Not Necessarily Interesting News

I managed to get tix to the Great High Mountain Tour playing at the Backyard last night. I got 2 second row center seats for my dad and myself. The tour is a bunch of different bluegrass bands showing off their stuff. Many of them did music for movies like O Brother Where Art Thou and Cold Mountain. There were old timers like The Whites and Ralph Stanley to newer groups like Reeltime Travelers and Sierra and Cody Hull. Alison Krause and Union Station also played.

Once the concert started it didn’t let up for 3 solid hours. Austin was their last stop on the tour and they did a lot of mixing up of the bands. You know, kind of a ‘I always wanted to sit in with y’all. Mind if I sit in this song?’ thing. You also got a lot of jamming when one person would go nuts on a solo and then another player would try to outdo them. Like when Jerry Douglas, on slide guitar, was sitting in with The Whites he and Buck White, on mandolin, kept trying to one-up each other. You could see how much they were truly enjoying themselves. I really enjoyed The Reeltime Travelers . Heidi from their group could really dance. Her feet moved so fast they were a blur. Sierra and Cody Hull, the young’uns, were fantastic also. It’s nice to see that younger folks are learning the old music to ensure it doesn’t die. Alison Krauss and Union Station are by far the best known of those that played but they didn’t overshadow the show at all. They did the same 3-4 songs that everyone else did. The last 1/2 of the show was different combos of bands playing together.

The really neat thing was there was no ‘showmanship’ like at other concerts. The music spoke for itself. No fancy light shows or video screens. No electric instruments. The sound equipment was only there to amplify the music. The musicians did their own sound mixing consisting of moving their instruments closer to or farther from the mic. There wasn’t even a backdrop. They let the trees at the Backyard and the sunset be their backdrop. Even when the cicadas started up at sundown they added to the whole ambiance. You could almost picture yourself back in some Kentucky ‘holler’.

At the end all the groups got up on stage for the closing. There had to be about 50-60 folks up there. They closed with Amazing Grace led by Ralph Stanley. You could see a few performers crying because they knew the tour was over. I gained a lot of respect for Alison Krauss because during the close as she stood near the back and off to the side and let the others take center stage even though she was by far the most popular act. She hasn’t let her fame go to her head.

Now they just need to release a CD or DVD of the concert so I can introduce my son to it. I know not many folks of my generation or younger think bluegrass music is ‘cool’ but I really do like it.

: Old Joe Clark by Reeltime Travelers

This past weekend I got a really good deal on an Apple eMac for my wife and son. It’s not the latest greatest but it’ll serve their needs quite well. It’s a bit older 700Mhz G4 with 384MB RAM and a 40GB HDD. Nothing special but hard to pass up at $350. I added an Airport card so I wouldn’t have to run a network line through the attic. A nightmare in itself, especially in summer. This makes our second Mac after my iBook. I was looking for another iBook for them but when this came along I had to grab it.

They needed a computer for the school room that Shannon is working on right now. She’s in the process of painting it. She’s got the basecoat down, the most bright yellow I’ve ever seen, and hasn’t decided on the theme but I’m sure it’ll be something like she did in Dakota’s room. On that front it looks like she may have another contract in the works to paint two more kids’ rooms. So right now she has a ‘space’ room, another ‘jungle’ room, and an ‘ocean’ room in the works. It may turn into a nice side business.

The other nice thing about the new school room is I get my office back. We had just finished decorating it when my sis moved in and we had to combine the schoolroom and office. I quickly got crowded out under the stacks and stacks of schoolbooks. I’ve got the decor ready to go once they move out again and it’ll be all mine. I may even let Shannon experiment with some sort of city theme in there. She needs the examples for her portfolio.

: Fannin Street from the album “Easy Rider” by Leadbelly

Had to work out at the ranch this weekend. My wife also had to work so I took Dakota, my son, with me. We went out to test the new tires and suspension on the Defender. I found a couple of places to flex it a little. I wasn’t totally happy with the amount of articulation I was getting on Saturday so Sunday morning before we headed out I disconnected the sway bars. Things loosened up a bit after that. The handling didn’t seem to be that affected. I chalk that up to the stiffer springs I installed. The pic shows off the new steering stabilzer and coils/shocks. The tires also show off their agressive tread with the white limestone dust on them. Dakota didn’t like riding with me when things got ’tilty’ so he hopped out to take photos. I never took it over 20 degrees on the various obstacles though the Defender is capable of about a 40 degree cross slope angle.

After we finished playing we headed back to the trailer to hang out. While I read a book Dakota decided he wanted to go fishing in the creek. That we had no tackle with us was not a hinderance in his eyes. He dug around and found a box of paper clips. He linked about a dozen together and formed the last into a hook. I just watched in amusement. He took a bit of bread from the hot dogs we were eating and baited it. I decided to follow him to the creek to watch. I wish I’d brought the camera. He found a big ol’ slab of limestone leaning on the creek bank and insisted that a big ol’ Largie was hanging out under it. He dropped his ‘fishing pole’ over the side and waited. I laid back and enjoyed the warm Central Texas sun. Not much beats lying next to a cool clear creek on a warm summer day. I was watching the clouds pass overhead when I heard a splash and then Dakota yell. I looked to the left and Dakota started bitching at the water ‘the fish stole my fishing rod!’ Sure enough, a large mouth had come out from under that rock and stole his bread and his chain of paper clips and took them under the rock. I couldn’t help but laugh which only made my son more angry. He’s now bound and determined to come back with real fishing gear and catch and eat that fish. He swears the fish had a mouth as big as his fist. I’ve seen the fish he’s talking about, it’s a Largemouth that might weigh in at about 1lb. A big fish for that little creek.

: A Little Bit Lonesome from the album “Barricades & Brickwalls” by Kasey Chambers

Apparently one of our neighbors’ kids backed into another neighbors’ car last night around 1:30AM. Ok, accidents happen but this idiot teenager decided to drive off after sitting and thinking about it for a minute. He drove off while two witnesses stood in the yard and watched. My sister had just gotten home from a night out with a friend and happened to be standing in the driveway talking with her friend when it occurred. The teenager saw them standing there and still drove off. This morning he was parked across the street, not his normal spot, and down the block from where he hit our neighbor. The idiot didn’t even bother to clean the broken glass out his his tailgateless pickup bed. I don’t know what’s become of the situation right now because I’m at work. He hadn’t dropped by the neighbors’ house to apologize or anything by 11AM which I think was more than enough time. I told the neighbor to just call the cops and let them handle it then.

We’ve been waiting for these teenagers to move out of the house for years now but apparently they are going to college locally and will be around a while longer. I almost shot one of their friends a few years ago after he decided my bushes were a great place to hide to avoid a drunken brawl that was about to occur after one of their many parties, that occur when mom and dad leave for the weekend, went south. When a man holding a .45 tells you to come out of a bush, you come out. Don’t try to make yourself even smaller and try to make him think you’re not there. Your alcoholic haze does not provide an invisibility shield. *sigh*

: It’ll Be a Long Time from the album “Smash” by Offspring

My Nana is the best. My wife was over visiting her yesterday and Nana gave her something she had been holding on to for many years. Nana told her that my sister and I used to fight over it. Yes, it is an actual working Parker Brothers Merlin from 1978. All I had to do was clean the battery contacts and drop in some new batteries and it powered right up after a bit of noise. This thing is built solid. How many GameBoys do you think are going to still be working after 25 years?

It plays 6 games. Yes, count ’em, six. That’s six exciting beep and blinkerific games.

It plays all your old favorites like:

• Tic Tac Toe
• Music Machine (It’s a lean mean beeping machine)
• Echo (A copy of Simon, another great game from the 70’s)
• Blackjack 13 (what it sounds like)
• Magic Square (Heck if I know)
• Mindbender (don’t remember this either)

This thing would amuse me for hours on end. It was the GameBoy of its era. If you’d like to try your hand at what we considered cutting edge in 1978 there is a Virtual Merlin. Yeah, it’s a Windows app. I had to find a windows machine to try it out.

: Been It from the album “First Band On The Moon” by The Cardigans

…and a hockey game broke out.

Last night I went to my first hockey game. My sister is a season ticket holder for the Austin Ice Bats. Her seats are on the glass near the home goal. I’m not much of a hockey fan but it wasn’t too bad. I was disappointed that there were no fights though. I always say: You’re not having fun until someone is bleeding. I did manage to get a puck that was shot over the glass into the net. It was also fun having hockey players faces smash into the glass 2 feet from your face when they got checked.

: Souvenirs from the album “Margaritaville Cafe – Late Night Menu” by Jimmy Buffett

Yup, i’ve managed to reach almost a 1/3 of a century. Huh, who woulda thunk I’d last this long. Normally I’d celebrate it like I have every year since moving to Texas. A visit to one of my favorite places to hang out, Wimberly Glass Works. We aren’t going this year because they’ve moved their yearly ‘irregular’ sale until January, after I talked to Tim, the owner, who said they weren’t going to do that. I was rather upset. I’ve looked forward to my birthday every year since we’ve been here for that sale. We have been the first people in line for about 3 or 4 years now, showing up 2 hours or more before the doors opened. Just hanging out in what always seems to be freezing weather and talking to Tim about his year was a highlight. We’d hit the sale, then Wimberly Market Days, and for lunch we’d hit my favorite place in CenTex, The Saltlick for all-you-can-eat BBQ. We’ll still be goin’ down to The Saltlick but we’ll skip WGW until next month I guess.

I’ve already gotten most of my presents from my family and myself. I bought myself an external firewire drive to backup my iBook quickly and easily. My wife gave me some John Cusak DVDs and my son gave me a figurine named ‘Father and Son’. My sister gave me a giant LEGO minifig for my desk at work. The biggie and the one gift I’ve wanted for a long time but would never buy myself was from my parents. They gave me a poker chip set. Real clay poker chips, 11 gram weight, exactly like are used in Vegas. They feel so good in the hands and make and oh-so-satisfying clink when thrown in the pot. I guess it’s time to start up Saturday night poker games again.

I’m gonna head to bed to sleep in as late as I want. In the morning, or afternoon depending on how late I sleep, I’ll probably finish decorating the house for Christmas before we head out to dinner.

: Stille Nacht from the album “Christmas” by Mannheim Steamroller

Damn that alarm. I know 7:45 isn’t that early but, geez, it sure seems like it after being up to nearly 1AM. Today we are headed for Animal Kingdom and MGM Studios.

First stop, Animal Kingdom. Got inside and headed straight for their premier attraction the Kilimanjaro Safari. I must say I was impressed at this attraction. The wall and fences are hidden so masterfully you think you really are travelling through Africa and that there’s nothing between you and that cheetah or lion. You think there’s nothing stopping a lion from walking over to a gazelle and getting a quick meal. The giraffes were out and about and walked right up to the truck. For me the coolest part was seeing the Defender 90 they had parked there to look like poachers were working the area. They had treated it to look rusted which made me laugh. Aluminium, which is what the body is made from, doesn’t rust. We did this ride again because it was so neat. We also hit ‘It’s a Bug’s Life’ which had decent effects along the lines of ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Audience’. A few more stops and we are on our way to MGM.
(Read on …)

We woke up this morning to rain. Bummer. The front that passed through Austin 3 days ago made it to Florida. What are we gonna do? Stay in the hotel? I think not. It’s just water. Today we are headed to the Magic Kingdom and maybe Epcot for dinner later.

We decided to eat breakfast at the hotel restaurant. They had wonderful sweet potato pancakes. Very filling and not too expensive. Time to head to the park for some rides and pin trading for Dakota.

Arrived at the park around 10AM. It seems to be quite dead because of the rain. That’s a good thing. Most of their rides are inside things and the rain looks to break up in a couple hours. I’ve been looking forward riding the ExtraTERRORestrial Encounter so we headed that way first. Damnit. It’s closed for renovation. Okay, let’s hit Dakota’s favorite, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Spin. It’s a giant video game you ride through and shoot at the bad guys with laser guns. The rain broke up around noon and it turned into a nice day. We of course hit the scariest ride in all DisneyWorld, It’s a Small World. Then on to what is probably my favorite here, the Haunted Mansion. Dakota just loves looking for the ‘Hidden Mickeys’. Once we got off this we had to hit the attached gift shop. My wife was in heaven. She collects Nightmare Before Christmas stuff and the shop was packed to the gills. I think I got out for under $200. Nice thing about staying on-site is we can have the purchases delivered straight to our room and not carry them around all day.
(Read on …)

This is the first installment in the story of our 4 day trip to the Land of the Giant Rat. My iBook died on the trip so I’m having to transcribe from my notepad into the blog since I don’t have access to the entries on the laptop. I’ll add them with the correct dates as I go.

Oh, Dear Lord. I didn’t realize that there was such a thing as 4 o’clock in the morning. I figured night ended around 2-3AM and days started around 8-9AM. When that alarm went off it scared the hell out of me. Luckily we were all packed and ready to go. Note to self: No more 6AM flights.

We got to the airport about 45-50 minutes before our flight. Usually this is more than enough time at the Austin airport. Not so this time. We figured we’d save space and take just one bag for my wife, son, and me. That was all well and good until Mr. ESL weighed our bag. Oops. We were at 62.5lbs, the limit is 50lbs per bag. My sister had to pull out the extra bag she had packed to bring souveniers back in. We offloaded our battery chargers, batteries, and otehr heavy items. We could have all brought 2 bags each, each one weighing 50lbs for a total of 300lbs. The logic that we had saved 240lbs+the space baffled our little rocket surgeon counter worker. Whatever.
(Read on …)