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Beth and I had company this weekend but after everyone left we headed for the park to get some exercise and talk about our Spring vacation.  We have two weeks to relax and get out of town this time of year.  And for the second time in two years we have made plans to visit our nation’s capitol as well as Virginia Beach.

We talked about starting an exercise and dieting program because we have kind of let things go over the winter.  I realized that I need to do it not just for myself but for her as well.   And she’s probably not going to do it unless I do it.

It’s a strange circle and one we need to break up.  So it’s going to be a “working vacation” in a sense.  Of course, you can walk your buns off in Washington DC without any problem.  But going out to dinner every night and having the opportunity to dine on fabulous cuisine will offer some challenges.   We may have to start that part of the program after we get back.

So it was warm and breezy today and we walked all over Maymont Park.  They have a new exhibit area with some great birds on display.   The eagles are awesome.  The hawks have beautiful feathers.

And we spent some time enjoying three baby goats.  Beth said it was one of the cutest things she has ever seen.  They were having a great time and the crowd was enjoying them too.

So we walked and walked.  The bears were busy sleeping and I would never have seen them if Beth has not pointed them out up in the rocks.

Lots of folks were throwing balls and someone had set up the game with the little hoops and mallets.  What’s it called?  You hit a ball around the lawn and try to be the first one to get back to the beginning where there is a small pole driven into the ground.

Anyway there were people doing that and lots of cameras around.  Photography seems to be an ever more popular hobby from the number of SRL cameras I see in my travels.

Click on photos to enlarge

Click to enlarge

As I said earlier we will be going up to DC in a short while and I hope to take some interesting photos. I took this one at the Washington zoo the day last fall I went there with my daughter and her family. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to represent but the colors are nice.

So I’m really looking forward to a vacation especially after a day like today. It rained heavily at times today.

It rained so heavily that you could hear it beating on the roof. And I started thinking about my calf muscles. Because when you get to be a fifty something year old person you are wary about your body parts. You wonder if they are sending you messages about the future.

Unwanted messages.

Several times in the past year I have been awakened at night just as one of my calf muscles decided to curl up in a little ball like a shoelace that has become a knot. And the pain is just indescribable.  And then  you have to stretch the muscle to fix it and that just increases the pain.

So I was lying in bed last night talking to my legs and asking them if they planned to start doing this on a more regular basis. Because that’s the way it happens with so many things. Restless legs. Headaches.

Whatever. You get a preview in your thirties and forties.  “Hmmm.  That wasn’t much fun.  Glad it didn’t last too long”.   But then as you age the little demons come back for another visit.

And this time they  decide to stay.

I pray to Jesus and all his friends that this does not happen with the leg muscles.

I would much rather think of the future in terms of visits to the zoo or the beach.  Or just sitting at home and watching American Idol.  Or any number of other things.

The future should be something we discover with pleasure and not pain.

Beth and I went downtown this past weekend to hang out at the Irish Festival near St. Patrick’s Church on Church Hill. It was a warm day and there were crowds aplenty enjoying themselves as they tried to get from one side of the street to the other by burrowing through some of their neighbors.

I can do this for about an hour before I start to get really, really tired and cranky. Having a camera in my hand does tend to prolong my participation in these kinds of events however. Beth was happy to find a present or two and some Brunswick stew. I don’t wait in lines to buy food (at least until the next depression). But I did get some photos!

(There’s a photo here of St John’s  Church where Patrick Henry gave his  famous speech. )

On a separate and unrelated subject I have deep-sixed the Keyword Luv plugin. I did this for a variety of reasons and none of them will make sense to some of you.

But what else is new?

Basically I feel like KWL is messing up my  entire blogging experience and my blog as well.  It draws comments based on its existence here and what it does.   It’s like free advertising.  Most of the comments drive me crazy because they are so transparently fake.

And here I am trying to create a blog that is moves to a deeper level of human feeling.  It hopes to visit our common humanity once in awhile.   So why would I encourage these comments?   My mistake.

And what must Google think?  It is trying to create search results  based on genuine interest and not commercial gimmicks.  My stats don’t look that impressive since I installed this thing and there is a gradual decrease in monthly visits.  Could there be a connection?  I don’t know but I guess we will find out.

The bottom line is that I’m losing interest in posting and wondering why?   The combination of falling stats and inane comments may be two of the biggest reasons as I try to introspect about this issue.

Beth and I will be going to Virginia Beach and Washington DC in a week or so and there will be some better opportunities to post.   I’m hoping that the vacation plus  the goodbye party for KWL will reinvigorate my desire to blog.

And, as always, I will share my thoughts and feelings here.  Because that’s what this blog is supposed to be about.  It’s a personal blog and a diary of sorts with lots of photos.

I need to do a better job and stick to the mission.

Click on the thumbnail photo to enlarge and for a slide show

St patrick day

I have been reading David Foster’s Autobiography Hit Man and enjoying it very much.  It’s been a long time since I read a book because of the medication I have to take and I was wondering if my reading days were over.  That’s a sad possibility for someone who used to enjoy getting lost in the printed page  as much as your blogging buddy.

But. . .   Good News!  I can still read.  And perhaps the first thing that I found of interest here  was the fact that David was born less than twelve months prior to me in 1949  and for this reason shares much of the history I have lived through.  He was around for the birth of Rock and Roll.   He was becoming a teen when the Beatles arrived.  Actually he was in London trying out his musical wings in the 60’s  when he looked up one night and saw the four Beatles dressed out in their Sargeant Pepper outfits sitting in a box above the audience.

He has perfect pitch and took piano lessons as a child.  He could have become a classical pianist but something about his upbringing led him to search for fame and fortune in a bigger way.  Perhaps it was his mother who started taking care of her parents when she was twelve or the fact that his room growing up was shared space with the washing machine in the basement.  Maybe it was the fact that his parents struggled financially to raise him and his five sisters.

His father died when he was still in his teens.   But before he died he talked with his son and basically gave him his blessing to follow his musical muse wherever it might lead.

I’ve just started the book and plan to report some of the highlights here as we go on through David’s adventures.

This one made me sit up straight early on. . .

David was driving home late at night soon after he moved to Los Angeles.   As he came over a hilltop he was confronted by “what appeared to be homeless man standing in the middle of the road in nothing but a pair of shorts.  His arms were spread wide sort of like Jesus.”

Our man hit him at forty miles an hour with his Chevy Suburban and sent him flying about ninety feet down the road.

I can only imagine how this must have impacted both of the participants in this drama.  But as things turned out the man did not die.  In fact David may have saved his life!  This is perhaps the only incident in recorded history of an individual hitting someone at high speed on a  highway and prolonging their life.

The individual who survived this abrupt flight was Ben Vereen.   He had been in a car accident earlier and was resting at his manager’s home when in a confused state he decided to walk back to his own place.  Later it was discovered that he had a subdural hematoma from his first accident and probably wouldn’t have survived the night if David and his Suburban hadn’t sent him back to the hospital for further x-rays.

The kiss of death takes on new meaning.   It’s an interesting tale David weaves and I’m looking forward to reading more about his dealings  with various artists.  I’m especially interested in reading what he has to say about his relationship with Andrea Bocelli.

Ben Vereen

The original Chicken George in the 1977 mini-series Roots