I'm not dead

Ah just been busy. I know I've not posted for a month. Just got tired of it. Well, lets see. I backpacked in 10 lakes above Tuolumne Meadows the second week of July.  Came back with a couple of drawings and two watercolors. We just sat around. Did a couple of day hikes. Maybe I'll scan the better of the two watercolors. They really take me 4 hours to do one, so that kind of takes the whole day with lunch in the middle. We went with a couple I had never met and had fun. Went swimming every afternoon. My buddy fished. We took a long out of our way drive back. Read Dave Eggers book about the guy that got arrested in New Orleans after Katrina for trying to stay and help people.

Then had to get year end done at work. I needed to get another give away CD for the band, so I redesigned our logo into a the silly CD cover above and burned a bunch of them to give away at performances. Ended up updating our band My Space with current stuff and changing out the band pictures. One more member has bit the dust. So I had to take him out.

We're playing more. We're repeating gigs. It looks like we have a monthly thing at Westchester on the first Friday of the month and a 4th Sunday at Anaheim and the monthly thing at Melrose plus other places that want us back. We've added 4-5 new new songs to the playlist and have rehearsed accordingly.

And I started Grand Jury Duty today. I'm the Sargent at arms. 10 days in the next thirty. They tell us when. I can't tell you any more or I'll have to shoot you.

Wrote a new song:

The Old Man

He sits there in the sun
Most of the day
In fisherman's fedora or baseball cap
Pulled down straight away
He had liked to cast a few
When he could hike the mountain streams
In his day

CHORUS:
The old man wants to tell you
What's wrong with everything
But you've learned not to listen
So he'll mumble it to the wind
Until the lonesome listless afternoon
Drags to an end

The pretty girls stroll by in the glare
With hardly a glance
The wife doesn't want him around or underfoot
And the kids are long since gone
He'd sure as hell give them guidance
In his day

He was the Grand Dad that had to be in charge
The one that would poke you when you were ten
You knew he wanted you to be like him
But he was an old fool even then

CHORUS

God save me from those listless days
And sitting in the sun
I don't want to be useless or forgotten
Or just another old son of a gun
Bless me with a load of laughter
To pick and sing and howl at the the wind
In the end.

CHORUS

The real effect is with the repetition of the chorus to drive the theme home- and of course some catchy melody to drive it more. The song has the chord progression of Big Rock Candy Mountain, without the melody- got my own to add to it. But the progression actually gives the song its timbre.

Inspired by the old men who sit across the street from where I work and are there when I ride by on bike at 5:00 pm. Sad.

Our new banner in Facebook

This photo above is of the real remains of her garden outside their house in Tyringham, Mass just around the corner from my littlest bear's college. I met the 92 year old still living in the house. Was made to feel like historical stalker. This was the house in 1898

IN HELENA'S GARDEN

the sunset window

Through the garden sunset-window

Shines the sky of rose;

Deep the melting red, and deeper

Lovelier it grows

Musically falls the fountain;

Twilight voices chime;

Visibly upon the cloud-lands

Tread the feet of Time.

Evening winds from down the valley

Stir the waters cool;

Break the dark, empurpled shadows

In the marble pool.

Rich against the high-walled grayness

The crimson lily grows,

And near, O near, one well-loved presence

Dream-like comes and goes

-Richard Watson Gilder

Our buddy at camp

I can't think of anything else right now. Does that catch us up?