“I can’t talk
My mind is so blank
So I’m going for a walk
I’ve got nothing left to say…”

OK.
That’s a Lie. My mind has not been blank. I’ve got lots to say….

During those 43 days there was a road trip. A good one. A very good one.
There were concerts. Very, very good ones. Santana; Shovels and Rope; Avett Brothers; Wood Brothers; Tedeschi Trucks Band; Ryan Adams. (All of them provided my journal with a list of Desert Island Disk lists….)
There were several rant-inducing events since 6/27/17:
(1) Someone broke into my car and stole my fishing tackle…which included lures that had moved with me to Orygun in 1976. Fuck Me!
(2) There was the invasion by Japanese Beetles….hungry, horny pests. Fuckers.
(3)There was a visit by the apartment’s Rent-a-Cop, followed up by an official “Notice of Noise Violation” by management! Come on…who listens to Neil Young or Bruce Springsteen on a late Friday afternoon without cranking it up?!? Fuck me Twice!

All of the above gave rise to quite a few posts on Facebook. At least 70 statuses, many of which included pictures.
And while I didn’t hit my journal’s daily target of 500 words during the 43 days, it was close.
Then there are the items that got added to the “stories” folder on my laptop.

There has been writing…my mind hasn’t been blank for the past month-and-a-half.
It has been cluttered with the crazy shit coming out of the nation’s capitol. I’ve generally avoided being overtly political in this space. But it’s been hard, especially with the blatant LIES, total incompetence, and authoritarian audacities coming from 45 and his cretinous cabinet.
As much as I’d like to go on a long political rant here and now, I’m going to resist the urge….
I will say this though: read “Giant of the Senate” by Al Franken.  This is from Page 373:  
-=-=-=
Also running through my head, and on repeat in the apartment and in the car, has been Jason Isbell’s latest album. One song in particular.
I have a Love/Hate relationship with “If we were vampires” from “The Nashville Sound.”
Especially with these six lines:

“It’s knowing that this can’t go on forever
Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone
Maybe we’ll get forty years together
But one day I’ll be gone or one day you’ll be gone

If we were vampires and death was a joke
We’d go out on the sidewalk and smoke…”
-=-=
I’ve been in love with 2 people in my life.
I was married to one of them for almost 40 years. We weren’t “in love” for a good portion of that time. That’s history. Lots of it foggy. I hope she is happy.

I live with the second person. She’s may partner on this journey. Shelly and I will be having our five-year “meet-aversary” in a couple of months.
We’re too old to expect 40 years together.
One day I’ll be gone or she’ll be gone.

Eight more lines from a song from Isbell’s latest album are closer to the truth than the four from above by Ryan Adams.
These are damned near dead on:

“I broke a promise to myself
Ride the Throttle til the wheels came off
Burn out like a Molotov
In the night sky
I broke a promise to myself
Made a couple to a brown eyed girl
Who rode with me through the mean ol’ world
Never Say Die..”

Very few of the people I ran with in my 20s would have given me a chance to have a lot of birthdays ending in zero. I have one in 13 months. It’s a wonder I made it to 30.
The throttle has been pushed to the floor a time or two. OK…maybe I am a little burned out. That’s for another day…

Both of my loves have been brown-eyed girls.
I’m sure there were some promises made.
Some were broken.
Some might be.
This one won’t be: Never say die. Resist the bull shit. Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.

I think I’ll go out on the balcony and smoke.
And then take a walk.
Be. Just Be.

On 3/9/17 it had a different meaning for me: “Ticket Buying Thursday.”

I’ve never been much on making resolutions, but last weekend I decided that 2017 should be the year of LOTS of live music. I already had tickets for 5 more 2017 concerts, but that was not enough to be truly committed, so on my March 9th TBT I added 4 more shows in 4 different cities to this year’s calendar.

First purchase was a show that is only 11 days and 200 miles away: Dawes at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa. I’ve never seen Dawes and I have never been to Cain’s, where Sid Vicious punched a hole in the wall in 1978. I’m told that the hole still remains. I’ll know for sure soon….

I hadn’t planned to buy any more concert tickets on what was to become my TBT, and then an e-mail popped into my in-box. It was an announcement of a per-sale of tickets at Ruth Eckerd in Clearwater to see Joe Jackson.
I’ve been a fan of his since I picked up “Look Sharp” in 1979, so I checked out the entire tour and landed some presale tickets closer to home.
We’ll be seeing him at the Uptown Theater in KC on June 23.

I was on a roll….plus tickets to the Ryan Adams concert at The Pageant in STL were delivered in Thursday’s mail, spurring me on.

Up next: Tom Petty’s 40th Anniversary Tour, with Joe Walsh opening. April 23rd in Little Rock. Like the Dawes show, I’ll be going solo and it’ll be a there-and-back. I’ve seen Petty a few times but have never seen Joe Walsh.

Last, but not least, tickets to see Tedeschi Trucks Band for the second time in 2017. Maybe this time I’ll hear “Midnight in Harlem.” The show is part of their Wheels of Soul Summer tour, with the Wood Brothers and Hot Tuna. Shelly and I will be seeing them at the Walmart AMP in Rogers on July 25.

So there you have it. Tickets to four shows in four different cities….Ticket Buying Thursday.
-=-=-
I burn an annual CD with cuts from each band that I saw during the year. The “2017 shows” CD is gonna be jam-packed, as I already had tickets to five more shows…plus the CD will include cuts from folks playing at house concerts and the shows we’ve already seen.

Three of the upcoming touring acts are playing here in Springfield: Chicago, Jason Isbell and ZZ Top; The Avett Brothers with Shovels and Rope are at Red Rocks; and the August 1st Ryan Adams show is in STL.

Let there be Music!!!