Days Eighteen & Nineteen

Eighteen

What a great evening! As usual on Wednesdays, I headed over to Bob's house to play old-time tunes with an assortment of friends and band-mates. Much to my delight, Curtis and Dennis Buckhannon were there. They're not only great musicians - in my opinion, Curtis may be the best old-time mandolin player around - but all 'round nice guys. I never laugh as much as I do when I'm in Curtis' and Dennis' company.

The bunch of us played a lot of great tunes, listened to Curtis and Lindell play more, recalling the hey days of Cousing Curtis and the Cash Rebates, reminisced and groaned at the torrent of awful puns. I wish it had never ended. But we're all old guys (except guitar-player Ellen who is neither old or guy) and the fun can't go on all night anymore.

Then, as I was driving home and just three blocks from there, who should pull up behind me flashing her lights, but my sweetie, Jane. She'd jsut gotten done with a late night pet visit in my neighborhood and saw my car as I drove past.

We headed over to my place where we sat on the deck, had a couple of glasses of wine, and I listened while Jane poured out the tale of her long and stressful day. From there, we talked about what's going on with some of our friends and the play that I'm getting ready to direct. Really a wonderful conversation. I only wish she didn't have to get up so early so she could have slept over. Even so, I can't think of a more pleasant or relaxing way to end a beautiful evening.

Nineteen

Wine I'm drinking: Cupcake Pinot Noir
Book I'm reading: This Wide Night by Chloe Moss
Dinner tonight: Green salad and a chicken sandwich

Wow! Is it ever hot around here! As I left work this afternoon, the radio said it was 109 degrees fahrenheit. Fortunately for everyone here in Missouri, the humidity was so much lower than normal that the extreme heat was bearable if you didn't have to be out in it too long.

All in all, though, it was a good evening. After work, I headed out to Maplewood, one of our inner-ring suburbs to meet with people from The Folk School of St. Louis to talk over some plans that they have for expanding the reach and community of the school. After talking with them, I have some concerns. But, I think that may be due to an inherent resistance to change. In all honesty, I can see that this set of changes has the potential to be very good for an organization that is dear to me.

After the meeting, since I was already near my mom and dad's house, I stopped by there and helped my sister with some computer problems she was having. Really simple stuff, but if you don't work with the computer every day, these kinds of things can be mystifying. Stopping in gave me a chance to visit with my brother, sister and mom. For some reason, I wasn't as frustrated by the family dynamic as I usually am and was able to laugh at some of their usually annoying idiosyncrasies. Maybe I'm maturing about it. Maybe I'm just generally happier these days. Maybe I was just worn out from the heat?

While at mom and dad's, I was surprised by a visit from my daughter, China! Always good to see her. She's just the best kid around. China is taking a water aerobics class at a nearby municipal pool with my sister and I think it's doing them both worlds of good. So, we got to visit briefly before she had to run off to her class. She relayed that her almost-10-month-old daughter, Callie, the best grand daughter in the world is now saying "fish" as well as her previous vocabulary and playing a "what's that" game. She apparently also thinks that her dad is Barack Obama. I mean, her dad is a tall black man, and a pretty good guy, but he's no President of the U.S.

Speaking of the President, how about that Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Health Care Act today? Pretty great if you ask me. And President Obama has a lot to be proud of there. Now he's got to get the message out that this law will be good for the country, good for the economy, and is just plain the right thing to do. His work is cut out for him! I've been following the news coverage on PBS (when I wasn't watching Doc Martin) since I got home and had some dinner. I've just been beaming about it the whole time.

Now, I'm darned tired and am going to read a little before going to sleep. 'Nite all.