The weekend.

I got out of class Friday at about 10:40, tossed my briefcase in the trunk and headed back up to Killeen. I had a date of sorts, with some ammunition.

As I told you in last Fridays post, a retired CTC Dean who lives near my house had some .223 for sale. We'd talked the last weekend at the Gun Show in Belton.



$35 for a bag of 100 rounds. of reloads. That's the five bags there, on my work bench. I'd called his number about mid week and he'd told me he had 500 rounds. When I told him I wanted it all he said he'd round the price down. I ended up getting it all for $150. I found out when I got there that he's also got some .30-06 for sale, and some .30 carbine, but his price is a bit steep. We've been paying about .35 a round for Greek rounds from the CMP. Decent enough, but he's got Lake City, '68 and '69 manufactured, for .70 a round. A 400 round can for $280. I'm thinkin' about it. We'll see.

After that I headed to the Pharmacist, and then to Best Buy. I blew about $60 on new CDs. Got some B.B. King, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks and Don Williams. Then I headed to the house and plopped in front of the computer to rip the new tunes and have a listen. At some point I wandered over to the couch and took an unplanned cat nap. I'd been up late with Denise the night before and was draggin' a bit. I was supposed to leave the house to head up to Waco at 4PM. Because of the nap, it ended up bein' more like 4:20. Oops. My bad.

I jumped up in a panic, got a quick shower and hit the road, headed for Glenn's place. I rolled up there a little over an hour later. He's a musician and a music teacher, teaching at an elementary school there in Killeen during the day and then for TSU on Ft. Hood in the evening. We've known each other for about ten or twelve years, teaching along side one another and sharing lots of laughs about this and that.

He lives up on the South side of Waco, east of I-35. It was easy to find. He showed me around his house briefly (a very cool place) and then we jumped into my car and headed for Big "D".

I'd payed for two tickets to see Derek Trucks at the Granada in Dallas a few weeks before, but then my girlfriend decided to fly to England and surprise her brother for his 50th birthday. I asked another buddy of mine who lives in Duncanville, but he was gonna be out of town that day. So Glenn was my third option. If he didn't want to go I was gonna have to go by myself and try to sell the extra ticket.

I asked him last Tuesday when we saw one another out at school and he was interested. He called me Wednesday morning to tell me his wife had given him the green light, so we were on. He gave me directions to his house Thursday, while we were both giving final exams.



We got up to Lower Greenville Ave. and found the show totally sold out. We parked on a residential street a few blocks from the gig and looked for somewhere to get a meal. There was a little Chinese place across the street from the theater, so we decided to give it a try. We finished our meal, good stuff too, at about 8PM... just in time to stroll across the street and get in line.

Once we got in they gave us some of those paper bracelets as IDs. Then it was $5 for a mixed drink and a stroll to the front of the stage, where we found something' to lean against for the next four and a half hours.

The place was much changed from the last time I was there. It was about 1984 then, and I was there to take in a Soviet film festival. OK, give me a break. I was in college then, taking Russian and thinking about becomin' a spook. Da, ya ne znayoo!

Anyway, it was a real theater then, but they've pulled all the seats now and replaced some of them in the upper tier with folding chairs. There are a few bars here and there, and they cook decent looking food too. Next time we'll pass on the Chinese and just get a beer and some pizza at the gig.



The lead act, Gary Clark Jr., was supposed to hit the stage at 8PM, but it was more like 9:15 when they came out and started to play. I didn't know what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised. The played some great music, and Mr. Clark there does know how to play that pretty red guitar. He's even got a decent bluesy voice. Their music swung from straight forward Rock, to classic Blues, to Funk. I liked it enough that as we were leaving, at about 12:30, I stopped and shook his hand and bought a CD.

They had several, so I asked him "Which one sounds like what we heard tonight?" He hesitated for a moment and then grabbed one. We tossed it in the player on the drive home and it was AWFUL! Badly recorded, and nothing like what we'd heard at the show. Damn, I hate it when that happens.

I went through the same thing at Terlingua one year. A guy named Max Stallings, played a set there one night with his band. I loved their live show, so I bellied up to the table there and bought one of their CDs. But when I played the friggin' thing it turned out to be nothing like their live show. It sucked. Bummer. Huge!



After about 20 minutes spent changing up the stage, Derek Trucks and his band came walking out from the curtain at the back of the stage and the real show started. It was amazing.



Trucks is the nephew of Butch Trucks, of the Allman Brothers. He plays guitar with them , and with lots of other folks. But his main thing these days is his own band, based out of his own recording studio at his home in Florida. After this show, I'd be willing to say that Trucks is about the best slide guitar guy around today. It was amazing. I was in heaven.



They put on an amazing show. I was a bit worried that Glenn wouldn't like the music. After they played their first few jams I leaned over to him with my arms out and made the "Well?" gesture. He smiled and said it was good. I said something like "Damn straight it is!" It turned out he liked it a lot.



They played for about two and a half hours, runnin' through lots of tunes from several of their CDs. Towards the end they brought Gary Clark and a few of his guys up and jammed with them. After a few more tunes the show ended, and then we walked back to the car and started the drive home. I got Glenn to his front door by about 2:15, and then I hit my own garage door about an hour later, and then spent the next hour and a half workin' on these shots.

It was another wonderful show. It turns out the Granada films it's shows and puts them on YouTube. Here's the link to their site. The show we saw isn't up there yet, but I'm sure it will be soon. Head over there anyway and check their other shows out. There's some cool stuff in there.

I slept in Saturday and then continued working on the pictures. I called Mom at some point and asked if she and sis wanted to go out to eat, but she said she was plannin' to cook chicken, so you know what happened next.



I got there late, too wrapped up in the computer to pay attention to what time it was, but then enjoyed a great meal there with the family. Mom had left the food in the oven to stay warm. That's home made fries on the left, cut by sis and fried my mom in her little Fry Daddy. And that's french bread on the right. Goooooood stuff!



Of course, the star attraction is Mom's chicken. She made enough so that we could all have extra chicken to eat for a while. I killed mine off Sunday afternoon. I tell ya, it's even good cold, right out of the fridge.



Mmmmm, good. After eating and having a little after dinner tipple, I headed back home. I sat up, playin' with the computer and watchin' TV. Then the phone rang at about 10:30. Denise and her family had just rolled in from the pubs, drunk off their asses. It was almost 4AM there. It was a hilarious call, and a sad one. Denise and I both wish I could be there with her, but I've got to work this week.

Anyway, Sunday was a lazy day. Sat around and surfed blogs, which is something I usually don't get much time to do any more. I watched TV and relaxed. I'll go back to work Monday, give a few late tests on base Tuesday night, and then Denise will fly home Thursday. That's when my life will get back to normal. I miss my wowman (said with an exaggerated southern drawl).

You guys take care, and we'll chat again later on. Cheers!