Sometimes you just get so busy.

I probably mentioned before that I was doing a big show last Saturday Night. Fact is, it is the biggest show I ever tried to produce. I woke up early Sunday AM mulling over all of the stuff that I gotta fix if I ever get crazy enough to try to produce a show with 32 performers and 8 staff again. BUT BY ANY reasonable standards, it was an unqualified SUCCESS!

And then what should have been a day to just veg out, and get around to unpacking the truck, figure out the books, etc., was when I had to get up and see what help my neighbor, TD Giddings, needed. As I mentioned, Charles Hook died last Monday and it was time for some 300 friends and family, including many former students, to arrive for a memorial celebration, hosted by TD and Kathi.

I had minimal tasks, but it was decided that we would use my PA, and I had to learn a song to play with John Stephens to close the ceremony. Kathi sang my "Hymn to Opportunity", and Jimi McKenzie began the proceedings with his "Good Friends".

After the official part, it was time for the fabulous buffet from the covered dish dinner. As I finished my plate, sitting with my wife and my mother, it finally hit me that I had been running on adrenaline for about two months. The plan was that I was to be playing some songs for the wake - I managed to join in a couple, and then sit by the fire for a few minutes - but getting home next door without falling a sleep was becoming a concern.

This morning, it was all I could do to get up to call the office at 8am to say I would not be in.

I got some rest, and most of the odds and ends put together today. Back to what they call real world it in the morning - but I'm going to bed early again this evening!

I am told by more than one witness that during "Hymn to Opportunity", a wind came up, and Charles stood behind us at the edge of the clearing. Just the sort of thing that he would do.

jc - Monday 3/24