Apres Super Bowl, I drove home 29 miles in the blinding rain, but that’s part of the scooter lore. Here is a composite photo of the new backyard pool moments before the kids filled it up. Cory designs these things from plans he gets on the Internet. I know he must have far more experience than can be explained away that easily. The pool was contracted out, but he’s built some pretty amazing things lately.
More about the party later today. I’m soaked and have gone nearly 24 hours without playing music. Waylon’s “Only Daddy” has become a study in ear-training, it is going to be a true challenge of my words. Can I give it “the treatment” and still come up with something a duo can play without plowing? Huh? Oh, plowing. It means when the whole band churns out a song with generic riffs that omit the real character of the piece. If you don’t know how bad that sounds, listen to any two or more guitarists play the Eagles.“Only Daddy” is impossible, in the sense those left and right stereo parts are different. So I revert to my trusted Beethoven/Cash theory that people respond better to three simple things happening at once than they do to complicated precision. Two is sparse, four is occasionally nice, but three is a charm. That another reason I avoid lead players--they can’t keep it both simple and interweaving. Most who can play lead don’t know when to quit playing it.
Back to the party. It was also great to see the family again in one place. I’m heading back in around ten days, watch for more signs of everything back to normal. JZ and I are on track about future plans, the game was incidental and neither of us are Madonna fans. Again, like all women of a certain age, she should step down and let something fresh take over. She’s always set such a bad example, and no, I would not even if she offered it 30 years ago.
Here’s one of those watermelons carved like a basket. It’s one of those things that, until to day, I only saw in magazines. Now JZ will soon have free time again and that makes it possible to get out of town like we used to. Provided we put new tires on his truck, dang it, JZ. Want us to be changing tires on the causeway again? First target it is the Keys, since it is accessible and we have a free place to crash. This time, I bring the guitar and we hit the town until it is mission accomplished.[Author's note 2016-02-06: These passages were written before events within the year drastically altered all the plans we made. Mainly, we intended to fix-and-flip a property to see if we made a profit at it. This was with an eye to having a viable operation come the day we are both retired. There are other reasons we keep looking at real estate. But in the end, nothing will happen until I buy a place 100% on my own and thereafter what I do gets copied.]
ADDENDUM
The rain kept up most of the day. So I stayed right here. I’ve got a standing invite to stay over after any party, so I took it up this time. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who got used to me reading until I fall asleep, but that’s how it has been for nearly half my life. Worse, I tend to read highly technical academic material, so no good asking me what it’s about. I wonder what’s to happen to that huge library upstairs at the old place?
Today’s trivia is that I found, at last, a plausible explanation why Flagler would do something like build a railway to Key West. It was, at the time, the closest railway to the Panama Canal. As usual, the in depth articles I need to confirm this are not available on the Internet (or do not search, same thing), but I believe Key West still is the closest coastal railhead, although the most southerly is probably Mexico City. Other countries between there and Panama have only small gauge lines.This is barbequed chicken on a stick. Cory spent all day Saturday preparing food, and most of this was hot off the grill as the guests arrived. I tried, but it was no good trying to fool anyone by wearing my barbeque-sauce colored dress shirt. He’s the super-host of Miami and I think if you read back far enough, you’ll see my pix of his completely remodeled kitchen. I mean completely, they took out an entire wall of the house. Now, about this chicken. How did I wind up with the one shaped like this?
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