One reason I'm glad I'm a folkie

No ingratitude whatsoever intended toward NiiceDuude for this evening's Dixie Chicks concert. I'm glad I went, and it was fun. And it's his $132. But it also reminded me why I much prefer the folk music scene to the mainstream one, especially when it comes to live performances.

1. Volume! I am not as big a Dixie Chicks fan as ND is; he has several of their albums and knows their stuff well. I only know the two or three songs I've caught on the radio or that he's played for me. In a big venue like the Pepsi Arena, with seven backup musicians and the volume cranked up high so the music can be heard over the cheering fans, it's difficult to impossible to understand the words to the songs. It's different if you know the songs, but I spent most of the evening going "Huh?"

2. Over-the-top security. I didn't bring a handbag because of my experience at SPAC (for Aerosmith) a few years ago -- our bags were searched. That didn't happen tonight, but I was dumbfounded to find out that once we were in the arena, we couldn't go outside again. And we arrived an hour early. I'm a smoker, people; at some point I'm going to need to go outside. Then I'm told there is a smoking area but it's not open until the show starts. That turned out to be incorrect (it was open beforehand) and I got to load up on nicotine before the show.

3. Overpriced concessions. Four dollars and 75 cents for a bottle of MICHELOB? You can buy a six-pack for that!

4. Parking fees. Fifteen bucks to use the arena garage, on top of the ticket price? Again, it wasn't my money, but still ...

I've only been to one folk event where I had trouble understanding the words. It was an outdoor concert by the duo Trout Fishing in America, and this was more a function of bad sound mixing than excessive volume.

Security? At all the folk concerts and most of the festivals I've attended, there is no security crew. Folkies don't need to be policed. And frankly, many of them are survivors of the '60s and get a bit twitchy around that sort of thing.

The concessions at larger folk events I've attended are reasonably priced, designed to break even or maybe raise a little extra for the organization. But $4.75 for mediocre beer? Never. And nobody bats an eye if you bring your own refreshments. Try that at the Pepsi or SPAC.

Parking: I have never, ever, ever shelled out a single dime to park at any folk event. The steepest price I've paid is a blister or two if I have to hike from the car.

On the upside, I did enjoy the people-watching, the energy level of the crowd and the delivery of the handful of songs I recognized well enough to know the words to. I would strongly suggest to anyone planning to attend a concert by a band you don't know well, give a listen to their stuff before you go; you'll appreciate it more and won't be left wondering what you just heard.

Houston, we have wheels!

Let the record show that Stu Maguire of Schuylerville/Greenwich, NY is the awesomest used-car dealer that ever awesomed. He takes personal checks! He does inspections on site! He handles the DMV paperwork! He had me in a new (well, new to me) car within HOURS, not days. Take THAT, Asshole Car Dealer from Stillwater!

I even named the car -- a 1993 Plymouth Sundance -- after him. She's called Stuball, partly because of him and partly because the song "Stewball" came back into my life this week courtesy of NiiceDuude's old Air Force buddy, Ray from Louisiana. Also, she has this weird paint discoloration thing on the hood that looks a little like a stylized painting of a horse, and "Stewball" is a song about a race horse.

Thanks to Stu, to my awesome friends D&S for the loaner cars, to equally awesome friend Jake for rides, to Jesse the Hooker for towing Betty, and to the First National Bank of Mom and the NiiceDuude Federal Credit Union for the financing. And to my employer for the paid downtime from the fire, which will make the whole post-car-deal cash flow situation a little easier.

We're singing at the Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace picnic this weekend at Grafton Lakes State Park (anyone wanna go? E-mail me for details), and this will give me a chance to score some cool bumper stickers for Stuball; they always have a great selection for sale.

Pictures soon. Too dark now to do her justice. Cheers!

Fire in the Hole! And Other Stories

It is 12:11 a.m. I just got home from work about half an hour ago. Why? Because there was an electrical fire Wednesday night on the 10th floor of the building where I work, and it was closed today. I work on the sixth floor, but the whole building was unusable because of smoke. Arrangements were made to move several departments (including mine) to the company's other offices in Queensbury, but my computer was not set up until about 6 p.m. So I put in a little over four hours and will return early tomorrow morning to finish up the week's work.

This would not be such a huge problem if I weren't already behind, for a variety of reasons:

A couple of weeks ago our British freelancer was mugged and suffered some major injuries, and I had to do his work. I was doing the British product for a while last year until we hired him and it was a major pain. This time around it wasn't. But last week I was told he was recovered and eager to resume working. Then I find out Monday he can't do it after all, so I had to crank out British product on extremely short notice, which put me in a minor behind situation. Then ...

I took a sick day on Tuesday. I was technically not sick, but my car was. The transmission died as I was leaving NiiceDuude's Monday night. He brought me home and I was able to arrange a loaner from friends, but getting that took up a big chunk of Tuesday. Then ...

I took Wednesday morning off (this was prearranged) to accompany NiiceDuude to a medical appointment. Without going into detail, he was having one of those procedures that you can't drive after, because they give you REALLY good drugs! It went beautifully, we ate a huge breakfast afterward (he had to fast beforehand), and I discovered the loaner car (which is old enough to get served in a bar) no longer went into reverse. This I can work around. Then ...

Wednesday night I find out about the fire and spend Thursday waiting around for further instruction. Also shopping for another car and enduring my dealer's invective for wanting to get my money back and work with someone else. He initially refused but eventually relented, but not after throwing some nasty words my way.

Look, dude, it's like this. I work at Stewart's one day a week. It's the only day I have available. My manager is thrilled to have me for that one day a week. But if something were to change, and she wanted to replace me with someone who has better availability, then I would accept that and not take it personally. Nobody's in the wrong; the situation is just no longer satisfactory.

No such luck with Asshole Car Dealer. Who was late getting back into town Wednesday night for our appointment, which meant I would have been (a) looking at replacement cars in the dark, and (b) driving an ancient Rabbit with a shitty gearshift (and no reverse) home in the dark. I did that tonight - not fun. So I canceled. Which makes ME the irresponsible one.

I chose to do business with a guy who runs a one-man shop and operates by appointment. But I made that choice on the assumption that this would be a simple transaction: make deal, get insurance, go to DMV, attach plates, drive away. But because the title on the vehicle he sold me turned out not to be valid, this was anything but simple. His wholesaler spent WEEKS trying to find the guy he got it from so he could get the valid title. Didn't happen. That car was going back to him, drivable or not. And I would miss more work for ANOTHER round of shopping, insurance office run, DMV run, etc., etc. Does this make me a bad person for wanting to work with a dealer who won't put me through all this?

He kept saying, "The title is not the issue!" Hello? I would have had the tranny checked out when it was just a little problem that could have been resolved with an adjustment or two, but HE said, "don't do that until we get this title thing resolved." So if you ask me, the title IS the issue. Duh.

OK, enough rant. I have to get some sleep if I'm going to go back into work in the a.m. And get out in time to go to Ilion and Syracuse with ND for the weekend.

Argh.

She's baack!

I thought that survey below didn't go up because there was something wrong with the code. But there it is! I think the thing wrong with the code was the part that lets you post only a short version -- this posted the whole thing. So anyway, content:

It has been a crazy summer around here, what with two jobs, three cats, one sweetie, many friends and being busy just about every weekend.

Last weekend in June: Old Songs Festival. Survived. Enjoyed.

First weekend in July: Helped NiiceDuude move. This is the deck in his new backyard, and yes, that's the Hudson. ND is the one in the orange T-shirt with his back to the camera. The others are our friends AA, Jake and FE.



Last weekend: Very cool 25th anniversary campout party for our friends in Vermont.

This weekend: Rozita's first vet visit (since I adopted her) on Saturday. I feared the worst since she loves being petted but hates being "handled." But she basically went limp and did not protest shots, pills or flea drops. General Schuyler's Pantry with the swing band today (Sunday). New musician sat in, a kickass soprano sax player and thoroughly nice guy.

Next weekend: ND's 40th high-school reunion. This will be my first opportunity to meet some of his relatives and most of his high-school friends. I am very psyched, even though people think I'm nuts for wanting to go. They think I'll feel bored or left out, and I probably will at times, but I'm looking forward to meeting these folks I've been hearing him talk about for the past 14 years.

Following weekend: Peace picnic/morris team summer feast at Grafton State Park. Yay to the morris team for allowing me to be two places at once.

First weekend in August: Dog Days Ale (a gathering of morris teams). I'm not all that psyched -- dancing in August? Eww! -- but ND is, so I'm sure I'll end up enjoying it.

Second weekend in August: Cardboard boat races in Schuylerville. Swing band will play. I may open; we'll see. Any of you who have been planning to visit Schuylerville, this is a perfect opportunity (hint, hint, RF).

Third and fourth weekends: Nothing on the calendar yet, but the way things have been going, I'm sure something will probably pop up.

Sometime in September I'll be spending a week in California with my mom. Definitely mixed feelings about this. Will enjoy hanging out with her, I'm sure, and she's putting me up in a hotel as her apartment is small and so is my budget. But I hate hate HATE to fly. If I had three weeks vacation time to blow, I'd take the train.

November will be MY high school reunion -- 30th. I'm looking forward to that. I didn't think my HS even HAD reunions, as it closed/merged with the boys school about 15 years ago. But they do an alumni weekend for alums of both schools. I am totally out of touch with these people and haven't even visited that town in almost 20 years (no reason to since my mom moved to California in the '80s). So it will be a hoot to see them again and show them the weird kid didn't make out half bad.

Now if I can only schedule time to eat, sleep and breathe ... and get caught up on my TV watching!

p.s. No pics of the new car since I may not get to keep her. Title issue. The dealer will probably end up putting me in something else. THEN I'll post a picture.