I am a happy wanderer

Well, I'm not, but I still have friends that are. I used to be a wanderer but I think it would be a lot stranger now than it was when I was younger. Now I just head for the house because I know the rules there and I can change them anytime I want to if I don't like them. I don't fit in well anywhere but here anymore so that's where I stay.

I got home Friday to find my bgf Daring Dame and company had put up a tent and parked their cars right on one of our many drain fields and about two feet from the road. I was NOT happy. This would have been avoided if she had made it over or even called to talk before they got here but I feel like she was avoiding me and I have been ignored about everything after the word "yes" when she asked if they could put an RV out here for three weeks.
It's not a good feeling. There is no generator out there yet and they blew the breaker three times yesterday. That means coming in, going down to the basement and tracking up the floors. One of them used the shower and left it just any old way. There is no holding tank for black water on the RV. All of them used the bathroom all day and I was out of sorts that they kept knocking on the door and setting the dogs off when I told them just come in. This could have all been avoided if we had worked out the details first; including my bad feelings about my new neighbors.

On top of everything else, the dogs don't seem to like the husband....I think that bothers me more than all the rest. My dogs like almost everybody they meet.

The mate's youngest was over yesterday to take some more "inheritance" home and to her sister's house in the middle of all this and my eldest daughter called. There was stuff all over the house to be packed up and people running in and our with the eldest taking time to talk with both of us through all the confusion and it was just a little crazy making.

(Just FYI, these are all "my kids", I use the terms I do to tell them apart for you. We all love each other the best we can for as different and far apart as we are. I don't want anyone thinking I don't love them all. I am grateful and glad for every bit of love and respect any of them has for me because I do not always deserve it and have not always earned it but they have given it to me anyway. Bless all their pointy little heads! I love everyone of them deeply, including my "east coast child" that I never see. I have truely been blessed with my children and can't tell you how much comfort, joy and fun they bring into my life as the intelligent, caring, thoughtful, helpful adults they have grown to be. None of us are perfect and we have our spats but through it all we are there for each other and a family. (brag over) )

I finally had enough of the running in and out and confusion. They were all out of the house so I got around to go hear the band the Brother Boy plays in. I locked up the house and rolled. I was glad I went. They cover a lot of styles and types of music, the Brother Boy is an amazing lead guitarist and the other guitar player was excellent, too. The bass just hung back and layed down the bottom, the drummer was right on top of it and never dragged, the fiddle player sat there and never even looked excited but had some licks that curled your hair! They were a little rough on the first set but by the last set they were tight and the small crowd was all theirs.

The crowd was small because the bar is barely as big as my house. It's in a town that's only business appears to BE the bar and lasts for less than a mile if you go by on the main road. The bartenders were very good and I tipped well, enjoyed the people I met and had a lot of fun just soaking up the tunes.

For my own amusement and that of the fiddler, who encouraged me by laughing, and to annoy the Brother Boy, who ignored me, I spent my time thinking up the oldest, moldiest rock and roll or pop tunes I could and calling them out for requests. The Brother Boy finally grinned and played a lick of Crimson and Clover in the second set, so I knew he was playing with me inside his head but couldn't admit he even knew half the songs I called up.

I did not sing with the band. Bro had offered and I thought about it hard but I am not ready to try it with a band as tight as that and fail. I will be cranking up the mic and getting a stand for it and working that guitar to be ready for next time. I still have trouble getting through songs without setting myself up to cry because they hit a part that makes me miss the mate.....whom I am still missing, yes. I have just been trying to find something else to talk about for a change.

I love the feel of the music holding me up while I dig deep for the meaning of the tunes I am singing and watching a crowd start digging it and grooving to it and dancing. Throw in a tight harmony and I am IN IT! The zone. That's what I miss, the chills that run up your back when the breaks are clean and the vocals are right on and the drummer is moving you while the bass vibrates in your head and you are not just people playing music for a lot of people to listen to, but a unit producing music and a second unit, we call it a crowd, reflecting their joy in the tunes back to you.

The energy a crowd puts into dancing and beating time fuels the band to get it tighter and cleaner and that makes the crowd wilder and it is a cycle of celebration of being alive that is unique every time it happens.

I closed out a bar for the first time since 1985, but I was sober. I had two drinks and a large water back for the night and stretched them thin so I could drive home. I hate drunk drivers. I was more worried about being up past my bedtime. I was a little sleepier than I like. The cold temps helped.

If you live in Michigan and want to hear a hot band next weekend they play one more time before a summer of parties, weddings, pig roasts and biker events. Email me and I will send you a map.

I got home late and no one has bothered me all morning, the boy is coming to get some stuff today and I will get to spend some time with them. The bro in law is coming back to finish the sumps up and now I have to go out and get the damned gypsies to move off my drain field. I think I have a plan we can all live with.

Oh happy day! Have fun, all!