Back and Glad

I'm back from my week long trip through the Appalacians. It's a pretty long story so I'll be as brief as I can.

We had to fly to Charolette, NC to change planes and get back to Nashville. How much sense does that make? After we landed in Tenn we were picked up by a friend and company rep for the product we were doing demos on. It was a Ford Expedition. We made it over the the wrong side of Nashville to our friends at a post house who were holding our system as that's where it was shipped. After unboxing the system and making sure all was well we made our way to a visit a client in Hendersonville, then off down the Interstate to Knoxville. Upon entering Knox, we were involved in a fender bender where our driver and company rep actually backed up while at a stop light and ran in to the car behind us. There was little if any damage, so we made our way to our hotel.

The next morning was an early arrival at a local television station. The demo went well , except that the system shut it self off 2 times for no apparent reason. After a couple of hours there, we boxed up and headed out towards Carolina. We spent the rest of the afternoon traveling through the Smokey Mountain National Park where the fall foliage was something like I had never witnessed. We also drove atop one particular knob where the snow was covering the pines like flock in a Christmas tree lot. Beautiful!

The next day after spending the night in Ashville, NC we visited another station in Charolette (weren't we just here, via airplane?). After that we got a call from a client and were dispatched to Myrtle Beach, SC, a place where we had no plan to go. The remainder of our trip was working out the details on what the client wanted and then what they really needed. That, is still in the works.

On Friday the rains came. We needed to drive from MB back to Raleigh NC to catch a flight back to Charolette (wait a minute, how many times can we visit this town?) It was the first time I had flown in a rainstorm at night. Then landing was scary. Once landed, I had to pull the seat cushion out of my butt. Yes, we were tossed and turned and yawed about once we decended from the clouds. The pilot had come in short as well. You could feel that as we accelerated while only a couple of hundred feet from the ground.

Our flight was delayed in coming back to Dallas that night. Once on the plane it was completely packed. (Why does everyone want to go to Dallas?) Ms. met us at DFW around 12:45 a.m. It was so good to be home although we had another hour drive to the house. We finally got to bed Saturday morning at around 2:30 a.m. Ms. had to be at work in Plano by 10 in the morning. It was a long week.

Tennessee

I'm off to Tennessee again. We're due to be in Nashville on Monday, Knoxville on Tuesday then probably back to Nashville before we head home later in the week. I had an appointment down right, blatently cancel on me Friday. It was for a demo I had been working out the details on since May! It was in Raleigh, North Carolina. The generator in the bus is down again so we're doing this one in a rented SUV. The whole Smoke will be boxed up with all of it's parts and will be set up for each demo we have. That's quite a bit of work, but we've got to do our promotion work in the east. There's very little going on in the 10 states we have franchise in outside of Oklahoma and Texas, so it's these kind of trips you've just gotta do. I'm hoping the Appalachians are in full color this week. That should be a highlight for this trip.

All for Hall

I haven't been in the broadcast TV business since the spring of this year. I returned tonight. I've helped Congressman Hall of the 4th district of Texas in his re election for 8 elections now. We spent this evening working on a television and radio campaign for the remaining bit of the 9th.

I like the Congressman. He's a friend and even though he's up in years, he's the best man for the job. As I sit across from him as we work, I look at his hands and his writing. This man is 83 years of age and sharper in the mind than I feel that I am. He's served along side of LBJ, chewed on Clinton and flown many times on Air Force One with George senior and George W. I respect this man and feel a brush with greatness every time we converse.

He's up for re election again. I know many say that he's too old. I don't agree. I see who's running against him and it makes me only want him to win even more. I'm not much of a political authority, but I am a media craftsman. There's not many of his kind left. A WW II veteran Navy pilot, a pioneer, a Christian. He should be honored. I've put my yard sign up this evening and will sport my Hall for Congress bumper sticker by tomorrow morning. All for Hall.

Banjo, a lot of banjo

Yesterday was a marathon! The Upper Grassmen played Depot Days in Gainesville, Texas at 2:30. Our appearance was delayed by over an hour. The sound was not put together really well and on top of that it was windy. All in all it was a fair performance by the traditional group of five.

We also played for a class reunion last night in Sherman. We were joined by a member of Hickory Hill and his daughter. Both were a real delight. The mandolinist father had recently purchased a Collings F model. It had a real bite and had really not awaken yet. You see, acoustic intruments actually have a break in time where the resonance finds itself through the woods. Even an older instrument that has spent years in the case has to "re-awaken" once its played again.

The daughter of the mando player was an intermediate fiddler. On the songs she knew, you couldn't tell it. She's going to be a master if she stays with it. She had an incredible bluegrass singing voice and was able to hit the tenor in a way that few can.

It ended up being a long day, but good. It's the most I've played banjo inside of 24 hours that I can remember.

Dallas Stars Blog

I came across a funny bit of banter. It's the Dallas Stars blog. I haven't been through it thoroughly, but it's written with splashes of sarcasm and humor. If you are a Stars fan you'll definately wanna read it www.dallasstarsblog.com. The URL makes me think that it may have something to do with the folks at Belo. Happy reading.

October

Thanks Cy and Muffin, you guys make some sense. I guess this site is just a potpourri of junk to me. So much junk that I just don't stay interested in it. I'm a perfectionist and sometimes I just update to update. No particular reason. Then I look at it and realize that the last post could have been a better entry. I just slapped at the keyboard and whala!

I'll not delete. I've been writing on it for too long now. I just need some inspiration though. The photos have come to a stop for a while.

My digital cam is down and my daughters just went that way as well, so guess who'll get the new one? Right, I'll still be without.