We just finished building a 6-foot redwood fence in the back-yard to replace a section of block wall I had to remove because it was leaning over into the neighbor’s yard. We got our fence up thanks to the superior craftsmanship and hard work of Greg Waddell. Greg volunteered himself and his truck to the project which he and I completed in two days of work spread over a week of time. Greg and I grew up in the same community in Virginia. He came to Tucson years ago and married Brenda. Brenda Waddell is my real-estate agent here. I purchased this house through her services about six years ago.
But “Boot”, the little Bernese Mountain Dog doesn’t live here anymore. We gave away the little one because he was schIZOphreNIC. He was cute and cuddly one moment and aggressive the next, particularly when it came to food. He intimidated the heck out of “Rocket” the Pit-Bull though he was only half Rocket’s size! So what have we learned??
We learned that with puppies, training difficulty increases exponentially with the number of puppies applied. We learned that bad puppies don’t learn from good puppies, they teach them to be bad as well. We also learned: NEVER adopt a dog before researching the breed for yourself. Shelter volunteers are warm-hearted but not well-informed. Sales Pitch: “Oh they have a lovely disposition and only grow to about 40 pounds.” Reality: Bernese Mountain Dogs can reach 110 pounds, and ours was SCHIZO!
I received a call from my old music partner Dr. Rick Graves of Berkeley Springs, West (by God) Virginia. It was great to talk to him again. Rick and I met in Iceland about a million years ago and began performing acoustic-guitar, two-part harmony sets together there. We joined forces in Utah in 1977 and formed a rock-band named Wasatch Front with some of the most talented musicians we knew, including another boyhood friend of mine, Bob Lail, who is perhaps the best rock drummer I’ve ever played with (no offense, Irwin Anolik, you’re great too!). After all the trauma and drama a living-together rock-band can bring, we all went our separate ways. Last summer, Glen Schallmo, our superb guitarist, took the initiative to hunt us all down and reconnect us as the old men we’ve become. On our vacation trip to Virginia last September, Deb and I drove out to Berkeley Springs and spent the night at Rick and Cheryl’s place in the wooded hills. We played guitar and sang and I met members of Rick’s band “On Call” – a rock group made up of Doctors (Osteopathy no less) and nurses and medical service folks. (“Break a leg” means job security to them, I guess.) I told Rick last night that when I get finished with it, I’ll send him my new song “Sex as a Weapon” for his band to perform.
One more thing: My Baha’i musician/producer friend Jon Rezin (Small Room Productions) has launched a new label, Next Movement Records. They just released their first artist, Badi. Badi is also a Baha’i, and Jon is starting a commercial promotion effort. If you know anyone who likes Hip-Hop or who has kids who like hip-hop, let them know. Thanks.
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