Twisty, Curvy Roads

Late one evening I was driving home from a gig when suddenly I saw a small dog in the road in front of my car.  There was no traffic, so I swerved to avoid hitting the pup. I stopped and turned around to make certain that I was not leaving a hurt dog on the road, and there he was running down the middle of the road again. I stopped, opened my car door, and, without any coaxing, he came over and jumped into the car with me. The next day, I set about trying to locate the owner. There was no collar or rabies tag. I took him to a vet and they checked for an embedded ID chip. Nothing!  I checked with the pound to see if anyone had reported a missing dog, and spent quite a bit of time walking him through nearby neighborhoods to see if anyone recognized him. I never found an owner. Before too long, I found myself becoming attached to the little fellow, and evidently, he felt the same since I soon found that I could not walk from one room to the next without him following me...

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The weather has been a bit gloomy for a few days. It is not rainy, but it is certainly not dry. Sunday, one of my friends, Andy Blake, and I had lunch and then decided to try taking a few photos at one of our local parks. Andy is a good photographer - I just own a camera! Click on photo to see more These photos were taken at Veterans Park in Round Rock, Texas. The mist in the air gave everything a soft blur.  There were a number of water birds - none of them seemed interested in flying or feeding. They seemed to be wishing for the weather to clear. Vladmir, the Muscovy duck greeted us as we arrived. These two turtles seemed to be deeply engaged in a conversation. Three Comorants standing on the dam. Andy Blake snapping a photo of the cormorants. The resident geese were staying far from the Muscovy Duck.

I grew up in North Alabama during the 50's. Things were pretty simple back then, it was a good time to be a kid. I guess that kids are usually looking forward, and that may have been particularly exaggerated for kids growing up in Huntsville, Alabama. It was an exciting time. Everything was about rockets and satellites so it seemed natural to be looking toward where we thought we were going, not toward where we had been. And it was exciting! I can remember sitting in school and hearing the sound of rocket engines as they were tested out at Redstone Arsenal.  They would fasten the engines to a test stand and fire them off. The sound could be heard for miles and miles. I got to meet people like Wernher von Braun whose daughter kept her horse at Mr. Jack Darnell's stable where I spent a lot of time. In 1957, my 10th grade year, the Russians put Sputnik into orbit. In the evenings we would go outside and stare into the sky looking for it. That triggered a "space race...

  At our wilderness camp near Brazos Bluffs, in New Mexico, this tiny visitor decided to check out our truck. He was a bit puzzled when he discovered an unseen force would not allow him to pass through to the world he could see so plainly before him! I must admit that I have often been in the same or similar situations!  I opened the truck doors and left him to learn the lesson he had set for himself. He did eventually learn that butting one's head against an immovable object is not productive behavior and flew happily off through an open door of opportunity.

Max likes for me to sing to him! Quite often I sing to myself and Max as we are driving on our trips. We were boondocking in New Mexico somewhere of of New Mexico highway 64. I started singing the song "Playmate, Come Out And Play With Me". Max jumped into may lap. Every time I stopped singing, he would make a little begging motion with his front paws. I'm lucky to have a traveling companion with such good musical taste! This song has been around a long time! It was a big hit for Philip Wingate and Henry W. Petrie in in 1894! The name of the tune is "Playmate", or sometimes "You Can't Play In My Yard". Here are the original words to the first verse: Say, say, oh playmate, Come out and play with me And bring your dollies three, Climb up my apple tree. Shout down my rain barrel, Slide down my cellar door, And we'll be jolly friends forevermore. Today's kids, raised on TV and video games, would probably not have the faintest id...

After weeks of anticipation, last Monday, Max and I finally pulled out of Round Rock headed for the Teagarden Jazz Camp somewhere in the Sieras above Sacramento, California. The trip across Texas was uneventful. We spent Monday night in one of our favorite overnighting spots in Littlefield, Texas and struck out fresh and bushy tailed early Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning was pro forma, following highway 84 west to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, then north to Interstate 40 where we turned west. As you know, I really don't like driving on interstate highways. I love twisty-curves little roads because I "know" that just around the next curve, or at the crest of the next hill, there will be a scene of such breathtaking beauty that existence of the very universe will be totally justified! I soon realized that this was not going to be a twisty-curvey kind of trip. We stuck it out on IH 40 although several times I did consider lashing the steering wheel like an old time saili...