Of mud and music and learning chicken is a vegetable
Hudson Crossing is a beautiful place. At least I think it is. It was awfully hard to tell on Saturday.
Hudson Crossing is a park on an island in the middle of the river not far from where I live. It was created as a place to learn about nature and the environment. I was there Saturday and learned one thing: that I really need to get a pair of wellies in my size instead of trying to wear the ones NiiceDuude got rid of because they were too big for him.
Saturday was the park's annual festival. The swing band ND plays in was one of the live music acts. There are eight people in this band. The spot where they were assigned to play was at the farthest end of the island, which meant bringing several cars full of people, instruments and sound equipment down this mile-long dirt trail. Except it wasn't dirt. It was raining, so it was -- sorry, I'm obsessed with Spoonerisms lately -- a muddy bless. We found ourselves thinking we should have borrowed chezjake's canoe and paddled the drum set downriver from my house (which you could literally see from where the band was to set up)
Because they weren't allowing cars in after 9 a.m. (band was to start at 10), the plan was to drop off the instruments, go into town for breakfast and come back. Which we did, but not quite on schedule.
I took my own car and went home after breakfast to pick up some things and returned about 11. I was dreading that long walk in the mud back to where the band was playing, but they did have golf carts to shuttle people. Unfortunately, there was a point the carts couldn't go beyond, so I had to walk the rest of the way.
After that it was several hours of standing around listening to the band. I did get to sing a few, so that was fun. But it was a bummer that I wasn't able to wander the grounds and see what else was going on. (Several of my other friends were on the grounds.) But not when the trail was a sea of mud and I was wearing NiiceDuude's boots and not Nancy Sinatra's.
Miracle of miracles, we did make it out of there, and I went home to change into dry socks and my Crocs and meet ND back at his house for dinner by Jake. Main dish was a whole smoked chicken, and ND also invited Dave and Sue over. They are vegans open to cheating (on their diet, not on each other!), and ND and Jake explained that they could eat this because chicken is a vegetable -- chickens are too stupid to be animals!
Some of the neighbors hung out with us as well, some longer than others. Eventually, ND and Dave got their guitars out, and we had a lovely time singing folk and classic country and a few oldies. The evening did not end well, but the less said about that, the better.
And now, I am ... drum roll ... on VACATION! My first whole week off in two years. I was scheduled to be off this week last year, but a co-worker left to have a baby around the same time, so I canceled it. Today and Tuesday, I hang out at home, do some chores I've been putting off and run briefly to work to tie up some loose ends. Then Wednesday I'm off to the Last Gasp -- the happiest place on Earth. Good times and LOTS of great oldies!
Hudson Crossing is a park on an island in the middle of the river not far from where I live. It was created as a place to learn about nature and the environment. I was there Saturday and learned one thing: that I really need to get a pair of wellies in my size instead of trying to wear the ones NiiceDuude got rid of because they were too big for him.
Saturday was the park's annual festival. The swing band ND plays in was one of the live music acts. There are eight people in this band. The spot where they were assigned to play was at the farthest end of the island, which meant bringing several cars full of people, instruments and sound equipment down this mile-long dirt trail. Except it wasn't dirt. It was raining, so it was -- sorry, I'm obsessed with Spoonerisms lately -- a muddy bless. We found ourselves thinking we should have borrowed chezjake's canoe and paddled the drum set downriver from my house (which you could literally see from where the band was to set up)
Because they weren't allowing cars in after 9 a.m. (band was to start at 10), the plan was to drop off the instruments, go into town for breakfast and come back. Which we did, but not quite on schedule.
I took my own car and went home after breakfast to pick up some things and returned about 11. I was dreading that long walk in the mud back to where the band was playing, but they did have golf carts to shuttle people. Unfortunately, there was a point the carts couldn't go beyond, so I had to walk the rest of the way.
After that it was several hours of standing around listening to the band. I did get to sing a few, so that was fun. But it was a bummer that I wasn't able to wander the grounds and see what else was going on. (Several of my other friends were on the grounds.) But not when the trail was a sea of mud and I was wearing NiiceDuude's boots and not Nancy Sinatra's.
Miracle of miracles, we did make it out of there, and I went home to change into dry socks and my Crocs and meet ND back at his house for dinner by Jake. Main dish was a whole smoked chicken, and ND also invited Dave and Sue over. They are vegans open to cheating (on their diet, not on each other!), and ND and Jake explained that they could eat this because chicken is a vegetable -- chickens are too stupid to be animals!
Some of the neighbors hung out with us as well, some longer than others. Eventually, ND and Dave got their guitars out, and we had a lovely time singing folk and classic country and a few oldies. The evening did not end well, but the less said about that, the better.
And now, I am ... drum roll ... on VACATION! My first whole week off in two years. I was scheduled to be off this week last year, but a co-worker left to have a baby around the same time, so I canceled it. Today and Tuesday, I hang out at home, do some chores I've been putting off and run briefly to work to tie up some loose ends. Then Wednesday I'm off to the Last Gasp -- the happiest place on Earth. Good times and LOTS of great oldies!