The Cantenna's Strike Again

Dave and I and our friend, Eric Permut, are the original members of the Cantenna Trio, who play bluegrass at the annual Boulder Amateur Radio Club picnic. This year we were joined by our bandmate Terry Skaggs and our good friend Warren Kennison to make up a quintet of ham radio operators playing some hot bluegrass.

Here are some pictures from our performance. Warren was especially stylish that night. It was a lot of fun.

Nostalgia

When Dave and I lived in Germany, we took advantage of our military discounts at the various 'liquor' stores and bought two bottles of Dom Perignon. One of them we drank after our wedding. We brought the other back with us to the U.S., and it has been sitting in our basements ever since.

A couple of weeks ago, Dave was going through some wine on the wine rack and he decided we had better drink the bottle of Dom, and that there was a good chance it might have already gone bad. I brought it up and put it in the refrigerator, and we decided that we would drink it over the 4th of July weekend.

So, last Saturday night Dave went to the store and bought the fixings for a surprise dinner--even he didn't know what we were having until he got to the store! He came home and started whipping stuff up: boneless pork steaks, fruit slaw, bread and cheese, grilled veggies. For dessert, he had a little cheesecake with some fresh berries to go on top.

When it was time to eat, he opened the bottle of champagne and we held our breath. The date when it was bottled was 1983; we bought it in 1990 or 1991. Everyone we mentioned this to, said it would be vinegar. Well, they were all wrong. It was absolutely wonderful. Who would have thought.

Fair Winds

Ten or twelve years ago, Dave surprised me with a hot air balloon ride, telling me a couple of days ahead of time. That morning of the ride, the weather was bad, so the ride was canceled. I found out later that the weather makes the schedule very iffy. Anyway, all the years since that aborted trip, I kept kind of expecting him to schedule it again, but he never did.

Two weeks ago, I was up early on a Saturday, driving in to work to take care of a minor issue, and the balloons were up high in the sky all along my driving route. As I watched them that morning, I decided it was finally time for that hot air balloon ride.

The next Saturday was the date I wanted; we were going to be busy pretty much the rest of the summer. That was the only day that was going to work. Further, on that morning the balloons were launching from the Boulder airport instead of their usual spot, in conjunction with an airport open house that featured a display of antique planes. I thought it would be fun to walk around and look at the planes afterward. I picked out a company via the internet and called and made the reservation. That was when I realized how important that the weather was to being able to even lift off. After talking to the main fellow from the company I had chosen, Fair Winds, I was on pins and needles the rest of the week, compulsively checking the weather report.

Somehow, I was able to keep this a secret, my surprise for Dave, even though I was dying to tell someone--anyone. I didn't even tell my sisters or my girlfriends. There are people who go for the rides over and over and never get to go up in the air, and I didn't want to get everybody all excited when there was only a 50% probability of success!

On that Friday, I called in at noon to confirm and they told me that the weather report was good and the ride was on. Then, I was really excited because I could finally tell Dave. He had already been talking about how he was looking forward to sleeping in. When he got home from work I told him that he wasn't going to be able to sleep in. He asked why not. I said, "We are going on a hot air balloon ride." He said, "No, we aren't!" I said, "Yes, we are!" It was pretty funny. Of course, he was delighted (and also shocked).

I smiled the next morning when I came down, and he had a backpack there ready to go with stuff that we might need. Everything went just like I hoped. We were able to take off and it really was peaceful and beautiful and interesting. The ride was about an hour and a half. We floated along with six other passengers and the pilot. The pilot's wife manned the chase vehicle and she and some other staff were right there ready for us when we landed.

The landing was a little rough, in my mind, but everyone else said it was a great landing. All I know is that it was pretty bouncy.

After we drove back, just as I had imagined, we walked around and looked at the antique planes. It was a really great day. I was pretty proud of myself.

Here are some shots that I took that day. Some of the pictures are of one of the other balloons from the same company that went up when we did and was close to us most of the time.

That 'Grease' Moment

Last night Dave and I were eating dinner at a new restaurant in our town of Louisville. The theme of the place revolved around the movies and there were movie posters plastering the walls for such icons as "The Wizard of Oz," "Star Wars," "Indiana Jones," and "Back to the Future." Just across from our table was the poster from "Saturday Night Fever."

In one of those stream of consciousness moments, my thoughts went to another John Travolta movie that was not represented on the walls of the restaurant: "Grease." The movie came out in 1978 and I still remember seeing it and loving it. But the moment that I recalled and related to David during dinner happened years later. I was working for a big company in Denver, and one day for some kind of team activity, my group went to the movies. I have no idea what the movie was that we went to see, which makes me smile. It was 1997, and the theater was full. Wish I could remember the show. Nevertheless, during the previews--out of nowhere it seemed to me--the screen flashed to John Travolta as Danny in Grease and that distinctive opening riff from the song "You're The One That I Love" began to play and after a split second, most of the women in the movie theater began to scream.

I still smile thinking about it. It was just this remarkable, funny, and charming moment. It turned out that "Grease" was going back into the theaters for a limited release and that was why they were previewing it.

When I related this to David, he asked if I screamed, too. I thought for a moment and then had to say, "Yes, I think so."

Garden 2011

I don't write much in this blog in the summertime, due to this very garden. Too much to do out there! I didn't know if I would even have a garden this year, due to working and making sure I have time to play music and not having enough time. But I did put it in and am excited about it. Here's some pictures.

Playing in the Opry Show at the Bertolin Barn

Dave and Terry and I were invited to play in a country music show channeling the Grand Ole Opry at the Bertolin Barn. Jim Bertolin has a facility that resembles an old barn where he conducts bluegrass and country music shows. For the show, we did four songs as The Stanley Brothers. Then, Dave and I also played with our friend Jon Garson and did Reno and Smiley.

We had a great time. For the Stanley Brothers ensemble, Jim Bertolin (guitar) and Clarke Wright (fiddle) joined us and we did "How Mountain Girls Can Love," "Will You Miss Me," "Big Tilda," and "Rank Stranger." "Will You Miss Me" was a new song for me and I am always excited to learn something new.

Dave and Jon went to Walmart and bought matching shirts to wear for the Reno and Smiley segment. They were quite cute. You can see the shirt that Dave is wearing in the picture above when Dave took a turn as emcee. The songs we did in that section were "Talk of the Town," and "Banjo Signal."

The show was just so much fun. I was thrilled to be performer there along with some really great musicians. Everybody took their parts really seriously. I took some pictures of some of the acts after we finished performing.

The local Boulder newspaper also did a story on the show with some pictures and video, and Dave and Terry even had their pictures in the print edition of the paper.



Here are some of the pictures I took.



Our friends, Sebie and Tracy Denson played in the Jimmy Martin segment, which was one of my favorites. Sebie put on quite a show and is one heck of an entertainer.





This was the Bob Wills band.


Kristina Murray played Loretta Lynn and she was fabulous!




Here are two ace flatpickers: Jamie Davis and Taylor Sims.


This is Jim Bertolin, who owns and runs the shows at the Bertolin Barn.


Terry also played in the Roy Acuff group and did an awesome job as Roy.

Just What I hoped For

Last spring, I noticed a distinctive shrub blooming in a lot of landscapes. I went to a nursery and bought one: a purple leaf sand cherry. The nursery staff told me that they are used a lot around here because they are hardy and can stand up to our hostile climate. I planted, watered a lot and wished for the best, because with our trees and awful soil, you never know.

I took this picture last week. It is beautifully in bloom.