Dud Man

Dudley Wood was the most famous dog I ever knew.

I know he had a much longer and I am sure..... regal name, but his rx bottles said "Dudley Wood" and thats the dog I knew. I looked at those bottles several times a day... often passing the contents out by wrapping them in cheese... They for a time, gave him relief and then, lately, did not.

Those bottles that will cause me so much pain to look at, much less decide what to do with.

It was time...

I didn't want to say goodbye to my good friend... the stately old gentleman that he was... even as odiferous as he was... hence the name of my blog. I remember thinking when I put those words into that box while the room reeked to high heaven, that one day I would be sad when he was gone and I would miss it.

Well, I do.

Give me some more dog fart please.... just let him be happy and comfortable wherever it is that he is stinking up, please dear God... if there is one... let him be free of any pain he ever had. Let him have his dignity...

I remember him chasing mice that first fall Donnie and I were together..... we were infested and he was on guard... he killed more mice than I can remember... he even ate the one I killed with a frying pan before I could get it away from him.....

The giant tennis ball we got him when he was disintigrating the normal sized ones in record speed... Donnie and I had more fun buying it than he had with it.... it was just too big.....

He was no fun to fish with.... and I always heard you couldn't take him in a canoe..... but I do know he was good for some couch lovin'.....and he never missed a meal....He liked to carry one shoe around when we left and sometimes when we came home there would be a pile of them on the couch depending on how long we were gone... Donnie and I always gauged who he loved the most by who had the most shoes on the couch.....

When we met he was still in his prime and I think I loved him more than I loved Donnie... We spent alot of time together, he and I. He didn't know he was too big to sleep in bed with us, so it never stopped him. It never stopped him from climbing in my lap or riding with me everywhere I went. He followed me everywhere thru the house, room to room all day. He was my constant companion. The official taste tester.

That was "back in that day"....... those days are gone now.... the end of an era.....

The Grey Ghost...

Lambs ears....

The most handsome man I ever knew....

One last thing.

My dog was a rock star.

A memorial dinner was held with his 3 closest friends where many statements such as "Dudley was a good friend" and "Remember when Dudley got on stage?" and "he hated squirrels" were heard...

Later a few obligatory drinks in honor of this great dog were consumed at The Solo Club..... many a Dud stories have been told there and it was only fitting that his name be once more uttered within those hallowed walls....

Goodbye my good friend. I shall be forever grateful for what you have taught me and for the opportunity to bid you farewell in my arms...... forever you will be.... my Dud Man.

Woolarock

Woolarock is very hot in the middle of the day in July. Just letting you know in case you were wondering.

I forgot to mention the entire day was full of dumb faces, innapropriate but very funny farting, chinese fire drills, and mooning..... even my mother pretended to moon US during a chinese fire drill they retaliated against us with after the fireworks......

Party Hard!

We had a pretty good 4th of July.... We were going to a party at Scott Taylor's house and then we went over to Moms to watch fireworks..... Scott had a small PA set up and for a while everyone was sitting around listening to people sit up there and perform, but then after we ate they went into sitting around and playing together which was much better..... Of course thats right when we had to leave.....But not before Scott and Don did "Minor Key", "Dance with the Gypsies" and "Truck Dog", most of you don't know that last one, it is a Scott Taylor creation and really good actually..... Ask him next time you see him to do it for you.....Donnie wasn't much good for playing anyway after all those gigs and studio time last week.... He was just done musically......Thad found a woman at the party and we saw very little of him... he was too busy playing badmiton with her.... He always finds the girls and they always like him too.... It's pretty cute. Dillon is always with the kid that is the one stealing the....well wait, what is that thing called? The badmiton thingy that you hit? I probably can't even spell the name of the game right... but thats what I'm calling it... It doesn't matter, Dillon is always the one who finds the kids who moon you, steal your stuff and climb up a tree with it....



Kenyon and I cooked for a good part of the day to take things to the party and to Moms.... We shopped together and met another weirdo in the downtown Homeland.... We usually do... this lady is a professional storyteller who say Fran Stallings is her mentor, so I know she is for real... Anyway, she was pretty cool, she gave us a recipe for something that we made, but I don't know what to call it... so I will just say it was pink and the kids ate all of it. We usually meet someone at Homeland, there are always a bunch of weirdos there.... which is cool, because I shop there too.....not to mention f0r some reason people talk to me like crazy even though I don't know them. Maybe my kind soul just radiates out to them and they know I am someone they need to know.... or maybe they are crazy and they talk to everyone. I don't care. Sarah, are you reading this? You know how you are supposed to take something to a party to share? I'm thinking about this because we were shopping for food to share, right... and when it says on an invitation to bring a side dish...... Well does a half bag of opened Tostitoes count? I know someone who brought one, Again.
Stop laughing. I'm serious. It wasn't my party, but it sure irritates me when people slide by all the time and think others don't notice. How long has that bag been opened? How many other parties has it been schlepped to and brought home and then to another gathering? Jeeze!


I also have to say I love Donnie Wood, but man, I love me some Don Morris. Isn't he wonderful???? Don has been looking at property to buy up here..... We would so love to have him up here, it would be so easy to have him eat dinner, work on projects and all kinds of other things. He is so kind, talented, and just plain old good to be around. I like the way he says "yeah" too. When we get on the phone it doesn't matter if it's a quick call real quick and your holding your keys in your hand while you dial, you will be on the phone for an hour, and it's ok.

Katherine is coming next week with the kids, it is going to be a very exciting time. One main reason is because she has one of the most precious baby girls in the world besides miss Maura Lee..... MAry is the cutest fat faced girl I have ever seen in my life and I am going to pinch her cheeks till they turn red. Johnathen is her older brother and he is a trip. He has been described as "freakishly smart" and thats pretty much on cue there..... So we are going to have a massive party at Aunty M's out in the country and to tell you the truth, it is going to be hard to go home from there. The pond is full, horses, llamas, all kinds of things... We are going to go to the water park in Ks and also go to the Jenks aqarium and riverwalk where Donnie played last week... Very cool place..... I got the kids vacation planned and even though we will be right here in NE Ok and the immediate vicinity, we will be on vacation with our family and party party party! We are going to shoot
fireworks at the slumber party, and we are bringing a tent so Donnie can sleep by the pond but still hang with his sister some.... I bet he ends up with some boys out there........
Well, thats pretty much it, things are going good, having a good time with the kids, getting pretty far on the house, and all my cats are healthy. Do you need anything else?

Early Summer

I haven't posted in a month.... Amazing. I love to blog, and I have so much going on in my mind.... but I have very little free time, and to tell you the truth, if I have any at all..... I am learning to drum. I got a very nice Remo Djembe a month or so ago, and I am starting to get comfortable with it. I love the way it makes me feel when I am drumming, I love the sense of calm especially. I go outside in the backyards or even the woods and dig my toes in the ground and start in with the patterns I have been learning. One day Nancy came over and we drummed together, she showed me some of the stuff Diana taught her and I tried to show her what I "knew" but I got more out of the deal than her. Drumming is really a meditative thing and makes me feel very comfortable. I don't thnk I will ever stop.

We are working on the house and are getting very close to finsihing the boys room, it looks really nice and I never will have to see the terrible blue that was in there again. We are going room to room fixing everything and making it just how we want it. Now we are making real visible progress and that makes me happy. I did the last coat of paint in the boys room tonight and it will probably be move in ready by Sunday. I can't wait to see the boys faces!

Jimmie and Jade had their baby last week, and everything is perfect.....

The kids and I have been swimming alot at the state park, I started taking my drum and practicing out there for about an hour while we are there. I can see the pool, but they can't hear me so I can play as loud as I want. I taught Kenyon how to dive and Thad is working on it. Dillon is a fish so I can't teach him much.


Things I'm thinking about:

I want to go camping. I want to go to the river. I want to stand in the river and watch the fish swim by and I want to catch them on a fly rod. I want to throw beautiful casts into the air and catch pretty fish and let them go. Then, I want to catch another one in much the same way. I would prefer to be standing in a river with large rocks with no alge so I don't slip and the water flow needs to be just right. Not to fast and not too slow and oh so crisp and cool. I will never come home.

People are using too much stuff. People are building on too much land and destroying the Earth. I'm not kidding. I'm serious about it and it bothers me. No one is entitled to anything. No one has the right to destroy land, or natural resources... If you are going to consume, you should recycle as much as possible. It isn't hard...but it isn't easy either. But it isn't anyone's God given right to use up stuff and then just let it pile up in landfills.... they are real places you know... just because you don't see them everyday doesn't mean they "ain't there".... They are rancid, terrible, horrible, wasteful places...... and the Earth is covered with them.

To help alleviate this problem people should try not to use so much stuff....please be mindful of the products they buy and careful about how the way they live might affect the environment, there are so many ways to do it, I'm just asking that whoever happens to read this tries a little harder to be better to our planet. I sure am.

Sunfest 2006

Donnies family is great...we went to Sunfest together and I played with Donnies nephew every chance I got..... and then we hung out over at Nancy's with Matt Zarb and his super cool wife......... Now we have new friends... A good day....

Check out my VIDS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e8cqhcybrM

Celebrate family and friends!

Once all the musicians started arriving and coming to hang out and set up in our camp things started to get very interesting. The kids were treated to a vertible human buffet of personalities and strange quirks.
Kenyon is collecting quite the photo collection of well known musicians and is becoming more comfortable in trying to play in front of them, so hopefully she will keep going with that. Donnie had his own roadies for the night and Dillon really gets a huge kick out of that as well. This is a kid that was born to be on stage and at this point he doesn't care what he is doing as long as he is on it.

We got to talk further about a few projects we have been working on and dreaming of with some other folks who agree and I'm pretty excited about that and Donnie and I had a brainstorm while camping with so many kids and now we have a monumental possibly life changing project in the works....I can tell you a few things about it. Camping, Children, Charity, Families playing music together with accomplished songwriters......... the list of names on our short list is staggering. Dreamers we are.
Pigfest is coming.