tuesdate

wow, it's been a while.

after a week in ann arbor, i would say my mom is on the good road to recovery. we left midday thursday, after i rearranged a large portion of her apartment. her vision seems to be improving daily, and her spirits seem lifted by our company and assistance.

it was tough being in ann arbor with extreme limits to time spent with old friends and old haunts. but we managed a few outings as documented. pickerel lake will have to wait until next time. . .

on thursday july 3 i drove my mother's ford focus -- which i will be borrowing for a while -- to the music festival at nelson ledges quarry park. the timing was perfect; tashi and i arrived just moments before dan. unfortunately dan had a muffler problem while on the road; he crawled under the car somewhere in canton, and used old guitar strings to reattach the muffler.



the music festival had many high points, and several low points. the low points hit every night between 2am and 8am, when people were either setting off their 4th of july explosives, or cranking extremely loud music from their individual campsites. drowned was the call of the strange exotic birds tashi and i heard when we first pulled in. gone was ** one, two, three ** blissful nights of sleep in the forest. dan and tashi managed to sleep through the thick of it, but not me. for this reason, i will never return to that festival, unless they decide to designate a couple of the camp loops exclusively for families with children.




one of the main reasons we like this festival is because it is family friendly. but is has turned to, was.

the high points: swimming in the silky clean quarry, lounging in the thick white sand, fireworks-flamedancers-hoolahoopers-skydivers, delicious vegetarian food, and great live music, most notably, the ragbirds, mickey hart and friends, wookiefoot and the highlight of it all, p-funk. george clinton and friends really unleashed something wild. i'll never forget it.



the drive home on sunday was tough, after so much sleep depro. we had to stop several times so i could take cat naps. tashi and i were following dan, since the unplanned ann arbor trip had brought us to the festival in two different cars from two different states. at some point dan was swerving all over the highway in a plume of dust. he'd had a blowout. he could have easily died.

but instead he managed to pull it off the road. for whatever reason the tire wouldn't come off the rim, so we had to call a tow truck. the guy used a huge crowbar pipe to pop the tire off. then we were good to go. we pulled into charlottesville sometime between 2am and 3am.

i think next time, i'll just pitch a tent in the blue ridge.