Reconnecting

Yesterday I experienced a couple of "reconnecting" moments -- one sad and one happy.

First, I went "home" to Lawrenceburg. The mother of a couple of OLD friends (I'm talking elementary school, though L and I were more like mortal enemies in those days) passed away unexpectedly over the weekend. Though I didn't know Mrs. Williams that well, she seemed like a cool mom and a good woman. At the least, she raised two great daughters. My deepest sympathy to the Williams family. Since at least a couple of readers know them, I thought I'd pass along the info.

Though it was a sad occasion, I did talk to some Lawrenceburg folks that I haven't seen in 10 years or more and, of course, the Williams girls. [To my great surprise, I found out they read ThirdB, so "Hey, L and R!"] Even more strange than seeing folks from the past was just driving around town. Lots of stuff has changed. I knew there was now a pavillion in the center of the square, but has it always had a sort of dome with a (working) clock? That looked different. [Of course I know the reason the fountain that used to be in the middle of the square had to be replaced by something else, but I'm sworn to secrecy on that one.] Even driving up and down "the strip" was different. I know I don't live that far away, so I should get back to L'burg more often. Yeah, it probably won't happen, but it's worth a shot.

I also "reconnected" to a music album from my past. MANY years ago I was a big fan of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. As a big fan, I had to get ahold of a copy of Will the Circle be Unbroken -- the NGDB's revolutionary 1972 "teamup" with some of the real old-timey country and bluegrass greats. Though they later became more mainstream country, at the time the NGDB was pretty much a hippie group from out West. Of course I was a fan of the mid-80s NGDB, so I really wasn't that impressed with the Circle project -- until yesterday. Caffeine Brother hooked me up with a copy of two disc set over the weekend (my original copy was a dual cassette and I have no idea what happened to it) and I listened to both discs on my trip up and back last night. It's really good! I appreciate the musical form more than I did 20 years ago and I can now appreciate the significance of the whole project. It really was revolutionary at the time -- Opry stars and hippie freaks didn't really work together (unless you were the Byrds I guess). Anyway, that was the nice reconnection.

That's it for today. Trying to get things ready for the end of the semester, so blogging may be light in the immediate future.