Palin is a star at her own gigs. A show has powers.

She Who Must Be Obeyed stayed home with He Who Must Be Walked.

Dana said it well: people who choose to be a family.

I gotta read with more care. I assumed that she who must be obeyed WAS Dana. Although she did not come across that way of course.

I thought so at first also, Larry. But SWMBO is a teen. I hear she's pretty fabulous. Still, who would re-live those years, either as the teen or as the parent ... makes ya glad to be as old as dirt (but younger than Arlo).

WHAT a great weekend!

Thanks to Todd for the perfect tailgate weather and for some timely breaks in the clouds to reveal the full moon. And thanks to Gay Lynch for providing amusement in the merch area (she kept knocking stuff down and moving it).

I am keeping SWMBO at home until after Krishna is married.

I don't have to obey Dana. I want to please her. OTW, the warm food stops.

Oh I dunno len, perhaps if you play your cards wrong, she will elevate you to the status of a god and place burnt offerings before you every evening?

I told you I was bringing two of my favorite gods.

We have a fifties marriage: she cooks and I give her all of my money, the house and hegemony just as my father said I should for ultimate happiness.

True story: when Dana offered to come to my apartment and make dinner for us (many eons past) for the first time, she brought fresh raw uncooked vegetables and put them on the plate. I asked what else and she said, nothing, this is it.

I told her I was not a rabbit. Many years have passed and my ears have grown longer, my feet are furrier and I hear dogs in the distance. Carrots?

What's up Doc? (Couldn't resist. )

I love Dana!

Me too.

This is the song I wrote for her. After five years of dating and undating, I finally realized I hadn't a clue what loving is but I knew what being loved is. So I asked her to marry me and made one promise.

http://home.hiwaay.net/~cbullard/mp3/GoodToYou.mp3

That was really good...

i think this is beautiful,and I especially like the end.

Thanks! That cheers me up this dreary day. I like that song too. Sweet.

Last night after choir I was looking at one of the member's banjo. I hit a few licks of This Land and he told me quite seriously he hates that song. I asked why and he said because the man who sings it the most is the most un-American man he knew about, Pete Seeger. I stumbled out the door incredulous and really angry. I suppose I could have started a fight there and then but it wouldn't change his mind and here, the kind of hell that would have started for my wife and daughter would be intense. Still, I sat up last night asking myself how I could possibly let people like that teach my children, or how I can stand next to them and sing.

Sometimes, I can't get past the shame of being in this place with people who can think like that. I look past it too often and maybe don't have what it takes. We really do have to choose our family. I'm glad I took Dana to Great Barrington. Perspective counts.

Well len, perhaps this guy is why God sent YOU to that particular church?

I followed my wife and kids. Originally she was teaching in the pre-school. I went because without a band and regular gigs, the voice goes to heck fast and choral music is as good as it gets for keeping vocal chops up. It might be providence; it was self-serving. I've enjoyed it because a) the music is excellent b) the tenor section has fine voices and are good eggs c) a chance to compose for choir and ensemble. All of that's been worth it, but there is the undertone of hard right wing conservatism that grows increasingly uncomfortable. The election set them on their backsides, and there is a growing 'get even' movement. Those are the people you see carrying the hate signs. They certainly aren't a majority but they are bullies and loud. I've seen this all before forty years ago. At some point, as Reg says, enough is enough and I'm not sure at the moment what that point will be. That may have been it.

This guy was pushing buttons. He is the assistant pastor's husband, an engineer for the MIC and a straight up hard nosed good old boy. Jealousy on steroids. The time I had to take off for treatments, he kept needling Dana that I was at work but not church. Then the trip to GB to see the 'slinger frosted him pretty obviously. As I told Reg over breakfast, cultural prejudices depend on where one is from. To some of these folks, the hippie culture is the devil's work and Pete and Arlo are two of the top pitchforkers. It's nuts, for sure, but there it is and here I am. They are seeing the Facebook postings and starting to latch on to the idea that I might not be one of them. Well... d'oh. Being born here doesn't automatically make one stupid. It also doesn't mean it's not home. That's the Scylla and Charibdis.

So I'll think about it and eventually a solution will offer itself, or at least a way of making it past the chasm. Thanks for the chat... and the 12 string.