Dancingbearfromvox's Blog

This weekend was the National Folk Festival and it will be in Nashville for three years.  There were seven stages and about thirty different bands and attractions.  I like the Beau Soleil Cajun band the best and the Québécois band also.  There are Hawaiian bands, African, Irish, and a troupe of Chinese Dragon Dancers.  We went to a Flea Circus to start.

Everybody wants to have fun but it is so hard when it is nearly a hundred degrees and the humidity is 80 percent. Tons of greasy festival foods but none compelled me to ingest them. We had $7.00 glasses of Lemonade.  I can’t imagine what a $10.00 funnel cake must taste like.

The original “tour bus” is parked for you to walk through. There is a display for the downtown Letter-press print shop that has been making music posters since the 30’s.  They did all the old posters that go for tens of thousands of dollars on the Antiques Roadshow.

My favorite exhibit featured live and in person Manuel.  You may not know his name but he has changed the face of popular culture.  He designed the Lone Ranger’s costume and Elvis’ Gold Lame costume as well as many of his other Vegas costumes.  He designed the Logo for the Rolling Stones with the Lips and tongue.  He did the Grateful Dead’s little row of bears.  He has done most of Dolly Parton’s outfits as well as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Aerosmith, and many other musicians.  His costumes are in The Smithsonian as well as the Met and other museums around the world.  He has a store on Broadway in Nashville and you can walk in and see some of his amazing handiwork.

There is a big train trestle that runs through the center of the park.  They loaded huge colorful construction vehicles on big flatbeds and parked the train on the trestle so these big monsters are the backdrop for all the stuff going on. Love it.

We then went to a football game.  We won big.  It was our new coaches first game and we did really well.  I took a picture of one of my employees flying through the air.  She’s a cheerleader and she is the high flyer so she is frequently tossed around like a lumber camp toy.

I just read that the murder case of Larry King ended in a mistrial.  It seems that bringing a gun to school and shooting a 14-year-old gay kid in the head during class has too many gray areas for people to decide if it is murder or not.  They didn’t want the poor shooter to spend the rest of his life in jail.  I mean, after all, he was abused by his white supremacist father so of course we don’t want to protect society from him with all these fags wandering around.  Especially the little ones.  They turn into big ones so if we stop them early we are all better off.

We are going back to the festival and for the first time in months our temperatures are dropping to the seventies.  It’s because of the hurricane that is hitting New Orleans and pushing cold air north.

Kevin’s birthday is this week so I loaded him up with Vandy attire for football and basketball season.  He has a t-shirt with a picture of a Bobo looking dog chewing on our arch rival’s emblem.  He got a new hat, bomber jacket, sherpa hoodie.  He is just plain spoiled.

The Chancellor of the University I work at had me and the Medical Center Staff Advisory Council over for a reception to thank them for all the work they do on behalf of our hospital.  We had a good time and they really deserved it.  He knows that and he never misses the chance to let people know how much they are appreciated.

I was changing the litter and to my surprise it seems the dog must have climbed in and took one.  Well, he really didn’t but then that means that one of my little Lotus Blossoms planted the Burj Khalifa in the middle of our desert.  I thought to myself that it couldn’t have possibly been one of the cats but have decided if it were it must have been Zola since the turd was half as big as either of the other two.

Michele Bachman won the Iowa straw poll with around 4,800 votes.  That is about 13,000 less than I got at work to be the President of our staff council.

We took Bobo to the dam today for a walk and swim.  The temps were in the 80’s and this is one of the first walks we have taken in weeks.  I also washed 5 area rugs outside and have been drying herbs.

Here is today in pictures.  I forgot I was going to make a video of Bo doing all his tricks.  He can shake left, shake right, high-five both paws, sit, lay, kiss, and run around like a maniac.  He doesn’t even require a treat.  He just loves doing these things.

Well, it’s shark week and I hope everybody is enjoying it.

I have been overwhelmed and anti-social lately.  Partially the 95 degree plus temps for almost a month and many days over 100 degrees.

I had my fiscal year-end at work so busy with that.  I’m getting ready for the return of the students in a few weeks so getting their paperwork ready and waiting happily for their return.

My boss retired last friday and he has been a good mentor.  Thanks to him I have met all the top people where I work and been used as a good example.  We were ranked again as one of the top hospitals.  Out of 5,000 that are eligible out of so many more we were ranked 14th in the country. That’s up three from last year and perhaps one day we will be in the top ten.

I had officer elections for two of my support positions in the Staff Council at work.  There will be pictures following. I have a good team now and we are planning a pizza party, dessert bar, cookbook, t-shirt sale, auction, and craft fair.  They are all coming up within the next two months so I will just be busier and busier. Proceeds benefit our employee hardship fund.

The world seems to be turning off kilter lately.  I am missing Tater so much.  Even with Bobo I am finding myself grief-stricken and very sad much of the time.  Bo on the other hand has learned to sit, lay, shake left, shake right, high-five, kissie, and if only he would learn to come when called.  We haven’t been able to take him to the park for weeks.  It is just too hot.

We had elections for City Council.  I had my sign out front and my candidate won.  She came and spoke at work.  When I showed up to vote she was out front in her crowd and ran across the street and welcomed me by name.  She said she saw that I had moved my yard sign to a more prominent location.  She lives around the corner.  I figure I should vote for someone who is part of my community and lives in my neighborhood.  She has her whole life.  We helped her get elected the first time so were very happy she made it again.  She co-sponsored anti-discrimination laws and is a fierce equality advocate even though it is not popular in the black community.  Five years ago she sat on my front porch and asked me what was important.  I told her about Kevin and myself and our many years together and I think that she really listened.

I was in the bathroom at work and was horrified to hear someone in a stall taking a fierce one while talking on the phone and eating Reese’s Pieces.  I know that because the bag came sailing out from under the stall.  I was wondering if the person on the other end of the phone knew they were being talked to during a bowel movement and a snack and then I figured he would have obviously mentioned it.   Oh woe is me.

I am glad we painted the family room because we haven’t left it for a month.

Our niece Genna is getting married and I am doing her invitations for a present.  She is getting married at the big old train station downtown and it should be lovely.  Her fiance is a fireman and she is arriving on a vintage fire truck.

I am drying tomatoes and herbs and cooking today while napping in between.  Eventually I will get my Google Plus up and running but I am also doing three website/blogs at work and I am sapped.

Here is the month in pictures.  I have been a bad neighbor but will eventually catch up with everybody.

U2 was at Vandy but we didn’t go.  Too hot, crowded and young. And old all at once.  Saw them 30 years ago.

American Pickers guy opened a store in Nashville.  Antique Archeology opened in the Marathon Motors building.  It’s an old defunct auto manufacturer in a neat old brick building.  The crowd was too big to stand in line but it’s only a few blocks from here and once the newness wears off we will pop in for a visit.

Bobo got neutered and is home and no calmer than he was before he left.  But a good boy.

Bill, Lauren, Landen, and Brielle were home for a visit.  We went to Kevin’s sister’s house for the 4th for a barbecue.

I took a few days off and we painted the family room.  It feels better already.

Harvesting daily.  Maters, beans, peppers, herbs.

Zola is coming over tomorrow and we will probably go somewhere.  We did take Bo to the fireworks and he was well-behaved.  We stayed partially out-of-town but could see them from where we parked across the bridge.

Father’s Day isn’t much fun without a father.  Well, it isn’t the same as it used to be.  It was Gay Pride weekend in Nashville and we sat this one out for inclement weather.

It was Zola’s birthday and that means it was Tater’s also.  Sniff.  Miss her and dad.  Didn’t even see Zola even though she worked the Pride Festival.  We have a present for her however and will make sure we see her soon.

I made Chicken Parm and baked Celery Seed bread.  It’s like Rye with Celery instead of Caraway.

Bobo has been going through the terrible twos.  The doggie equivalent.  But we are still in love with him no matter what he does.  He’s been a bad boy.  Too funny.  His Bar Mitzvah is July 5th.  He will be more of a Mounds than an Almond Joy.  That may calm him down a bit but either way he has us in stitches every day.

We went and saw Kalisa sing Friday night at the Listening Room.  She is launching her album.  We had a good time.

The weekend went way too fast and I could use 4 or 5 more days off.  The weather sucked and that was good.  I sat on the cool couch and watched a few movies.  The Runaways and The Kids are Alright were two of them.  I cleaned the Bombay Room and did lots of laundry.  So while I am rested I am still tired.  Kevin and Bobo are running through the house raising heck.  It makes me laugh.

Bonnaroo is going on and the FanFare or Country Music Festival is going on also.  Town is packed, packed, packed.  There have been Bieber sightings and even Jerry Springer was here.  I saw a picture of Bieber with Ludicris and that is about as ludicrous as it gets.  Mary Steenbergen was here.  Lance Armstrong did a bike race for charity.

Some poor lady died at Bonnaroo.  They still haven’t said why.

Of course most people have heard about Tracy Morgan’s anti-gay rant the other day.  It was at the Ryman auditorium and the news keeps saying he was at a Nashville Comedy Club.  The Ryman is the former home of the Grand Ole Opry.

About 3/4 of the people who have even been on American Idol are all here also.  And the top hundred Country Music performers also.  Dolly Parton is performing for the first time in 30 years at FanFare.

But we got a treat today.  We are staying away from all the mess downtown.  We went to Centennial Park and saw Emmy Lou Harris perform to raise money for a dog rescue.  She sang a song called Big Black Dog and Bo loved it.  He really did.  Kevin bought him a virgin  snow cone.  It was a bowl of shaved ice with no flavoring.   He didn’t buy me one.

So we were leaving and walking all the way across the park and Emmy Lou happened to be walking with us and chatting and making a fuss over Medium Black Dog.

I went shopping and got us both some jeans and a few shirts.  We don’t shop for clothes much.  I bought a pool for Bo and a jumbo bag of litter.

Tonight we are watching Vandy play Oregon State and if we win we will go to the College World Series for the first time ever.  We stand a good chance. We beat Oregon State last night 11 to 1. We could go to the game but it’s on TV and much less hot.

95 degrees for 15 days and it’s June.  Should be 80ish.

Kevin and I are flipping back and forth between Niecy Nash’s wedding and the Ultimate Fighter finale.

We went down to the river today and are going to a lake out west tomorrow.  Since the kid loves swimming so much it gives us a great excuse to find mischief and water all on the same excursion.  It is blazingly hot.  It hardly feels like the air is on.  There were festivals and so forth but we are not festive in this heat.

I made chicken Fajitas with our own fresh Cilantro.  Last night we had beans and salad from the garden and I can’t wait for fresh tomatoes.  Kevin cleaned the laundry room and I did the front yard and watered.  He has been watering at 10:00 every morning so we haven’t lost anything yet.  Only the Casablanca Lillies are in bloom.  In a few weeks there will be Rose of Sharon and Crepe Myrtle and maybe Four o’clocks. Day Lillies also.  It is very green.  I like plain green gardens sometimes.

The Cicadas can’t be here for much longer.  They are everywhere but in pairs now.  Whoo hoo! Hot insect copulation.  There are piles of them under the trees in one of the parks we go to.  The trees are peppered with them.  They are airborn, land roving, and loud.  They will be gone soon and it was definately a different thing to experience.

I spent a few days cleaning.  I did windows, venetian blinds, rugs, and of course laundry.  Trying to get the smell out of the house.  Too hot to have windows open for long so you just need to clean rather than air out.

I moved Bo’s condo to a corner out of the middle of the floor.  We can open the front door again without having to move stuff.

Mowed the lawn, weeded, pruned, weed eated(sp.), leaf blew (sp.)?

I cut Kevin’s hair today.  Short.

We  have been eating beans every other night and they are so good.  The more you pick, the faster they grow.  We also ate an entire pot of lettuce but plenty more planted and growing.  We are on our third pot of lettuce and have a few heads of Romaine left.

The maters should be here soon and I planted tons of cherry and grape tomatoes along with Romas.  The faster they ripen the better off we are.  I may make Spearmint tea later.

We went to the War Memorial today and let Bobo go swimming in the fountain.  I have never had a dog swim underwater before.  As soon as he went in he held his breath and went under and swam underwater.  Such an odd little boy.  He had a blast.  It was in the high 90’s so I took a cool whip container full of ice cubes figuring it would be cold water by the time the walk was over.