I apologize. Eight full months have come and gone without a post to this blog. And frankly, I’m not sure if I have the energy to write one now.
Well, maybe energy isn’t the problem,. Maybe it’s just unwillingness to attempt dealing with the WordPress user interface that changed a couple years ago rendering my former skills obsolete. Maybe I’m just getting old and technology is beginning to irritate me.
Then, to be absolutely honest, I’ve been in a funk of sorts since last January when I failed, for the first time in many years, to make the cut for the Tucson Folk Festival. It took a lot of wind out of my sails. I didn’t realize just how much I counted on that event to revalidate my self-worth. Silly? Perhaps.
And we were on-pace to perform a great set with Michael Parker on drums and Matt Bruner on bass. Matt, who is a great singer/songwriter himself, agreed to back me up on bass (he’s multi-talented) and really worked the bass parts that Michael and I shared with him. He made them his own and with just a couple rehearsals, we sounded like a trio that had been together for years. So perhaps it was my anticipation that over-inflated my focus on the festival. Whatever the case, it was a deep disappointment. I have to admit though, the line-up this year was stupendous – really quality acts from around the country. And I was able to enjoy them on-line instead of making the 4-hour drive to Tucson.
Compounding the funk was the passing of our older dog Rocket whom we had rescued as a pup 14 years before. The younger dog Sally (11 years) had passed the previous August. Now dogless, we gave away a lot of supplies, keeping only memories. And work was bear. I worked a lot of overtime at NASA on testing a newly-launched satellite. I managed somehow to write yet another Valentine’s Day song for my Bride: “Another Good Reason”, written from the perspective of a single man ready to make the leap. I recorded it hastily in order to share it by Valentine’s Day, so eventually, I must go back and refine it. But that requires dealing with irritating technology.
Summertime brought a big lift of spirits when the great Eric Ramsey once again graced our home with a house concert. We reprised our duo show from 3 years before with newer songs and I had a ball trading songs with him before a live audience.
But, just after Eric was again on the road, I went “under the knife” for parathyroid surgery. It has taken the past two months to get my voice fully back where I think it should be, and even now, I’m not sure I’m dome healing.
My younger daughter Sarah was kind enough to make the trip from California to be here during my surgery and we really appreciated her help and enjoyed her company.
So, it’s not like I haven’t been busy. It’s just that I’ve been “one poor correspondent”. And for that. I apologize.
Darrell Elmer Rodgers' Weblog 
Hello, Darrell. I don’t know if you’ll see this or not, or even if you’re the Darrell Rodgers I’m hoping to find. My dad, Ronnie Yell passed away a couple of years ago. This past summer, I was able to pick up the last of my dad’s belongings, which included numerous old photographs. Many of these photos belonged to his mother, Margaret Ann. She died when I was a very small child and I have nothing of hers, with the exception of some personal belongings and photos that my dad had. Included in these photos, are several pictures of a young Darrell Rodgers. I am wondering if this could be you? I know very little of my dad’s history and none of my grandmother’s. Thank you for humoring me.
I just returned to this blog for the first time since last August. Sorry, I don’t recall anyone named Luna in my past. In what part of the country were they living?