49 (Part II)

Where was I? Oh, yeah.. short term memory loss…. What? Huh? Okay..
Well, most of the day I spent lounging around… then I went to (of all places) the Dells…and had an Apple Martini and a “Zeppelin Wrap” at the High Rock Café… I highly, absolutely recommend the place.. great food.. if not a little pricy. Went around the corner and “found” (thanks to a guy I cannot mention by name) an “authentic Cuban Cigar” (They are illegal in this country by the way.. ) and smoked a good 26 dollar cigar!
I don’t smoke.. but it felt pretty good BREAKIN the LAW just a little bit.. LOL. (I told a friend that it was either..buy a guitar; get a tattoo; “rent” a hooker or smoke a cigar… now you know how cheap I really am…LOL)
After that I made my way to a little place and had just one “Grey Goose Martini” I highly recommend it… again, just a little bit of money.. but well worth the price. (Grey Goose is a wonderful variety of Vodka…top shelf and pretty hard to find). I realized it was getting late in the afternoon.. so’s I had to split and head out to band practice.
Band practice was pretty productive.. I talked alittle about the Midlife gig (more about that later) during the last weekend. Kevin talked a little about his gig in Briggsville… and we worked diligently on the show for next weekend. Even worked on a couple of the newer songs… “Man in the box” (Wow….how would I know I would really LOVE this song?)… and “Renegade” by Styx. YES…FRIGGIN’ STYX.. now, how damn cool is that? There might be something more to this band, than the “chick” songs from Poison after all..
Well, I made it back home.. and watched a good movie (The Devil Wears Prada) which I KNEW I would love..and I did! Though it’s a chick flick.. it really works.. and then… that was it.. to bed and soon back to werk, Flintstone!!!!
I know 49 is just a number. I don’t feel it…but I seem to look it. I have resigned myself that I MUST get in shape.. from now on.. I’m cutting my diet down to NOTHING..and exercising like a banshee… How is anyone gonna love me like this? (Oh, I also shaved the ‘stash… going for the 3 day ain’t shavin’ look now… I still don’t recognize myself in the mirror yet…LOL)

49

Birthday number 49. Well, it was okay…if not just a little quiet. I slept in for awhile. I really wanted to head down to Madison to look for another new axe (Guitar)… Up until recently, I have been thinking about getting a "number 1" guitar to replace the worn and well-used Paul Reed Smith that was purchased in 1987.
Now, my PRS is a work horse…been with me through countless (and sadly meaningless) relationships…a divorce…and son born… more bands I want to admit…probably hundreds of gigs and television appearances… it was featured as one of the guitars in the WYOU "Worth Watching" program (which featured local Madison Bands)… I have played it with my feet…used beer bottles and spark-plug wrenches as bottle slides, used it as a "saw" of the edge of the stage.. used as a phallic instrument against several drunk women dancing on and off the stage…and even used it as a blunt weapon during a bar-room brawl one very blurry night.
So replacing the guitar is a little like having to replace an appendage… something I don’t take lightly. Finding a "premium" guitar the likes of the PRS is a pricy proposition… I had no idea how pricy it would be. In 1987, after trading in an awful guitar..the PRS cost me somewhere around 600 dollars. For a comparable PRS guitar today? About 2,600 dollars!!! WHA????
How good do you have to be to play a twenty six hundred dollar guitar?
Well, I ain’t that good! And I can’t afford anything like that. So, I decided to (probably) drop the idea of a new number 1 guitar. (I was given a couple of other leads and I might still consider a used premium guitar…but not at those prices…FERGITABOUTIT). So, I probably will stick with the red PRS…but, I’m going to have it retrofitted with new frets, new string saddles, new string nut, new tuning "cams" and have the neck and tuning checked. It still will cost several hundred dollars I reckon… but when it’s done.. it should be good as new. I hope. I know it’s a gamble… but I still need my axe, man..
I have also asked the great guys down at Baraboo music to install a new EMC pickup on my newer number 2 guitar (the Blue Ibenez guitar I bought a year ago) which will make it more playable and I will spend more time using this at shows.
There is a little more than a month between Sonic Rush shows in July and August in which I hope the luthier can accommodate a po’ rock dude from Boo..

June 16th

Thursday was definitely an interesting time. Never. Never. Never...have I seen rain come down like a wall.. I drove through it.. I witnessed it sweeping through my neighborhood... The water came up to my doorway.

I freaked.

I was smart enough to park my car on the top of the highest hill I could find. And I managed to get through the rivers across the roads with my guitars (of course) and all the clothes I could carry. Everything else in my apt. went up on stuff..

Of course, I was concerned for my son.. and he came by as I was packing to leave... He laughed at me..because the first thing he noticed was my rocking chair that I had put up in the air. After talking to my ex-wife...she teased me about that saying..."well, at least you made sure you saved your rocking chair!" haha. (My son was headed to a friend's house that was high and dry just a ways from me...whew!!)

Just as the 2nd deluge of rain came in... I boarded my auto and headed out West and North as fast and as crazy as I could. I remember driving down hwy A (the only road left open north out of Baraboo) like a madman.... I was driving about 75 or 80 MPH...screaming at the top of my lungs... as the water came down like it had a personal vendetta against me. I literally skipped across the now-forming lakes crossing the road.. I made my way to the interstate... and muscled my way all the way past Mauston... just as I saw they were closing the highway behind me.

In a way, I felt just like Indiana Jones as he was running away from that rolling stone.. I'm not sure about much after that...because I kept cruisin'.. until I got up near LaCrosse. I started looking around and suddenly wondered..."Why the Hell am I in LaCrosse?" Turned my car around and headed back South into the waiting dark and ominous clouds ahead.

I stopped in Mauston at the Super 8 motel.. got a room.. soaked, exhausted and scared as hell, got a room there. I was especially concerned because I had given my cell number to a neighbor lady to please call me and let me know what was going on at the apt. complex where I live. She called, and said that everything WAS GONE. She said everything was under 4 feet of water!!!

OMG!!!!

The next morning.. I called into work.. all the roads headed South had been closed. That funny little expression.. "you can't get there from here".. really did apply.
The thing is, though.. I cannot believe how many calls I had gotten from people I didn't even know.. many of them from the people I work with. They offered me assistance.. and shelter and help.... I cannot tell you... how much that meant to me.

People I didn't even know stepped up to let me know they cared! Wow. That really did bring tears to my eyes.. Even my boss.. wow.. what a cool guy. Can't say enough about him.

The upshot about all of it ... It took my about 3 1/2 hours to find my way home.There was no damage to my place at all (The neighbor lady that called me must have been really panic-ed) and most of the people I cared about were okay. My son was safe.. and by the time I got home.. you wouldn't even know that anything had even happened (except for the debris left in the roads). I got home and everything was fine. No water really anywhere.. and the little creek that turned into a monster the day before? hardly anything..

I said a prayer as I got home. I was completely floored at how people were at their best during a time of crisis. It gave me hope. And I hope I will not forget the FLOOD of aught 8....

But, after what we've been though.. I offer my fervant prayers to those in Iowa (which just a few weeks ago, I traveled through).. and South near the mighty miss. Just goes to prove that we at forever at the mercy of nature...and of God.
Amen!