Tempus Fugits

Wow, the last two months really have fugited the heck away, haven’t they?

After fielding countless questions from faithful readers of this site (wait, 1… 2… 3… yup, 3. So I guess countless is no good) I figured I’d better get back to it. In all honesty, I have been writing the last couple months, just not on this thing. I’ve been trying to see if I can make something else work. I’m not quite ready to go public with it yet. And maybe never, it’s still too early to say. I will say though, that if anything ever comes from this side project, you all (still not saying y’all) will be among the first to know.

So, what to say, what to say?

Here’s something. One of the things I’ve noticed down here is the apparent reluctance to pull abandoned vehicles from along the interstate. It’s really kinda crazy. In the 30ish minutes it takes me to get to the coffeehouse from home, almost all of it on highways, it’s not at all uncommon to see as many as a half dozen vehicles sitting on the shoulder of the road. I’ve mentioned this phenomena before, I know, but, really, it kind of blows my mind. I’m not sure wherein the blame lies either. I noticed in the buildup to the snow we got last month. the electronic message boards along the highways were posted with an emergency towing message. As in, your vehicle will be gone if you leave it on the side of the road. I don’t get why they aren’t removed sooner on the regular. I mean, it doesn’t impact me one way or the other, but inquiring minds, right? I mean, back home my interstate travel was a lot less frequent, but I don’t ever remember seeing a vehicle sitting unattended for days, let alone weeks like down here.

Here’s another thing. And, quite likely, my favorite thing of the week. You know how you know when you’ve found the right coffeehouse? When you get a standing ovation upon entering the premises. Which is what happened to me today. For real. I walked in to applause. And, one of the baristas refused to take my money, comping my latte. During one of my early visits here, this particular barista asked me if I had a punch card. I told her I didn’t. She asked if I wanted one as she started to reach for it. I told her no thanks, that I’d never remember it and would, as a consequence, end up with ten different punch cards at home, each with one or two punches. She looked at me like I had threatened a puppy. I apologized and told her it was a “me” problem and not a “you” problem, but that I had embraced this weakness on my part. She shrugged and said she wouldn’t bother me with it again. And she didn’t, until yesterday. She asked if I had a punch card and I laughed and reminded her of our earlier conversation. She laughed said she thought she’d try it again. I told her, and her manager, standing nearby, that for as often as the staff slips me a discount, I’m probably coming out ahead anyway. I meant it too. These folks are straight up wonderful, all very personable and good at what they do too. Another reason I know I’ve found the right place, btw. So, when I walked in this morning and attempted to pay for my latte, my money was refused. I tossed it all in the tip jar, I figured that was the least I could do for them. But yeah, you could say I got the good end of the warm, fuzzy, feels today.

Lastly, I think, after an incredible year of live music (which, as we all know, is better live) I have yet to see my first show of the new year. I do have some irons in the fire though. I just ordered tickets today to see Greensky Bluegrass next week in Raleigh and also to see Yonder Mountain String Band the first week in February in Saxapahaw. Then I’ve got HeAthens Homecoming by DBT in Athens, GA the second weekend in February. There’s potential for a Van Morrison show in April, since he and I will both be in Illinois at that time. I don’t think there’s any connection between the two btw. I mean none of his advance people reached out to me to see if those dates worked for me or not. Or if they did call, they didn’t leave a message. I have been getting a lot of random calls from all over the country with no voice message though. Maybe his people did call. I hope not, cause I blocked every one of these calls, since when I do answer one, it’s someone looking for a campaign contribution…

Ok, I think I’m good. For now anyway. I guess to sum up, if you haven’t seen me on social media, it’s because I haven’t been there, and not because you’ve missed something. I’ll try and kick these out again with a little more regularity in spite of whatever else I may have in the works. But in the meantime…

Peace

PS, because, well, you know, WP has done it to me again. Apparently while I’ve been away from here, they “improved” their site. So now, I can’t insert images the way I had form the day I started using them. Which is why the post looks kind of half-assed around where I inserted the image. I’ve already pissed away 20 minutes trying to fix it. You see how that turned out. Sigh