Rocky Mountain High and Cheap Sunglasses

So…Last weeks adventure had me humming Rocky Mountain High and a bunch of other John Denver tunes. It’s back in the city now and to balance out some of the “decompression” I accomplished at Cottonwood Lake, music of a different kind was in order. To make things even better it was different music with the full circle. Yes, all of us; The Bride, Too Tall-Two Timing, K, Guitar, Pic-E and myself, his-self went to a ZZ Top concert at the famous Red Rocks Amphitheater.

Now, I enjoy a lot of different types of music and was anxious to see ZZ Top, I just didn’t know if I was ready for a full concert? As it turned out we all had a great time and enjoyed the “event”….because it really was an event.

The crowd consisted of everything from young rockers to motorcycle types to aging hippies to stalwart upstanding clean cut types like ourselves. Watching the crowd was as entertaining as the stage shows. There was even one Japanese looking guy in a kimono and with a fan that was “rocking out” to one the warm up bands.

We had hopes that it would be even more of an “event” for us as K told us that she sat behind Billy Gibbons in high school! That seemed to be worth at least a back stage pass dontcha’ think? Probably what she meant was that she sat in the same class….a year behind him because he didn’t seem to recognize her sitting in the crowd some 40 few years after the fact!

The warm up bands were the Stray Cats and The Pretenders. Two pretty famous bands in their own right. Of the two I really liked the Stray Cats better. I liked the 50’s flavor of the rockabilly songs they did. I also liked the fact that they truly seemed to be enjoying themselves.

After about 2 hours of warm up bands ZZ Top started at about 8:30 pm. For a while it looked like we might get soaked with a pretty vicious looking thunderstorm but luckily it drifted off to the east of Red Rocks. Lightening must have struck somewhere however and started a fire because before too long an odor wafted in that smelled like old rope burning???

ZZ Top is a great show…iconic, mystique are terms used to describe their persona and performance. They did not disappoint on this night. They even had me doing the Top Shuffle half way into the show. Oh, by the way for those of you not familiar with this group, one of their biggest hits is entitled “Cheap Sunglasses”….hence the post title. The show was over too soon and it was time to head home. After all this is a Monday night and I have a date with the dentist for a root canal Tuesday morning!

Thanks for visiting.

Oh My Aching Back- or-Can't Leave 'Em Alone for a Minute!

Good News/Bad News...

Bad news is that while doing absolutely nothing the other day I managed to throw my back out of kilter. This happens every year or so under the most seemingly innocent of circumstances. I wasn't trying to lift 300 pounds or do at home what the contortionist said not to try at home or anything like that....I was only looking, that's right LOOKING, at my socks.

OK by this time I know the drill. I'm in for a very unpleasant four days and then things will be back to more or less normal. During this time I find it therapeutic to be....well...not to be actually. Since walking, talking, thinking...any verb ending in "ing" hurts, I try to do as little as possible.This means that I do what I can job wise and don't keep up with social events at all. All my energy is involved in resisting pain.

Good news is that this could have happened last week while we were on our road trip. That would have been a real bummer! That it did not, is very good news.

Bad news is that my self imposed isolation meant that the rest of the "Circle" was left unattended. What's so bad about that you say? Well, geometrically speaking when you remove part of the arc that the circle is made up of, it is no longer a circle and begins to wobble like a TOP. Wobble can be a bad thing. The diagram on the left explains in scientific detail the effect of wobble on a TOP.

Good news is I figure The Bride will step in and take up the slack to make sure the TOP doesn't get out of control. Hey, we've been married almost 30 years, I know she can do this.

Bad new is I didn't realize there was an "angular momentum" part of her personality that had profound effects on the gravitational torque of her psyche.

Good new is that the circle normally attends several concerts a year. We always seem to have a great time at these concerts. In the last year or so we've seen Lyle Lovett, Vince Gill, Natalie Cole and a number of other artists. We had not as yet firmed up which concerts we would attend this summer other than Bob Dylan in July. I'm thinking maybe we can fill out the summer with exciting stuff like...













Bad news is that today the rest of the circle, with major input by The Bride, decided on which final concert we should attend this summer. Because of my self imposed isolation I was not able to exert my influence on the choice! And to TOP that their choice was......







Good news is I would have chosen the exact same thing but I'm not going to tell them that! I'm thinkin' maybe a new hat and a new jacket....maybe I'll even start a beard? Deep down inside of me there is this wobbly thing....I could be like...



What do you think?

Thanks for visiting.