It is Friday night and I am fiiiiinally spacified! This is the weekend of the Ann Arbor Folk Festival. The 34th folk festival, to be exact. The GG absolutely adores this two-evening event. Me? Not so much. Yeah, I know. I am a musician. Or was. I’ve spent my adult years in the IT field: programmer analyst, systems analyst, business systems analyst. You name it. I could write a whole post or six on my musician years and transition cliff-dive(s) into the IT business. For now, I’ll just say that I love to *play* music but sitting in an uncomfortable auditorium seat *listening* to music for five hours? No can do. Too hot! Or too cold! Thirsty. TOO LOUD!!! For my hyper-sensitive ears, anyway. I tried to attend a couple of times. The last time I went, the “head-liner” set up about a billion guitars on chairs on the stage and then spent most of his time walking back and forth between them, apparently trying to decide which one to use for the next song. I won’t name him but even the GG didn’t like him. And suggested we leave. Yaaayyyy! Of course, the “head-liner” is the last act of the evening. Otherwise, I wouldda had to sit through the whole boring thing.

So the GG gets two date nights outta this! For the past I-dunno-how-many years, his “date” has been his “ugly” [identical twin] brother, the UU. It was always a fun weekend for me anyway. We would have an early dinner downtown and then they would go to the show and I would walk home in the beautiful late-January early evening. This year, the UU and his wife, The Beautiful Gay, are living up in the Great White North, so the GG needed a new date. Mouse is the GG’s date tonight but she has to work tomorrow night, so there was a very scary moment when the GG pointed his finger at meeeee for that night. Yiiiy!!! Fortunately, he shopped around a bit and DogMomster came to the rescue. Whew!!! This is one of those “I married you for better or worse but not for lunch” moments!

I know better to try to talk much about politics on here. I know that many of you have very different viewpoints. I like to *think* I am an independent. I *try* to sit back, gather facts and think as critically about current events et al as I do about my work. I often fail miserably at all of those things. And I am also a pretty much an ignorant old snowbilly. You know the kind. “Well. *I* drive my snowmobile when I’m DRUNK!” Okay, not quite. But most of you are much better informed than I am. Today I overheard folks talking about Egypt and complaining about how “those Muslims” are trying to take over the country. Is that what’s really happening? Kee-reist! I didn’t know… A quick read of a rather long article on the NYT news app on my iPhone seemed to indicate that many, many people in that country are desperately poor and oppressed by a purportedly corrupt dictatorship. They have been that way for many years, since long before all of this Islamic jihad-type terrorism has been going on. So, I dunno. I’m not sure that I’m reading that radical Islamists are fueling this. But this might be a good opportunity for another type of totalitarian (is that the right word) government to try to take over. Convince a country full of poor and frequently uneducated people that your flavor of government will be better than the current dictator? Yeah. That might work. And maybe it will just make things worse… Maybe the people who cannot afford to educate their children now will be *forbidden* to educate them with a religiously oriented regime. I am concerned about what’s happening in Egypt right now but I will admit that I don’t really understand it. This little screed is not about the Islamic religion at all. I am uncomfortable around religious extremists of any flavor. Extreme Christian conservatives make me as squirmy as all getout. They have nothing to do with the mainstream Methodist church that I went to as a child. Or the wonderful Catholic families that I grew up with or the one I married into. The family who has made this heathen old snowbilly one of their own. Hey, not trying to draw any conclusions here, just thinking…

Today? I spent a whole heckuva lotta time thinking about radio buttons today. You do not wanta know. And then I went home. And scrambled into some walking clothes that ultimately turned out to be too hot! And walked downtown to meet the GG and Mouse at The Jolly Pumpkin. The JP would be our new favo-rite Friday night restaurant except for one thing. They make ALL of their own alcoholic beverages. That is a WONDERFUL thing! Except. That they do not make their own bourbon. Therefore, the GG could not order a manhattan. They *do* make vodka, so he was able to have a martini of sorts. I had a glass of Peninsula Red whine, which was very good, as was the food. We will definitely return to The Jolly Pumpkin. But we will probably stick to our new routine of walking to the Old Town barrroooom on Friday nights. When we are home on The Planet Ann Arbor, that is. When we blast off to the Great White North or wherever, it’s anybody’s guess where/what we’ll eat/drink.

Love y’all,
Kayak Woman

P.S. It is 25 years since the Challenger space shuttle exploded. I remember where I was when Scott Carpenter went into outer space (vomiting on my desk in 2nd grade in the *wonderful* Mrs. Bishop’s class) and I remember where I was when JFK was assassinated (Patty McKerchie fell over in her chair, 4th grade, Mrs. Scott’s class (oh yeah, I was also sick then but not the vomiting kind)). I don’t remember exactly where I was when the Challenger exploded but I had a premonition about that flight. And I dreamed 9/11. Sigh…

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