How I Spent My Summer Vacation

[journeybear]

My band took a break this summer, for various reasons. Which was fine with me, as I was getting a bit burned out and stressed, between all the drama in the band and also at my day job. I took a couple weeks to go to my dad's 90th birthday party, and also to take the time to do some travelling and visiting while I was at it. This was the first time I've taken that much time off from here in a long while, and I had a few adventures, some of them mandolin-related.

I'll get to all of that presently. But first I wanted to share this with you, in case anyone is interested in taking a cruise (http://www.cayamo.com/)with a lineup of great performers, a festival at sea. Lyle Lovett and his Acoustic Group, John Prine, Lucinda Williams, Richard Thompson, Brandi Carlile, Buddy Miller, Kacey Musgraves, Shawn Colvin, Rodney Crowell, David Bromberg, Jim Lauderdale, and two dozen more. The ship sails from and to Miami to St. Barts and St Croix, for eight days, in the middle of January.

I know, what does this have to do with a summer vacation? Well, if you live in the southern hemisphere ... :whistling: Look, I had to get your attention somehow. But don't get your hopes up - it's sold out. :( BUT, there's a waiting list. That's why I'm rushing this out now, before I can get around to writing up reports of my summer vacation. If you are interested in this, you'd better jump on it, because there probably won't be a whole lot of cancellations. The early bird gets the cabin. ;) It's pretty darn expensive, though.

Oh, I forgot to say - Feel free to tell us all about YOUR summer vacation!

[Randi Gormley]

Well, I spent two weeks this summer pretty much mandolin-less, which was odd. I had to pass up on catskill irish arts week and greyfox because my daughter got married and then we went on a (music-less) cruise for a week, although I did get a chance to play for about 2 tunes in Halifax courtesy of a strolling musician. I did get to hear some dynamite Cape Breton music when we stopped there for a couple hours during the cruise. The rest of the time was work, so not much entertainment. Lots of playing out, though, including a couple stints at a friend's new startup session/gig and playing for another friend at a church service.

And we played at a wake/calling hours last weekend for one of our beginners who "died suddenly," as they say. He had just gotten up enough courage to start a tune at our Monday beginner's session and we cheered him mightily; he seemed both relieved and happy, since he's been practicing for months and he's been sitting in the back for as long as he's been coming. Then he escorted one of our less mobile long-time members out to his car and the next we knew ambulances had pulled up to the parking lot. We initially thought our long-time member had fallen, but it wasn't. One of our box players (a nurse) and a whistle player (a cop) ran out to see if they could help but it was apparently too late -- they got his heart started again, apparently, but he 'officially' died the next morning at the hospital. I guess if you have to go, going quickly and right after playing music with friends isn't a bad way. We were invited to play at the funeral home so about 10 of us brought our instruments and played quiet, slow pieces for about 90 minutes in a side room adjacent to where the body was laid out.

And in about 30 minutes I have to leave to play another Irish festival. I guess summer officially ends this weekend. It's actually been one of the nicest summers I can remember because it's been relatively cool and minimally humid.

[JeffD]

Spent a week at a lake side resort in New Hampshire, resting up before going to West Virginia for a week of old time music and almost constant jamming. Back to work afterwards, to rest up from vacation.

[Jim]

Took a weekend off to go to the "Snap Pea" music jamboree at Earth Mountain. It's a great little music fest near where I live in southern Colorado. Music around the campfire on Friday night, Bands all day and evening on Saturday and campfire music again on Saturday night. I took my son , who was out from Seattle as well as a female friend of mine. Saturday night while at the campfire my son said he was tired and went off to the campsite, I stayed at the campfire awhile longer playing. I turned in about 1 am and at about 3:30am heard my son puking. I figured since beer had been the beverage of the day that he had over indulged and went back to sleep. I heard him get sick again about dawn and decided we should skip breakfast and go home. I started packing up. At this point I should say that drinking water is scarce in this part of the mountains. I had brought a couple gallons that were in the cooler , however I had also brought a gallon of water I had scooped from the stock tank for my dog. That bottle was just rolling around in the back of the pickup. The bottle was dirty and the water had a green tint and it never crossed my mind that anyone would drink it. Well , you guessed it, thirsty from a hot day my son just grabbed a bottle in the dark & drank it. Then after getting sick the first time , he drank more. I figured it out , seeing the bottle half empty as I packed up. I felt terrible, but not as bad as he did. My stock tank is filled with rainwater collected from my roof and my Llamas drink it as does my dog. Fortunately we've had a lot of rain this year and the water has remained fairly fresh. Anyway we flushed his system with lots of fresh water and he was OK by the next day. An that was how I spent my summer vacation.