Somehow the cat just knew.

My latest blog was loosely inspired by one of my friend Clay's recent blog about fear. His blogs are at clayperry.blogspot.com. They're some of the best reading I've found in awhile..you should go there and partake.
Back in my not so distant past, (around high school's end at some point) to be exact, I'd find myself at Stu & Clay's house almost every night. It was at the point where I just walked in..a home away from home,sorta....I always thought of them as adopted cousins. Anyway, one particular evening I was just hanging out with Stu and as usual, we were bored out of our minds. He told me of a (grave) marker some historical society had put up out close to the road to the left of their driveway.Had to do with some soldier who was killed and was from that area, maybe former landowner's son...something like that. At the time, Stu had a cat he simply called "Kitty"....now, Kitty wasn't fond of many people, cuz alot of Stu's friends ,myself included,would come over and mess with it and aggrivate it...nothing serious just us being pains in the butt to the cat. Anyway, the cat will come into play later in the story. Stu asked me if I wanted to go see the marker and being somewhat of a person that appreciates the macabre, I said of course. We all three go outside, Stu, his damn cat and me...we head up to the end of the driveway and he points to it and sure enough, there it is. I was kinda creeped out a little at first, but my curiosity got the better of me. Two things to keep in mind here... 1. It's already dark outside and the Perrys lived at the end of a dead end street. 2.. It's evidently Fall or maybe Winter, cuz ..I remember the leaves on the ground and them being wet...from the rain from either earlier that day or the day before. I stood in front of the marker to try and read it. The light they had by the house, didnt reach out towards the driveway very well ....kinda dimly lit out there. So, seeing as I couldn't read the marker, I went down to my truck to get my flashlight. I came back up to the marker and shined my light on it, then seeing the situation I was in , my mind automatically went to the old classic horror movie scenarios...the cold, nighttime, a grave marker, flashlight, etc.
Now, this is where Kitty comes in....the rotten bastid. As I said, the leaves were wet, I didn't hear him slowly prowling up behind me and getting in his attack cat stance. As I'm reading this marker about this soldier, all of a sudden, in seemingly one motion, Kitty lunges , quietly I might add, and "bear hugs" my right ankle. That's the closest I've ever come to shitting myself. For some reason, I suddenly thought of the scene in "Carrie" , right at the end where she's laying flowers down at the grave, and that hand comes up and grabs her...yeah, somehow that cat just knew.
I threw down my flashlight, I might've hit the cat I dont know, and ran away screaming like a girl. Quickly realizing it was ....."Kitty". I think Stu literally fell over with laughter, he might've seen the whole thing unfold. Then again, he could've orchestrated the whole thing . And so, that night squashed any desire to go into a graveyard at night for any reason. I'm tellin ya....that damn cat just knew.

Key West - The journey was more of an adventure than the destination.

It started like any other day, up at dawn, a couple of bowls of cereal while watching the news for traffic and weather. Nothing really out of the ordinary or exciting...yet. I get done with all that, wash up the dishes and get my things ready for work, switch off the TV, go into the bedroom and grab some clothes. As I'm literally getting out of the shower, my cell phone rings, It's Ivan, the guitar player in the band I'm in...kind of odd for him to be calling me at that hour, but from the background noise, I could tell he was on his way to work.He asked me if I wanted to go to Key West..now I'm thinking this call's getting even more weird..I told him I'd get dressed , get my things togther and call him back shortly. I got out the door and off to work I went ..he told me they guys that were normally asked to do this gig, couldn't and we got referred. Basically we were "hired guns". I got all the info later that night from Greg,the guy who couldn't make it and called Tom , the guy I would ride down with. He told me where to meet him and what day..it was a friday morning and we would meet around 9a.m. near the interstate. Well 9a.m. rolls around and ..nothing, then he calls me and says he's gonna be a few minutes late, he had to go by Jamie's house to pick an amp, Jamie's the guy in the band that organized everything, so I said ok, no big deal. Almost an hour later he calls again and says he has a flat tire on his trailer about 20 minutes up the road, so i drive up to meet him. He had a nice SUV pulling about a twelve foot dual axel trailer and sure enough one tire had gone to tire heaven. I got out on this hot, muggy June morning and met with Tom, a friendly likeable guy, with a rock and roll heart and attitude. I unloaded my drums into his trailer and after kissing my wife goodbye, she drove my truck back home. He'd made arrangements for his wife to bring us some new tires, which she did. I came to realize that they lived a little over an hour away from Atlanta, so we sat there in the AC of his SUV , got aquainted, listened to some music, and just basically hung out..the thoughts running thru my mind was, wow, Key West, I'm actually going to Key freakin West, not realizing the journey still ahead of me. Well, after awhile, his lovely wife shows up with the tires, we get the flat changed and make our way over to the nearest tire store and have them put on the rest of the tires, after all that, we're on our way, now it's like 3 in the afternoon..

As we're making our way down the interstate, we're talking, listeneing to music and trying to come up with some easy tunes we can do for the wedding reception. As we ride further and further south and on into Florida, dusk sets in. We go further and get onto the Florida turnpike and dusk turns to night, I'm digging the GPS system Tom has on his windshield,telling us where we're at and where we're headed. I gotta say his driving scared me a little as he's playing on some phone with one of them wand/pencil looking things and fiddling with the GPS some, the whole way down we're doing 80,pulling a trailer with all kinds of musical gear and weaving slightly, going from the reflectors over to the shoulder on the other side with the grooves cut out and makes the truck make that "pooty" sound...I take it in stride and treat it like a carnival ride. Around midnight, we arrive at our 1st hotel , that's where I met up with Ivan, he was already there,you could tell the hotel was older but still a popular chain, where the beds were about a foot or so too short...still, I was one whooped puppy and went right to sleep. The next morning we get up Ivan and I load into Tom's SUV and we make our way over to where Jamie was...another hotel. We decided it would be best if Jamie followed us, and Ivan rode with him. We made our way out to I-95 in Ft Lauderdale and headed south...a few miles down the road, Jamie phoned Tom and said there was smoke coming from the axel, we pull over and sure enough, it's billowing out . So we got in touch with the nearest trailer rental place which was the next exit up, and made our way to them where they had only one left. They pulled it around for us and we unloaded our things from our trailer into theirs. Then, once again, we were on our way, thru Ft Lauderdale and Miami, we hit it....Highway 1. The Florida Keys. We make our way down Highway 1 thru these small towns that would lead to two lane roads with nothing on each side but sky and sea...simply beautiful...the only other thing down there is the old train tracks that run paralell with Highway 1....kinda creepy almost...like a ghost track. Well this went one for a few hours...small towns...then open road with the sky and sea....finally, paradise...Key West. Now....I wasn't really in Key West all that long, but what I saw of it got under my skin, into my blood, in a good way. Only about 8 miles in diameter, this place is spectacular, with people riding bicycles, scooters, and electric cars ( kinda futuristic looking golf carts) all riding around on this mostly flat terrain. And the chickens, the chickens were brought here years ago by some of the 1st settlers, Spaniards I beleive. Anyway, now the chickens are protected down there, can't do anything to them...it was just a little odd to me to see chickens running around amongst palm trees, sea doos, and the whole island type vibe. We make our way down to Duval St. , the busy touristy place to be , with all it's shops, restaurants, bars, etc. We make our way down to the end of the street to Sunset Pier, it sits behind this huge , nice hotel and it's made up nicely.The 1st half of the pier had tables and umbrellas and people eating, drinking and loving life. We made our way past them to the second half of the pier where there was this huge white cloth arched cover and flowers on the tables, white ballons,etc..all decorated for the reception. The pier itself had little gaps between the planks , about the width of my drumsticks...i know cuz i dropped them a couple of times...where you could see the water below and it almost had a flourescent bright green tint to it...i'd never seen anything like it.
Behind us, big boats would go in and out with lots of people on them..."party barges" I called them...looked like fun. We set up our gear and take in all the awe inspiring scenery, with boats and schnooers of all sizes go sailing by. Then we had a little time to get changed at the hotel and get back to the pier. We get back and play a set and take a break , now the sun is setting over the horizon...simply beautiful...now I know why they called it Sunset Pier. I was glad we were on break, I took a lot of pictures, then noticed this cruise ship docked over by Mallory Square....wow....never seen one in person....it was huge.
We got thru the nite with easy tunes and a good time was had by all. Then came the task of having to put it all away again. After getting the gear packed away and most of it back to the trailer, they told Ivan and me to go ahead and go, which we did, we had to get back to the hotel and get some rest and rent a car to get back home to get back to work on Monday, seeing as they weren't gonna be able to get to Tom trailer repair til then. The next morning we get up, get our things together, open the door from the nice cool feel of the AC to the warm,tropical, muggy fatness that is June in Florida, I look down and notice a bra hanging on our doorknob...and a nasty, filthy,dusty looking bra at that.I thought to myself, I knew they went out and had some drinks, but what the hell did they bring back with them? We had a laugh and was on our way down the street to rent our car...we got back to the hotel,packed our things into the rental and Ivan left some of his underwear on THEIR door. We reluctantly left the beauty that is Key West around 9a.m.....it's the hardest place I ever had to leave. We get back to Key Largo , just south of Miami, and there's an obnoxious detour that added another hour to our trip. Finally we were back onto I-95..it looked alot like Atlanta. We drove for about 4 hours, stopped and got a bite to eat and refueled, this was repeated several times cuz of the small gas tank...we couldn't afford the toll road, hell could barely afford the rental, so we took I-95 up to I-10 then to I-75 to Atlanta, Ivan and I talked about everything under the sun. At one point, I was trying to snooze a bit in the back seat, meanwhile, he's searching for music on the radio, he lands on this station playing polka...i'll say it again....polka. It was hosted by this German woman who'd speak in both English and German...and Ivan cranked it up....torture.

Well, we rode and rode and talked and talked some more and made stop after stop to refuel and get snacks...our wives calling us peridically to see where we were.
It started getting later and later as I drove up I-75 into Macon, while Ivan slept some. Then he took over just north of there somewhere and got us just south of the airport...fianlly we refueled for the last time, just before getting to the airport. I stayed in contact with the wife and she kinda guided us in..I was so happy to see her. Then I had another 30 minute ride home. I finally arrived home about 2:30a.m. and was up at 6 and at work by 8. I was a zombie...but I made it....what a trip it was...and if you ever get a chance to go to Key West...GO!!! Now..the funny part of the story, afterwards, word spread around that we rented the car cuz we were too scared to ride back with Tom. Now they know the real reason. It was a trip I'll never forget and a destination I would really like to see again someday soon.

A Day of Celebration and Mourning

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Ahhh Sunday evening back home from a busy day. Today, not a typical quiet sunday, my band is playing a wedding reception. We journey off to a small and i mean SMALL town , a town i know little about. We get to this anti-bellum mansion-turned-special events center,set up our gear and as per usual in most wedding receptions, we have some time to kill, not to mention the whole "fish outta water" thing on two levels...well A. ya dont know anybody...or at least I didnt. And 2 playing outside during the day is a total 180 of what we're accustomed to. Me? Gimme the dark smoky bars filled with loud, bad breathed barflies and hoochi coochie mamas...well it's all in how they dress. Anyway so after set-up, we have a little time to kill as i said , so I venture out for food. I hear there's a local Dairy Queen just down the road , so off I go. Well, upon arrival , the sign reads, "Store Closed Happy Retirement Sandra"...or whatever her name was. I bet if she knew there was a hungry guy out there just dying for a "Scrumpdillicious" burger she'd make one for me...ehh.. maybe not. So, i head back down the road. Basically it's a country road with various livestock and breeds of horses and the occasional goat or three. My radio station is going in and out but i get enough of it to listen . And the sunshine darts in and out of the tree lined street. As I'm passing all the farms and open lands and rolling hills, I wonder about the locals here, seeing as I dont really know the area . Do they farm here? Do they have really good jobs in a nearby town? are they rich? Still, it's a nice place. I wouldnt mind planting some roots in a podunk small country town where nothing happens...my own version of Mayberry....and i dont mean podunk in a bad way. Where the air seems fresher and life is almost at a standstill, and all you hear at night is the sound of crickets, whipporwills, and frogs in the distance. Ok so, now I'm a pretty good distance away, so I find a safe place to turn my mammoth of a truck around. Heading back the way I came, I get a different perspective on this new land I've just discovered. Getting my mind back to business at hand as I approach town, I come to the traffic light where I'm to turn. I see a police cruiser going slow with it's lights on coming my way. I soon realize, I'm entering the route of a funeral. I pull over and observe people behind me who've done the same. I turn down my radio , like that matters cuz my windows are up. I sit there and notice the headlights on the vehicles coming by me at the slow pace and thinking "Wow this guy had a lot of friends and is going for his last ride". As the "parade" ends , i get back to my destination and regroup with my bandmates and we commence to "do our thang" , playing classic rock music for family & friends of the bride & groom, at the same time somewhere , somebody is going into the ground for eternity. Funny how life works sometimes. I just hope the person being buried lived a long ,satisfying life and that the bride & groom live long and prosper. For me? Well , at first I was dreading the whole day but after it happened , I'm glad I went along for the ride and also, I wanna say to my bandmates , I love you guys. Tomorrow's monday and yet begins a new work week and as bad as i hate it,..."it" being monday and having to go back to work, I love the life I have, the people I'm around, the parents I have and most of all my wife. Why did i write all this? Hell i dont know but it felt good and it gave ya something to read.
I'll talk to ya later. Jerr~