, dermatitis, dropsy, double vision, diverticulitis, and dyschezia, (Dyschezia?) And that's just the D's.

Brain Transplants and Other Bragging Rights

With such focus on grumbling, it shouldn't surprise anyone to learn that there's a rigid subculture here, not unlike the military.

We seniors wear our ailments like battle ribbons. Bragging rights go to those who have most challenged their physicians.

A brain transplant instantly confers four-star status on any senior.

On the other hand, if you've reached age 70 without a heart bypass, or at least a couple of angioplasties, you're not even in the game.

A quadruple bypass, for example, usually confers starter honors at the shuffleboard court. Not always. A sudden, even temporary lose of sight will push that bypass off the court. (Of course, that may be for competitive reasons only.)

The Second Rule of Geezerdom is that you don't want to be out-illed when you or someone talking to you violates the First Rule.

Here, for the benefit of you Boomers just now climbing up into the ranks, is a Primer on Essential Medical One-upmanship.

Like Basic Training or SATs, by the time you're 65, you are expected to have experienced the following examinations — if only to have something to talk about while bobbing at the 55+ community swimming pool.

• Colonoscopy: A procedure in which the doctor drives a double-decker sightseeing bus up your butt, taking a leisurely look at everything below the stomach. The Lower GI, a medieval variation, is when you are asked to hold a bathtub of foul tasting liquid in your bowels for 20 minutes without exploding.
  
  
• Endoscopy: When your doctor and her friends drive that same bus down your throat, checking out all those unsightly erosions you hear about in Nexium ads.
  
  
• For men only, there's the dreaded Prostate Exam: Here, the physician inserts his hand, arm, shoulders and head up your butt, often inviting the nurse and others to join him. Once all is behind you, you're offered a tissue. This is not for your tears.
  
  
• For women, there's the Mammogram: After your saggy breasts are pushed up to where they used to be 40 years ago, a huge, cold machine drops down, crushing the poor old things as you gasp in pain. On the plus side, this is about the only time anyone will ask you to appear topless.

When seniors aren't carrying on about their illnesses, they're getting checkups in hope of finding something new to boast about.

Suggest lunch to a resident of an adult community, and be prepared to hear a detailed explanation on why he can't make it because of a doctor appointment, a lab procedure, dialysis, CAT Scan, cataract follow up, or all the above.

For you Boomers now invading Seniordom, here are a few more observations about aging and health. Soon...

• You'll no longer laugh at Preparation H commercials.
  
  
• You'll know all the warning signs of a heart attack.
  
  
• You'll be the first one to find the bathroom, wherever you go.
  
  
• You'll enjoy hearing about others' operations.
  
  
• You'll closely compare ingredients in bran cereal section in your grocery store.
  
  
• You'll be able to live without sex, but not without your glasses.

Welcome to the wonderful world of AARP.

By the way, did I mention my recent brain transplant?

It could be you