Hey guys,
I know I haven’t posted to much this week, I’ve been taking a little break from the web sites. I was also out of town for a couple of days. We went up to Sturgeon Bay to see the Tall Ship Parade of Sail for the Green Bay Tall Ship Festival. The ships left Sturgeon Bay yesterday morning and sailed down to Green Bay. I was able to get some great pictures of the ships as they went through Sturgeon Bay. I’ll be spending a good part of today working on those pictures and will get them posted as soon as I can.

Other than that, there’s not a whole lot going on. All is quiet on the Sierra and Wisconsin fronts.

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Quite a day yesterday. I spent a good portion of the day watching the severe weather outbreak in the south. At first it was fascinating watching these storms on the radar and watching the live feeds from the storm chasers. Then all of that changed as the reports and images from Yazoo City, MS started to come in. The reality of these deadly storms struck and the fascination of  watching storms turned to sadness for those folks who lost everything, (We now know that at least 10 people also lost their lives). I was tracking the storm that produced the deadly 3/4 mile wide tornado on the radar 10-15 minutes before it went through the town.

The preliminary reports from yesterday’s outbreak are at least 10 people dead, 52 tornadoes and over 250 storm reports. These numbers will most likely change as the day progresses.

Now the flip side of yesterday.

Last night we escaped everything that happened during the day and ventured into a land of magical music. We saw one of my all time favorite guitar players perform at Milwaukee’s historic Riverside Theater, Mark Knopfler, (Some of you may not know Mark’s name, but I’m sure you know his music from his days as lead guitar and vocals in Dire Straits). What a phenomenal show!!

Mark has put together a band of world class musicians and they made some of the most amazing music I’ve ever heard last night. Even though we didn’t know most of the songs played since they were from his solo career, it didn’t matter. When you have 8 gifted musicians making magic it doesn’t matter what they play! They did play 5 Dire Straits tunes and man they rocked.

Mark’s guitar playing was truly inspiring. I could listen to him play 24 hours a day. He has such a smooth, flowing style that is completely his own. I don’t know of any other guitar plays who sounds like Mark Knopfler.

Here’s a review of the show from Madison.com: Mark Knopfler in concert

Before the show we met up with our friend Joe (aka RockandRollGuru) Heuer and his wonderful family. It was great to see Joe again and meet his wife and twin girls.

As you can see, yesterday was quite a roller coaster ride. To top it all off, we received just under a half inch of rain overnight.

With the third anniversary of Tammy’s death coming up next week, I’ve been thinking a lot about her lately. ‘Cause even though I’m very happy with my life now and love Lynne so much, I still miss Tammy an awful lot.

One of the things I miss most is hearing her stories about going to Grateful Dead shows. The drive to the show, the scene in the parking lot and then the show itself. I can imagine Tammy dancing and spinning to the grooves of the music and see the smile on her face.

The songwriter Jim Page has a great song that captures that scene so well, and when I hear it, I’m reminded of the stories Tammy use to tell me. The song is called “Going Down to Eugene” and here’s a video of Jim Page performing it.

Just a note here, the song itself doesn’t start until 4 minutes into the video, but the first 4 minutes are pretty cool as Jim is improvising lyrics to what’s happening out in the audience and then at minute 3 he tells a little about the song.

Happy 62nd Anniversary Millie and Lloyd!!

Lynne’s Mom and Dad celebrating their 62nd anniversary!!

A FINE ROMANCE
Author: Joyce Hemsley

One day, your arms will possess me,
One day, you will ask for my hand,
One day, the ring will be shining,
In the sun as we walk thro’ the sand.

One day, romance will caress me,
One day, the church bells will chime,
And we will go cruising together forever
For the love of my dreams will be mine.