it got a lot cooler around here, after hurricane ike came through and knocked down a few trees. cooler, but there are a lot of branches out on the curbs as you go around, lots of trucks hauling it away, people dragging them around. it was an asplundh holiday, which is what i call it just because i love that name, which i see on the cherry pickers they use to get way up in the trees to cut off wayward branches. that asplundh guy was pretty clever, so i like to repeat his name and imagine what he'd want himself to be called, if he were still around.

the hurricane came at an unusual confluence of events. first, this blog was becoming famous, as someone mentioned it at the webheads anniversary chat; dozens were there and many of them looked at it right on the spot. this could have been my most famous moment ever, as i generally do nothing to advertise the blog and am more than happy if i get four hits a day, and can generally count among my friends and relatives each of them. that's no problem, really, i have a side like andy warhol that wouldn't mind a little more fame, but a much larger side that says, you're already a big fish in a small town, you already have bit off more than you can chew, what's the sense of gathering in fame, especially of the notorious kind that's so easy to get, when, what would i have to do, appear on letterman anyway. so no thanks,
i'm happy to toil away on this blog, pro bono so to speak, and let the chips fall where they may.

but i'm not beyond looking at the site meter, and seeing who's checking in, counting them by geographical location which gives me an odd sense of awareness of the wide geography of my audience. so, i go to check in at the site meter, and it's down: sunday morning, moving to another server, temporarily out. and may still be, for all i know. no site meter on sun. morning. webheads move on to wiziQ, serious flash, which i haven't downloaded yet, esp. on the laptop i'm using while folks are still snoozing away, so i decide to step out to get the sunday paper, since the boys are entrenched on their he-man movie, which they've now watched more than once. and that's when i saw it, a hurricane, blowing wind with trees and water in it, coming up the street from the south. wow. big ike. glad to meet ya.

had a song prepared for the webhead anniversary, for a webhead banjo picker who has moved on out of this life. didn't know how to put it on mp3, but got my banjo fixed in time for my performance on friday night, a day or two before the chat i just mentioned. got down there, and saw, the place was crowded, time would be tight, no time to fit this particular song in. so, i took the opportunity of tuning the banjo to strum it out, to a gathering audience that was paying scarce attention. guess i thought i'd just play it, put it out there, put it on the table, whether anyone knew what it was or not. people went about choosing seats, making coffee, getting ready for the evening. the song went well and the banjo sounded good, though we almost forgot about it later. but, oddly enough, during the performance, which went well in general, my partner started tripping up, during a song life goes on, a song we know well & know by heart, but, obviously, a song begging for interruption. she missed her words, missed her beat, got flustered, in general couldn't keep with the program. then, she got it back together, got back on track, and life went on. a confluence, maybe, of spirits, or just of things happening...makes me wonder if i'm the only one who even saw it.folks said the performance went well; i didn't hear anyone mention the fact that we tripped up on our cover song. then again, usually they wouldn't; so it goes....chou