It’s hard to believe, but it’s been five years since my Mom passed away.

The coming (and going) of Passover is probably the most obvious reminder that another year has passed, along with the inevitable note from the synagogue reminding me when Kaddish will be recited for her, but this year, I got a special and unexpected reminder — a comment on my Driving Shiva posting.

I close posts for comments after a few months to reduce spam, but William, the person who sent the comment, didn’t let that stop him — he commented to a post that still was open for comment, and I’ve moved his comment where it belongs.

Thank you, William; I appreciate your thoughtfulness and your persistence!

Somehow, we missed The West Wing when it was first broadcast, but now we have it on DVD (actually, it’s Jeff’s), and we’re slowly working our way through the best Democratic Administration never to really inhabit the White House; tonight, we watched The War at Home from the second season.

We almost watched the next episode, too, but I wanted something lighter, so we turned to our brand new TiVo Premiere for Ovation’s Orange Blossom Special special.

It was entertaining and full of music, but it didn’t have any full performances of the song, so I let my fingers do the walking on YouTube in hopes of making my ears happy. We found (and played) a few conventional versions, and then stumbled across The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain’s version, which was distinctive, to say the least.

That wasn’t quite enough ukelele for the night, so we kept looking and finished the evening with the Ukelele Orchestra’s memorable performance of Shaft.

Can you dig it?