A New Van Pool Driver

It has been a hard few months since we lost our main Van Pool driver in June.

Our 2nd and 3rd drivers had to step up to the plate and somehow make it work.

The thing they need, is another driver, for those occasional times when both are out at the same time.

Last Friday a miracle occurred. We got a ride from our new 3rd driver.

He really doesn't want to do it, but he stepped up to the plate and showed a few of us, what he can do.

The girl in the photo and I, were walking to our workplaces after the ride and we both thought he did a good job.

We are glad, since we did not want to lose our van pool.

Truly, I can't beat the monthly fee of $26.09. :-)

We Are Boiling Here

Compared to Houston, we are doing just fine. I realize that and I count my many blessings.

But the same weather system that was stalling Harvy, is sitting over Los Angeles and making our lives miserable.

I leave Burbank in 100 plus degree heat.

Seriously, it is HOT walking a half mile in this heat.

Hoping it cools off fairly soon.

Photo: Tuesday's temperature at 6:30PM. By the way, our Malibu is the first car to show us the temperature outside.

He Now Holds The Keys To The Kingdom

On Sunday, my Son asked me if it was OK for him to accept the offer from GM.

My Husband and I could see no reason to delay. We had asked my brother if it felt like a good offer and he agreed with us. Being he has been down this road with 2 of his sons, I trust his opinion.

So now, finally, we can say that my son is counting down the days to his move to Michigan and the start of his working life.

I have all sorts of sappy things I could say at this point, but I think I will try to keep it short.

My Grandfather on Dad's side came from Italy. He worked in kitchens in NYC's Little Italy, before he started a coal and ice business in Queens.

His sons followed, until WWII, when 3 of them were in the service.

My Dad was in the Navy, fixing planes in Pensacola Florida. This gave him the skills to get a job fixing the engines in buses. He did that for his entire career and many of those buses were GM buses.

His oldest son eventually ended up a Vice President at a Nuclear plant and all three of his sons are engineers (1 mechanical and 2 electrical.

My son is the 4th engineer (3rd one who is electrical) and the first one to work for GM.

All I can say is that my Dad is up there with Mom in Heaven. They are both looking down on all their grandchildren and there was an extra smile on their faces, when GM decided that my Son is worthy of a good paying job with their company. Dad was always a GM man, worked on them and drove them, for almost his entire life.

As Lin-Manuel would say: Immigrants, we get the job done!

Photo: My Son (As Project Manager) being given the keys to the Camaro during year 1 of EcoCar3. Ecocar did directly enable him to get this very generous job offer.

Broadway Beach Rocky Point - Long Island

My Water Post For Today.

A stunning photo taken by Janine Canavan on the North Shore of Long Island. Not far from Wading River and Shoreham Nuclear Plant.

I love the ripples on the water, in the foreground of the picture.

It almost looks like a truck drove by.

Of course the sunset makes the photo.

I hope you enjoy.

A Little Back Rub

It happens quite often.

My cat is attacked by my Husband, as she is sleeping.

He rubs her back and wakes her up.

It is quite funny to see.

I sometimes wonder how he managed to go a year without interacting with her.

He is truly a cat person, as he has proved with 2 other cats in our past.

It's a good thing that I had him do the late snack feeding, because she always is attracted to the one who feeds her.

In other subjects...

Please note that I am already getting misty eyed because my Son may no longer live in our house, as of July of 2018.

He will miss her.

The Dog Days Of Summer & The Dodgers

We still have a couple of days left in August, but I thought I would give the update for the month so far. 91 games won, as of 8/25.

We are still smoking hot, but compared to July (when we lost a total of 3 games), we have lost 5 so far and won 17.

That is without Clayton Kershaw, btw.

Speaking of Kershaw, he is going to the minors to pitch a game, before being reunited with his team. So he should be pitching in September and of course, October, God willing.

Since last month, we picked up Yu Darvish and he has been a good addition to the team, especially since we were missing Kershaw in August.

It has been an unbelievable season and it almost makes me want to go to a game at Dodger Stadium, though chances of that are somewhat slim.

Good luck in September.

The Ball Is In Their Court

These are the members of CSULA's EcoCar3 Team who made it through Round 1 of the job interview with General Motors.

They were flown out on Sunday (all expenses paid) for Round 2.

They were told that they would receive a phone call on Wednesday, which 2 of them did.

The other did not get one and we were all anxious about that.

Thursday, the formal job offers came.

I am unsure if any of them will accept that offer, but if the other two are offered the money my Son was, they would be fools to turn it down.

No matter what, it is an incredible opportunity and I am sure it is the start of a lucrative career.

Photo: Justin Bower, Rubi Mt and Calvin Qiu

The Planets With Dudamel - The Hollywood Bowl

For the second time in a week, we found ourselves at the Hollywood Bowl for a concert.

This one had been bought several months ago, whereas the tickets from last Thursday were freebees from work.

Since our other concert was The Moody Blues, I wanted to give my Husband a classical evening and this fit the bill.

We both did the exact same thing we did the last time, parking at North Hollywood Station and taking the subway in.

We (of course) had the fact that our Son was flying back from Michigan, to handle, but in spite of that the evening went well.

The first piece of music was commissioned by the LA Philharmonic and had its world premiere. Called Scordatura, meaning discord (using of nonstandard tuning).

Pekka Kuusisto played violin and the composer is Daniel Bjarnason.

I personally was reminded of my Mother-In-Law, who used to call such things Long Hair Music. So I can say that I was not a fan of the piece.

Onward to The Planets, of which we had 7. I heard from some other patron that there are more than what we heard. Here is what they played.

Mars, the Bringer of War
Venus The Bringer of Peace
Mercury the Winged Messenger
Jupiter the Bringer of Jollity
Uranus the Magician
Neptune the Mystic

My Husband Loves Mars and so did I. I loved Jupiter and I heard from him that Jupiter and Mars are the two pieces that get played most often on KUSC.

Neptune has some passages that reminded people of Fantasia and as a matter of fact, the Music Director at Disney (the man in charge of our Van Pool) told me that some of the works sound like Star Wars pieces and yes, he was right about that.

Gustavo Dudamel was very good, but what saddened me is that he said not one word the entire performance. That was strange.

HERE is an LA Times article on the concert.

It was a good evening and we were glad we went. It just would have been better if we could have driven home after the concert. Instead, we headed to LAX to get my Son, whose flight was running an hour or so late.

More on him...later. :-)

The Eclipse From The Pointe

If you were anywhere on Monday, chances are good that the eclipse was on yours and everyone else's mind.

We had viewing things (not glasses, but a rectangular cardboard and plastic viewer). It worked well for us.

When it got close to 10:20P, most all of us went downstairs to get rid of the blue glass we normally have to shoot through.

I brought my cell phone camera and it did nothing much, in regard to showing off 65% totality, but we did see some stuff.

This was one of those things that we saw. Shadows of Leaves that were misshapen on the ground.

From what people were doing, you could also do a cross hatch thing with your fingers and you would see the sun in the holes in the cross hatch.

It was an interesting distraction for an hour or so.

I loved that DC Comics employees made some boxes with some of their characters on the sides. Those people are just on a different level, than anyone else.

BTW: Tuesday we have a concert at The Bowl called The Planets. We will see if they project images of the eclipse, onto the monitors.

Should be interesting.

This Is It!

These are the members of CSULA's EcoCar3 Team who made it through Round 1 of the job interview with General Motors.

They were flown out on Sunday (all expenses paid) for Round 2.

Today the job interviews happen. He has interviews scheduled with GM employees from Propulsion Systems Controls and Vehicle Systems.

Monday was a team building session at the GM Museum in Pontiac. My Son said he walked around a bit and the two people who will be interviewing him today, found him and talked a bit.

I don't know if I will hear the answer to the question that is on all of our minds...is my Son going to be moving to Michigan next year?

More on that, later.

Photo: Rubi Mt with Justin Bower and Calvin Qiu

Bob Hope Garden At San Fernando Mission

My Water Post For Today.

The side of the Mission Church leads to this lovely garden, called the Bob Hope Garden.

Now, being Bob Hope is mentioned everywhere in Burbank, I figured they had just donated a bit of money and that is why they got naming rights.

How wrong I was.

As I viewed the lovely waterscape that is the highlight of the garden area, I saw a walkway to something else.

As you can see, that something else is the graves of Bob and Dolores Hope.

Kind of cool and unexpected.

I was not aware that Bob and Dolores Hope were Catholic.

Reading up on it, Dolores was the Catholic and Bob converted to it, later in life.

Each of them lived to over 100 years old.

Alemany High School

Our Workshop was in part of the complex that holds, not only the Mission, the Pastoral Offices, but also Bishop Alemany High School.

Alemany Catholic High School is the only one available to the students in the Santa Clarita Valley.

I have never seen the school and there were gates to keep us out (which I totally understand).

On Friday there was a group of students checking out our Icons, before our workshop actually began...and guess what? The gate was open!

So being I could not start my day, with all those students in the room, I took a quick walk and saw the main building of Alemany.

It used to be Queen of Angels Seminary, but after the Northridge Earthquake, the Alemany school was heavily damaged and so for a year, both schools shared Queen of Angels campus. The next year the Seminary moved to St. John's Seminary in Camarillo and Alemany became what it is today.

This building is just stunning, with the statue of Our Lady over the door and I believe mosaics of the 12 disciples just inside the doors.

Being I was trespassing, I quickly walked back to my door, but was glad I got a look at this.

St. Junípero Serra, After The Workshop

After a week of my life, here is what I accomplished.

St. Junípero Serra is about 95 percent completed.

I (and many others) ran out of time.

On top of having 1 less day, we had tours coming over from Alemany High School. That meant that our instructor would go over the process each time and consequently, we had a difficult time working, because we would answer questions, too.

We enjoyed the children, but we must have had upwards of 6 to 10 groups, over the course of the week. Such is life.

So...what is missing?

The White halo that goes on the outside of the red one. The red oche border on the edge. Both of which I can work on, next month in our normal Iconography Class. I did a quick lettering, but will probably work on it a bit more.

Some of the lines need work, I was just trying to get them in, at the last moments.

All in all, I am pretty darn proud of him.

A companion for St. Kateri, who has her border and white halo, so you can see what I still need to do.

In case my Sister ever comes back to this post...

Here is what we found in the archive of the Archdiocese.

A drawing of Padre Serra.

Yes, it looks kind of "mask like" and alien, to me. :-)

Another Night At The Bowl: Gershwin

KCET is "Sponsoring" a night at the Bowl and so I got free tickets.

Even though I will have worked on my Icon all day, we hope to enjoy an evening under the stars.

Oh, the tickets are better (read closer) then we normally get.

Double win.

Here's what's scheduled to be played.

Gershwin: Strike Up the Band Overture (arr. Don Rose)

Ellington: The Handsome Traffic Policeman

Gershwin: "I Got Rhythm" Variations

Intermission

Ellington: Night Creature

Gershwin: An American in Paris

The ever-charming Tovey leads an all-American program focused on the extraordinary music of George Gershwin. We’re delighted to have 29-year-old jazz virtuoso Aaron Diehl as soloist for Gershwin’s tricky Variations.

Makenna Came Into Our Lives 8 Years Ago

It was 8 years ago yesterday, that we brought Makenna into our lives.

We have had our ups and downs with her, as one does with all animals.

But I truly think she has brought so much to the table (love and companionship wise), then we have had to deal with in the way of sickness and trouble.

Remember, it took a year for my Husband to finally come to terms with having another animal in our lives...but now days, he rubs her back as she sleeps on the ottoman. As a matter of fact, he was doing that exact thing, as I write this post.

True love, finally.

Thank you Tiana for giving us that final push, so that one less cat was in danger of being killed.

She and we appreciate it every day.

The photo is of kitten Makenna, in my bathroom sink.

Lighting A Candle For Your People

I know I am not the first to say this, but there is something weird about "lighting" a candle for a loved one, by pushing a button on the top of the electronic candle.

I have mentioned before, that I like to go to an old style Church and light a candle for my family. Usually my Mom and Dad.

It brings me peace, to spend 5 minutes of my busy life thinking of them.

I mentioned to the woman in the gift shop at San Fernando Mission, that I needed to get into the area by the Church, to light a few candles for my loved ones. We were told that we could visit freely (it is normally a $5 fee to get in).

She was not on board about this, but when I told her I intended to light a few candles for my family, she buzzed me right through.

I asked her how much it was, to light a candle and she told me it was just a donation, no set amount.

When I got to the Church, I saw I had exactly $5, so I lit 6 candles (my parents and grandparents).

I am sure they appreciated the extra cash. :-)

As to why electric "Candles"?

The answer I found is that there is an increase in insurance, when a Church has real flames in their candles.

I am sure this goes double, for the fact that the Church in question is right by 2 modern day earthquakes (San Fernando and Northridge).

No matter, my people were all thought of yesterday, on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary.

Inside Mission San Fernando Rey De Espana

Since I spent the first of 5 days at Mission San Fernando, I thought I would show it off.

This first photo is of the altar of the restored (1940's) mission church. William Randolph Hurst gave the money for the restoration.

The Church is not an active Church, though it does have 2 Masses on Sunday. It is mostly a place to pray and admire.

I really liked the Church and I managed to light 2 candles, when I was there. Win!

This plaque gives credit to the man who actually founded San Fernando Mission, Father Fermín Lausén. It was his forth Mission and the 17th of the 21 Missions in California.

He was the 2nd person in charge of the Missions.

The first one was St. Junípero Serra, the Saint who I am writing an Icon for.

Walking around the ground was a nice post lunch break, in a busy day.

By the way, I started my newest Icon, while continuing my current one.

More about all that, later in the week.

Lower Manhattan

My Water Post For Today.

In my spare time, I am working on a quick vacation to New York.

Being my thoughts are in that area of the world, I thought I would show off a photo of the lower Manhattan area, by the Ferry Building.

As a matter of fact, you can see the Ferry over on the far right of the photo.

Always a stunner, IMHO.

I hope you enjoy.

Floats Are Now Called Veils...Who Knew? - More Work On St. James

I got a request from my Brother-In-Law about the board I am painting on. Here is the link to the info Claybord.

I am now officially on vacation and will be traveling to Mission San Fernando to work on a St. Serra Icon.

My teacher decided to have Nick, our Iconographer, visit our regular session and see what we have been up to, in the year since he last visited.

I (of course) brought along St. James, who is on the home stretch, to being done.

I managed to get 2 floats (now officially called veils) onto the picture and I did 3rd light (on those white areas that I painted in last month). I definitely hope you will CLICK over to last month's post and see how he looked the past 2 sessions.

What a dramatic difference!

The Beauty Of The Sonoran Desert In Winter

We air Pledge shows, in the mid afternoon.

Monday to Friday from 1PM to 3:30PM, it is wall to wall pledge.

Whenever this show, Desert Dreams comes on, I perk up a bit, because I love the Sonoran Desert.

As I probably mentioned last year, if it wasn't so blasted HOT in the Phoenix area, I would move there.

This photo, taken in winter, makes me cool on these hot summer days.

I don't know where the photo was taken, but I am pretty sure snow does not happen in Phoenix. Maybe Flagstaff or Tucson?

No matter where, a cool post, on a hot day.

Enjoy.

The City Of Santa Clarita Charging Toward 30 Years

This is a big year for The City of Santa Clarita.

On December 15th we will hit our 30th Birthday.

In honor of that fact, they have been celebrating all year and these banners are the latest thing that has been added to our streets.

The one in the front is the clock tower at our Newhall Metrolink Station. The banner says that we have 3 stations in our city.

I must admit that this fact is pretty darn impressive and yes, there have been days where we knew we were going to miss the train at Santa Clarita station and instead roared down the road to the Newhall Station. Just in time, I might add. :-)

So it is quite a convenience to us residents.

I am reading a book about the fight for Cityhood and though I am only 1/3rd of the way done, it is quite fascinating to see the events through the eyes of one of our founding council members.

More on that, later, when I get through the rest.

In the meantime, enjoy the cute banners.

800 Words

We just began airing a new series that takes place in Australia and New Zealand.

I have only seen the first episode, but even that fact doesn't take away the ratings which were high (.05) for a brand new series.

A family loses it's wife and mother and the father decides to move to New Zealand, where he has good memories of growing up. He drags his kids along and all sorts of hilarity ensue.

Oh and he writes for a newspaper, which limits his output to 800 words, thus the title.

Another SHOW that might be worth checking out.

Godspeed Glen Campbell

Glen Campbell died yesterday.

That fact brought back memories of posting my favorite Glen Campbell song, back in 2010.

At that time, we did not know that he had Alzheimer's Disease and was on a slow downward spiral.

Here it is again, my original post.

==================================

This was the scene happening outside my bosses window yesterday.

I ended up singing the following song, for the next hour.

I am so sorry, I just can't help it. It's probably my favorite Glen Campbell Song ever!

To hear Glen perform the song, click the title.

Wichita Lineman

I am a lineman for the county.
And I drive the main road.
Searching in the sun for another overload.

I hear you singing in the wire.
I can hear you through the whine
And the Wichita Lineman,
is still on the line.

I know I need a small vacation.
But it don't look like rain.
And if it snows that stretch down south,
won't ever stand the strain.

And I need you more than want you.
And I want you for all time.
And the Wichita Lineman,
is still on the line.

Green Earrings - Port Chester, NY

Truly, I am such a sucker for the song, Green Earrings. :-)

Donald Fagen and the Nightflyers are out and playing the songs of the tour.

This one turned up on YouTube the other day and I decided to give you a hint as to what an old man and a bunch of just barely above drinking age band members sound like.

They sound pretty good.

The Fountain At The Magic Castle

My Water Post For Today.

At the entrance to The Magic Castle, they have this lovely water display that greets the visitors.

I know the photo does not even come close to showing off its beauty and (of course) the sound of running water that gives the patrons something wonderful to watch and listen to. Click the photo, for a chance to see some of the water streams, or see an old photo I took of the fountain back in 2007.

I like it, in all its magic glory.

A Magic Castle Review

As I mentioned yesterday, my Husband and I were meeting a childhood friend and her Husband, for an early evening at The Magic Castle.

My Other "Son" was performing between 5P and 7P and so we definitely wanted to see that. The rest of the evening would flow as it went. In other words, we caught shows, that were at the correct time for us.

First off, we did get there just before the doors opened and managed to make it into Tricky Devil's first show. He walked out into the performance area, which is very small and he starts working with coins. I have seen some of this before, but he did it flawlessly.

He then asked us all if we knew about Aladin and the magic lamp. All of us did and so he said he would rub this Old Fashioned glass, instead of a lamp and a coin would move over to another location.

I still have no idea how he did any of this, but the coins went from one person, to the other.

He then did a card trick where he had one of the people at the table, write his name on a picture frame glass. The person had to situate it on his lap, upside down.

He then had the other person at the table choose a card. He ripped a small bit out of the card, left that on the table. He then tore the card up, put it into a plastic vial and then inside his silk scarf.

When he did his thing, the vial was empty and the card was now inside the glass frame, (with the small piece of card that he tore off of it), missing. It was very impressive.

Finished with Tricky Devil, we then ate at the Owl Bar and all had hamburgers and fries. The fries were salty, but the hamburger was good.

On Tricky Devil's recommendation, we went to see Billy Kid in the Parlour of Prestidigitation, while he ate and then we would all take in the 8PM show Palace of Mystery. We saw Chris Mitchell, Joel Ward and Stoil & Ekaterina. All were good.

Finished with the formal magic, we talked a bit with Tricky Devil and then decided it was almost 10PM and we should head home.

A good evening with an old friend, our Husband's and of course, Tricky Devil.

Anticipating A Magic Castle Evening

I haven't been back to The Magic Castle in literally years.

My Magic "Son" decided that during hiatus from filming, he would work a week at the Castle and make a bit of money.

We have tickets and decided that it is a great time to use them.

Tonight is the night. We are meeting my neighbor from my growing up years. I mentioned her in my Hollywood Bowl review of The Moody Blues Concert and we both decided that 5 minutes was just too short. So we wanted to get together this summer.

The other day I sent the Castle invitation to her and she said yes! She is bringing along her Husband...double win!

More to come, after the show.

Columbia Space Shuttle Memorial Plaque

I apologize in advance for the bright sun and shadows and plants on this obviously "semi-forgotten" plaque at Johnny Carson Park.

I had to park all the way to hell and back last week and so I crossed Bob Hope Drive all the way down by the Ventura Freeway. Thus I was on the other side of the street.

I took a bit of a detour and moved to the pathway of Johnny Carson Park.

There, visible from the path, but not from the sidewalk pedestrians walk on, was a plaque.

Being a curious person, I stopped and read it.

It is a tribute to the Crew Members of the Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster.

It has excerpts from the President's Address to the Nation on the Space Shuttle Columbia Tragedy. February 1, 2003 at 2:04PM ET.

These astronauts knew the dangers, and they faced them willingly, knowing they had a high and noble purpose in life. Because of their courage and daring and idealism, we will miss them all the more...Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on. President George W. Bush.

A Night In Poughkeepsie

There was a "Secret" concert at the Falcon Theater Monday night. I took great pride in the fact that one of the Steely Dan fans from way back, had her daughter at the show. That is her photo, btw. Her daughter lives in the area and her girlfriend's boyfriend is the drummer in the band.

There was an article about the show in the Poughkeepsie Journal, though according to Pete Fogel, this is not the setlist that was played on Monday. Let's go with taking it with a grain of salt and that probably some dates will see each of these songs.

Donald Fagen and the Nightflyers set list

Green Flower Street
Countermoon
Hey Nineteen
Shakedown Street
The Nightfly
Time Out of Mind
New Frontier
Beast of Burden
You Can’t Catch Me
Weather in My Head
Josie
Dirty Work
Bodhisattva
Kid Charlemagne
I.G.Y.
Viva Viva Rock N' Roll
Reelin’ in the Years

Here is the article, in full. Definitely click the link above, if you want to see some photos.

Digging deep into a song catalog that spans generations and building musical anticipation with extended improvisation framed by quick turns and hard stops, Steely Dan co-founder Donald Fagen on Monday night in Marlboro played a private show that featured a new band playing old songs that erupted with urgency.

Fagen, a Woodstock resident and graduate of Bard College in Annandale, played the secret show — it was not open to the public — at The Falcon with his new band, the Nightflyers.

Steely Dan’s “Hey Nineteen,” “Dirty Work,” “Kid Charlemagne” and “Reelin’ in the Years” anchored the 17-song set. “Shakedown Street” by the Grateful Dead and “Beast of Burden” by the Rolling Stones complemented the familiar with a punctuated sense of relentless adventure that came as no surprise from a man who pushed boundaries and shunned convention with Steely Dan.

DONALD FAGEN: Tour to begin with Nightflyers

CONNOR KENNEDY: New album offers broad sonic vision

The gig offered Fagen a chance to debut his new band in an intimate setting for hundreds, two days after Steely Dan performed for tens of thousands at Citi Field in Queens on a bill that also featured the Doobie Brothers and the Eagles. Fagen and the Nightflyers Thursday will launch an international tour at the Capitol Theatre in Westchester County.

The concert also served as a reminder of the Hudson Valley’s artistic achievements.

Fagen with Steely Dan has helped generate the sale of millions of records.

The Nightflyers – guitarist Connor Kennedy, 23, of Woodstock; drummer Lee Falco, 22, and keyboard player Will Bryant, 25, of Marlboro; bass player Brandon Morrison of Rosendale, 28; and multi-instrumentalist Zach Djanikian, 32, of Woodstock – all embody the timeless talent that lies at the heart of the region’s enduring artistic history. Falco’s father Tony runs The Falcon.

Fagen arrived on stage wearing sunglasses and delivered his signature vocals, played the melodica and banged hard on a Fender Rhodes electric piano for about 90 minutes.

“How ya doin'?” he asked the crowd at the beginning of the show. “It’s a nice place, right? We’ve never played in front of people, so we’re not exactly sure what’s going to happen.”

Visibly pleased throughout the performance, Fagen smiled often and periodically closed his eyes, perhaps channeling the past. As Fagen led the charge as bandleader, he seemed to take great pride in allowing his bandmates the opportunity to bask in the glow of an evening that literally brought those in the audience to their feet.

Kennedy’s lead vocals on “Dirty Work” commanded authority with a pleading passion. His guitar chops and sizzling leads enveloped the band and seemed to infuse Fagen with vigor.

Lee Falco’s drumming was relentless, particularly during Steely Dan’s “Bodhisattva.” Morrison’s bass playing provided texture to “Weather in My Head” from Fagen’s solo catalog. Bryant’s rack of keyboards generated a range of sounds that added dimension to this hard-rocking and raging band.

And whether he was playing saxophone or guitar, or simply banging on a cowbell, Djanikian, a member of Amos Lee’s band, added color and contrast to the whole package.

Kennedy with his stage presence and the sense of abandon he served up with class drove the Nightflyers engine, stoked its coals and lit its fuse. And it all hit a crescendo during “Bodhisattva,” the show-stopper of the evening that was set ablaze by Kennedy’s playing.

After this song, Fagen deadpanned to the crowd, “It’s alright, they’ll get better.”

It's August And The Dodgers Are Still In Front

The Dodgers lost only 3 games the entire month of July and won 20. They won another one yesterday, so our current winning streak continues.

They haven't lost a game since July 22nd. Just 1 game before Clayton Kershaw was injured.

Any worries that the team would fall apart without him, were immediately dashed.

This team is smoking hot and currently 75 - 31. They are 14.5 games in front of their closest competitor, the Colorado Rockies.

Good luck through the hot August Nights to follow.

Trimming The Bushes, Once Again

Yes, it is that time of year again. The pine trees need trimming.

Again, I am late to this party and so I spent every Sunday of July, up on the hill trimming the pine trees.

Some of those days eventually ended up being 115 degrees, though not all of them.

I have a few stranglers still to do, but since we will be trimming the hedge along the back fence this coming Sunday, no biggie. I will do them then.

Each year they get just a bit harder and I think I get just a bit older.

So be it.