Quick update - The Bluesmobile will get her public "coming out" parties this month. This weekend, on Sunday 6/11, The Hey (a.k.a. Mighty Mack) & I will be bringing the car to the Xtreme Street car show in Raynham, MA. This will be our first time "dressing" for the part since I painted the car... I'll take pictures I'm sure.
Then the following weekend, we'll be in Westfield, MA driving in the "Westfield in Motion" parade, at 4pm on Sat.6/17. It starts just south of the Westfield Green from the parking lot of the First United Methodist Church (16 Court Street), runs down Broad Street and ends up at the Middle School where a vintage (1880's rules) base ball game will be played. (I may be more excited about the base ball game than the parade!) The Hey, "C" (a.k.a. Buster), & I (Elwood) will be there and fully dressed for the parade.
All in prep for her real "christening", the ride to Maryland next month for SHORE LEAVE!
...Be very afraid. It's only about a month until our annual Shore Leave convention trip. I'm especially anxious to be going this year after the debacle of last year, when I did end up going but only for a very abbreviated and hectic 24-hour trip.
Not to mention I haven't had a legit vacation since our Disney trip over a year ago. And not to mention that at Shore Leave this year we'll be celebrating the 20th anniversary of our Star Trek fan club, the USS Christa McAuliffe, and more to the point 20 years of friendships with an extended family.
And not to mention I've got the Bluesmobile ready to go, the trip to Baltimore to be her "christening".... And not to mention this trip will mark the reunion of the Blues Brothers, my partner and I, for the first time in 17 years!
So what's to be afraid of?
I hear they've changed my bar.
My bar... the Paddock Lounge at the Hunt Valley Inn, where I've been spending one weekend every summer for the past 25 years doing my best to relax and lose myself from the outside world. The place where the profile photo of me at the top of this page was taken. A quiet (well, at times), warm, cozy retreat with a hunting lodge feel.
Apparently, according to my friend the Little Guy, it's undergone some "major" changes: "They've made it more 'nouveau business' Crate & Barrel/Pier 1."
MY bar!!!
Well, how bad could it be, really? They'll still have beer, right?
We'll see. My fear is it will have lost its cozy charm and become just another soul-less (souless? soulless?) corporate watering hole for business travelers on the move.
Fortunately, there's Padonia Station just a couple of miles down the street... if the Paddock is now an alien place, I can spend a good chunk of the weekend there. And in the meantime, the locals need fear as well....
After all, the Blues Brothers - and the Traveling Beerbellies - will be tearin' up the joint!
Yesterday "C" (a.k.a. "Buster Blues!) turned 9. I stayed home and we had a terrific family day, very fun yet very low-key. We went swimming, then out for a nice dinner at our favorite family restaurant, Pizzeria Uno's, then home to open presents. He'll have a small birthday party this weekend; I shouldn't and won't complain but for the life of me we couldn't get him interested in a "big" party or event! He was certain he wanted a party with just three or four of his closest friends, and extended family, and he wanted to have it at home. Well, saves us some money at least!
It's going to be a very hectic weekend though, got several errands and one (potentially unpleasant) medical appointment tomorrow, then C's party on Saturday, than an early college graduation brunch for The Momma's brother in northwestern MA Sunday morning. (Those who know us realize we don't do "early" well, especially when we're going somewhere a couple of hours away!) Also for C's party we have to go pick up a couple of C's friends in New Hampshire Saturday morning, and bring them back afterwards in the afternoon... yeesh! But at least they're all fun events so it'll be worth the extra work.
One year ago this week we were at Disney World for C's 8th birthday... we'll be heading back there this fall and we're already counting the days until that trip (136). Kungaloosh!!
Things have calmed down to some extent at work, and should continue to get better over the summer. Maybe I'll actually start updating this thing more often again! (But no promises....)
Work on the new Bluesmobile has been going well, and you can see the latest "in progress" photos here.
Most of the big work is done, excepting some large graphics on the roof, but there's a couple of days' worth of detail work still to complete, and I want to try to get more severe "weathering" done as well. Now if only I'd get some warm, dry weather again! It looks like Memorial Day weekend may be nice (though still over a week away so no placing bets), hopefully I'll be able to get a lot done then. My ultimate deadline remains my trip to the SHORE LEAVE convention in early July... only about 6 weekends away now, 5 considering this coming weekend will be a bust.. That seems like it won't be a problem but the bad weather has certainly pushed me closer to the deadline than I'd like... and I really want her done sooner so that I have time to get her nice and dirty!
Also of interest, a couple of weeks ago The Hey's wife said she saw a Bluesmobile clone driving around in Rhode Island. The license plate? "BLUES2", same as my MA plate! Quite the coincidence! Then just last week Towaway found an article in a RI newspaper about that same car, which led me to their web site. The story of their "Blues Mobile", and a link to several pages of photos, is here. I'll have to take a drive down there sometime once I get mine all finished, always fun to meet kindred spirits!
