Woke up in our  very nice hotel  right in the heart of the TAMU campus. This place is huge.. The hotel was oozing with Aggie team spirit.. the stadium was just across the street.. the wallpaper , carpet, books… everything had Aggie slogans on them.. Diane and I took a short run soaking in some of the culture. (Who the heck is the “12th man ?”)  It was fun and a little contagious.. I couldn’t help liking the optimism that I always feel around A&M students and faculty that I know. 

Around 11 we met up with Shaun and Bill y and headed out.. Our destination was the Guadalupe river in New Braunfels where Billy’s band “Disco Expressions” had a gig tonight…   Again it was so fun drivign around with Billy and Shaun. 

We stopped at a giant Texas tradition Buckee’s .. a huge rest stop / food shop frequent in these parts. .. there’s nothing like this in our part of the world

We got to New braunfels and found the venue.. It was in a camp right beside the river. We used to tube down this river as kids..  The event was an annual river festival with 3 days of camping , music, food and drink..  we met up with Billys band mateds and there family.. .. Here’s Iris. 

Billy went to work and we ehaded out to take in the festival.. It was really fun.. First was a band reenacting  “The Bands” Last Waltz concert.. The crowd was mellow and friendly.. a bunch of Texas hippies, and city folks  of mixed ages .. brought back great memories. 

Billy’s band came on about 10 and played a great gig. there are about 9 musicians..  horn section (billy on trombone).. two drummers, keyboard, guitar, bass an a fantastic lead man.. paul. He had all the disco moves and really leaned in to it in a fun and crazy way !

 

We stayed till about 1 .. then headed back to our hotel in New Braunfels. 

such a great day !

nite all., nite sam

-me

On the road again !. .. This time  DIane and I left early this morning for Texas.. Billy and Shaun met us at the Airport and drove us to College Station for a meeting Billy and I  having tonight. It was so much fun driving around texas with those two. We just happened to hit texas in the couple of days when it’s really pretty. The wildflowers were out.. especially the bluebonnets (I put on Nanci Griffiths “Gulf coast Highway” and teared up a little)

We got to College station about 4.. cleaned up.. and billy and I headed out. DIane and Shaun had dinner on the campus which is huge 

Billy and I had dinner with some folks from Texas A&M about a project they working on. Cant go in to the details here.. but what they’re trying to do is very interesting and worthwhile.

I’m hoping we can help them !

nite all, nite sam
-me

Pretty quiet day.. most notable thing was our Fluffy meetup at Hula this evening. We are looking for ways to simplify the setup and takedown of Fluffy’s 50 some odd plywood clouds. This week focus was on “attachment”..

not the Buddhist kind of  attachment, which  is the root of all suffering
( I note.. the 4 types of attachment called out by buddhists are:

• attachment to this life;
• attachment to the three realms of saṃsāra;
• attachment to your own self-interest;
• attachment to a true reality or existence in things and their characteristics
  
  

This is attachment of the more literal kind.. as how we’re gonna attach the #$@3%& clouds to the side of the bus. Lefty (Stein) took us through his thoughts on how we can simplify the support structure for the clouds using precut plywood stands. They should be significantly easier than the 30 or so “christmas tree” supports we currently use. We have until April 15 to work out the detail.. it’s looking good.

The other thing we discussed was the Gantt chart diane and I made for all the stuff we’re trying to do for the lights.. 

Lots of stuff in there.. but doable if we keep making steady progress …

nite all, nite sam

-me

Very quiet day. Highpoint was a good day at work and an excellent prep call for our upcoming XenboX project in California.. (More on that after it happens). . 

My favorite thing about Tuesdays is Diane’s pop-up Yoga classes . We only have them  on free Tuesdays and tonight was a free Tuesday.. A bunch of nice people over for Yoga and soup… 

It doesn’t get much better thanthat !

nite all, nite sam

-me