Mandolin Wind

Here we go again with another visit from our new "bestest" friend, the Polar Vortex.  It should be a balmy -20 around Cyrsti's Condo tonight.  To put the temp in perspective, our normal temp would be somewhere around 20 above.   This whole winter has reminded of one of the Rod Stewart songs I liked "back in the day."

Can't say I was a big fan of Rods but I was a free form "progressive rock" DJ in a college town so I had the rare opportunity to be creative with my music and his Mandolin Wind tune always fit in my sets when I wasn't destroying my hearing blasting what was to become heavy metal rock.

I was in a very dark time.  My finance had dumped me when I graduated college, I was 1-A in the Vietnam draft and scheduled for a winter time vacation at the Ft. Knox resort in the middle of January.  As you Kentucky readers can attest to, the hills around Louisville are nice in winter. So, here is why parts of the song stuck with me:


Through the darkest nights Ive ever known, If the mandolin wind couldnt change a thing,

Then I know I love ya Oh the snow fell without a break Buffalo died in the frozen fields you know

Through the coldest winter in almost fourteen years.

Actually, in Mandolin Wind, Stewart's woman decided to stay with him, unlike mine.  She knew of my cross dressing and knew of my forthcoming military absence and out she went.  Hurt like hell then but looking back, she was right!

At the time, I was working at a radio station in Bowling Green, Ohio. If you have ever been to the Bowling Green area, south of Toledo, you know the only hills are the ones manufactured by men and the winter winds did chill you to the bone.  So Rod was right. It was my coldest winter in 14 years, for several reasons.

This winter officially is much colder but even with the effects of HRT, it has been so much warmer because of all my cherished friends and family.