. . . and it’s a pain . . . . . .

I can’t explain it.  Saturday night we had a gig at a farm with a pig/corn roast.  Our stage was a flatbed – probably for a tractor, so it’ wasn’t large.  After the first set I got down from the flatbed and landed with my left foot against a pile of gravel and dirt (at a 45º angle) and my right foot flat on the ground.  It hurt briefly and I thought I’d sprained my left ankle.  But, no pain.  The ankle was fine that night (Saturday), fine the next day – and I did a lot of walking on Sunday loading in gear for the Rock-U concert, and it was fine on Monday.  However early this morning (2:00 am) it hurt when I got up to let the dogs our – and it was killing me at 7:30 am when I got up.  The ankle is really swollen now – and it still hurts.  It’s tough having to do stairs.  I put ice on it tonight and it’s seems a bit better.  We’ll see how it feels tomorrow morning.  ---- and here’s the question:  Why would it take so long (2 days) to begin to hurt?  Someone tell me.

Last gig?

 

Had a busy weekend with a pig roast/corn roast private party gig on Saturday.  It was a great time.  Our other guitar player/vocalist couldn’t make it due to work commitments, so we got a couple of our musician friends to sit it.  Tony (the guitarist in the middle) is one of the best guitarists I’ve ever had the pleasure to share the stage with.  And Tony (yes, the other musician is also named Tony) the vocalist (far right) has a great voice and is also a drummer.  In fact he’s subbed for our drummer a couple of times.  A big thanks to both of them for their help.  ■  Pat, our guitar/vocalist, has a new job that sometimes requires him to work on weekends.  Trouble is he never knows which weekends he’ll be free and he won’t know until the last minute.  So, we’re kind of in a quandary on booking gigs.  A band really doesn’t want to book a gig and then cancel it at the last moment.  It’s not fair to the venue that is hiring us and the band would get a bad reputation for having to cancel gigs.  So, was this our last gig?  I don’t know.  ■  Sunday I was needed to work our store’s Rock-U concert.  It was a great concert – the kids were fabulous and our Rock-U head did a great job of putting the concert together.  ■  This week:  more drawing and getting ready for our upcoming Chili Fest – the 17th year for it.  ■ 

Not a standard house . . . . .

I’ve been working on catching up with some home drawings that I’m behind on.  This is a very preliminary small sketch of one of those.  I’m working off of a very small photo and blowing it up distorts any detail that I’m trying to discern.  Kind of frustrating.  With many homes you know that there’s a window here, or a door there because we’re familiar with those types of homes.  This is not one of those!  ■ 

Cozy . . . . . .

This is what I look at every night when I go to bed.  Zoe at the foot of the bed and Abby snuggled-up about as close as you can get to Holly.  If you try and drag Abby off, she just snuggles closer to Holly.  How she can get closer I don’t know, but she really digs in.  How do I get them off the bed so I can get in? – dog biscuits.  Yup, I use dog biscuits to lure them off the bed so I can get on.  It doesn’t stop them from getting back on the bed – and Abby nestling right in-between us.  Boy does she need love.  She just can’t get close enough to us.  ■  Gig tomorrow.  It’s a private party – I think a 50th birthday bash.  Should be fun.  ■  Time fer bed.  ■ 

Historical places . . . . .

I’ve drawn a couple of churches – actually more than 2, but this one, if you recognize it from a previous post, is/was located in Cary, IL.  The original structure (and this is a pen and ink of it) is long gone.  It’s replacement in now located across from our high school.  This drawing is going to be made into a Christmas ornament.  I can’t wait until it’s done.  ■  Got a gig on Saturday.  It’s a private party somewhere in the area.  I need to do a set list for it, but I need to find out more about the gig first.  ■  Time fer bed.

Caught this morning Bay perch . . .

Holly came home from Green Bay, where she’d been for her uncle’s funeral, with a few pounds of Bay perch fillets.  These were caught this morning.  I got out the ol’ big frying pan and we cooked all of them.  Had Steve & Jean, our next-door-neighbors over for the feast.  They were delicious – the fish, I mean.  Neighbors are nice too.  ■ 

A busy weekend . . . . .

It’s been a busy few days.  Lots of get-togethers, a party, and finally ending with a Bullfrog gig.  I’m tired.  Heck I was tired before all of this activity started, but I just haven’t been able to catch up on my rest.  I need sleep.  ■  The party we hosted for Libby and Jay was fun.  I did get to talk with a lot of people.  And we have to thank all of our friends who helped us put on the party.  We couldn’t have done it without you – and wouldn’t want to do it without you.  Thanks.  ■  Holly’s last uncle passed away.  The funeral is on Tuesday.  We’ll miss Uncle Gerry.  ■  I’d write more, but I’m so tired.  Goodnight.  

Beautiful home burned down . . . . .

No, it’s not our home that burned down.  It’s my parent’s old retirement home that my mother sold a few years ago.  I just went on Google maps and found it in the aerial view.  It might be a little hard to see, but it’s the home in the middle.  The guest bedroom and living room wing are standing as well as the garage on the lower left of the house.  The middle is burned up.  Sad to see.  It was a wonderful house.  ■  Did a turkey breast on the grill tonight.  It was delicious!  A perfect bird.  Moist, full of smokey flavor – cooked just perfectly.  We accompanied the turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy.  Mmmm . . . . . you should be envious.  ■  We’re having a party for Libby and Jay this weekend to present the newly married couple to our friends.  Rusty and Mary are driving up from Waveland, MS for the event.  We’ve all been worried about them due to the oil spill in the Gulf.  Rusty and Mary’s home is just a couple of hundred yards from the Gulf.  We’ll get an update on how the spill has affected them and their relatives.  I don’t think any of their relations are shrimpers, or oystermen, but I may be wrong.  ■  And speaking of seafood – I’m smoking a salmon for the party.  It’ll be smoking when people arrive.  If you’ve never had warm smoked salmon you’re really missing something.  ■  And before I forget, I’ve got to ask Jac if he’ll put together a new trivia contest for Chili Fest.  ■  And the Cubs are losing 3 to 5 in the 5th in San Francisco . . . . . . . .

Lights . . . camera . . . . party!

Holly put up white lights on our pine trees that are on one side of your patio.  These are for the upcoming party on Saturday, but actually they’ll probably stay up all year.  We had done this a few years ago, but when they came down they stayed down.  Now they’re back up!  ■  My next door neighbor got up on my ladder and painted the shutters on one side of our house.  It looks great.  Much thanks to him.  He gave me the rest of the paint, so now I’ll have to do the remaining shutters.  ■  I do wish the humidity would vanish.  The heat I can stand – the humidity – no.  It really kills me.  ■  I do have some painting that I must do this week.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate tomorrow and I can paint the patio door.  Got to see if I have a brush, or if I have to get one.  ■    About time for bed.  Night.  ■ 

Dinner, The Wiggelos and open mic . . . . .

Holly and I went out to dinner and to hear “The Wiggle-Os” – all at the same venue.  The food was good – Holly had fried chicken and I had their chilimac – comfort food fer sure.  Started off with a margarita just to quench my thirst – tasted gooood.  And the Wiggle-Os were great as usual.  ■  Came home a little early – missed the last set – as we wanted to make sure that Abby hadn’t left us any messes.  She was a good girl.  I think she’s got the hang of it now.  ■  Painting tomorrow barring rain.  ■

Faded memories . . . . . .

Did you ever have an epiphany when looking at something?  Something you looked at brought back a faded memory.  And then you wonder if the memory is real, imagined, or a combination of the two.  I looked at a ball jar tonight and it brought back a memory (real, or imagined) that I had buried a “time capsule” in one in the backyard.  I know I’ve always thought about doing that, but it seems that I may have carried through on it 20+ years ago.  I know I scrawled some stuff on paper and tossed it into a couple of holes in walls in our house along with a few coins.  At some point someone will remodel our home and find that stuff.  It should be interesting for them . . . but I’m not sure about the ball jar.  Did I, or didn’t I.  Was it an intention, or did I follow through on it?  Faded memories from the corners of my mind . . . . .

Changes a year brings . . . .

This was a normal picture a year ago.  Zoe and Mollie out in the backyard together.  Now Mollie’s gone and we have a new pup, Abby, trying to take her place and fit in with the family.  Time brings changes. ■  Got some stuff done today including mowing the lawn.  I need to straighten up and organize my office tomorrow.  Ok, it’s probably more than a couple hour project, so it’ll probably go into the weekend.  ■  Need to do some painting this weekend – spiffing up the house for next weekend’s party.  ■  Bedtime . . . time for my race to get into bed before Abby can get back on it.  ■ 

A clean house is a . . .

My next-door-neighbor Steve has a power washer – a device that you hook up to your hose and then it fires the water out the other end under great pressure.  He and I used that to clean the outside of my house.  Between that and some cleaning stuff that Holly found (that also hooked up to the hose) we were able to make the house sparkle.  Ok, maybe it doesn’t sparkle, but is sure looks much better.  And we used the power washer on the patio.  It looks 100% better.  I’m thinking I should invest in one as I could use it a few times during the summer.  ■  Bullfrog went from having one gig in August to three.  Two private parties and one bar gig.  That’s good.  Keep ‘em coming.  ■  I’ve got to finish up the church drawing tomorrow and get posters made and delivered for the upcoming bar gig.  ■  Abby, our new dog, is coming along just fine.  She’s gaining more confidence daily and we noticed that her fur has grown over an old wound that she had on the top of her head.  She sure is a sweet dog.  And Zoe seems to like her too.  ■