Wednesday, March 28, 2007

A Duo of Dolts

After spending an hour and a quarter on the road, dealing with the usual dolts driving like bats out of Borrego, I got a special treat: double tailgaters!
That's right, because one person right on my tail wasn't dangerous enough. I let them all pass me, so I wouldn't have any problems with them.

Or so I thought.

Ten minutes later, just before my driveway I come upon this scene:

"Not good," think I. So what's my first reaction? Slow down? Honk horn? No, of course no. What then, you ask? Take a picture. (Duh) I did stop and honk at them, but only as secondary operations. My primary focus was on getting my camera powered up. Hey, evidence is handy stuff, right?

These two fellows were hollering and swearing and flinging profanity around like it was the end of the world. I have never in my life heard so much verbal abuse heaped on anybody. Not to mention that they were practically in his lap swinging fists around.

After I showed up and the neighbor you can see in the background came out, the two men backed off. The man in the car called 911 and asked me to stick around as a witness. I parked at home, grabbed a sweat shirt and ran back down there.

That's when it started snowing.

It turns out that this was my tailgating duo. Apparently, the man in the car had passed the other two and "ran us off the road" when a car came from the other direction. So they decided to give him a piece of there minds and followed him for fifteen minutes to do so, which is where I found them.

Within a few minutes, the snow slacked off and no less than two CHP cars, two sheriff cars, an ambulance and a fire truck had shown up. A CHP officer told me that I could go, so I did. I walked home and related these exciting events to my family, wolfed down some fresh home made pizza, and ran out the door to go to so-called-youth-group.

While I was away, a sheriff called and one of my parents gave him the story as I told them then, and as I have now told it to you.

Monday, March 19, 2007

A Contrast in Concerts

In the last 48 hours I've been to two concerts.

The first was a fund raiser sort of thing, an hour from where I live. There were three bands in attendance: Jason Harris, InAidance and Sam Heart. I got in for half price ($5) for bringing a friend.

I was glad I got the discount. It was just your typical music that can be found at any Sunday morning Church service. there was a little preaching, free cookies and popcorn and lots of volume. The instant InAdence got started, I was out the door.

That's not to say I left the concert. It just means that I could hear the music just fine outside by the ticket table, which is where I listened to them. For having the desire not to cause permanent damage to my ear drums, I was granted the title "Pansy Behind the Plexiglass" by the ticket taker. She seemed truly puzzled by my being outside.

The subsequent band was louder yet. Needless to say, I stayed outside. All in all, I wasn't terribly impressed.





On Sunday, the band Giveway came all the way from Scotland just to play for the Julian Library. Err, well, maybe they were on tour in the area.

Giveway is a Scottish band of four highly talented sisters. They started the performance with a bang and never looked back. It was foot stomping, hand clappingly good music. If there was a still foot in the building (There was seating for 200, and people standing around the edges) I couldn't see it.

Since I've already admitted that Giveway was on tour, I might as well tell you a funny thing that happened. So Giveway is on tour all the way from Scotland, here they are at their final gig, and they have one CD left. That's right, a crowd of over two hundred people, and they only have one disk.

At the intermission, there was maybe a half second before that lone album had vanished like smoke. There were a number of people upset that the library that was hosting the event didn't buy it before someone else got to it. Most were mollified by the fact that she (claimed) that she bought it for her branch of the library.

You can listen to some sound samples from their two CDs here and here. Their website is www.givewaymusic.com

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

"37 Seconds of Pain" Or, "Oh Great, Something Else to Spend Time On!"


Having recently signed up for Google Checkout, I got a $10 credit. I ended up buying a penny whistle (or a tin whistle, Irish whistle, or a feadóg stáin, depending on who you talk to)



A penny whistle

My penny whistle arrived on Saturday. Having about zero musical experience, the sounds that issue forth when I huff and puff on it aren't exactly Carnegie Hall quality. If you don't believe me, just ask my Grandma's cats (which fled upon hearing me practice last night) or click here to listen to a short burst of pure novice. (Listen at your own risk!) [397 KB .wav file]