Saturday Thoughts

Well it's Saturday afternoon and just woke up from a midday nap. Not sure what I did to my left shoulder but it has been wonky for the last couple of weeks. I really feel it when I sleep on that side. I am one of those side sleepers so this isn't good. LOL.

Listening to the late, great Jeff Healey and his band as I am typing this. What a talent this man had. Listening to originals of his like "Angel Eyes", "See The Light" and his covers of Neil Young's "Like A Hurricane" and The Beatles "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". It's like he made those songs his own.

I was up in Norwood, NC about 140 miles northeast of Greenville yesterday visiting our plant that manufactures and retreads tires for all kinds of aircraft. It was fascinating to see even though I didn't understand half of what was going on. My mind just doesn't work that way. Mechanically that is.

I must say that the people that come up with the ideas to make these machines and make these work areas better for men and women know what they are doing. These plant workers work their asses off. It was something to see the arm, shoulder and upper body muscles that a lot of the guys have from working in the different work stations and that's even with the machines and computer-aided machinery that assists in their jobs. I think if I worked there for 5-6 weeks I would be in much better shape. I would definitely be burning calories on the retread side of the building where a lot of the work takes place near ovens that bake (cure)tires. The people up there were super friendly and a real pleasure to meet up with and I am very grateful that they gave us the opportunity to visit with them.

The only downer was being stuck with chronic complainers in a vehicle for 5 hours (round trip) . At one point I just wanted the car to stop so that I could make my escape. I really don't handle naysayers and nitpickers well. It's like STFU! Your effing complaining about something is not going to make me any happier and if it does you, psych help is in your near future. Thank goodness that some among us were able to carry conversations without it all being negative.

I went to Costco this morning after dropping H off at a one day class thing he needs to take. On my way back after dropping close to $200 there it got me thinking a bit of how different my grocery order was compared to what my Mom would spend on groceries.

The steaks wouldn't be part of the grocery order that's for sure. There was no way that my stepfather's salary would have covered for steaks for anywhere between 5 to 9 of us at any one time that lived in that duplex at the corner of Notre Dame and 100th.

Half and half for coffee. LOL. You better be able to drink regular milk or better yet as Lewis Black calls it "moo moo cow fuck milk" in your coffee. There were times growing up that the only milk we had was of the powdered variety and I think that at times things were so tough that my Mom had to make it stretch so much that our powdered milk became powdered skim milk as it was so diluted just so we would have enough to last 'til my stepfather's next payday. I think to best describe our economic situation growing up is that we were lower lower middle class with the emphasis of the second lower.

Funny thing was we never thought of ourselves as missing things because we didn't really. We had food, clothing and shelter.

I had granola cereal and Frosted Flakes in my basket this morning. I grew up eating puffed rice cereal bought in these huge effing no name brand bags. Add milk and you were eating papier mache. LOL.

I had sushi in my basket this morning. I don't even know if sushi existed in Montreal 40 years ago. If it did it must come disguised as fish sticks. LOL.

I had three different snack chips in my basket this morning. I had organic tortilla chips, exotic vegetable chips as well as kettle brand krinkle cut potato chips with sea salt. I also bought to go with this organic salsa as well as spinach artichoke with parmesan dip. We were lucky to get Yum Yum Chips when we were kids.

Even the drinks that I got were different. A case of Sam Adams seasonal beer, a couple of bottles of red wine (and not Cuvee Du Depanneur) brands. Even the orange juice was 100% juice not made from concentrate in single serving sizes that cost me a nickle more per serving size had I bought in large jugs. We grew up drinking that frozen orange juice stuff and it was often the no-name that would ferment something God-awful inside of 3-4 days. None of that in this household anymore.

How things are different nowadays. Just writing these last few paragraphs puts a little more perspective on where I am in life and how fortunate I am. I have some good guilt that just came up. Time to make another donation to Harvest Hope Food Bank. I'm glad that this subject came up as I was driving.

That's it for now. Going to pick Princess up and bring her to Cleveland Park for a nice walk.

Up In The Middle Of The Night

Okay I finally gave up trying to get back to sleep at 420am after pretty much tossing and turning for the last two hours or so. I got all of three hours of sleep I think. I'm pretty sure that I am not going to be very effective later in the day. Coffee is brewing and I really need to shave. I have itchy face. I don't have a big day planned as later on this morning I am heading to take an all day PowerPoint class to update my skills there. Once I complete this class, I too will be able to proceed with death by PowerPoint presentations all of my own. Oh joy!

So what to talk about as I am drinking the first of today's many coffees.

Listening to the late Bob Welch right now. Songs like "Ebony Eyes" and the beautifully played "Sentimental Lady" both from his 1977 release French Kiss which was his first solo release after leaving Fleetwood Mac in 1974.

Bob Welch had been in the band since 1971 bridging the era from their original blues roots in England when the band were all Englishmen to when he left in '74 to be replaced by the Stevie Nicks - Lindsey Buckingham tandem. It can be said that he brought a more commercial flair to the band who up that time were known as a blues band. The weird thing is that the Fleetwood Mac song called "Hypnotized" that he is most closely associated with is from 1973's Mystery To Me album was never released as a single. That really good song became well known from it being played on album oriented rock stations. I think in this day and age of disposable music and the iTune mentality which is geared towards singles more than actual albums of music; a great song like this may have never seen the light of day or been heard. It still gets tons of airplay and nearly 40 years later it still feels fresh.

Sadly Bob Welch passed away at 65 early last month after taking his own life. He had major health issues related to some spinal surgery he had a few months prior and didn't want his wife to care for an invalid. Sad.

Wow H is up already. He needs to be at the store for 6am. Today is when the prices change on the sale items and he is the lucky one that has to handle that in the produce section. He is so not a morning person. I'm impressed as this week with his manager off on vacation, he's had the early shift and he's been up and at 'em without fail all week. My young man is definitely growing up fast.

So yesterday on my way into work I once again had the opportunity to be stuck behind a complete moron of a driver on an effing cellphone as we were trying to merge on northbound 85. First of all, who the eff are you talking to at 745am on your cellphone? You just left the effing house a little bit ago. There can't be emergency already! Are you talking to your lover? Are you cheating on your wife? Are you placing bets with your bookie on the MLB AllStar game? Are you solving issues related to the production being down because you're Albert Effin Einstein? This is what goes through my head when I am stuck behind someone trying to merge onto the highway where everyone is going 60 to 70 mph and Mr. Moron OnTheCellphone is driving 40 mph. Sorry Einstein but that just isn't going to work. Sadly I live in a state where seatbelt safety rules were only put into law in the last 5-6 years. I expect cellphone safety laws to be enacted in the year 2084 in this state. The argument against all of these laws that better society is some hogwash about trampling on individual rights. It's effing retarded. Sorry I am cranky when thinking about dumbasses and their lack of reasoning and common sense. LOL. Okay time to switch the subject. Onto to serene things. Ha.

Actually I'm going to make breakfast and log on to my work computer and catch up on emails.

A Short One (A Sad One)

Okay I am going to try to knock off a quick blog before I "wok'n'woll" and make the chicken fajitas that I referred to quickly in yesterday's blog.

As is usually the case I need to update the world on what I am listening to as I hunt and peck on this keyboard. On tonight's musical menu I have "Deep Tracks" playing from 97.1FM The Drive based out of Chicago. It's a cool station playing songs that you've heard before but likely have not heard in the recent past. Songs like "Wah-Wah" by George Harrison or "World Turning" by Fleetwood Mac or "Winterlude" by Bob Dylan or "The Sad Cafe" by the Eagles. Like the station's name, definitely Deep Tracks.

I got some bad news on an account that I deal with on a monthly basis. Had some order issues today because certain obligations had not been met and ended up on the phone with a young lady there and tried to straighten things out to everyone's satisfaction. That got done but before it did I found that my main contact there Sam Chu had passed almost 3 months ago.

I had been talking with Sam for the last ten years or so. The scope of our conversations never went too deep. He was 15 years older than I and as the surname implies he was of Chinese descent. We would have conversations about how business was going, how he would pay us and when and over the last couple of years about his courageous battles with cancer. He had undergone radiation therapy and was positive about his battle with cancer. He had been away from the shop but as soon as he got back he made sure touch base with me to say hey and ask me for pre-printed deposit slips. I knew that before he passed away he took a long trip back home to visit and maybe tidy up his affairs.

The one thing that I will always remember about Sam is that his word was golden. This man always stayed true to his word and was truly a gentleman and a class act and I will miss our "pigeon" English conversations. Sam Chu you were a good man!

That's a big thing about getting older. It seems that people we know, people we care about, people we like and people we love pass on. I know that it is life but nevertheless it really bites.

Anyways that's it for now. Melancholia has set in. Back later when I am a bit more upbeat.

Darn Mondays

So I made it through this ridiculously hot Monday (high of 95F) with my sanity intact. It started right off the bat as a typical effed up Monday. I had completely forgotten that I had chauffeur duties for one of my co-workers so rather than have my usual impeccably groomed Monday look I showed up with 5 days growth on my face and let's say 10 day growth on my head where hair follicles still exist.

Let me clear up one thing up. I am never clean shaven on Mondays. I sleep so badly on a typical Sunday night due to stress and an overactive brain that I rarely get myself up in time to shave properly and show up before 9am.

Before I get to far ahead in this blog I would like to note that I am listening to Marillion (the Fish years) as I typed these words of wonder. LOL. I am listening to tracks from their first 4 albums released between 1983 and 1987. Songs like Kayleigh, Lavender, Garden Party, Assassing and He Knows You Know. Classic British prog rock songs under 8 minutes each.

So I got myself on the road for about 745 which is early for me for the 10-mile or so drive to work with a small detour to pick-up my co-worker. On my way there I realized I was as Jackson Browne once sang "Running On Empty" so an unscheduled stop had to be made. I wonder what happened in the last 3-4 days for gas prices to jump 20 cents a gallon to almost $3. Did someone pass gas in the Middle East. Ha very punny! I kind of liked last week's $2.79 a gallon. It wasn't costing $50 to fill up. Too good to last I guess.

Anyways made it into work and for the first half of the day there were only two of us in the department as opposed to the usual six. We've been five actually for the last four months. Suffice to say that what I planned on doing today quickly went out the window as I spent my day jumping from one issue to another. The day zipped by at least and before you know it I was back on the road to Simpsonville and my humble abode.

Supper was a quick re-heat of the penne pasta with hot italian sausage in a cream sauce that I prepared late last night. I had made lots so there was some to bring over to J's house for AJC to have. It gave me the opportunity to check up on Princess (the hyperactive german shepherd) as well on J's plants. I have water duty on the plants for the next couple of weeks. I did my job well tonight. Kudos to TC. I think Princess now knows to stay away (very far away) when I have a hose in my hand. LOL.

On my way back home I stopped in at H's store and to get some veggies for tomorrow. Tomorrow is chicken fajitas. H put in his request and said that I hadn't made that in a while. Darn I will have to use the wok tomorrow and not the grill. I'm sure I can grill it but it may be more work so "Wok With Yan" I will be tomorrow. How's that for an obscure Canadian reference from a CBC show hosted by Stephen Yan from 1980 to 1982? I am living in the early 80s on some of these recent blogs. Ha.

That's it for now. The Home Run Derby is on from beautiful Kaufman Stadium and it is time for french vanilla ice cream. I was at the K last summer for Rangers-Royals game and it really is a beautiful ballpark.

Eddie Money - Memorial Day Weekend Concert

It may seem that all of a sudden I am being rather prolific in blog postings. I was given my marching orders the other day by J just before she left for Aberdeen, Scotland to straighten out those oil and gas people over there. My mandate it seems to post blogs daily while she is gone for two weeks.

I have couple in draft form so I will be able to do that for the next couple days but there are no promises after that. I could write about those numbnuts and numbnutettes in the Republican Party. They do provide daily fodder to be contradicted by all sane peoples of the physical world. Key word there being sane.

Anyways I'm not posting comments on Huffington Post right now so I will refrain from raising my blood pressure and dumbing down my intellect to respond to the hogwash vitriol spewed by the righties on that website.

I will instead focus on the positive in life and relate my experience at the Eddie Money show at the Charter Amphitheater on the Sunday night of the Memorial Day weekend.

That weekend was the Freedom Aloft event that has been taking place in Simpsonville for the last few years after moving up from Anderson due to low attendance figures I believe. The raison d'etre for this event is the big hot air balloon festival and competition that they have at Heritage Park (home of the amphitheatre) which is about 3 miles south as the crow flies from my house. Given that I am human it's about 4 miles away to get there on Grandview, Fairview and then Main St. in my car. LOL.

The event started on the Friday but J and I had headed downtown to see the bands from Scotland that were playing at Downtown Alive. They were having the Scottish Highland Games out at Furman University that same weekend and we caught this really cool drum band's set in front of the Hyatt downtown.

While we there H was home hanging out with a friend or two on the back deck when all of a sudden the sky overhead was filled with hot air balloons looking for places to land. About 4 houses down from my house at the intersection of Neely Ferry Rd. and Chinaberry Ln. there's a rather large grassy space that is maintained somewhat by the owner of that piece of property. It turns out that 5 of these hot air balloons landed there while others landed on in the church yard down the street as well as in the Food Lion parking lot where H works. It seems that when these balloons start their descent they really have to continue with their landings. H took a bunch of pictures with his phone but they really didn't come out too clear. You'd need a decent camera with wide view lens to get the real scope of this landing event. It just doesn't work on objects of larger scale.

Anyways J and I kind of figured that we would go see these balloons when we went over on Sunday for the Eddie Money show. That Saturday we did the usual taking care of respective abodes and then J came over for some burgers or chicken on the grill for supper and then the plan was to go to Fountain Inn and see a bluegrass band at the train depot.

We were supposed to head there with Carolyn and Amos from next door but Carolyn wasn't feeling too great. She had been out working on her yard from daybreak it seemed and it had gotten hot during the day. I think she is trying to get nominated for a photo spread in Southern Home & Garden with the time and effort that she spends on the outdoor layout of their property. For a lady in her 60s after a couple of major medical heart procedures she does work her derriere off.

So anyways J and I set off on the road to Fountain Inn to listen to some live music and partake perhaps in a beverage or two. Hehe. Well we get onto Georgia Rd. to get to interstate 385S when all of sudden J goes Tattoo from Fantasy Island on me and starts yelling balloons, balloons, balloons as she is craning to see them through the windshield. The problem is that she is driving and the car is kind of veering to the left and to the right as she tries to see all the 30 or so hot air balloons that are flying overhead. In her defense everybody else that was driving a car in that area was doing the same darn thing. It isn't every day that a spectacle like this occurs.

So we made the executive decision to get off the highway at the next exit and back track to see where these balloons were going to land. They were heading right back to my neighborhood again and I wanted to see this for myself like H had the previous night. Suffice to say that J was like a kid in a candy store and the word balloons just kept on coming out her mouth. It was her Raymond Babbitt moment. LOL.

We ended up back at my place in a jiff and there were the balloons overhead maybe 30-40 ft overhead trying to avoid electrical wires. One of them landed in the forest behind my house. Not exactly a good spot to land given the trees that are growing back rapidly after being cleared a couple years before but the balloon had to land and land they did.

Just up the street or down the street from me is a plastics distribution company that has quite a bit of landing space and it seemed to be a good place for several of these balloons. That's where we headed next from my house. It's only a minute or two away. Quite a few balloons were in the process of landing and that is quite something to see. Before you know it they are weighted down to the ground and the owners start packing them up. All of a sudden a bunch of 4x4s show up in the area and they are here to pick up these hot air balloons to bring them back to Heritage Park I guess for the next morning's liftoffs. Inside of a half hour it's like you were in a dream sequence as there is no evidence of the balloons having landed. LOL. Except of course for all of us with our crappy cellphone pictures. Ha!

So back to Eddie Money. Hmmmm. Did I ever really start talking about Eddie Money in this blog? Given his name in the title I better pitter patter and let's get at her. I inadvertently met Eddie Money in the early 90s at a Friday afternoon meeting. It was the strangest thing. He was in Montreal opening up for either Bon Jovi or Aerosmith or Cheap Trick. At that time I had the vinyl copy of Eddie Money's self-titled debut album from 1977 which had the classic "Baby Hold On" and "Two Tickets To Paradise". Later on I had and still in cassette format "Greatest Hits: The Sound of Money".

As I mentioned earlier Eddie Money was playing the Sunday of the long weekend concert series held in conjunction with Freedom Weekend Aloft. Earlier acts in the series were Gavin Degraw, Colby Caillat, Jake Owen and Outshyne. A little bit for everyone's tastes. They also had kid's zone with rides and games. Tons of food vendors. A dog frisbee competition as well a 5k walk and run to go along with the hot air balloons.

Having seen lots of them land, J and I were really looking forward to seeing them lift off all at the same. Unfortunately there was one cloud in the area a few miles north that was carrying lots of electricity or something and it was supposedly heading right towards us. Sadly the balloons never did lift off on that Sunday night.

So off J and I went to grab a bite to eat and couple beers and scope out a place to sit ourselves down on the amphitheater lawn.

The amazing about the event was that it cost only $11 to get in for all the activities. You had to pay for the rides, food and beverages but just to see the show and balloons the grand total of our tickets was $22 for the two of us. Unreal. This to see the caliber that the Money Man puts on.

I've always been a fan so I know a lot of his material. What I completely forgot over time is how many hits he had. It was like I know this song. I know that song. Before you knew it I knew three quarters of the set list.

He opened with "Baby Hold On" his first hit from 1977 which led into "Wanna Be A Rock'n'Roll Star" also from his debut album. This then led to "Walk On Water" which is a great singalong song from 1988 that showcases I feel this is the atypical Eddie Money sound. Strong vocals, driving drums, guitar riffs, saxophone bits and a catchy chorus. Next up was the catchy title track from his 4th album released in 1982 titled "No Control."

A total change of pace followed which was the ballad "One More Soldier" that was released in 2011 and was written as a tribute to the men and women that have made the ultimate sacrifice for the country they serve. 100% of the proceeds from this iTune release were going to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. Class move by the Money Man.

The next song was one that I had never heard before from his 3rd album "Playing for Keeps" released in 1980 called "Trinidad". That was followed up by the recognizable minor hit "Gimme Some Water" from the the "Playing For Keeps" album. He then went back to his debut and sang the Smokey Robinson song "You've Really Got A Hold On Me." Things slowed for a bit with 1992's "I'll Get By" which was his last charting hit which peaked at 21 on the Billboard charts.

At this point, J decided to try to get closer to get some pics of Eddie and the band and it turns out that we could move from the lawn right up to the front of the stage as the concert had no premium seat extra charge. You could sit or stand wherever you wanted. So off we went to with 10 feet of the stage where we could dance and sing along with the hundreds of the others in front of the stage. That was pretty effing cool!

Eddie then dug deep into his material and brought the torch song called "Call On Me" from 1978's "Life For The Taking". This gave him a chance to rest up a bit while the lead guitarist dazzled with a couple of bluesy riff solos. Next up was "Take A Little Bit" from "No Control" which features some nifty piano keyboard riffs.

Then the concert went into the home stretch starting with 1986's "We Should Be Sleeping" which led into the classic Ronnie Spector-Eddie Money duo song "Take Me Home Tonight" also from 1986's "Can't Hold Back". The only difference was that the people in the front of the stage including J and I were singing the Ronnie Spector part. This song gave Eddie another chance to play some saxophone licks. This then led into the immediately recognizable "Think I'm In Love". Another one of those MTV staples from way back in 1982. This then led into the final song of the show before his encore which was the classic "Two Tickets To Paradise". A great song to end the show. Everybody was singing and dancing. So cool. For the encore Eddie brought out his teen-aged son to play the drums on another MTV staple from the 80s "Shakin". Great job by the kid.

As for the Money Man. He gave it his all at this show. Set lasted between 75 to 90 minutes of non-stop movement by this 63 yr. old rocker. Between the strutting, the singing, the sax-playing he puts rockers half his age to shame. Great performance.

One of the great things that happened after the show was having an opportunity to have a meet and greet with Eddie Money. J got an Eddie Money t-shirt signed by him and I got an 8x10 glossy also signed by him. For days after the show, the songs just came back over and over in my mind especially when I started typing this blog weeks ago. I finally cleaned it up and posted it.

Rock on Eddie rock on!

Scorpions & Rainbow Verdun 1982

This blog is right out of left field as all of sudden I started thinking back to a Scorpions and Rainbow concert I saw with several of high school buddies at Verdun Auditorium back on June 12th,1982.

The thought for this blog came up as some Rainbow tracks started playing in the background as I was reading up on my Washington Nationals. I had YouTube on automatic play and "Stone Cold" followed by "Street of Dreams" came on the player.

The main reason we went to the show was because of the Scorpions who were opening for Richie Blackmore's Rainbow as they were supporting the release of their epic hard rock album "Blackout" which was getting major airplay on CHOM. Pretty sure Jeff, Jay, Joey and I were the ones that attended this show. LOL. It was 30 years ago. My memory isn't that precise. There may be a mistake in the list of attendees. I know Jeff and I were there. We were inseparable back then until he hit his Don Johnson stage. LOL. I will leave it that.

I was already a Scorpions fan from the Animal Magnetism album that featured the classic cut "The Zoo". To my knowledge this was the first time that the Scorpions were playing in the Montreal area and they were openers so they weren't getting a chance to play a full set list. I've come to appreciate Blackmore's Rainbow over time but back in '82 I was at that show for the Scorpions.

I am not sure if the Verdun Auditorium is still there so I looked it up and it is still there. Turns out it seats about 4000 people for hockey. It seats a little more for concerts. Not exactly a prime venue to hear music. It's kind of built like an airplane hangar. I know that we had floor seats for the show and it wasn't that crowded. Remember this was '82 just when the Scorpions started to hit their stride. The next time over they played the old Montreal Forum (the 18,000 seater).

Anyways back to the show. One thing the boys from Hannover always did well was write these air guitar anthems that often had these catchy singalong titles and choruses like "The Zoo", "Blackout", "Can't Live Without You" and "Dynamite". By the end of their set I had displayed my best air guitar talents and sang or yelled out to my favorite songs by the Scorpions.

Back then I didn't know much about Rainbow. I knew that the famed axeman Richie Blackmore was fronting the band and that the bass player was from Deep Purple. That being Roger Glover. I knew that Joe Lynn Turner was now the lead singer after the Ronnie James Dio and Graham Bonnet had left the band. MTV was playing Rainbow's "Stone Cold" video on heavy rotation and Blackmore and Turner were interviewed in studio by one of the MTV veejays. Funny what I remember.

At the time I knew two Rainbow songs. The aforementioned "Stone Cold" and the classic "Man On The Silver Mountain" track that featured the heavy metal elf Dio. I didn't even know the classic Bonnet cuts like "Since You Been Gone" and "All Night Long". I knew that Rainbow was about to release "Straigt Between The Eyes" which had been recorded at Le Studio in Morin Heights. We used to get all of this info on the bands from CHOM's Rock'n'Roll News which was on daily for 15-20 minutes at 4pm and if memory serves me correctly they had an hour long version on Saturdays.

So after the intermission on came Rainbow which was a bit of a letdown for this big Scorpions fan. My not knowing much of their material didn't help. Richie Blackmore teasing the audience with all these Deep Purple riffs at the start of the songs didn't help either. You get the opening riffs from Lazy or Highway Star or Smoke on the Water. Immediately recognizable riffs that would segue into some Rainbow. Ugh. What a letdown that was. LOL.

Now in 2012, I listen to Rainbow all of the time. I still the listen to the Scorpions and I am still a rocker.

Friday Night Out

Okay I've got some Dire Straits playing in the background. There's something about listening to Mark Knopfler pick his way through his catalogue. Songs like Private Investigations, Romeo & Juliet, Skateaway, Telegraph Road, etc.. What a talent. Incredible stuff.

So we've been in the middle of this ridiculous heatwave for the last ten days or so with the temps running between 90 and 106 or 7 seems. Totally insane. It just seems that my a/c never shuts down. Just going on and on and on. Not looking forward to my Duke Energy bill next week. Yikes I may have to buy PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon) for a couple weeks instead of my usual mix of Sam Adams Boston Lager, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale amd Dos Equis Amber. Okay I won't be that desperate. LOL.

So J and I went to Downtown Alive last night and ended up meeting up with Angie and Tom and we listened to a set by a blues beach music band that seemed to be okay. The thing is lately is while the Hyatt is remodeling their patio area the stage is set up at the end of Main St. and you are kind of pigeonholed into this area a hundred feet or so away from the stage as the people with their lawn chairs take up a huge area in front of the stage. You can't really hear the music too well which is great for conversation but bad if you want hear the music that is being played. Anyways it seemed to me to be too much of the usual. I am not a big beach music fan. It's rather boring and monotonous and shag dancing seems to be the same thing over and over to me. This mind you is coming from Mr. Two Left Feet. LOL.

As is often the case we ended up grabbing a bite to eat afterwards. We decided upon "Trio" at the corner of N. Main St. and Coffee St. Naturally the money saving coupons I have were left in the passenger side door space in my car which happened to be parked in my garage back home. We had taken J's jeep downtown. I've been to Trio several times in the last couple of years and I am never disappointed with the food and service at this brick oven cafe.

We ate light last night. J had some salad being the healthy person that she is with a glass of the house red (Citra Montepulciano d'Abruzzo) which she liked. On tap they had Highland Gaelic Ale out of Asheville, NC which I always enjoy. There's something about beer on tap. It just tastes so much better than the single bottle version. Okay I know this is a preference and anecdotal. There's no science in my logic. I like what I like. It is what it is. Big grin.

My food choice was a pepperoni and fennel sausage pizza. I usually go for the margherita pizza there which is excellent but the sausage was calling my name last night. Marc, Marc come and have some. We had a window table which afforded us the opportunity to people watch a bit. Tons of people downtown last night. Hot summer weekend night draws them out from the suburbs just like it usually does for J and I.

The great thing about this area in the spring, summer and fall is the opportunities to go out and have a great time 15-20 minutes away from home and not spend tons of money. What I would spend in Montreal back in the day would take me 2-3 nights to do the same here. You can't compare prices for entertainment, dining and all of the other affiliated or associated costs that go along with going out.

Case in point last night. Parking downtown in the Richardson St. garage free. Beer tickets and two wristbands $20 and I still have beer tickets left for the next time J and I go to Downtown Alive. Bite to eat at Trio with a glass of red and a Gaelic Ale tip included $30. All in all an affordable night and a real good time. Only thing missing was my Hab's rally towel to wipe down my ever sweaty head and face. LOL. Besides my ever-expanding waistline the thing I notice about my weight gain is the amount of sweat my bald generates. It's effing unreal.

All in all it was a very nice way to end a work week however disjointed the work week was with the Canadian and American holiday.

Atlanta - There & Back (Part 1)

So this past Friday (the 8th) was J's birthday and I ran out of ideas on what to get her after recent perfume purchases. I remembered that it was "Opium" for Mother's Day after forgetting that five letter word at Christmas when I bought her "Chloe".

It had been over a year since I last had bought her some so I kind of forgot or one could say I completely forgot that "Opium" is her favorite. Okay my memory sucks for certain things. Actually I have a great memory it's just that sometimes I recall things a few days or weeks later. Not too handy of a skill. I knew when I had gotten the bottle of "Chloe" that it didn't feel right but rather than walk out of that store empty-handed I thought maybe I was just losing my mind.

Recent purchases had been books that she really wanted or music CDs I thought that she would like or that cool Keurig single cup coffee thingee. Little did I know that the single cup coffee things are ridiculously expensive even for a spendthrift like me.

Even bought her a power tool last year. Some sort of cordless drill that she ooh-ed and aah-ed about on one of her Lowe's trips. It surely wasn't my Lowe's trip. My walking in there is like sitting through one of H's engineering classes. I don't have an effing clue what's going on or what the eff I am looking at. I am like a doe, a deer, a female deer in headlights. LOL. I was truly laughing when I wrote that.

Anyways here I was June 7th; one day before her big day and all I could think of was getting her some Lady Antebellum tickets for their concert here in a couple of weeks with Darius Rucker and Thompson Square. Sadly they didn't have any pairs of tickets left. They had singles but nothing next to each other. Even went down to the BiLo Center box office and got that same answer live in person. I guess the younger lady behind the glass was not duly impressed by this Canadian's predicament because she kept on showing me a map of where the single seats were as if that would work. LOL.

So J and made our Friday evening (her b-day) plans and then Shazam I got an idea! Ouch that hurt by the way! My having an original thought. I knew that J's beloved Yankees were coming into Atlanta for a 3-day set starting on Monday. I figured that would be a good b-day present for her. Getting her tickets for one of the games.

Given that they were coming in on a weekday and Atlanta being 150 miles or so away I figured I would give her the option on which game we'd go see. We talked about it a bit on Friday and it was decided that Monday's game would be the best bet around our work schedules and parental responsibilities. Well hers anyways. H is happy any night that he has free rein at the house. LOL.

So when we got back to J's house I went a-searching for some tickets on MLB.com but then I got completely effing annoyed with Ticketmaster scamming a$$ prices for crap a$$ seats. I hate paying $12 to $20 in fees for each ticket to Ticketmaster or LiveNation. It is a total "cochonerie" paying this monopolistic fee. They aren't doing me $12 to $20 of favors per ticket by my purchasing seats on their site. Not helping my serenity either was the fact that the available seats weren't eggsactly primo deluxe either.



So off I went onto StubHub's website. Imagine my surprise by my finding two seats 12 rows up down the left field line (Yankees side) where the relief pitchers would be warming up at the Big O for a quite reasonable price. Okay the Big O reference probably doesn't mean much to those reading this blog. Let's put it this way. Raul Ibanez who starts in left field for the Yankees against righties plays deeper down the line when the opposing pitcher is at bat than where our seats were located. The seats were darn good! I didn't mind the fee either which was cheaper than the Ticketmaster fee. I may have paid above face value for the seats. It didn't matter as the Ticketmaster seats were more expensive and their location wasn't very good. Go figure!

Darn this is going to be a long blog. Thank Gawd that I have YouTube on play all mode.

So picked up J at her place at around 330 after filling up my tank for the 150 mile drive to Turner Field. Easy drive from Simpsonville/Mauldin. Take interstate 85 south until the Turner Field exit. Easy as pie. Whatever that means. LOL.

We did great time until about a few miles after "Spaghetti Junction" near Atlanta. I think that is about where Marietta is or the Druid Hills exit is on 85. What a effing adventure it is driving on 85 in the Atlanta area! 7 lanes I think. I am doing 70-75 in a 55 mph zone and I am in the way in the 5th or 6th lane. People drive on this everyday. Holy Eff Batman. That's insane!

To be continued...

Sunday Musings

So it's cloudy, somewhat rainy June summer day here and all of a sudden the urge to hunt and peck on my keyboard came upon me. I've noticed that it's been a while since I last typed on here.

It takes some discipline for me to type regularly on here. It isn't that I am at shortage for words because those that really know me; they would say that I can be rather chatty. I think that many of ramblings on here occur in the middle of the night when I am not able to sleep. Lately I have been trying to avoid using electronics like computers or TVs in the middle of the night because I read somewhere that these devices act as waker- uppers for the brain at night. In other words if you avoid 'em your brain is calmer and you can sleep better. Ha! Not bloody likely. I wake up every night at 2 or 3 am it seems. Just like to point out that I read that waker-upper thing on the internet so therefore it must be true. LOL.

Anyways I guess we are three weeks into summer here in the Upstate. A sure sign of it being here is when the younger kids got out of school ten days ago I guess. Sure helps cutting down on morning traffic. Now if I can only calm down somewhat on these drives into work. "Cris de calis" comes into my vocabulary way too often on these drives.

Summer has started off busy so far. I will likely delve into the following events in some blogs to come in which J and I have partaken in since the Memorial Day weekend. There's been lots of grilling (her place and my place). There have been a couple of forays downtown for Main Street Fridays. There have been dining experiences at Greek Fest, TakoSushi, Chicora Alley, Wasabi and Tequilas. We've seen the hot air balloons fly over my house and decide to land in fields and streets right nearby. There was the Eddie Money concert from a couple of weeks ago as well as the 3 Doors Down / ZZ Top concert this past week. Tomorrow will be fun as we are heading down to Atlanta to catch the Yankees and Braves play. Hopefully the rain will hold off. H is off to Pictou County, NS in a week or so to visit his grandfather. I am off to Niagara Falls, On soon for some meetings. I think that this is my 3rd stay at the Falls in the last five years. Weird lived in Canada for 37+ years and never saw the Falls. Been down here and I have been there at least 3 times in the last little while.

Mixed into all of this good stuff was reading that a dear friend of mine from Montreal passed away a couple of weeks ago at the young age of 57. I know that I will devote a blog to the memory of my friend Ted Lukasiewicz real soon. He played a key part in a big turnaround that occurred in my life when I was 27 years old. It's still too hard for me to type about the passing of Ted without losing focus and starting to cry. I'm sure that writing about Ted will help though.

Okay on that note I've lost my train of thought. I'm going to prep supper. Grilling some more steaks tonight. Be back soon.

Drift Away...

So I was sitting in front of my computer looking up recipes for spagetti carbonara which I decided I am going to make tomorrow and then "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray came on the 70s station. More on that later.

I was actually going to make the carbonara for a late snack tonight but I don't have any bacon or panchetta in the house. I don't think I have had any in the house for a year or so. I didn't feel like making a food store run given that it's almost 11pm. I was looking at some family pictures earlier today in my neverending quest to bring some order to my life. Why do I say that? Well I've been in this house for two and half years and I still have boxes that I haven't unpacked. Anyhow one of the pictures triggered the spaghetti carbonara inkling in me. My Mom used to make huge batches of it every once in a while and I wanted to live that memory once again. Kind of sentimental these days. Hmmm. Hopefully it turns out okay. It doesn't seem very complicated to make.

Back to Dobie Gray. As I said the 70s station was playing in the background and all of a sudden one of those all-time classics came on the station. That being the Dobie Gray version of "Drift Away" released back in 1973. If you don't like this song, you don't like music. Simple as that. An absolute northern soul classic. I first heard this song back in the day on CKGM and from the get go this was one of the songs of my youth.

Back then I would head up to the shopping center at the corner of Notre Dame and Labelle and browse the 45s in the music departments that were in the stores at this mall. I would usually end up buying some at Miracle Mart. Now that's a blast from the past. LOL.

One of those 45s that I bought was "Drift Away". I used to play this on this box record player. It was a must-have for a kid back then to have a record player of our own because our parents would surely not let our music pollute their stereo players. It would play 45s, 78s and 33s with the crappiest sound ever. I think these box record players shared the same speaker technology as transistor radios. I would play the 45s over and over until I knew the lyrics backwards and forwards.

The songs that got this treatment were what I consider classics like The Jackson 5's "Rockin Robin", Eddie Kendricks "Keep On Truckin", The Stylistics "Make Me Feel Brand New", William Devaughn's "Be Thankful For What You Got". I wonder if you see the pattern here. All classic soul songs. Man they could sing. I don't think it's possible to compare the stuff from these days next to these songs. I know I am showing my age. Whatever this was, is and will always be the music of my life.

To quote the late great Dobie Gray: "Give me the beat boys that frees my soul I want to get lost in your rock'n'roll and drift away."