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BILL BLOG

Monday October 30, 2023

 

Monday morning and I’m finally back home where a ton of leaves have dropped from our trees…and cooler temperatures are arriving as well. 51 the high today dipping down to a cold 31 tonight with heavy rain. Yikes.

 

THE WEEKEND

I was in Gulf Shores on Friday to finish up my run at the “Meeting of the Minds”. Over 2,500 Parrot Heads came into town for the parties, the music, the award shows, and Rum!  Colorful to say the least.

 

 

Early Friday afternoon I got up on the Main Stage located at the “Hangout” which his located on the beach and sat in with my friend Kelly McGuire for his Lighthouse Series. I did three of my songs with Kelly’s All Star Band of musicians who are so great…each of them. And all of them nice guys. Whole different thing singing with a full band as opposed to singing just solo as I do a lot. My thanks to Kelly and the guys for having me again this year.

 

Then I busted it over to Lulu’s to get up and do a few more songs with Brent Burns. Perfect way to end this festival.

 

 

Gosh, I saw so many friends there, and made a lot of new friends this year as well. I’m sure I’m going to be seeing some of you in the future at some of your festivals and house concerts. 

 

 

And my thanks and appreciation goes out to the festival committee who work so hard to make this a huge success every year. This was the first time it was held in Gulf Shores as opposed to Key West and it was pretty evident that folks enjoyed my favorite vacation spot. So here’s to y’all…and here’s to next year when we will all “Phock” together again. 

 

 

 

SATURDAY

I was up at the crack of dark and zipped home to Nashville. Always good to go, always good to get home and see my wife after being gone 10 days or so. And…I’m getting ready to head right back to Gulf Shores in just a little over a week for the Frank Brown Songwriters Festival November 9-11. And on November 8^th I’ll be doing a house concert with Brent Burns at the Lyon’s Den in Foley, Alabama. Details are up in the Tour section of my website here.

 

 

HEALTH NOTES

The CDC is saying that only 7% of adults and 2% of children have received the new COVID shots since October 14.

 

Medicare premiums will be going up in 2024. Medicare B will increase $9.80 per month to $164.90.

 

Getting your prescriptions this week could be tough as both Walgreens and CVS are threatening a walkout protesting working conditions.

 

LEE ANN RIMES

She has a rider in her contract that asks for a rocker chair to be at every venue she plays…so she can rock I guess. But…she’s also rating every rocker she rocks in which is a fun cool idea.

 

LIKE WE DIDN’T KNOW!

Forbes just released a list of cities with the WORST commutes to work.

 

Here’s the top 5.

 

5…Washington DC

4…Houston

3…Jacksonville, Florida

2…Charlotte, NC

 

And number ONE?  NASHVILLE!  That’s how much this city is growing. Average time to work is now 30 minutes…on a good day. And it doesn’t seem to matter which day or what time of day. Once you get close to downtown Nashville?  You’re pretty much sitting. Pack a lunch.

 

WHAT HAPPENED TO TAYLOR SWIFT?

She was not in Denver for the Broncos-Chiefs game to see her boyfriend Travis Kelce play. Her New Eras tour is getting ready to hit the road again and she’s practicing and getting ready for that.

 

Oh…the Chiefs lost. Just a coincidence right?  They’ve won every game she’s attended so far.

 

TENNESSEE FUNNY

A guy from Britain just tweeted out what each of our 50 states are famous for…in his British opinion. For us in Tennessee he tweeted, “Tennessee is famous for saying ‘I do declare’ and for people fanning themselves on front porches.”

 

I’ve never seen that actually…except maybe at our Cracker Barrel stores while they’re in those rocking chairs playing gigantic checkers.

 

MEANWHILE IN FLORIDA

Folks are moving out of the sunshine state partly because of the chance of volatile weather but also because their insurance rates are the highest in the country. Homeowners insurance has tripled in the last 5 years alone. $4,200 per month for Floridians compared to the national average of $1,700.

 

Still…I think I’d rather pay the higher premium to live there as opposed to paying the lower rate say in North Dakota and shiver through the winter weather.

 

MATTHEW PERRY

54 and gone. Too soon. I was a big fan of “Friends” like a lot of you were and in particular I was a fan of his character Chandler. The Chandler and Joey moments were some of my favorites. But I was also a big fan of his work on the show Studio 60 that lasted just a very short while…but he was a standout in that as well. 54. Wow.

 

 

MARRIAGE JOKE

Wife: It’s over! Get out!

 

Me: Ok, good luck killing spiders.

 

Wife: Wait.

 

GOOGLE THIS

Executives in an antitrust trial claim that Google spent 26 billion dollars in 2021 to make sure that Google is the default search engine that we use. Who knew?

 

HEADLINE OF THE DAY

Goldie Hawn Says She Made Contact With Aliens. “They Touched My Face”. Danged ole Aliens.

 

TODAY

Taking the day completely off to rest and reset after being gone for a couple of weeks on the road. I’ll be putting my feet up this evening to watch game three of the World Series.

 

Have a great Monday!