At 6 this morning it was still dark . The moon had set and only stars were out. No hint of the coming sun and I noticed Orion straight overhead to the south with brilliant blue Sirius of to his right - The Pleiades (Subaru in Japan - Xibalba in Central America) off towards the center of the western sky - The exact stellar layout of Christmas Eve Midnight (I know it well). I guess we’re bout zackly a quarter turn from the Holiday.

I love it. (Even though it comes/goes too fast)

Had the best last 8 days (and it is still going on).

Two Fridays ago I had a lovely dinner & conversation with a dear friend I haven’t been with in years. It was delightful. I just love that person’s smile (face - its almost always smiling.). The event exhilarated me for days.

The next day, Saturday, I got to sing with Ubuntu at the ordination of a friend of the Tribe. We sang 3 for the actual service and then afterwards gathered in the back and sang more until we were tired & the group broke up.

Sunday’s big occasion was the Annual Picker’s Assembly at the Smith’s. We’ve been doing this grand assembly for a few years. Jan & Don have a lovely retreat up the hill off the main road. Covered with serene meditative spots, tiny gardens, Timber Bamboo (It can survive/thrive in these mts. if it gets going), a Disneyesque fire pit (flickering lights instead of flames), wonderful food & plenty to imbibe.

Acoustic players are, by and large, gentle folk and cooperative - not a whole lot like electric players who are competitive and loud. I am a reformed electric player - still play out loud and love it etc. but only when engaged - my default guitars are acoustic (and way easier to carry around.)

Don Smith (husband of our hostess, Jan, The Real Boss) is a fine acoustic player and a great songwriter and now that he has some time he can do more of that. He’s enjoying semi-retirement - part timing at the local hospital.

He’s a world class medical practitioner and one of the nicest guys ever. Last year, back in my distress, when my poor veins were worn out from poking and the staff nurses couldn’t start an IV, Don, brought his expertise - humming & tapping various places on my arm, found a "good one" and that got me comfortably (relatively) tapped & tubed up for the rest of that stay (my last in that series).

Back at the player’s gathering, we had 8 or so players, their significant others and some regular audio attendees show up. The players kind of passed the buck around. Everybody joined in on tunes they knew and some of us (hmmmmm) tried to memorize the cool tunes that were played they didn’t know.

Though I had to git pretty early - work the next day and kind of beat from Sunday at large - it was totally grand - a renewal of a core acoustic community round here. Very lovely people. I’m privileged to be counted among them.

Thanx Jan & Don - It is so much fun and so very kind in nature. I'm so glad we do it at least yearly.

That was Sunday. Monday back to work.

Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday evenings this week were holidays. Tai Chi,generally on Tuesdays, was cancelled for a few and Wed, usually Ubuntu practice was also postponed since the director would be outa town so Wednesday The Remnants did their practice for the coming weekend - Fri/Sat at Chris & Charlies’.

I took Friday off work to setup at C&C’s. I have plenty of off time accumulated so I took a whole day to be un-rushed and have no last minute surprises in the setup.

The Friday setup and performance went well with a happy dancing crowd and we get to go home without doing the gypsy labor of tearing down after an exhausting show (we give it all we got - tastefully).

Additionally, during every show there are spots where you think "This could go better if I just...(fill in the adjustment)" and since we setup once and play twice in the same location, we get to incorporate those little tweaks - and it sounds better!

So, if you have to choose which night to come hear us, Saturday is usually better. (Both is great - no cover$) See The Remnants Website link upper left this page for scheduling, etc.

Saturday, for sure, was a super great night sound wise and a surprise to me - my bass player, Larry’s birthday. About half way through the evening, Bob (keyboards) says to me "We have a birthday".

People lined up all the way around the room (Larry brought a personal entourage), placing beads on his neck and kissing him!! Wow.(I was jealous). Big fun and big laughs and we’re back to the show - with vigah! A fun Sat night, they moved some tables for dance room and line-danced, boogied & slow danced the night away.

Show over and now we can’t avoid the tear-down chores. Still, not bad. All moved, packed away and I’m home and in the sack by midnight.

Can’t beat it - having both the opportunity to play for and with my dear friends and getting done and snuggled into bed before the day is done. Our next job is C&C’s on Halloween so we’re learning appropriate tunes - big fun.

During the week the weather started to break Fallish and I took some pictures of items I thought "I ought to have."

This leads to questions of contained dual personalities - who is saying "I" ought to? And who is "I" talking to? Ahh, on second thought, it’s just tail-chasing. We’ll let the mystery be - it’s easier.

Pitchers (pictures)

Some Gorgeous Morning Glories & Asters.

I totally love the change on flowers that seems to happen about every two weeks

Or - it is changing constantly and I take that long to gather my perceptions?

The small batch of Glories is in front of my parking space. I have a salad of 3 colors.

The big vine is on the building adjacent to the parking lot.

The orchid is a local resident in the breezeway between the Courthouse and Annex. She was dormant for the longest time and suddenly got the memo and started to bloom. This is the tail end of that spurt - two blooms to go. I love the vein pattern.



The flower man is Mr. Dan Tinsley, former guidance counselor at Franklin HS and well acquainted with my progeny. He is a good man, conscientious and obviously happy. This was taken at Franklin’s Saturday Morning Farmer’s Market.


I kind of wanted a little gem to close with and couldn't come up with anything. Well, it came to me this morning (somebody heard me asking) from Kurt Vonnegut - his 2006 answer when asked by students to speak at their graduation.