Mudding on the 4th weekend.

4th of July 2010 (actually Saturday July 3rd.)
Party at Clint and Jenni's.

Lots of good music, drink, and later fireworks.
A common theme all through the day was the 4-wheeling mudding in the adjoining flooded field.



Above is Clint in his Toyota.
There were a lot of people walking around with muddy arms and / or legs by the end of the night.



Clint above taking a break.


Above: Some friends of Clint took what I thought to be an almost stock Jeep through the mud.

Made it.

Clint and Matt taking laps around the pond.

Later that night they had an almost surreal look because all you could make out were the headlight(s) moving slowly through the darkness.

(Reminded me a bit of Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid where they couldn't shake their trackers - they could see them in the distance carrying torches).

HERE is a link to Marseilles, Illinois for the off-road track they visit many times a year.

In the dark.

Layla Jean.

Last night I got a call.

No, make that a text...

From 2009-07-22-09Layla

Clint was very excited but a bit premature.

Not until many, many, long, hard,

hours later was Layla Jean born.

She's 8 lbs 6 oz, 20 inches.

Congrats Clint and Jenni.

From 2009-07-22-09Layla

The lack of sleep is certainly showing,

with Jenni getting even less the last couple days.

From 2009-07-22-09Layla

Clint and Jenni a few weeks ago at their baby shower.

Dahlia show.

Sunday was beautiful. It was opening day for the NFL but the Bears weren't scheduled to play until 3:00PM. In hindsight, it wasn't much of a game to watch anyway.

St. Charles Illinois is a pretty city on the Fox River about 40 miles south of us. They were having their 41st (I had never heard of - where have I been? Ha.) dahlia flower show at a local resort.

I've been growing the simple, smaller, round, red dahlias for years. They flower all summer but I have to dig them up before it freezes and store them in the basement. It is worth the effort though.

Clint and Jenni had seen notice of the show so we all decided to take a drive down there. Had fun. They also treated me to lunch. Perfect day.




Football update: I was cruising at 10 and 4 Sunday, surviving some close games.

Monday killed me. First Baltimore couldn't score in the red zone, losing to Cincy. The (quite) later game had San Fran beating my pick, Arizona, in the last seconds. A possible 12 and 4 ended up a pedestrian 10 and 6. I hate football pools!!!

Classified to Crane Wife to Killers.

My brother wondered if my pictures make the paper because I’m the only one that sends them in. Thanks a lot Bruce.

For my birthday I told Amy I’d like either The Decemberists’ The Crane Wife or The Killers, though I didn’t know the name of The Killers' album.

That cemented the decision. Unless I asked for women’s shoes, Amy doesn’t like shopping. I got The Crane Wife. Anyway I really like the album. It was named one of the best of 2006.

In the course of looking up a video to go with it, I found myself connecting one to another till I ended up with The Killers. Guess I’ll have to get that one too.

The Crane Wife (from Wiki).

The Crane Wife is an old Japanese tale.

While there are many variations of the tale, a common version is that a poor man finds an injured crane on his doorstep (or outside with an arrow in it), takes it in and nurses it back to health.

After he releases the crane, a woman appears at his doorstep with whom he falls in love and marries.

Because they need money, his wife offers to weave wondrous clothes out of silk that they can sell at the market, but only if he agrees never to watch her making them.

They begin to sell them and live a comfortable life, but he soon makes her weave them more and more.

Oblivious to his wife's diminishing health, his greed increases.

He eventually peeks in to see what she is doing to make the silk she weaves so desirable.

He is shocked to discover that at the loom is a crane plucking feathers from her own body and weaving them into the loom.

The crane, seeing him, flies away and never returns.

Band leader (The Decemberists) Colin Meloy found a version of this story and decided to write music based on it.

The Decemberists making of The Crane Wife part 1.

Definitely sounds like Robyn Hitchcock, an old favorite of mine.

Robyn with The Decemberists, Feb 2007. I think they know it too.

Robyn with Deni Bonet. She played a song with Robyn in the Jonathan Demmi music video movie, Storefront Hitchcock. Yes, I own it. And I have Stop Making Sense too. One of the best music movies till Scorsese does The Rolling Stones (which he is working on).

Jonathan Demmi also directed the great music video movie Stop Making Sense with The Talking Heads. A must see. He also directed New Order’s Perfect Kiss. Almost 10 minutes of 1980’s sound. It’s funny; I used to really like this song. I can see people dancing to the light of a mirror ball at 2:30 AM. Now, its only so-so. ??? BTW, MORE COWBELLS.

New Order also did Crystal. The Killers got their name from the name on the fictional band’s (for the video) drum face, "The Killers".

Ending up with The Killers, When You Were Young. "He doesn’t look a bit like Jesus but he looks like a gentleman."

So at least to me, everything is connected. It's a small world.

First walk of Spring 2007.

A walk in the park. Clint organized it as kind of a birthday thing. It was fun.

The water was actually warm. Got my feet wet and muddy.

Amy was working. Clint, Jen and I explored.

We caught up with Amy later for a couple drinks.

I can't wait till the colors turn green.

15 second video. Sunday nothing...

Sunday was warm and Monday, today, was even better. I'm told I should expect freezing weather this weekend. Typical.

I spent most of Sunday taking down my remaining Christmas decorations. Needed a ladder. I was waiting till it got warm. No one wants to see icicle lights hanging from the gutters when Spring approaches. Where did the time go?

While taking down and boxing the lights carefully for next year, I stepped into my next chore. Dog crap. Nothing like melting snow; a beautiful layer of white slowly revealing a forgotten yard and a winter's hidden treasures coming back to view for cleanup. That done, I took a break to watch the Nascar race. Boring video included.

By the way, son Clint went down to Atlanta area where tornadoes hit a couple of weeks ago. I lent him a camera and hope he took some good pictures. Coming soon, maybe... (he went down with someone that might be contracted to help clean up the mess.) There is still a lot of work needed down there.

15 sec vol 1
15 sec vol 2 and 3

Midnight Rider.

Clint on the Mini-Chopper I won at the 95 WIIL Rock Football Pool. It's pretty cool. Has four speeds, goes up to 60, can be ridden on the street (with limitations). Enough snow has melted, we'll probably take it out this weekend. Fun, fun, fun.

I couldn't tell you how many times I saw the Allman Brothers. Five, ten? Whatever the number, I was never disappointed. Sweet sounding jams lasting as long as an album side (half an hour). Gotta love the slide guitar.

(Quick Wiki note on slide guitars: The late Duane Allman played a key role in bringing slide guitar into rock music, through his work with the Allman Brothers Band ... Beginning in the 1960s, Allman used an empty glass Coricidin medicine bottle, which he wore over his ring finger, as a slide; this was later picked up by other slide guitarists such as Bonnie Raitt, Rory Gallagher, and Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Such bottles eventually went out of production in the early 1980s (although replicas have been produced since 1985))

The Allman Brothers Band

Midnight Rider

Well, I've got to run to keep from hiding,
And I'm bound to keep on riding.
And I've got one more silver dollar,
But I'm not gonna let them catch me, no,
Not gonna let 'em catch the midnight rider.

And I don't own the clothes I'm wearing,
And the road goes on forever,
And I've got one more silver dollar,
But I'm not gonna let them catch me, no
Not gonna let 'em catch the midnight rider.

And I've gone by the point of caring,
Some old bed I'll soon be sharing,
And I've got one more silver dollar,

Repeat three times and fade
But I'm not gonna let 'em catch me, no
Not gonna let them catch the midnight rider.