Music for the Elderly

I was listening to an oldies station while driving down Mission Street today, and realized this oldies station was playing stuff I had played for the kids during my radio career.
Sad.
I was on my way to the drug store. Once I got there, I smiled. The in-store background music was playing Steely Dan, followed by U2.
"Finally, some good music!" I thought, until I realized that a drug store is where old people go to buy their medication to keep from dropping dead.
Really sad.

Summer means blueberries

Every summer, we wait for a simple, single email to arrive from the Rhynard farm: The blueberries are ready!
The Rhynards grow some of the most fabulous, easy picking blueberries anywhere. These are high-bush blueberries, which mean the wonderful fruit is right in front of you. No stooping needed.
The family has, I'd guess, about 10 acres in cultivation, so that means, oh, about a zillion blueberries. 




A serious net overhead keeps out marauding birds, and beneath that, you can collect as many blueberries as you want.
I concentrated on one bush - one - and picked about 4 pounds of ripe, sweet, wonderful blueberries. All told, we came home with about 8 pounds.
There's a lot of blueberry cobbler, blueberry pie, blueberries on cereal, blueberries with cream ahead. I can't object.
It's summer in mid-Michigan, and that's something that makes it wonderful.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Santana!

 I thought Kissy Missy was crazy when she kept sending in entries for WHNN's tickets to the Santana concert at the Soaring Eagle Casino. She wasn't. She pretty much overwhelmed them on a Text to Win Wednesday, and she won. And the seats were fabulous! I had expected to get a place up on The Hill - but we gasped when we saw that they had given us seats in Row G.

The crowd was, well, interesting. We now have reached the point where rock concerts include a fair number of people who arrive with canes, walkers and wheelchairs, but they still wanna rock! The osteoporosis crowd still wants to boogie! But it wasn't just Music for the Elderly - other members of the crowd were as entertaining as Walgreen's After Dark. My favorite: a young woman wearing a dress in what can only be described as a crazy quilt of different paisley patterns. Watch out for the brown acid, man. Her tattoo matched her dress.

And the show was excellent. There's a reason Carlos Santana has been a headliner for more than 40 years. It was remarkably well produced, integrated video on a huge crystal-clear LED screen with musicianship from a jawdroppingly excellent band that went beyond first-rate. The show ran 2 hours, 40 minutes without a break, and won't be forgotten - even by the aging hippies.

A snake in the grass

Literally, a snake in the grass.
This little feller - a garter snake about 2 feet long - made himself known as he slithered across the warm sidewalk leading to the Morning Sun's employee entrance. He quickly made use of his natural coloring to blend in with the grass, but he popped up near one of the pine trees.
Isn't he cute?
Name him Cuddles.