Holed up in the basement with my longest, lifetime friend, Marianne Brown, and her partner, Nate (who Rudy adores) and we were finally able to relax a bit. See, I’m really doing it. Nintendo Switch in hand, lounging in sweats, draped across a black lab named “Stout”. If there was a physical picture of the sound, “Aaahhhhhhhhhhh”, this just may be it. I will keep this first blog short to say we spent our first couple days laying low, playing some music for Marianne’s parents (who were visiting, and whom I hadn’t seen in a hundred years), the boys sharing video games, swimming in the community pool, and taking some-short-because-of-the-heat-but-lovely walks about the neighborhood. We knew we had to put in some open mic work while we were here, but first, we wanted to catch up, shake off the road, and do some of that “vacationing” we talked about in a previous blog.
Clearly unloved.
Taking advantage of days that are ONLY in the low 80’s.
Marianne’s parents, Mark and Elaine Brown, (pictured holding hands behind us) were part of the cast of characters from my childhood. They took a little road trip to celebrate being in love for 50 years!!!
Playing an instantly regretted game of tag in the sweltering heat… I’m sure I won.
See? Even the dogs were smarter than us. Brandy (the blonde) and Stout, taking it easy in the shade.
Sharing our music with our favorite human for Mark and Elaine. They have been forced to sit in living rooms and hear me sing since I was eleven!!!
This was a self portrait that was more fun to watch rudy set up than it had any right to be. Marianne and I giggled as rudy got the mask on just right, set up the camera, and then, just as I thought he was going to do an ominous and imposing stance, he went full “sassy Vader”, which we so appreciated! I’m sure there was full face under that mask too.
Three peas in a pod: Nate introducing Rudy and Jared to a zombie game called “Day Z”, which, until the night before we left I thought was called “Daisy”. I was so confused. Like, was the zombie named “Daisy”? Is the girl that Nate is playing as named Daisy? Is there a flower they have to pick somewhere in the game that is a daisy? Oh, so none of that? Day Z! Yes. That sounds better. Much more post apocalyptic.
Cooling off in the pool with my Rudy Bear. We did three days of fun pool time and managed to not even get too sunburned!
I do promise we’ll get back to the music part, but this is also definitely part of what keeps us going and staying fresh and hungry for more! You know, “It’s in the Balance”…
