Another fun weekend's comin' up.

First off, my cool little bullet clip cigar lighter has gone tits up on me. It was gonna happen sooner or later. Nothings made to last now. Chinese crap. I took it apart and tried to tinker with it. I'll see if I can find a way to fix it. It's way too cool to toss away.



Sad little dude, ain't it? Maybe I can get some parts from another and cannibalize or somethin'. I LOVE this lighter and I'm a stubborn bastard, so there you go. We'll see how it goes.

On the other hand, I've got two great music events in front of me this weekend. The first one is gonna be a small benefit concert down in Bastrop, where Eric Johnson is gonna join a few other musicians to play a short jazz concert for the Boys and Girls Clubs there. My buddy Jim from Ft. Worth and I are gonna head down Saturday. We donated $50 each for the tickets. It's supposed to be played on the patio of some local bank building, so it should be cool.

It'll end at 10PM and then we'll drive back home and Jim will spend the night at the house. We'd thought about pitchin' tents in some local park but they were full. I also decided that it would be better for me if I came home and slept here Saturday night in stead of having to get up, drive up here and get Denise and then drive down to Houston to see the other concert Sunday night. That's too much damn runnin' around.

Sunday afternoon, while Jim drives back up to Ft. Worth, Denise and I will head down to Houston to see Roger Waters do his Dark Side of the Moon show. I can't wait!



I plunked down a ridiculous amount of money for these seats ($558) so we could sit up front and jam. I plan to take good pictures and leave with my ear drums humming. As I told you in a previous post, I sat here about a year ago and watched Mushy and his buds take in this event in Atlanta and was sick about the idea that Waters wasn't comin' to Texas. It was worse after I saw the great pictures Mushy posted too FlickR.

It turns out he was comin' to Texas, it just took him a while. He had to drag his show all the way through South America and Europe before gettin' here. I'm psyched as hell to go. it should be great. Wish us luck.

Aside from that, my mom's got a visitor this weekend. My cousins Trish and Sue were supposed to both converge on Temple to spend time with her but Sue isn't coming just yet. She decided to wait and come next weekend. Trish flew in to Killeen yesterday from Michigan for a two week stay. Denise and I picked her up and then I went to work while Denise took her over to Temple. Sue, when she comes, will drive up from Houston. When she comes up the girls will all have a huge time. The one missing link in all of this giggly, girly, family stuff is my sister.

Mom and sis have seen their relationship disintegrate since Dad died. My sister has emotional problems, but mostly she's just a selfish, spoiled brat. She fell apart right after he passed (Daddy's little girl) and said some nasty things to mom that nobody could believe. If she'd had as big a set of balls as she sometimes thinks she has I would have beat the living shit out of her at the time, but that's water under the bridge. Enough said.

Mom and Dad have been paying her way, keeping her in an apartment in Belton and letting her take her time to "find herself", see a shrink and get over some pretty nasty stuff that happened in her earlier life. They've been paying her way and making excuses for the past five years but now that Dad has passed, the money train has hit a big bump.

Mom's not only worried about her own financial position (still up in the air, how much she's gonna get each month) but she's also sick to death of hearing about all of sis' childhood issues. She's convinced that sis really hates her (she's told her so many times) and only has anything to do with her for the money. It's sad as hell, but I can't do anything about it. It's like standing on the side of the tracks and watching a train wreck. Of course I find myself in the middle, with both of them venting to me and telling me their side. Of course, my sympathies mostly lie with mom.

I understand my sisters issues but I also know it's long since time for her the get over that shit and make a life for herself. I know I can't support her. That's a fact. The more she alienates herself from mom the worse her situation will be. She's even pissed at Denise for "taking her place in the family". Hilarious, considering the fact that sis has failed to take the position she should have taken, at my mom's side. Denise has just taken up the slack, out of love for me and affection for Mom.

Anyway, it's a huge pile of steaming, smelly drama, but it's my life these days. So it'll be nice to get away again and jam with some great music this weekend. Denise and Jim and I will have a huge time.

The plan is to head over there tonight and take all of them out to eat, somewhere (of course, without sis). I think it's my turn to pick a place, but I'm flexible. Denise told me last night that Mom voiced doubt over whether or not she'd want to go out. Trish may not want to ether, so Denise and I may be on our own. We may call old Wilson Moon and his wife and see if they want to join us. After that Denise wants to go see 88 Minutes, so we'll probably catch the late show.

Anyway, it looks like it's gonna be another fun, tiring weekend. Well talk on the other end. I'll have killer shots to post, fer sure. You try to have fun too and I'll see you later. Cheers.