Hello on Tuesday

Dear Friends,

July 6 was the final day of food, fun, merriment, parade marching, and music. It will be so nice to get back to the routine of being retired.
Everything went exactly as planned. Even though the heat was oppressive at times, the Fourth of July Parade in downtown Pittsfield went as planned.

Our Governor, Deval Patrick, stopped by to say "Hello" to us Unicans just before he started marching in the parade. He got up on one of our fire trucks. I took a picture on my cell phone, but I had my thumb over the camera lens! A campaign worker gave me her business card, and said to send the picture over the internet. Yeah Right!

The James Taylor / Carol King concert in the evening was spectacular for us fans of the two artists. James Taylor even had YoYo Ma (a classical cellist) play a few songs along with the duo. The encore was was great too. There had to be close to 20,000 people at the concert. We didn't rush to exit the concert knowing that the traffic would be a problem which it was.

Well, it is back the daily retired person grind. Linda will be off to her usual Tuesday Mah Jongg session at a friend's home. I will be doing stuff both inside and outside of the house. Our flowers are begging for a drink of water. I also have to iron a couple of shirts for the wedding which we are going to on Cape Cod this weekend. It will be another weekend of partying starting on Friday night. I can't wait!

Observation -- Large concerts at Tanglewood are not without their problems. When you have 15,000 + people on the lawn and 5,000 in the shed for a concert, it is such a difficult chore to get to the restrooms. They should create designated pathways on the lawn so that you don't have to step on people's blankets, slither by their lawn chairs, interrupt their peace and quiet, etc.
The restroom situation is another problem. The size and number of restrooms are okay for a classical concert where maybe a maximum of 10,000 people might attend, but when you have double that amount, long lines start to form. Why couldn't Tanglewood bring in a set of portable toilets for the extra number of concert goers? Oh, I can hear their response to my suggestion; "It would alter the ambiance of Tanglewood!" Forget the ambiance of Tanglewood; half of the people at a James Taylor concert wouldn't even think of coming to a classical music concert.

I can't wait for a whole bunch of pictures from our youngest son's family who went on a camping adventure during the Fourth of July weekend. I hope that our grandchild Max didn't come home full of insect bites. Linda and I will have to visit them to get all the details of their trip.

In Kansas, our other son and his family had to resort to seeing fireworks on television in their own home. Weather problems forced them to make a change of plans.

Our friends, the Culver's who organized who was bringing what type of food for last night's concert, are heading to Maine today. Judie has a sister who owns a small cabin in the Maine woods. I say small because the Culver's, and one of their daughter's will be sleeping in a tents on the Maine property for the next couple of days. I can't wait to hear the details of this adventure when it is over. A couple of year's ago Judie came home with a pulled hamstring from a boating adventure. She was being pulled in a inflatable device by her sister's motor boat. I think John hurt himself the following year. Baby boomers trying to act like 30 year olds does have its drawbacks.

Supper tonight will be simple for us. We have some leftover beans, and potato salad from the July Fourth picnic. Some burgers and dogs will be cooked on the grill by me.

Sports -- I did try to listen to the Red Sox during the concert at times. The Sox broke my heart once again. Dice K squandered a a 5 to 1 lead, and they eventually lost the game by a 6 to 5 margin. It might be time to send Dice K back to Japan.

Well, I have to read the local newspaper, and get to some household chores.
Have a great week at work or play.
Talk to you soon. The Curley Lad