The H.F. Boys were heading down to the middle of ole' Missouri for a real hippy, camping, river rafting music fest in Lesterville MO. a huge town of about 50 or so but the home of Black River Getaway that holds some mighty fine festivals. Lo' & Behold mother nature took it upon herself to FLOOD the entire area with Monsoon rains that hung directly over that area for 3 days straight. Mud city NO SHOW !!!!!!!!!! Luckily the rest of the band was safe and warm in their beds at home and my call saved them an unnecessary trip. Except ole' Elmer who was on his way home from Nantucket on a flight to Chicago to transfer to a St. Louis flight, creating the suspense, could we reach him before he flew down for nothing, at the last minute he called in and the crisis was averted.
The next day we were scheduled to play at the Pucker Brush Festival in Central Il. located out in the beauty of the Gin Ridge area, out in the hills with many fine folk. As far as the weather channel reported the day before we were safe to go. Lo'& Behold upon waking up in a questionable motel in MaComb Il. after a night of story swapping around a big ass campfire in the woods, I stumbled to the window to see that the Monsoon had followed me and planted it self in just the right place to create mudslides, new rivers and lakes and a possible reservoir right where that stage stood. All that was gonna happen there was rescue efforts to save a group of hardcore camping music lovers. I did a fair amount of traveling but the rest of the fellers got some money for hanging out around the house, once in a while that's nice especially since gas at that time was $1.95 per gallon, if what some say is true "we are fighting this war for oil, shit even that ain't workin' !!!!!!!!!!
Next shows were South Haven MI. Elmer JC and myself played two days at the 403 Chop House a place where we could only eat there cause they feed us for free($32.00 steaks). Had a ball and ate everything blue I could find. It is the Blue Berry Capital of America so they say.
Last show at the Navy Pier Beer Garden was great, music, that ole' Chicago skyline at night and many fine folks drinking beer out on Lake Michigan very fine !!!!
Next day we played a fine private birthday party in Manhattan IL. pickin', home made food and lawn dancing. Lord summer can be nice.
The following weekend we headed out of town again for the last two outdoor shows. Sat. Madison WI. the Capital Brewery where they make a heck of a good brew. Having Davie at a Brewery is a pretty good mix and Wisconsin beat North Carolina that day so everybodys spirits were up and laughing. Been a while since we had the police next to the sound mixer commanding him to turn it down but this guy knows how to pull down the wrong knobs and fool the dickin's out of 'em.
Sunday we played Mokena Fest in Il. and the band smoked the stage, this little Fest is growing every year, great time We'll be there next year come on out.


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OUT OF STYLE
Well with the change in the weather coming on it was time to get a few clothing items, which meant I needed new clogs. Now I do get a bit of grief over this type of foot wear but got used to them when I lived in Europe for some years. For convenience, comfort and ease of living these things are great and whenever someone makes a comment my instant reply is " these are Sting shoes" everyone likes and admires Sting so that usually shuts them up. Being in the purchasing mode I was having a conversation with this beautiful young lady Shannon about my method of getting the shopping done as quickly as possible. I am not particularly fond of shopping (except at music,computer,pet supply stores) so my method goes like this. Find a shirt I like get 5 of 'em, find the right size jeans get 5 of 'em, find shoes I like get 2 or 3 pairs of 'em. Then in record time I am finished for that season and most of the year.
Now no one has ever accused me of trying to get on the cover of GQ magazine and rightfully so, I just don't have the patience for fashion. I have probably looked just about the same for near 35 years and about every 13 years or so, that look gets vaguely close to what is near to the new style. Besides there is always a counter the new style group that borrows many of my looks to be against what is proclaimed as hip, by the proclaimers of hippness. I never ceases to amaze me that many many folks actually listen and follow the current styles, as the style changes they change and not only that if you are one that doesn't change along with them you become OUT OF STYLE !!! God forbid OUT OF STYLE !!! This relates to haircuts, pant , shirts, shoes, make-up etc. etc. all of it, in their minds it is a message to the world that I know what's happening everyone. When in reality it is just a plan for planned obsolescence by the style merchants, think about it. Every year as the seasons change so do the styles, last years fall clothes are proclaimed by the proclaimers as not suitable for this year and if your wear that perfectly good pair of pants or shirt again this year, well we know what that means... you'll be OUT OF STYLE !!! It evens gets as small as last years colors were navy blue and orange but this year it's maroon and tan, so everyone will know if your wearing last years clothes. You see they have figured out how to make you an obviously unhip, non fashion aware, basically out of it citizen of the dress fro success crowd. So with all this in mind we keep buying new cloths every year, every season replacing perfectly good one's for the new look, that is the planned obsolescence. Oh no another conspiracy must be the trilateral commission again OBSOLESCENCE BY STYLE. Besides they figure as they are screwing us over with price hikes on gas, electric,heating, food, health insurance etc. etc. we are too busy to bitch much because we have to keep up with the style, that will keep us distracted.

So I was having some of this conversation and it came up that lady's take quite a bit longer to shop for clothes. They take care to get the right colors, out fits that match, go well with their color season ( you know that concept of your an autumn, she's a summer, I am a spring etc.) and all this is done with careful well researched and meticulous detail. Now I admire that in a woman after all in my opinion they make the world a much more beautiful place but I made the mistake of mentioning this and was told the reason for this meticulous care was MEN !!! As in if it wasn't for men women wouldn't have to go through all that effort and trouble. BULLSHIT !! Just watch at the next party or public outing and you'll see every woman intensely checking out every other woman's outfit, hairdo and jewelery. Either in admiration or disdain but they are all checking each other out with careful hidden glances, seems it is not good to be noticed doing this . You can see it on their faces in say a large restaurant, as women get up to walk to the bathroom or something all eye's of all the other women in the room are carefully glancing at her outfit and hairdo and calculating a score for her. That's why women look so stiff and controlled when they do head to the bathroom at public places. So we (men) get blamed but the dirty truth is we are only a small part of it.
Now I said the difference between men and women is we are more honest in this aspect we don't care what the women think of our dress, we do it inspite of them, we dress more for comfort and convenience and the weather. I know that won't be popular with the ladies but it is true, how many times have we seen ladies wearing scant high heel shoes when it's 20 degree's out just to look better.
Guys will put on those ugly ass hunting boots, why, because they are warmer, have thinsulate in them, the bigger the bulkier the better !!!!!! I guess this is just one of the wonderful ways we differ
Now this guy thing only applies to guys who are not a "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion" (Kinks) & Style, if they do I wonder if they also watch as the other men head off to the bathroom !!!! My his trousers are much much nicer than mine darn !!

Consultants
This is another pet peeve of mine recently, there is a whole industry of people out there who's entire value is to tell folks what is good bad and a way to screw us over more.

ex. #1 Recently my mortgage company informed me that due to an escrow analysis they found a shortage had occurred and my payment went up $160.00 per month. That's just wonderful, can't figure out how they get the estimate so wrong so often, just absolutely brilliant in my book. So as I was looking up past records I noticed my home owners insurance doubled over the past 3 years., from $425 per year to 920, I was pissed. So I called my insurance agent and he explained that over the last 3 years insurance companies have had huge pay outs and losses so they needed to make up the money so their hired consultants said to make more money they came up with a model for pricing based on credit ratings. Since mine was not exactly perfect my premium was rising every year. Here we go again CONSULTANTS, hell Farmers doesn't extend one bit of credit to me I have to pay for my coverage ahead of time. No pay no coverage.
Makes no difference he said the consultants said maybe my cash for coverage was not as good as someone with perfect credit. Oh another business model designed to squeeze more money out of us by the blood sucking consultants. My thoughts were sell off some of those $3,000 dollar office chairs, maybe get a headquarters building that doesn't necessarily look like the Taj Mahal and maybe have management cut back to a couple of $35,000 cars instead of four $90,000 and up vehicles. How about when a CEO or the likes get's fired for totally doing a horrible job we don't give him a huge reward. These guys who get fired and leave with a 20 to 40 million dollar golden parachute are criminal as far as I am concerned, hell when I got fired I was lucky to get a weeks severance pay.
Maybe just a few ideas like that could keep our premiums normal, see I can be a consultant too !!!

ex #2 My favorite is the consultants that are hired by a company to help get costs down. We know what that means get rid of as many employee's as possible leaving us with just enough people to keep the place going. These guys are like hitmen, so Joe has been here for 29 years and will retire with a pension if he makes it one more year LET HIM GO. No wonder folks are scared out there the big bad boogie man Consultant may be arriving any day to fix things. The worst part is all my friends who have had this happen in their company wind up having to do 2 to 3 times more work to cover the folks who were let go and don't get a nickel more for all the extra work, stress and hours. You see the consultant figured out folks will take it because hell everyone is afraid they will be next in loosing their job so we can pull this off, we have 'em by the short hairs !!! Anyone of us could figure out a myriad of other cost cutting measures across the board to save money we do it all the time in our own lives. We don't go home and say, monies down, we need to cut something, honey we need to get rid of the kids, Johnny has to go!! That will save us 50,000 a year and after all it's only business. We will still have Mary she will just have to take over all the activities and work Johnny did, what's she gonna do leave? Even if she does that saves us more!!