Outside of Hampton South Carolins

Foto by Jorma Kaukonen

Tuesday I drove 580 miles from the Fur Peace Ranch to Hampton, South Carolina where Zach’s mom, Stephanie was to b interred. Zach has grown into quite the young man… he is carrying the weight well!

Cotton fields next to the cemetery...

Foto by jorma Kaukonen

She will sleep in peace here…

Under the shade of this live oak.

Foto by Jorma Kaukonen

Fair wind and following seas sister…

In the last week we had two fine shows. Last Saturday night was Denny Laine with Joe Orlando on bass, Belle Liao on keys, Jeff Otis Brown on guitar an Owen Goldman on drums. Thanks so much Denny for great classes and a fine show. This weekend we had Matt Schofield and his trio with another awesome show. The weather for our Pick And Putt ride was awesome and all the positive energy here at the Fur Peace Ranch helped lift our spirits a little from the news the Stephanie, my son Zach’s mom, passed a two PM on Friday.

She had fought a hard battle against the cancer, but in the end, the day was not hers to win. She was a fearless advocate for Zach all his life and the qualities of manhood he shows today are certainly at least in a great part, the result of her stewardship. Her pain is over and that at least has to be a blessing. I will be leaving for the funeral in South Carolina tomorrow.

Prayers and thoughts are always appreciated.

September 11 crept up on me this year. In some ways 9/11/01 seems like a lifetime ago and in others it was only yesterday. At eleven years old those moments a decade and a half ago are more unimaginable to my daughter than WWII is to me. She has inherited this world along with the rest of us, but she was not yet born when it was.

This morning was the closing of another session at the Fur Peace Ranch and even though I wasn’t teaching this weekend I played a little coffee break concert at the Beatrice Love Kitchen. They had just started reading the names of the fallen as I picked up my guitar and headed on over to the porch. In memory of those who perished that day and those who continue to perish as a result of that day, I played Washington Phillip’s ‘What Are They Doing In Heaven Today?’ I could think of nothing more fitting.

I will remember 9/11 as long as I have breath… where I was, what I was doing, who I was talking to, what I was thinking about… I do not know if that is a good or a bad thing, but that is how it is.

I remember it all… and I mourn in my own way.

Sunset by drone

Done shot by Jorma Kaukonen

Life is always lived against the fall of night. Born into light we start our journey chasing the end of day. If we’re lucky, we will enjoy many years between that first and last light. I have been lucky… very lucky. I find myself saying, ‘At my age,’ thus and so might or might not be in the cards and I have earned the right to wax philosophic in the way of old men.

But always though. I am surrounded by youth with a 20 year old son and an 11 year old daughter. They have plenty of time before they need to either hear this nonsense or spout it themselves and that’s more than alright. Both my kids made it through their first week of school and though it’s early in the game, they’re both looking good. We caught the detritus of Hurricane Harvey in the form of two days of rain and there wasn’t even much of that. Again, lucky. I did get a chance to do a lot of drone flying though.

I see things no one else can see...

Drone selfie by Jorma Kaukonen. Goggles by DJI.

There were some fabulous sunsets and I got a chance to experiment with the drone camera.

Nice light for nine PM!

Drone shot by Jorma Kaukonen

Idyllic from on high!

Drone shot by Jorma Kaukonen

Yesterday I worked around the Ranch but today after I let Izze practice volleyball by firing serves at me I took a hundred mile ride on the bike. This has been a fine Labor Day Weekend indeed! Indeed, another step on the journey, but the end is not yet in sight!

Good times…