floods and reunions

my daughter and i had a great time in chicago a few weeks ago. the High School Musical play was awesome! i think i actually enjoyed it more than Wicked, which we saw at Christmas time. i highly recommend taking your daughters if it comes to a city near you. i also attended a Cubs/Cardinals game while in the city. the Cubs lost, but it was still a good time. it doesn't get much better than Wrigley Field on a nice day. actually, it wasn't a very nice day. there was a seventh inning rain delay. come to think of it, the rain caused the cancellation of the air and water show that weekend, too. oh, and the rain flooded my parents' and my sisters' homes! i spent two or three days of my "vacation" helping them bail water out of their basements. it was nice seeing all of their friends and neighbors pitching in to help each other. many people had it much worse than my family. on the first day of the flooding, i was outside in the flooded streets filling sandbags side by side with one of the members of my old high school band. speaking of which, i attended my high school reunion while in town and there was a pre-reunion get together at a local bar the night before where the original members of my high school band reunited for the first time in 25 years. the rumor had been circulating for weeks that we might reunite, so practically the entire town of Morris was there to witness the event (aside from my poor parents who were still hard at work bailing out their basement. when i got home that night around 2:30 in the morning, they were still working, so i took off my shoes, rolled up my pant legs, and bailed water until the sun came up). my old band, Royal Star (c'mon, i was twelve when i thought of the name! it was cool back then), played three songs, rather well i might add, considering that a few of the guys hadn't even picked up an instrument in over two decades. i sang, but made certain that we didn't perform until midnight when everybody was good and loaded. we opened with 'Champagne Supernova' by Oasis, followed by 'All Along the Watchtower' and 'Meet Virginia'. the drunken crowd was a big help, singing every word with me. there were plenty of cameras and video cameras rolling, so i'm sure there will be unauthorized footage showing up somewhere down the line. all in all, it was a very fun trip home. it was really great to see all of my old friends and neighbors, and to play with my old bandmates again. my daughter even thought the flooding was fun. she and her cousins had a blast playing in the flooded roads and ditches in my old neighborhood. it reminded me of when i was a kid. we flew home to las vegas last sunday night and i took her to her first day of school monday morning. she's a big first grader now.

anyway, football season begins this week. i am very excited about that. i plan to attend the Bears/Cowboys sunday night football game at soldier's field in week three. until then i will work on my book and maybe even golf a little. have a good week everybody...

jimmy