\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cYep,\u201d I replied. \u201cSho\u2019 \u2018nuff is. Shoulda seen it \u2018bout thirty minutes ago. In fact, it was so purdy I took a pitcher. Wanna see? Pardon me while I whup this out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reaching into the left breast pocket of my duster I whipped out my phone and started scrolling through photos, looking for the one of the Laffite County Courthouse I\u2019d just snapped. It was hard to find because it was at the end of the camera roll and I\u2019ve always started at the beginning since Julie Andrews told me it was a very good place to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNaw,\u201d drawled MoPi Man. \u201cI prob\u2019ly seen it\u2026well, hold on. Yeah. I\u2019ll take a look. I might notta seen it \u2018xactly that way before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNaw,\u201d I drawled scornfully. \u201cYou ain\u2019t never seen it \u2018xactly that way before \u2018cause it ain\u2019t never looked \u2018xactly that way before, MoPi Man.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think MoPi Man picked up on my less-than-subtle castigation. I could tell by the way he Elvis-scowled and growled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGonna let that one slide, mister model cowboy,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know what a model is, don\u2019t you? It\u2019s a cheap imitation of the real thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHuh,\u201d I grunted. \u201cI always thought Coke was the real thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MoPi Man responded: \u201cYore datin\u2019 yoreself with that reference cow chip, but I\u2019m a\u2019 gissin\u2019 yore used to datin\u2019 yoreself since it don\u2019t look like nun \u2018a the wimmin\u2019 \u2018round here\u2019ll have you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I grabbed my chest and raised my right arm, feigning a Fred Sanford heart-attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MoPi Man leaned over and took a close look at my shot of the courthouse. He erected himself and got serious. When one erects oneself one should act serious, even if they\u2019re not. \u201cI\u2019m really lucky,\u201d he said. \u201cIn fact, we\u2019re all pretty lucky. Look at this place we live in. A lot of towns\u00a0 don\u2019t have a Square like this. They don\u2019t have downtown businesses. They don\u2019t have good people like the ones I know. Yep. I\u2019d say I\u2019m a lucky man.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Major That Guy and I had no choice but to nod in agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This morning, like most other old farts, I watched CBS Sunday Morning<\/em> with Jane Pauley<\/em>\u2015not actually WITH Jane Pauley, though I wouldn\u2019t mind. Did you know that Jane Pauley is married to my favorite cartoonist, Gary Larson (The Far Side<\/em>)? Of course you did. Everyone who reads this column is asstoot enough to know that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The show profiled Tanya Tucker, a 60+ country music icon who has released her first album in decades, and is up for four \u2013 count \u2018em \u2013 four Grammy\u00ae awards. (Please notice that I inserted the trademark sign for Grammy\u00ae\u2015Whoop! There it is again!\u2015because that\u2019s just the kind of guy I am. And I want you to note that.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lyrics of the chorus of the title song of Tucker\u2019s album, co-written with Brandi Carlile, Phillip Hanseroth, and Timothy Hanseroth, are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bring my flowers now, while I’m livin’;<\/em> I\u2019m not much on New Year\u2019s resolutions. But one I can embrace is telling folks you care about them while you can, in whatever form that takes, as long as it communicates the \u201cI love you\u201d that\u2019s intended. That\u2019s a New Year\u2019s revolution I want to be a part of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MoPi Man and Major That Guy had to leave for a dinner date with their wives. I flipped off MoPi Man. MoPi Man flipped me off. Major That Guy flipped himself off. We all laughed, paused, and looked each other in the eye just long enough. Just long enough to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026and that\u2019s the view from The Balcony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was around 5 pm on Sunday, January 5, 2020, the twelfth day of Christmas. The sun had<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":39753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11902],"tags":[4966,10286,10878],"class_list":["post-82798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-randy-weeks","tag-new-year","tag-randy-weeks","tag-the-view-from-the-balcony"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2017-5-11-View-from-the-Balcony.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI won’t need your love when I’m gone.
\nDon’t spend time, tears, or money on my old\nbreathless body.
\nWell, if your heart is in them flowers, bring\n’em on.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg?resize=25%2C16\")
<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"