Lost and Found

I wore my jogging pants to Centennial Park yesterday. Because the pockets have a weird angle to them and stuff always falls out of them, I put my few possessions in a small yellow sack and just carried them around that way -- you know, so I wouldn't lose my stuff. I arrived at the park and placed my wallet, iPod, camera, cellphone, and my cash into the sack. (I'm wondering only now why the cash was not actually in the wallet itself. Oh well, I'm weird.)

For most of the day, the camera was around my neck and as I was leaving for my car, I took out the iPod to give it a listen. I also took out my cellphone to call my wife. I got to my car, left the park, and drove down West End Avenue to go home. As I approached the intersection of West End and Murphy Road, I got the impulse to stop in at the Exxon on the corner to buy a Mountain Dew. I stepped out of my car, remembered that my cash was in the yellow sack and reached back in for it. Crap. No yellow sack. Phone in pocket, iPod and camera on passenger seat, wallet and cash in the absent yellow sack. Crap!

I drove back down West End retracing my route. I trudged slowly through traffic while scouting the street for a yellow sack. Maybe I had left the sack on my car roof and it had blown off? I got back to where I had previously parked at Centennial Park and considered driving the route back to the Exxon again. Surely, I had left it on the car's roof. It must have blown off. Had I set it down on the Parthenon's steps when I had called my wife earlier? I didn't think so, and took a minute to consider walking to the Parthenon or getting back into the car. It was unlikely that it hadn't been found by someone else by now regardless of where I had left it. A free wallet with a credit card and roughly sixty bucks for a lucky passerby is what I had left, right?

I was amazed. I approached the Parthenon with a quick pace, hoping against hope. There was a small yellow sack on the steps. It was Labor Day and the park was packed. Diamond Rio and Pam Tillis were performing a free concert. People were everywhere. Who knows how many people walked by that yellow sack and thought it nothing more than empty litter. Whatever luck I was the recipient of, I was in awe to be reunited with my wallet and cash. Phew! Just another day in the life of Mike.

Awkward Moment Of The Week

I was standing by their cart of luggage as they had just checked out of their hotel room; the patriarch was getting the car. Mom was distracted on her cell phone and their five-year-old child was the hyperactive sort and quite pudgy at such a young age and bouncing all over the place. He was cute enough and I could appreciate his youthful starvation for attention.

Kids and I always have a good time. They tell me their names and I shake their hands and tell them I'm glad to meet them. They tell me about their annoying sisters and I tell them that I can relate. I love interacting with the kiddos. But this young man just looked up and into my eyes and sang, "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" What do you say to that? That was just weird as hell.

I'm such a caveman, except I don't have my own TV show.

I've often tried and failed to put archived radio shows from WRVU into iTunes so that I could put them onto my iPod. I've also wondered if it was even possible at all.

Now I've learned that it is indeed possible. It's just me who's not figuring it out. Ugh.

Anyone care to come over and teach me how to use this computer/internet thingy? And watch my kids? And whitewash my fence? It's a lot of fun!

Breakdancing at the Parthenon

The pictures are here and here and a larger video clip is here.

I told them how awesome they were as I was leaving and asked if they were here often. "Every Saturday night," was their reply.

While Pam Tillis and Diamond Rio performed their free concert on the stage right next to the Parthenon, I was thoroughly entertained watching these guys do their thing in front of the big doors. Athena certainly had her choice of music to listen to. It's not just the diversity I love about Nashville, it's also that it all coexists in such close proximity.

This shirt doesn't go with those pants.

No one ever told me that. But I probably wouldn't have listened anyway.

Wildlife Is Beautiful (from afar).

I'm thinking back to a year or so ago when I was on vacation on Amelia Island, where the in-laws live just north of Jacksonville, Florida. I was walking comfortably down Atlantic Avenue to the beach, not a care in the world, and listening to The Hold Steady on the iPod. There is a small stretch on the way where you cross a small bridge over a very large marsh area (about 300 acres). It was at this time when I was shaken from my comfort zone. I'd heard stories of alligators being seen walking down the sidewalks of this little piece of paradise. It occurred to me that this was probably the sidewalk most likely to feel the feet of alligators. And my pace quickened.

I didn't see any alligators that day, I'm happy to say. There's a lot of city boy in me. I'd much rather face the dangers of fast buses and potential muggers than wildlife creatures like alligators, bears and snakes. My wife is vacationing on Amelia Island now and told me today that that marsh area just south of Atlantic Avenue is a popular greenway where people like to hike and get a bit closer to nature. Of course, there are sensible people who have concerns about alligators. Here's what the local paper has to say about that:

He said some people have expressed fear of alligators in the greenway, but the few of them that can be found there are docile and keep to themselves.

Guess what. That's not good enough for me. They say that there's always one in every crowd, and while that phrase is meant to refer to gatherings of humans, I bet it applies to alligators, too.

Earl Bennett, SEC Player of the Week

From VUCommodores.com:

Just two full years into a remarkable Commodore career, junior Earl Bennett opened the 2007 season in even more remarkable style, setting new team and Southeastern Conference records in a dazzling performance versus Richmond.

Bennett, a product of West End H.S. in Birmingham, Ala., earned SEC Player of the Week honors today after catching 13 passes, good for 223 receiving yards and three touchdowns. He also added 62 yards in punt returns. ... more>>

Currently

iPod: Motley Crue

TV: Grateful Dead documentary

PC: Traveling Wilburys on YouTube

I could waste the whole day lounging around like this.

The pool closes next week.

In my opinion, the pool is closing way too soon. Shouldn't it be more temperature based rather than calendar based?

A hotel. One Labor Day weekend.

One wedding on-site.

Three newlywed couples.

A funeral. (He was 37.)

A football team and its fans.

A hug from a regular guest.

A very generous tipper coming home from Alaska.

I come home to my dog and I play Motley Crue and Guns N' Roses on the iPod.

I miss my wife and kids but I'm doing fine in the meantime.

What's Your Labor Day Gonna Be Like?

Me? Home alone.

You?

Heard it. Blogged it.

"Sucks that you have to work on Labor Day."

"Well, I guess I'm just the low man on the flagpole."

No Surrender

Kick back, feed the ducks, relax a bit.

Our Little Lullaby

She's a rose, she's the pearl
She's the spin on my world
All the stars make their wishes on her eyes

She's my Coney Island Baby
She's my Coney Island Girl

She's a princess in a red dress
She's the moon in the mist to me

Tom Waits - "Coney Island Baby"