Life can be such a weird mix of happy and sad, exciting and ordinary, and all the other elements of life that make the journey so interesting and fun as well as difficult. Of all the good and bad things of my life, I don't know that I'd want to give any of them up because they brought me to where I am now. It's the story of life isn't it?
It seems like every summer has been my best summer, but this past summer really was one of the best. One of them--it's hard to decide, but this summer of 2024 was a good one for me. There was so much during our June vacation that made this summer so good, but I won't go into that in this post. Just one story if I may.
Due to some unplanned changes in our schedule, we ended up leaving New Jersey after over two weeks at the beginning of June spent with my daughters and their families. The unexpected schedule change caused us to decide to go to Chicago where I would drop my wife off to spend a week with her daughter's family while I drove back to California on my own. I was fine with that.
Since I would be so close, I decided to visit a dear old friend from my show biz life who lived in Wisconsin not far from Chicago. I hadn't seen him and his wife for about 40 years though I'd often spoken to him on the found during that time. They were both very welcoming to me and I spent two days with them. We reconnected with no problem. It was like we'd just left off from our last visit.
In short, we had a great time. So many stories to tell! The two day visit was jam-packed and I had a great time. However, I had to get back to California so I'd be there when my wife arrived. The trip home was wonderful. I thought of my visit with my friends most of the way home and called while I was driving just to let them know how I was doing and thank them for their hospitality. I let my friend know that I'd call him August 1st after he had returned from a trip to Quebec where he was going to visit his wife's family.
The cruel part of the story is that a couple of days before I was planning to call my friend, his son called me to let me know that his dad had passed away in his sleep the previous night. Such irony that I had managed to visit at that time in order to see him again. I hate losing friends.
Battle of the Bands Results
Cruel Summer Battle
Two songs, same name. My most recent Battle was between two different songs by Taylor Swift and Bananarama, both songs having the same name with similar concepts being conveyed.
My vote is for Bananarama. I'm not familiar with the music of Taylor Swift so this song was new to me. I can't say that I hated it, but to me the song is what I would imagine an AI song to sound like. Or maybe a song formulated by some sort of songwriting committee. It's kind of fun, but the older song is more fun and more authentic.
Final Vote Tally
Taylor Swift 0 votes
Bananarama 10 votes
Guess we can see where all these voters are coming from generationally speaking. But I don't know. All I know is that Taylor didn't do so good here.
Next Battle Tuesday October 1
What next? Halloween themes? Fall? What? I don't know, but I guess I'll start thinking about this.
