Perfect Day
I’ve been looking forward to yesterday for so long. The last race of the NASCAR season with an incredibly close race was a big part of the excitement. Going to Tucson to see Jim Hoehn in a house concert was a big part of the excitement. It wasn’t until a few days ago that I realized those two events were actually on the same day (even though I knew they were both “on Sunday”) and even crossed the same timeline.
Ugh.
The race started at 11 AM and the show was at 2 PM. I had the latter in my calendar at noon but that was because that’s the latest time I needed to leave the house. Took me a while to figure that out, too. Man, that two week cold I had really killed some brain cells.
I turned on my TV at 11 to catch the start of the race. Only to find my TV flashing a “no signal found” message. WTF? 11 AM on Sunday when football is starting as well as my race and the cable is out! I called into Cox and got a reset on my cable box and, after turning everything on and off a few times, got the signal. Whew.
After watching a few laps to make sure no one crashed Jimmie right away, I jumped in the car and tuned in the race on the radio. The trip to Tucson was relatively uneventful except that my level of excitement in the race directly affected my speed. Even I think 90 MPH on that stretch of very straight I-10 is too fast so, oops, my bad.
The radio signal faded out just as I was getting off the highway which was pretty good timing since Tkay and Russ’ house is only a few minutes drive from there. I parked in a hurry and let myself in. Russ already had the race on in the family room for me so I didn’t miss much.
After checking out the race status, I said my hello to my hosts and the day’s entertainer, Jim Hoehn. Jim is a fellow Cheesehead who writes very clever songs and whose accent makes me feel like I’m back in the Homeland within the first few syllables he speaks. Great guy and very entertaining with his self-deprecating humor, too.
Jim and I chatted about lots of mutual acquaintances and locations in the Trop Rock/Parrot Head/Wisconsin worlds until the rest of the crowd started showing up and wanted to chat with him, too. Oh, and with me as well since there were lots of friends there that I don’t get to see as often as I wish.
I kept one eye on the race and the other on the peeps I was talking to. The eye on the TV saw the update that the Packers beat the Vikings by a smack in the face score of 31-3. That made the several Wisconsin folks in the crowd very, very happy. Take that, Dead To Me guy!
The concert started a little late and the race was in the final laps. Jim was nice enough to tell me that it was OK for me to watch the end of the race, What a guy! I know some musicians who would be a bit offended at that very thought.
So, he started playing on the back patio and I nervously watched the end of the race so I could see Jimmie Johnson win his 5th consecutive Championship. Wow! That was damn exciting. And, I only missed part of Jim’s first song as I didn’t stay to watch the celebrations. It was enough to know he won.
The concert was great! Jim played into the darkness of early evening. Most of the audience hadn’t seen him before and they loved his music. He’s a great storyteller, too. I usually just get to see him perform at events where there’s less time for stories so I learned a lot of new information about his songs. That’s the beauty of house concerts - what you learn leads to a greater appreciation for the artists and their music.
After the show, a few of us (including Jim) hung around the fire and exchanged more stories. I didn’t want the evening to end but I had a 90 mile drive home so I left a little after eight. I got home and was in bed by ten, very tired but very happy with a perfect day behind me.
Ugh.
The race started at 11 AM and the show was at 2 PM. I had the latter in my calendar at noon but that was because that’s the latest time I needed to leave the house. Took me a while to figure that out, too. Man, that two week cold I had really killed some brain cells.
I turned on my TV at 11 to catch the start of the race. Only to find my TV flashing a “no signal found” message. WTF? 11 AM on Sunday when football is starting as well as my race and the cable is out! I called into Cox and got a reset on my cable box and, after turning everything on and off a few times, got the signal. Whew.
After watching a few laps to make sure no one crashed Jimmie right away, I jumped in the car and tuned in the race on the radio. The trip to Tucson was relatively uneventful except that my level of excitement in the race directly affected my speed. Even I think 90 MPH on that stretch of very straight I-10 is too fast so, oops, my bad.
The radio signal faded out just as I was getting off the highway which was pretty good timing since Tkay and Russ’ house is only a few minutes drive from there. I parked in a hurry and let myself in. Russ already had the race on in the family room for me so I didn’t miss much.
After checking out the race status, I said my hello to my hosts and the day’s entertainer, Jim Hoehn. Jim is a fellow Cheesehead who writes very clever songs and whose accent makes me feel like I’m back in the Homeland within the first few syllables he speaks. Great guy and very entertaining with his self-deprecating humor, too.
Jim and I chatted about lots of mutual acquaintances and locations in the Trop Rock/Parrot Head/Wisconsin worlds until the rest of the crowd started showing up and wanted to chat with him, too. Oh, and with me as well since there were lots of friends there that I don’t get to see as often as I wish.
I kept one eye on the race and the other on the peeps I was talking to. The eye on the TV saw the update that the Packers beat the Vikings by a smack in the face score of 31-3. That made the several Wisconsin folks in the crowd very, very happy. Take that, Dead To Me guy!
The concert started a little late and the race was in the final laps. Jim was nice enough to tell me that it was OK for me to watch the end of the race, What a guy! I know some musicians who would be a bit offended at that very thought.
So, he started playing on the back patio and I nervously watched the end of the race so I could see Jimmie Johnson win his 5th consecutive Championship. Wow! That was damn exciting. And, I only missed part of Jim’s first song as I didn’t stay to watch the celebrations. It was enough to know he won.
The concert was great! Jim played into the darkness of early evening. Most of the audience hadn’t seen him before and they loved his music. He’s a great storyteller, too. I usually just get to see him perform at events where there’s less time for stories so I learned a lot of new information about his songs. That’s the beauty of house concerts - what you learn leads to a greater appreciation for the artists and their music.
After the show, a few of us (including Jim) hung around the fire and exchanged more stories. I didn’t want the evening to end but I had a 90 mile drive home so I left a little after eight. I got home and was in bed by ten, very tired but very happy with a perfect day behind me.
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