Friday. Left the office. Proceeded almost immediately to my gig in Bangor at The Whig and Courier.  We had a typical gig there. It’s a hard room to play in. The stage is small, and in one room. The bar is at the opposite side of the building in another room. So what ends up happening is the patrons sit in the other room, and listen through the opening. The downside is you, as a performer, can’t “feed” of their energy. Yes, they would clap and hoot at the end of songs, but it’s not the same. On the plus side, the people who run the place are very nice, and the food is really good. I stopped at Tim Horton’s on the way home for a sour cream donut and a milk. I think I was home about 2am. Susan was still up, and she was glad when I returned home.

Saturday AM, and Susan got up with the kids. Anyone who reads here knows I love my wife very much. She’s not a morning person, though. So usually I get up with the boys, even on those morning where I have a gig the night before. Saturday, though, Susan got up with them and let me sleep. And sleep I did! I think I slept until almost 10am! I can’t remember the last time I slept so late.  When I woke, Susan had made baked cinnamon donuts and coffee. They were really quite good. There was a work crew at the church in the morning putting in new carpet tiles at the church. I called down there to see if they needed more help. (I figured they would.) They said no, they had enough people, and were about 1/2 way done. I wasn’t needed. I hadn’t planned on that, so I really didn’t know what to do with myself. I ended up taking Julia for lunch, and running a few errands. I think most of the afternoon was spent in the kitchen. I cleaned the floors and washed dishes. I made a creme caramel for supper’s dessert. Supper was a turkey risotto that Susan made. I got an interesting phone call from Dave Clarke just before I left for my gig. It seems he was playing a gig in Rockport, and his drummer forgot his snare drum. He was wondering if he could perhaps borrow one from me. I told him I’d see if I could scrounge one up!

My gig Saturday night went very well. We played at The Myrtle Street Tavern here in town. It’s been around for years; you may know it as The Oasis, The Myrtle House, O’Brann’s, The Ale Yard, or who knows what other names it has been. Supposedly, back in the day, you could “rent” a room upstairs if you needed someplace to, well, take a new found “girlfriend” that could be located at the bar. That doesn’t happen there anymore, but the place is still what you might call a “road house.” Beer, pool tables and darts, and some clientele that wouldn’t mind “taking it outside” if need be. But the crowd really liked the music. The place isn’t that big on the inside, and it was pretty well packed. People danced all night long. This gig was originally conceived as a  jam session, but only about 1/2 a dozen other musicians showed up. So Blind Albert (the house band) finished up the show with about two hours of rock and blues. It was easy to feed off the energy of this crowd. They were having a good time. And, no fights, no falling down drunks. I got home around 1am, and once again, Susan was still up. It’s nice to feel wanted like that! (Not that I want you staying up late after every gig Susan! You need your sleep!)

Sunday morning came, and I got up first this time. We fired up the new eggamuffin toaster for its inaugural run. (Eggamuffin is what my late friend Tim called any breakfast sandwich. It enabled him to talk about such without copyright infringement!) Then it was off to church! Pastor Dave had a very moving and powerful service! God was in the house! We had people at the altar seeking renewal, people asking for healing, and nary a dry eye anywhere. It was great to be there. After several weeks of schedule mess-ups, we were back to the regular routine of lunch at Mom’s house, and Susan made a good lasagna, and an ever better banana cake! Susan wanted to stay at Mom’s house for the afternoon, so she kept the kids with her, and I went home and fixed all the wallpaper where the stupid cat sharpened her claws on the wall. I fell asleep on the couch for 1/2 hour until the phone rang. Then I watched some show on Discovery on how to translate motorcycle gang tattoos. Then back to church for evening service, then home.

1. One week ago I stayed home sick from work; I’m almost entirely over that cough now.

2. I lived in a little town called Spruce Head when I was young.

3. Mama told me “If you’re too sick to go to school, you’re too sick to do anything else.”

4. One of the most “in love” couples I know is you and me, (Susan)!

5. Take your time and read the direction through at least once before attempting assembly.

6. If you’d move your slow 45mph camper trailer / aircraft carrier over into the slow lane, then I (and the rest of this line of traffic) will pass!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to playing a gig with Blind Al in Bangor, tomorrow my plans include playing a gig right here in Rockland, and Sunday, I want to get back to the regular lunch schedule at Mom’s!

I love fall, and fall is here! I can prove it! These fall related things all happened to me today.

1) I broke out the barn coat today
2) I also started wearing blazers again. It’s getting cool enough to warrant wearing a sport coat.
3) I thought about putting the earlaps in my scooter helmet.
4) I used my shave cream warmer.

Though it didn’t happen today, I’ve been craving apple cider all weekend. And last week, I had my first pumpkin donut. Hurray Autumn!

1. My car might be traded in soon. (It depends on what “new” car we end up with. If we get a mini-van, we’ll trade Susan’s mini-van. If we get something else, we’ll trade my wagon. Either way, I’d like Susan to have something a little newer.)

2. The second side of Steely Dan’s “Aja” is coming up next.

3. Lately, things seem stuck in a rut.

4. My car is one of my favorite ‘hiding’ places. (Traveling too and from gigs gives me opportunity to be alone, to listen to things I want to listen to, and to reflect.)

5. What happened to my lawn? It’s a mess!

6. You should try Impossible Cheeseburger Pie; it is not impossible!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to staying home and relaxing, tomorrow my plans include going to Augusta to shop for cars and baubles, and Sunday, I want to welcome Pastor Dave back from vacation!

I need to spend less time on Facebook, and more time here. Using Facebook as a “journal” has issues. The archiving is AWFUL! Every try to find something you posted on FB three months ago? Easy as pie with a blog; like pulling teeth with FB. I wish I could figure out a way to import my FB entries into my blog. I can do it the other way ’round, but that’s not what I want. Heck.