Plans, Plans, Plans
A weekend of reflection for me. my sadness at thinking of all the good men who had sacrificed all they have to offer in the service of freedom and the betterment of mankind deserve our reverence every day but a holiday weekend does draw it into a kind of sharper focus. We owe much to our fellow, flawed humans. Our gratitude does not end with god but must be offered to those who are willing to go to war, to fight to risk their lives as we live ours in the kind of comfort that only great sacrifice can ensure. I pray that every American soldier comes home safe and the need for them to go to war will someday not ask for such sacrifices.

But life does go on and I've come upon a couple of things this weekend that I've slated in for "down the road a bit." First, the good folks at Paul Reed Smith Guitars have opened registration for this year's "Experience." I'm already registered. I figure the Guitar Nazi will register as soon as he can and we'll gimp around the place together. A very good reason to drop as much weight by late September as humanly possibly!
And I've made the decision that I'm going to go to next year's Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC (link goes to this year's festival site). Late May in the Low Country. Culture from opera to dance to jazz and back again. Enough culture to make one leave a trail of it like a snail over dry soil. OK, bad metaphor. But it gives you the idea. I plan to be positively dripping, oozing the ecstasies of the muses. I'm hoping to rope at least one other person into the trip for our mutual edification and cultural experience.