See ya in two weeks

Tomorrow I leave for our annual hunting trip. I’ll be up in Trinity for the next two weeks. I’m so excited I know I won’t be able to sleep tonight.

Two weeks of fresh air, pine trees, and sweeping alpine views. Two weeks of nightly bonfires, cocktail hours, and grilled tri-tip. Two weeks of ice-cold frosty mornings, bad coffee, and desolace.

No cell phones, not even a land line phone, no TV. Just a cabin on the side of a mountain overlooking a lake in the middle of nowhere. Two weeks, baby.

So much left to do, so little time. I still need to buy my hunting license and deer tags. I still need to load up on ammunition. I’m bringing all the dogs this year. I need to buy a few cases of clay pigeons, a few value packs of 12 gauge shotgun shells, 7mm magnum rifle ammunition, .22LR, 9mm, and .45ACP ammo.

Yep!

Why?

A man was sitting in the shade under a tree by the lake, fishing lazily and enjoying his day. A businessman approached him and commented, “That’s not the best way to fish, you know. You need a boat.”

The fisherman raised an eyebrow and responded, “Why?” The businessman shook his head and replied, “So you can catch more fish. You’ll make more money and you can buy more boats.”

The fisherman sat up, looked the businessman in the eye and asked again, “Why?” The businessman began to get flustered and blurted out, “So one day you can make enough money to retire! Then you can relax.”

The fisherman smiled and slouched against the tree. He closed his eyes and simply said, “What is it that you think I’m doing now?”

Money.

Me and Dave have been Eddie Money fans for as long as I can remember. Yes, Eddie Money. Two Tickets To Paradise, Take Me Home Tonight, I Think I’m In Love… that Eddie Money.

Well, last year I had bought tickets for us to see Money at a little Indian casino in Oroville. We talked about it for a good two months beforehand. Dave decided to wait until the last minute to clear it with his wife, and failed to get a pass for the night. Dave missed an epic show.

Well, this year Dave redeemed himself. A few weeks ago we discovered that Money was playing at the Walnut Festival in Walnut Creek. Dave informed his wife that he was, indeed, going this time.

So Friday comes and it’s the day of the show. We headed out to Walnut Creek and found the place without incident, even though neither one of us knew how to get there.

The actual concert was on a soccer field. Money played Saturday Night Live back in the late 70s and used to play sold out arenas. And now he’s playing Indian casinos and soccer fields. But you know what? Money still rocks.

Dave and I drank way too much beer and acted like the fools that we are, screaming “MONEEEEYYYYY!!!” and “EDDIEEEEEEEEE!!!” from the 3rd row. We danced along with the crowd and sang the lyrics right along with all the true fans. When the show was over we could barely speak, our voices were so hoarse from all the yelling.

Back at Dave’s house we killed a 30 pack of Silver Bullets and played Tiger Woods PGA Tour on his Playstation until 5am. I barely remember walking upstairs to the guest room to crash out.

What a perfect evening, eh?

Here are some pictures of me and Dave at the Eddie Money show at the Walnut Festival in Walnut Creek.