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Rhymes with Pak Choi

Friday was the Jefferson County Friends of the Library "Whale of a Book Sale" I was planning to head down to the cabin early to beat the heat of the drive (the little pick-up doesn't have AC) and try to get some prep work done on the cabin's floor.  With the book sale starting at 9:00 am there was a choice to be made, but it wasn't a tough one.  The book sale is physically huge and draws a large crowd of book resellers and bibliophile-hoarders.  It also sells CDs for a buck!  When they find me, long after my death, buried under a pile of CDs make sure someone holds these enablers to account.  Sure their public face is all nicey nice but these so called "Friends" take advantage of us of weak will and Scottish upbringing.
  Like a salesman trying to get a couple of extra bucks out of the suckers the "Friends" had an extra something up their sleeve.  $10 early admission starting at 8:00.  Now I'm competitive enough that in years past I've figured out to be there at 8:00 to be one of the first in line when the doors open at 9:00 as the CD section is relatively small and with the resellers it's an elbows out Filene's basement grab fest. (I have a few other simple strategies but nothing I'll share!) So I'm there at 7:59 staring at this sign "early admission $10".  The cheap Scotsman was arguing and rapidly calculating with the competitive hoarder self.  The one minute conclusion was clearly the only way to make both models work was buy lots and lower the fixed admission cost by amortizing it over many units.  Solid math!
  I mention all this because I'm listening to one of my 'finds', a nice clean copy of Eat A Peach by the Allman Brothers.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNuNz2idDtY I needed the slowly building disorganization to organized rhythm of Mountain Jam to get my mind back from working on the cabin floor to my more regular beat of being home. Deb shared a wisdom with me years ago that when people leave on vacation or trips most tend to wrap up loose ends like they are dying.  I've found that coming home from a trip, even just a weekend, I have to reset my rhythm. I've told Deb that a foot rub and her making me a nice dinner speeds this process but she seems to believe this is merely manipulative male myth.  (Damn those NY women!) I noticed it this morning while walking the dogs.  Cooper had come with me to the cabin but the trip without AC would have been too much for Callie.  Thus this morning's walk we needed to regain that pack rhythm.
  Now I had planned out a whole direction for this blog, a 4 hour drive without a radio, (something else the little truck is without) will do that.  But I was wrong.  I was going to write about weeding a subject so ripe with metaphors and life lessons that it would be an easy transition over to my favorite pet peeve with government, maintenance. It was a masterpiece tying small government & small gardens into a neat little wordfest.
  YouTube has switched me off of Allman Bros. To Pure Prairie League's Amie   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4xp2lgiAjY
I am having a problem with my bluetooth connection to the stereo and thus was blaring Allman Bros from the other end of the house. In a kindness to the cat who is trying to sleep down there I switched over to YouTube, but that AI's algorithm isn't quite on my personal rhythm. What to do? Embrace the serendipitous sentiments of a non thinking mass algorithm or push forward with an unplanned and unknown different rhythm simply to prove I'm not a mindless sheeple!?  
  Damnit I'm a man, and a man with a stash of fresh CDs! I've put the stereo back on with apologies to the cat. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is doing a bunch of duets including the always mindful Will The Circle Be Unbroken.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bRJLkNqNXI
 Now I'm not sure quite where I was but I was definitely not talking about weeding.  Although my garden certainly needs it.  The weeding will wait and with a few clouds coming in might even not be a grudge match of sweat and swearing.
  I started off with the Allman Bros and did want to note the passing of Gregg Allman.  I've been to two Allman Bros concerts in my life. The first was actually a Dickey Betts concert with my brother Glen.  I think it has to count as an Allman Bros concert as it was just after some part of the tumultuous history of that band and Gregg was either in jail for heroin or dating Cher or I forget what but I remember all the equipment was stenciled Allman Bros.  It was a powerhouse concert and a cheap ticket at a Texas beer hall.  The second concert was at Red Rocks amphitheater just up the street.  It was back when Deb and I were dating and I remember her asking me who was who in the band.  Being a guy I blithely impressed her with tales of that first concert and made up names for all the band members.  I recall the fellow next to us giving me an 'I don't think so' look but Deb was impressed. I'm sure my depth of musical knowledge is part of why she married me! As it turns out we had the pleasure of watching Gregg Allman play keyboards with one of the many great guitarists he shared stages with, Derek Truck. Gregg Allman's music was beauty his life was a train wreck.
  Ah but it's the rhythms that made that band.  They would hook you onto a song and just when you were sure that it had to end they would lead it off into a whole new riff. And that is my garden right now.  The spinach is bolting and the Pak Choi had to be picked this morning or wasted.  Spring was tough on the garden plants with hail and Denver's split personality of weather but spring's over.  A few pea pods struggled through and will mature into the next bit but it's June and the warm weather plants want the room.  The Basil is still small and in pots awaiting a weeding and a spot near the tomatoes.  The zucchini and cucumbers have poked their seed leaves up and a few yellow crescent pole beans are up back by the alley fence.  It's June but it's just June no hurry Mother nature has her own rhythm. Gardening is at it's most productive and peaceful when you accept it's rhythm much like marriage and walking and old dog. The true measure of conducting your life it seems to me is bringing together disparate pieces in ways that just when it seems that you couldn't find more happiness a whole new riff kicks in and takes you.
  I'll end with a quote from a fellow named Lovett whom I know absolutely nothing about but if some of you do please share it in the comments.  "We merely must recognize that in dealing with people in mass or with governments, one is dealing with something very similar to a natural or elemental force.  No one would consider for one moment entering into a contract with the Pacific Ocean by which it agreed to stay calm, or of accepting the promise of the North wind to blow only once each quarter. yet we have been taught cheerfully to accept the assurances of representatives of forces just as unpredictable, just as full of words, and just as far above and beyond laws which an individual must respect."
  Maybe I can sneak out and mow the lawn before the rain hits. Doug A.

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