Glen Brammell

The neighbor came by this morning to warn me about this weekend. They are having a kids birthday party and the place will be noisy and busy with a couple dozen kids running and screaming across the yards. I remember how it as last year, and can’t believe its already been year since that birthday party.

There is just something about 20 eight and nine year olds running around that gives me a headache just thinking about it. That is way too much energy and noise for me. But for a lot of people, throwing kids birthday parties is like a competitive sport. They hire Party and Event Rentals companies to handle all the details for their kid and the friends, and then the parents don’t have to do much but run the video recorder and chit chat with the other parents who come to the party.

The smart ones hire out the Food Catering, the entertainment and the clean up. The parties in my neighborhood have come a long way since the days when I was a kid and thought that a couple hours in the mall arcade with unlimited tokens was the ultimate party. Nowadays they have
Bounce House Rentals, clowns, face painters, carnival games and all kinds of entertainment options. Its good to be a kid.

This morning I kicked myself for being so stupid. I totally missed the Kentucky Derby yesterday. I got busy outside and forgot about the time. I was cutting the grass and started hacking away at the shrubbery and I pulled up some morning glory vines that were taking over the whole side of the garage. The next thing I knew, it was time for dinner, so I washed up and drove down to KFC and picked up some chicken.

Never even turned on the TV yesterday until the 11:00 news came on and I fell asleep before the sports report. It didn’t even come to mind until I picked up the Sunday paper and read about it in the paper. Duh!

We’ve hit 80 degrees a couple of times already, so I’m starting to think SUMMER. As much as I like the beach, sometimes you don’t want to deal with the parking issues, the long hike, and the sand in your shoes just to get some swimming. There are plenty of days when I would really like to get home from work, throw on my swim trunks and jump in a swimming pool.

Our neighborhood does not have a community pool – one of the drawbacks of living in a house instead of an apartment. So, we’ve been looking at above ground swimming pools to fit in a corner of our backyard. Both of our neighbors have installed high privacy fences, so all we would have to do is put up a fence cross the back – for safety.

I know the neighbors would want to get to be better friends if they thought we would invite them over for a swim in our backyard pool. And we could have some righteous pool parties on Friday nights, with the barbecue grill smoking and some ice cold beverages. Maybe even some string lights around the edges and a couple of outdoor speakers for good music. It’s starting to sound like a really good plan to me.

While visiting on Easter, I found a copy of the book, Crazy Heart, on the bookshelf in my brother’s room. I asked if I could borrow it and he said to take it and pass it on.

I watched the movie with the same title when it came out last year. I thought the movie was outstanding and Jeff Bridges made the main character totally believable.I know a little about the music business, as my dad was a musician and we always had a house full of band members, singers and other entertainers.

It will be hard to read the book without picturing Jeff Bridges as the main character. But maybe that’s a good thing. I think it helps to vividly picture the characters while you read.

So far the book seems to be following the movie pretty closely. I just got into it last night for a couple of chapters. I plan to read the book and then re-watch the movie to compare the two.

The Super Bowl was pretty good this year. While the game was exciting, there are some people who question the wisdom of having the Navy using four F-15s to fly over the stadium that had the retractable roof closed. The fans inside had to watch the flyover on the big screen inside.

There are estimates that it cost the taxpayers somewhere between 100,000 and 400,000 thousand dollars in gas and other expenses. The navy says the cost was worth it as the flyovers are a good recruiting tool. There are many traditionalists who say the flyovers have become a part of our culture and are expected every year.