America is Great!

Trump is wrong. Dead wrong. Any country where you can find Arby's at Walmart don't need fixin'. America is already great! 

Let Church Bells Ring

I know this is a little late. But we had a very nice Easter weekend. We had Good Friday off and went to our church to walk through the Stations of the Cross. I had never done this before and it was very moving. 

I spent Saturday trying to resurrect our lawn with forty yards of St. Augustine sod. Sunday was very nice. The service was powerful and lunch afterwards with the family was good. A nice quiet Easter. 

Timex

One of the birthday presents I received this past week was a watch: a Timex Expedition Indiglo with a brown leather band. Actually picked it out myself from the local Target. Listen, Timex isn't fancy. But they are tough and they get the job done. Some of my more expensive watches have proven too delicate for every day living. I'm getting too old for pretense. Just give me something that's tough and lasts. 

NCAA's

And I guess I should post my bracket since the tournament starts today. I got OU winning it all. 

2016

I know I said I wouldn't get political on the blog. But I was watching an interview with Trump yesterday and I finally had enough. I realized I wanted to go on record, public record, to say that Trump is unacceptable. He is unacceptable in every way. He is a sham of a businessman. He is unethical. He is racist, misogynst and a shameless liar. He incites violence. He has no class. He may not be another Hitler but he could be a Mussolini. 

So here are my thoughts on the other remaining candidates (all of whom, however ridiculous, I would vote over Trump):

Ted Cruz: Unacceptable extremist who is even disliked by his fellow Republicans. Plus he lies. Shady "wacko-bird" and a demogogue. 

Marco Rubio: Weasel, not ready for prime time. Bails on people so much that his fellow Floridian Republicans are openly rooting for him to lose his home state. I don't think even he knows what he believes. Was once a Mormon, now a Catholic who attends a Baptist church. 

Hillary Clinton: Untrustworthy. Hides the truth. Cuts ethical corners. Shady. 

Bernie Sanders: Too old. Too far to the left to ever gain consensus. 

So, that leaves the one guy I could possibly endorse: John Kasich. He's not the perfect candidate but he shines much brighter than the ilk surrounding him. He's a moderate conservative with experience  who demonstrates the gravitas of a president. Perfect or not (and there's no such thing as a perfect candidate) he's the guy I'm supporting now. He has a tough road ahead. Must win Ohio tonight. And must hope for a brokered convention. But stranger things have happened. No question, Kasich has to be the guy. 

The Middle Ages

Last night we met up with Kim's cousin and her family at MEDIEVAL TIMES DINNER AND TOURNAMENT. This was Jackson's first visit to the castle and oh my gosh it was one of the greatest moments of his life. 

Halfway through the joust I saw this crazed look in his eye. All was glorious! Falconry! Villains from the northlands! Sword fighting and eating with your hands! He even wants the soundtrack to the accompanying music. Even our knight not winning was no matter for concern. I think he may have enjoyed this more than NASA. 

Night

More music! One of my all time faves, Chris Isaak, released First Comes the Night a few months back. But I forgot about it. Downloaded it a few days ago and it's been on heavy rotation ever since. Saw Isaak at the Dallas House of Blues a while back. Great show and great performer. Good album. 

NASA

We decided this year against a grand Spring Break vacation. But that doesn't mean we can't have fun. So we got into the Durango and drove down to Houston for one night. We didn't tell Jackson our plans. All was a surprise. 

We spent the evening at the Kemah Boardwalk walking by the Gulf of Mexico and eating in a big aquarium next to really big fish and eels. We rode a little train and looked at the amusement park rides. We rode a ferry across to our parking lot then went to bed. 

The next day was why we came. NASA. We went to the Johnson Space Center. We saw the original Mission Control restored to its 1960's glory with all the original equipment. We saw the biggest rocket on earth, meant for Apollo 18 which was scrapped due to budget costs. Spent the whole day doing awesome space stuff. Then we drove home. Cool day. 

More Rain

The year of the aligning of the musical planets keeps rollin'. M Ward released his latest this morning. First thing I did today was to download More Rain.

If I could play the guitar like one guy or sound like one guy when I sing it would be to sound like M Ward. He's got a wall of sound that on every listen opens up new artistic discoveries. Is he folk? Is he rock? Is he blues? Yes. To all.

The Musical Planets

A few weeks ago I noted that this was going to be a most excellent year for music. In an election year full of mud-slinging, lies and noise we will need all the music we can get. Most of my favorite bands are releasing new albums this year. That's a strange thing since many of these groups only release music every few years. It's like the aligning of the musical planets.

Today it was Brazzaville. I discovered Brazzaville in the early 2000's. I've blogged about them many times. They are from Los Angeles, now based in Barcelona with their biggest following in Russia.

So this morning I grabbed my phone, opened the iTunes app, downloaded the album and listened to it via bluetooth over my truck's sound system on the way to work. People take technology for granted. I don't. I'm still amazed that I don't have to order their CD over the internet since you couldn't find Brazzaville in the major record stores (most of which don't exist any more) and have to wait a week or so before it arrived in your mailbox. It took me less than a minute to get their album and I still find that amazing.

Their new album is called The Oceans of Ganymede. I've only been able to listen to the first few songs. But of course it's great stuff. These guys don't disappoint. It's a Brazza kind of day.