Mr. State Trooper, Drive By Truckers

New Jersey Turnpike ridin' on a wet night 'neath the refinery's glow, out where the great black rivers flow
License, registration, I ain't got none but I got a clear conscience
'Bout the things that I done
Mister state trooper, please don't stop me
Please don't stop me, please don't stop me

Maybe you got a kid, maybe you got a pretty wife the only thing that I got's been both'rin' me my whole life
Mister state trooper, please don't stop me
Please don't stop me, please don't stop me

In the wee wee hours your mind gets hazy, radio relay towers lead me to my baby
Radio's jammed up with talk show stations
It's just talk, talk, talk, talk, till you lose your patience
Mister state trooper, please don't stop me

Hey, somebody out there, listen to my last prayer
Hiho silver-o, deliver me from nowhere

--Bruce Springsteen

That was my theme song on Sunday morning about 0130am on the way home from the Drive By Truckers show in Ashevegas.  Yep, my first ticket in about 9 years.  I even got the fun experience of blowing into my state trooper's breathalizer. Now, that is always fun!  Luckily for me, I hadn't had anything to drink in about 2 1/2 hours and was sober as the test showed only a trace of alcohol on my breath.  Still, I got a nice 75 in a 60 zone.  I am planning to go to court as I don't think I was going that fast and to top it off he even told me that the speed limit was 65mph and that they were changing it back soon.  Gee, thanks!  

But, despite the fun with Mr. Johnny Law, Chad and I saw a rock and roll show from a great band at the Orange Peel, one of my favorite places in all the land.  It's spacious (even when packed and sold out like Saturday night), smoke free and the staff is always easy to deal with for the youngsters.  You have probably read about me loving some Drive By Truckers and they did not disappoint on Saturday with about 27 songs jammed into a nearly 3 hour set.  My recording turned out great and I am uploading right now.  Another taper buddy got the soundboard patch and we should see that surface soon!  Can't tell you how much fun we had at the show.  Even got in a nice dinner at Bordeaux's Bayou BBQ, where Tricia and I ate last January for the Marc Cohn show at the Peel. Nothing like good BBQ with a kiosk of about 15 different sauces to pick for your plate o' Q.  Love it, check it out if you are in Ashevegas, it's next to Barley's taproom and across the street from the double decker bus that is a coffee shop, I think that is Patton Ave.  

Great worship Sunday (yes, I went to seek atonement for my night of fun) at Freedom on Sunday.  Hearing the band sing "I'll Fly Away" with Ben Patat on banjo was really cool and I had the goosebumps left over from the night before still going strong.  God lets you experience his joy of music in the strangest of places.  Thank you for that!

We had some friends from Freedom over for the Super Bowl and I made it until the beginning of the 4th when the house was winding down.  I was a little exhausted from all the rawk and roll as you can imagine after getting up at the crack of 0730 to help set up for worship.  Did I mention all that was worth it?  But, I missed an amazing 4th Q of football it seems.  It reads like an incredible bit of football I missed.  I still can't believe that end of the 1st half play.  How can you not catch a linebacker down the length of the field?  It's like trying to out run a school bus.  It can't be that hard, right?

Oh well, just finished the tax return.  Not as good as last year and I had to make some allowance changes on the W4 to accomodate the razor's edge on this year's return.  It was positive but not by much and I don't like to cut it that close.  You never know how the year will pan out for deductions.  Who knows what the tax bill will look like or if we will even have a federal government come next January.  

Most of this week will be spent studying for ACLS class that I am helping teach at Tuomey in Sumter on Saturday.  Miles and Dylan are heading down with me and are going to hang out with Nana and Pete on the farm.  I am also going to get some rose bushes (Abraham Darby) and cedar trees from Uncle Harold's nursery.  It's almost time to get going on the new rose bed in the yard.  

Well, everyone else is already in bed and it's 9pm.  Miles has been feeling green and puny all day and Tricia and Dylan were tired.  I think I am heading that way too. 

See ya!