man in the sand

i bought mermaid avenue vol. 1 at hastings music in huntsville, texas, probably in 2002. i was a wilco fan at the time. i knew they did something with some english dude named billy bragg and the songs they recorded were by woody guthrie. i didn't know much more than that. my internet ability/availability was still slim in those days. i bought it only because it had wilco's name on it.

earlier this year, they repackaged the entire set: mermaid avenue vols. 1 and 2 and they added a 3 with a dvd documentary of the making of the records. there are songs vol. 1 that still are wilco songs to me, even though woody wrote them. california stars. hoodoo voodoo. at my window sad and lonely. one by one. another man's done gone.

i was listening to these songs at the age of 22 or so. and i can't even imagine that i really understood them at that time in my life. but that was not the point. the point was to hear them. to try and understand them. to understand the protagonist's point of view. to try and live in the song.

but you try that with every song. i guess watching the documentary has taken me back to driving too fast in huntsville. to thinking i had the world laid out then. my small apartment and my small street. those were really interesting times.

birthday

my birthday has already come and gone. they go quick, don't they? what is there to pass along as knowledge after 33 years? not a lot. i realize i have fewer friends year after year, but the friends i do have are for the history books. mom and jack hooked me up with grade-a grilling material. when we finally get a house and a really nice grill, we're going to be set in that department. demitria vastly improved my camera setup with a bag and a tripod. the camera i have is so awesome that the zoom goes so far that the slightest shake by me and the picture's are blurry. the tripod will go a long way to fixing that. also we went out to dinner and had some really good sushi. i was even in bed by almost ten. demitria was joking that it was my perfect birthday. gifts, sushi, sake and being in bed by ten. it was great.

this weekend we're going hiking (if it doesn't snow). and we're going to see a show at the hi-dive. birthdays are still great. you don't have the parties and the people and the commotion like when you were younger. all that's left are the really special parts. the special people. the special moments. the special calls. it's nice. i can handle it.

the beaks of eagles

i'm back from my california trip. i made the awesome mistake of forgetting my camera which i realized as we were like ten feet from the airport. so i had to make due with my phone camera. the website i posted last week with the link had some good shots of the resort as well. i didn't get a chance to put my foot in the pacific because the coastline was real rocky and i didn't have my rocky coastline shoes on when i went for the walk so that will have to remain on my list of things to do in my life. but as you can see above, i got a couple good ones.

now i'm back home. right where i want to be. i don't see myself leaving denver for probably the next six months at least and it's a break from travelling i need. since june, i've been to salt lake city, new york, houston, seattle, houston, los angeles. i'm ready for that list to say denver, denver, denver, denver, with maybe boulder, golden or estes park thrown in there. i need days like yesterday. we got the oil changed in the subaru and an emissions test for the truck. we also cut and tied all the limbs in the back alley and raked and bagged all the leaves in the front yard. to top it off, we grilled out and watched a pretty terrible movie while doing two loads of laundry. that list sounds boring and tedious, but those things have to be done. and with all my travels and work and other family events, they've been piling up on us. and we knocked them out big time yesterday. there's more to do in the coming weeks, but next weekend is my birthday celebration. we're going to see the wooden sky live at the hi dive. can't wait for that. i'm also going to do my usual cd splurge and buy about six albums.

or maybe i should buy an album for each year i've been on earth? or each day? that's interesting. how many have i been on earth? let's do the math: 365 X 33 = 12,045. now that doesn't count probably 8 leap years, so add in another 8 days and you get 12,053. that's approximately how many days i've been on earth. wild. and in all those days, i still don't understand nougat.