Unsupervised playtime

When it comes down to it, it's Kathy's fault.  Not that I have anything to blame on her.  She left this morning to take our friends, Sue and Chris's kids for an overnight at some water park in Virginia.  It's just what she does.  It's indoors so it's perfect for gingers like her and my nemesis Katie.  Each of the kids were bringing  a friend so there was no room for me even if I wanted to go.

I started out early this morning after Kathy left.  After walking the dogs (not too far because it's so damn hot) I headed out in my car Stubby with the plan of getting some breakfast at Hardees.  I wasn't too far from home when I came upon a garage sale (a rare thing here on a Sunday) and I skidded off the road to check it out.  I scored five CDs for a buck each including some Tori Amos, Collective Soul and The Cure.  I also picked up some shot glasses.  Two with the Road Runner and Wiley Coyote for a buck each and one that said "Beer, 5 cents" for a quarter.

Then I remembered that there is an outdoor flea market near Hardees so I made a detour and checked out the few vendors who weren't going to let out current heatwave interfere with commerce. I choose to go shoeless in an effort to keep me moving across the hot gravel that once made up the drive-in where the flea market now stands.  I figured if I couldn't stand in one place too long I was less likely to pick through useless crap and less likely to spend money on same.  I found a couple jazz CDs for a buck each and then found a tent with hundreds of CDs to look through.  I of course had to look through every last disk on the table and came up with more than a handful of winners.

I had to rehydrate after that so I got a large soda at the near by Hardees and continued my quest for cheapness to Value Village, a thrift store that has yet to disappoint me when it comes to beer shirts.  True to form I found two beer shirts, one for the local brewpub DuClaws for a beer called Old Flame (the front of the shirt says "at least the beer's not bitter".  The other beer shirt (what Kathy calls my big boy shirts) is from Wasatch Beers in Park City Utah, advertising something called Polygamy Porter "(Why have Just one?)"  I also picked up a paperback book and best of all, all books and t-shirts were half price on
 Sunday!

I ended up with 18 CD's and four t-shirts for the day and on the way home I stopped at the liquor store and got some beer to see me through the rest of the afternoon and well into the evening.  I've also got a little fresh salad to keep me fed until Kathy comes back and I'll be in line once again.

Ubertramp

I've long been a fan of the band Supertramp, thanks in part to the exposure afforded to me by my childhood friend DK.  Albums like "Crime of the Century" and "Even In The Quietest Moments..." were early favorites and then they took off with the popular success of "Breakfast in America" 

Part of why I liked them and maybe also part of their success was the fact that the two key members, Rick Davies and Roger Hodgeson both shared vocal duties as well as song writing.  Maybe not the Lennon and McCartney of there time, but more comparable to Dillford and Tilbrook of Squeeze.   There is something about the two different voices on these albums (and yes, in these times they were indeed big, black, 12" albums) that raised them above other bands with a narrower vocal sound.

The band continued on after Roger left in the early '80s for a solo career and I was afraid that their best years were indeed behind them.  I was surprised and pleased by there first post-Hodgeson  album, "Brother Where You Bound?" and it was even one of the first CDs I ever bought. Some of the lyrics I think may even be pointed towards Roger but it was the continued use of longer compositions that impressed me.  One more plus may have been the lack of Rogers input.

As I've said, I'm a big Supertramp fan, but it seems like on almost every album there was one song that I grew to hate and it was always a song sung by Roger Hodgeson.  Crime of the Century had "Dreamer"
Even In The Quietest Moments had "Babaji".  Breakfast In America had  Lord, Is It Mine?" and Famous Last Words has "It's Raining Again".  Brother Where You Bound had nothing that tends to drive me nuts after repeated listens and it also had the benefit of some killer Dave Gilmore guitar solos.

There have been ups and downs in there output since.  I was excited for the follow up to Brother but was disappointed with Free as a Bird.   Some Things Never Change was a solid recording as was Slow Motion.  There have also been countless compilations and live releases and they all have the strong material but that we've all heard before, but I don't think there will ever be another Crime of the Century.

48th of July

Last Sunday we had what is turning out to be an annual gathering at our house to celebrate the 4th of July. It featured the usual cast of characters as well as some new faces.  Aside from our over the top use of fireworks, the real highlights were supplied by Chris Flaherty.  He brought a small scale model of a Civil war battle which we proceeded to set alight with fireworks.

He also brought his newly finished catapult which allowed us to celebrate our independence by hurling water balloons into the neighbors yard.  The design is solid but it may still require a little fine tuning and more weight before we can use it to lob pumpkins into the neighbor's yard. 

Science marches on!

Winning the war on beer

At the suggestion of my neighbor Shawn, I watched a movie called Beer Wars the other night.   It's a very well made documentary about the watering down of beer by the big three national brewery, Coors, Miller and Anheiser Busch.  It's a sad tale of how the big guys are doing everything they can to eliminate the competition of small breweries and micro breweries.

One the bright side, the little guys (Dogfish Head is featured prominently) are still growing despite the crowding out of them on the supermarket shelves by the big guys.  We as beer drinkers must do our part to help these small businesses survive.  That is why I think we should start thinking about another BrokeBack Brewery Tour for this fall.  Who's with me?

I'm you need to get your blood boiling for this challenge, watch the movie.  It's available on www.hulu.com with a few commercial interruptions but thankfully none of them are for Bud, Millers or Coors.

http://beerwarsmovie.com/

Summer Cramp

Are you saying I'm fat?

Last night, In an effort to move my dog, Zappa, from one side of me on the bed to the other I suffered a leg cramp the likes of which I have never felt before.  I'd wedged my feet under him and tried to gently roll him over my lower body and one leg just seized up half way through the procedure. I could not get out of bed fast enough invoking the chant of like minded sufferers "CRAMP! CRAMP! CRAMP!"

Kathy came into the room and found me hobbling around like a man... well, like a man my age.  I've recently lived through another birthday that I thought I'd never see and I have to admit, getting old kind of sucks.  The only up side is when Kathy told her friend Janet how old I was, Janet's reply was "He's so immature."

At least it seems that my mind is still young.