We spent the last week in San Diego while I attended a conference for work. It was very pleasant and we enjoyed getting together with my best friend Jim a couple of nights. Jesse enjoyed the pool and attended a special session of the conference for high school students. It was pretty funny to see the people’s eyes open wide as a 6 foot kid with a blue mohawk strolled through thier door. He enjoyed the session and by the time I arrived to get him, the wide-eyed instructors were telling me what a smart young man he was. We visited the San Diego Wild Animal Park while there too. It was my first visit in over 20 years and I was a little dispappointed. The monorail around the park had been discontinued two months prior and you now have to pay for all the little tours they have on top of the cost of entry.
We returned home to our lonely cat that proceeeded to scold us for the next few days about leaving her alone all week. It was a nice break from the norm and now its back to to work and the heat of the Mojave.
Month: June 2007
25 years since the greatest music festivals of the 80s!
I was a sophmore in high school and my brother took me to my very first concert. The 1982 US Festival was put on by Steve Wozniak of Apple Computers. I attended on Saturday and was fortunate to see Dave Edmunds, Eddie Money, Santana, The Cars, The Kinks, Pat Benatar, & Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. It was really hot out, but I got to see some really classic rock. The next year we attended again and were there for the now famous “Heavy Metal Day” and saw a great line-up of metal bands : Quiet Riot, Motely Crue, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Trimph, Scorpions, and Van Halen. I checked out and headed to the car for Van Halen and listened from there as David Lee Roth was so drunk he forgot the words to songs.
Relive the US Festivals
Another one down, Another one down, another one bites the dust!
I have always enjoyed going to Big Box stores, but their spread has had an undeniable effect on small town businesses. When WalMart comes to town, many mom & pop stores end up closing their doors. This week it was announced that one such store in my home town of Barstow has met its demise. Growing up in a small town meant that store’s weren’t known by what they sold, but by the proprieters. We didn’t go to the bike shop, we went to Jay’s. We didn’t go to the Hardware store, we went to H & E. Well, Home Depot came to town and now H & E is closing their doors after 55 years. I remember many a trip with my dad to get something for a home repair project and shouting, “We are going to H & E” as we closed the door and headed for the truck.
Read the article on its closing from the local newspaper.
Monday, Monday
Whew! Last week was a bit of blur as Renee’s brother and dad were in town. They came in Saturday and Sunday we were off to Disneyland. Scott had a great time and got to ride all the rides he wanted too despite being pretty sick. Monday, Jesse and I took dad to Calico Ghost Town which he enjoyed. Tuesday night we headed to Hollywood and I dropped everyone off at CBS to wait in line for Price Is Right at 2 am. Jesse and I slept at the hotel while they stood in line until 6 am waiting for the gates to open. Dad had a great time, but we were all pretty exhausted after that. They flew back to Texas early Friday morning and we spent the weekend relaxing and recovering. (I did a wedding on Saturday, but it was a short ceremony.) It is nice to be back on a regular schedule.