Recruiting

I have my little blogsite linked from a couple of non-assuming blogging friends. Thanks. This in itself is certainly no big deal (in fact, it's kinda how the whole blogging community exists). The real kicker is when I'm given way too much credit for my supposedly entertaining prose (thanks anyway, Sam). I actually plagiarize all the good stuff.

The truth be known, I have three other friends who need to be in the blogging business in a big way. For some reason none of them have gotten with the program, at least not yet. Maybe they've listened to their mature inner voice that says "blogs are only for youngsters". By contrast, my inner voice is usually just white noise and spewage...

Friend #1 writes all the time - mostly in a babbling, over-the-top, way-too-much-information sort of way. He wrote a cooking column in the local newspaper for a while, but it wandered all over the range and realm of his encyclopedic knowledge - think Dennis Miller meets Robert St. John. He's even added a few comments to my blog entries. I'll leave it up to the other readers to figure out which are his. I think blogging would offer an unfettered outlet for his stuff. Plus, no silly editors putting limits on his mass quantities of stylistic blahblah.

Friend #2 is just a hoot. She's now a registered nurse living in south Mississippi, having gone back to school at 40 to start the whole lifething over. I read several emails during her time as a non-traditional student at the USM Nursing School that made me pee just a little. Really, really funny observations of the everyday and mundane through the eyes of an empowered female - that's a bankably solid blog waiting to happen.

friend#3 sends me lots of emails from nashville where he is living out my life vicariously as a writer/producer/musician all of his stuff is blisteringly acerbic with no caps no punctuation and no apologies one of his favorite phrases is pig vomit which can be used to describe anything unacceptable or unpleasant as in u2s new album is pig vomit maybe we can all adopt this tidy phrase into our own personal vocabularies at any rate his blog would be entertaining although like his emails hard to read unless youre an ee cummings fan

So each time I get a chance to talk with one of these folks, I'm goading them toward joining the blog nation. Maybe soon we'll all get to sample one - I'll certainly link it from my site. Meanwhile, I'll keep throwing my own random thoughts out there into cyberspace. Hopefully a few of my stories will bring a laugh, or a tear, or a deep introspection to you, dear reader. Mostly, it's just pig vomit...

The Babble After the Calm

I realize that it's been almost three weeks since I last published something on this site. Not that a lot hasn't been going on...

Made a cool overnight trip with the wifey last week to the Alluvian Hotel in Greenwood for an anniversary soiree. Great meal in Giardina's, great breakfast at the hotel, great happy hour with Jeff & Drew in the lounge, great cream cheese croissant pinwheel at the Hummingbird Bakery, and a great browse in the Viking Kitchen shoppe (who knew frying pans could cost that much??). All this with my bride of 30 years by my side. All in all, a fabulous day/night combo to celebrate.

Played a handful of jobs over the last couple of weeks. Nothing earth changing. Playing with Bobby S. on keys and sax is a nice gig - more of those to come, I hope.

Meredith moved in for two weeks to oversee yet another MSU KD rush. Plus, Cam's living at the house waiting on his newly remodeled digs to be finished - a full nest again for a while.

Somehow I'm signed up to teach a youth Sunday school class at FPC starting next Sunday. Fortunately, Heather & Gary Templeton (tres cool younger couple with a nifty little unit named Gabriel waddling around) and the venerable Jeff Foster are on board as well. It's my third shot - this time after a four year break. I can't imagine that these kids are in a position to get it when I start on one of my rants. Maybe the aforementioned adult parties can keep me in line...

Did I mention that it's hot. Not just summer in Mississippi hot. More like Hell is leaking into the general area hot. Or at the very least Al Gore was right and the ozone hole is now gaping hot. Too hot to deal with. Ants are catching on fire out there - seriously. No magnifying glass or nothin'

So let's all stay inside...

Back to the Future

I got a chance (through two very different circumstances) to spend a little time with a couple of old pals this weekend. One was my best friend since junior high (including a three year stint as my college roomy). The other was a fellow trumpet player from high school band - I now confess to being a band nerd...

Friend #2 lives in Columbus and the wife and I were invited to his home for a wedding shower honoring a young couple I had never met (??). It's a little complicated, but the groom's parents are fairly recent transplants to the area and we sing in the FPC choir together. The parents had lived in Columbus for a time several years back and were (and still are) good friends with the hosts. Somehow, that got us on the guest list - and at a very posh address according to the invitation.

The home itself was breathtakingly opulent, but even more gratifying was about 30 minutes I got to spend catching up with the man of the house. This guy looks in really great shape - and I find out he "recently" discovered triathlons. The killer deal is that he said he didn't run, bike or swim until three years ago. At least that's what he tells me.

I couldn't run a 5K without an ambulance somewhere in plain view...

My catching up with friend #1 was under what couldn't have been more grim circumstances. His mom had died a few days earlier and Marquita and I decided to try to catch him at the funeral home visitation (also in Columbus. By the way, I grew up in Columbus in case that fact has escaped any of you regular readers). I missed a similar chance at his Dad's funeral about five years ago (I was in Florida) and at his older sister's funeral (again, I was in Florida. What does that mean??). In spite of good excuses both times, I though there might be some resentment hovering.

I had not seen or spoken with this guy in about 15 years or so. He lives near Nashville and even though I've been up to that area quite a bit, we've never gotten together. Sometimes you just drift apart when you don't make an effort - my bad.

It felt a little weird when I first approached him at the wake, but he seemed genuinely glad to see me and we just picked up the conversation right where we left off the last time we talked. He's remarried, has a 7 year old, and is a farmer of sorts. Who knew? We left each other promising to each do a better job of keeping in touch.

I guess these two encounters just reinforce my feelings that old true friends are for life. And they're always good to savor...