These Two Lanes will Take us Anywhere

Sheesh! I was in a daze for most of the 431 miles but I made it to Somerset. Less than an hour til the first act goes on…

So last night we went to Dante’s Down the Hatch in Buckhead. It was a pretty sweet place; fondue and stew, a replica pirate ship with a jazz band on board surrounded by water crawling with live caymans and crocs… Morbidly obese caymans and crocs I might add… very strange, but very, very cool. We just sat at the bar and had some stew and brew. Then headed back to a place in Jenn’s hood called “the local”.

Big Guns is so high maintenance, but also soooo adowable when he gets cranky in the car…. The drive was boring until we got off the highway… from then on it was beautiful. Two lane winding road through the foot hills of Kentucky. We stopped at Cumberland Falls for a while and took some pix. Went for a little hike. Gunner got tired... Well I gots to yank out some teeth and tear off my sleeves before I roll.

Casing the Promised Land

Well me and G pulled out of T-ville yesterday morn with my day-off-staple BLT on an everything bagel from Bagel World in hand; stylin’ and profilin’ in our flaming yellow rented Chevy Cobalt… Got to G-ville around lunch time. Met up with a now-walking Cass-dog, Jen, Bill, Marty, and Jim for lunch. Left around 3:00 and got to ATL around 7:30. Jenn got called out to Cali on a fire so she left us the key to her crib. Coincidently, I arrived at almost the same time as another one of her friends who was also staying at her place. So the two of us are using her place as a hostile. G proceeded to tear up a couple of Angus’s toys… Erik had just finished up a long day of protecting the environment when he swung bye and took us out-of-towners on the Erik Spalvins’ hospitality tour… I got tanked…

Went to Georgia Aquarium this morning. Cool, cool. Saw the whale sharks, beluga whales, the sea
otters, which were adowable, and tons of other cool creatures. It was packed…It was hard to walk and look at stuff without plowing over knee high mini persons. Going to take a cat nap to rejuvenate for another night on the town…

Before I go... here...

Exotic passion.

The Ball's in My Court

I've been playing a lot of basketball lately. I have always found sanctuary in shooting hoops. It has definitely been a mental escape for me my entire life. I used to shoot a lot growing up. I can't say that I have ever had a great idea or an epiphany on the court but I usually put the ball down more mellow than when I picked it up. The last couple days I have been trying to figure out why it has always been so therapeutic for me. I am afraid I use it to numb my feelings... Thinking back there were some unpleasant times on the court...

When I was in eighth grade a girl in seventh grade committed suicide. I didn't know her that well but I had talked with her on what I think was the day she died. That next day everybody was crying, but I didn't even find out why until 2nd or 3rd hour. I remember not really knowing how I felt or how to react. I don't think I cried. But I remember going out to shoot hoops as soon as I got home. I shot for a long time. I remember my Dad coming home and instead of going inside he sat on the tailgate of his truck trying to figure out what to say. I think at that point I realized what parents fear most... I just kept shooting.

The court has also been a place of utter embarrassment. I was always the basketball team's manager; never played. But toward the end of our freshmen year the coach and the players were really pushing for me to play in a game. So it was set, I was going to play in the last home game of the year against Durand. As the game neared the pressure was building. People were coming just to see me play. I started to feel like Rudy; like I was drawing all this attention out of pity. My parents questioned whether I really wanted to play, because at the time I had gaudy, Forest Gump-like metal braces that went up to my knees. So just before the game I cracked under the pressure and told the coach I wasn't going to play. We went in the locker room and he calmed me down, and talked me back into playing. So as we were warming up before the game the refs came up to me and were concerned about the metal on my braces. Much to my relief they said I could not play with those braces. Well Mr. Butcher wasn't going to let that happen, so he took me in the locker room, tore up a gym mat and taped foam around every piece of metal on the braces. At that point gaudiness had just been redefined and my anxiety rose to a new level. So I sat the entire first quarter on the comfort and safety of the pine, but during a foul shot in the second quarter Mr. Butcher looked my way. The crowd erupted with cheers of pity, anticipating a miracle. Striken with the worst case of cotton mouth in my life, I was cherry-picking when Ryan Jones got the rebound from a missed free throw and immediately hurled the ball to the handicap kid carrying everybody's desire to witness a miracle. I caught the ball, turned and dribbled toward the basket for my wide open lay-up... The deflating gasp from the crowd echoed in the silence that followed. I failed to inspire. I finished the game with zero points feeling more embarrassed by the attention than by missing the wide open layup... But such is life. I had another shot at our final away game. I had four points in that game... I stopped being the manager after that.

Then a couple years ago, the most inspiring moment in basketball that I have ever seen happened with striking similarity to my story, only this time the outcome was much different...

Talk about inspiring. I remember seeing this as I was getting ready for school a couple years ago. I was moved to tears... Now I have followed college and pro basketball for a long time; been to two finals fours, both colleges I graduated from won national championships while I was a student, my pro team has won the championship 3 times in my lifetime.... but none of those moments even compare to this. It is so intriguing to me what the mind is capable of.

T. Boone Pickens--the Warren Buffet of Alt Energy?

I got several emails about this yesterday and glanced over them all. I wasn't really sure who he was until I saw his TV commercial just a few minutes ago... It gave me chills. Finally, a villain with a HUGE voice becomes an ally... Its the start of a movement.

Check it out:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/25582244/site/14081545/

Listen to his NPR interview:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92306239

He is suppose to unveil the details of his plan over the next few weeks. Finally! Action that is practical!

Interesting Tidbit about Amos Lee's "Better Days"

So about a year and a half ago I was introduced to Amos Lee for the first time on Prairie Home Companion. He sang Keep it Loose, Keep it Tight, and a new song titled Better Days, which I couldn't get out of my head. I was hooked, and since I couldn't find it anywhere I repeatedly scrolled through the show to hear that song. For the last year and a half I have been trying to find it, then about 6 months ago a poor-quality live video of the song showed up on youtube. Then last month he released his latest cd Last Days at the Lodge and on it was Better Days. But it didn't sound like I remembered... and sure enough, he changed the second verse... turning it into more of a love song. The second verse of original version that he sang on PHC had a subtle political undertone, while the new second verse talks of love lost... Interesting. He must have had his heart broken.

Check out the original version here: http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/2007/01/27/. Better Days is about 44:30 into the show. In the following video he dedicates the newer version of the song to the passing of Tim Russert: http://youtube.com/watch?v=e-TKQuABFB8.

I would say that Amos Lee could be the love child of James Taylor and Jack Johnson. Amos is coming to central FL in the next few weeks but I don't think I will be around to see him.

Your Sunday Flower

I didn't pick it because it is fragile, and it doesn't last past the morning.