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Wednesday, September 25, 2002 After 7 weeks in the hospital, Dad is finally at home. Not that he was necessarily ready to go home, but Medicare felt they'd done enough. posted at 2:18 PM Monday, September 23, 2002 Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention the lovely fall weather we've been having. We were at Wire when the Autumnal Equinox officially arrived. posted at 10:55 AM Dang, I'm tired this Monday morning. Had a full weekend, full of the stuff I like, camping, kayaking, and punk rock. Friday night, Jenni and I had a quick visit with my Dad and Mom at the hospital, then went to Fado (Irish pub) for Guinness, then to 33° for Fall tickets; while we were there, I picked up The Flaming Lips 'Finally the Punk Rockers Are Taking Acid,' The Fall's Slates CD, and the Butthole Surfers 1985 'Blind Eye Sees All' DVD. Saturday, I joined a group of paddlers for a ten mile paddle down the beautiful, but mostly flat (as opposed to whitewater), South Llano River. Camped at the South Llano River State Park under a full moon. Sunday morning I got up right before the sun came up over the horizon and went for a short hike and some bird watching. I hadn't brought my bird book, because I had no idea the park was a wildlife sanctuary. Joined two old folks in the bird blind and learned more about birding. We saw cardinals, finches, titmice, warblers, thrashers, etc. etc. Plus a million wild turkeys. And a roadrunner or two. Sunday evening, last night, Jenni and I went to see WIRE at La Zona Rosa. I've waited 24 years or so to see them, and I finally saw them. They played a fun, energetic show. We had a good ol' time. The opening band had a great name: 'I Love You, But I've Chosen Darkness.' posted at 9:42 AM Friday, September 20, 2002 Finally The Punk Rockers Are Taking Acid - Haw haw! I think that's a hilarious title for The Flaming Lips' new compilation of their early stuff. I used to see 'em back in the day.... here's a photo I snapped. posted at 4:56 PM And speaking of those kayaking photos, I am mighty proud of the PHP coding I did in that little photo gallery. Not that you can see it (or that it'll even mean anything to you!) but it was a challenge and I quite enjoyed it. There are 21 pictures but only two pages of code, two PHP scripts, rather than 24 separate html documents. That makes me happy. So I'm a geek. So what? posted at 4:43 PM Tuesday, September 17, 2002 Insomnia deluxe! Was going to get up and read, but worked on kayaking photos instead. Got a roll of film developed today and had the photos put on CD... sure beats scanning 'em one by one! posted at 3:51 AM Monday, September 16, 2002 Here's my brother and my cute little nephew on Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. I'm hoping they're coming down to visit later this month. posted at 9:37 PM Sunday, Jenni and I went to visit my Dad and found out he was going on a field trip. Well, actually, church. His first time out in to the real world in a long time. Mom had gotten clearance for him to leave the hospital for a little while. He seemed to really enjoy getting out. I drove them to church and helped get him back in to his wheelchair and inside the church... and then it was time for us to head out. posted at 9:28 PM Paddled the Upper Guadalupe again on Saturday. Beautiful weather. Big group. 15 of us in all. By far the biggest group I've ever paddled with. Here are a whole bunch of pics from my last 3 kayaking trips.... posted at 4:31 PM It may be a cliche, and it may be a Boomtown Rats song, but I don't like Mondays. I don't like 'em one bit. Man, it was hard to get out of bed this morning. But... I did. An hour or so of middle-of-the-night insomnia didn't help either. I got up and read Mary Karr's crazy memoir, The Liar's Club. posted at 3:03 PM Friday, September 13, 2002 Well, I'm just kidding. There's always something to post. I just thought that error message was funny. Somehow apropos on Friday the 13th. posted at 1:56 PM posted at 10:21 AM Thursday, September 12, 2002 Jenni and I visited Dad at Health South last night. He seems to be slowly recovering. The swelling in his leg is going down, and his motor skills are improving. He doesn't talk much, so it's hard to tell how his cognition is. posted at 10:14 AM Took off from work Tuesday at noon for an 8-mile paddle down the upper Guadalupe River (from Bergheim to the State Park). The river was up a little bit from the rain over the weekend. Beats working. posted at 10:11 AM Saturday, September 07, 2002 It's 11:11. Speaking of flying somewhere for a show... last week it suddenly occurred to me to see if Morrissey was touring. And he was! And playing in Texas! Unfortunately, El Paso is barely in Texas and 580 miles from Austin, which would mean +20 hours of driving there and back or several hundred dollars in airfare at such late notice, as he was playing Monday and I didn't think of looking until Friday. VERY poor timing on my part. Why the hell he was only playing the West beats the hell out of me (maybe I should spend more time on the Morrissey newsgroups....?) Why he would play El Paso but not Austin, or at least Hooston or Dull-ass! Jenni is a big Smiths/Morrissey fan, and I'm a total, belated convert. The funny thing is, I actually like Morrissey's solo stuff better than The Smiths... maybe because I mostly didn't get The Smiths back in the day when I would've dismissed that along with most other 'pop' stuff. It's a big disappointment. I think Morrissey would probably be great in concert. posted at 11:11 AM When it rains, it pours. Well, bad choice of cliche, considering that it rained all night but didn't even raise the creek levels one iota... maybe tomorrow. But that's a kayak theme, and I'm talking live shows here. At least, the rain is good for the plants! It's been so dry lately. Anyway...... I also found out last night that THE FALL, my favorite (or should that be 'favourite'?) band of all time, is playing here next month. posted at 11:05 AM Just bought tickets to Wire!, along with their new CD. I had no idea until last night that they were playing here. I don't know why it's such a secret. I checked Mute's site, and Mute only shows them playing the big cities. I was even looking in to a flight to Chicago to catch them there (and visit my brother, sister-in-law and nephew in nearby Madison, WI)... and I've saved myself $200 or whatever, and Jenni can go with me. (And my brother and family may be visiting here later in the month....) Guess I should've checked pinkflag.com instead! Wire's new disc sounds pretty good on a first listen. Sounds like a return to form. Song number 6, The Agfers of Kodack, sounds like Chrome, circa Half Machine Lip Moves. He sounds like the late Damon Edge singing! Amazing. posted at 10:59 AM LimeWire doesn't hold a candle to the former audiogalaxy. But, at least they exist! I can't find anything remotely obscure. It's probably fine if you're looking for current Top 40 hits, but I never am. The quality of selection could change if everyone would get on and use it. I paid for my copy. I'm sick of that ad crap that you get with freebie versions. posted at 10:57 AM Thursday, September 05, 2002 Sunday, Jenni and I stopped at a garage sale. I didn't want to, 'cause we have too much junk for our little place already, but Jenni said, You might find a record (LP) you've always wanted. Not likely, but what the heck. Well, I didn't find any rarities, but I found a whole collection of David Bowie LPs from the era I'm reading about in To Major Tom. Space Oddity, Ziggy Stardust, David Live, Diamond Dogs, Lodger, and... uh, Let's Dance (yuk). The guy also had a record player for sale. I asked how much, and he said, "Well, if you went to a pawn shop, how much would it cost? $50? I'll give it to you for half that." "No, thanks," I said, thinking more like $10. "How much for the records?" "Well," he begins again, "if you went to a record store, how much would they cost?" I cut him off; "Usually records go for a buck at garage sales." He looked crestfallen as he accepted $6 for 6 old Bowie records. Next time, try eBay, buddy, not a garage sale, if you want to get rich! posted at 8:53 AM Whoa! Gettin' behind in my bloggin'. Paddled 12 miles of the Upper Guadalupe River on Saturday. A stretch of river I had not paddled before. Pretty hill country scenery and some nice rapids on the first part of the trip, but almost completely flat down to, through, and below the park (Guadalupe River State Park). posted at 8:44 AM