Storms...Thursday Show...Rubik Cube

BILL BLOG

Monday July 3, 2023

 

Monday morning and its Independence Day Eve. And it’s my wife Kathy’s birthday today. Happy Birthday baby!

 

THE WEEKEND

Mine started Friday evening writing with Grand Ole Opry stars Darin & Brooke Aldridge. They’ll be back on the Opry stage again come first of August. And they’ve been really busy because during the summer months all the bluegrass festivals break out and the two of them and their band play several of those. They’ve also been busy lining up songs for their next album and surprised me by sending me one of those that will make the album that we wrote together “Wildflowers”. Sounds so good if I do say so.

 

 

Friday night I brought them an idea about a song honoring small towns like the three of us did. Darin is from Cherokee, North Carolina which he claims has a “mile of people”. That’s not many. Brooke is from Newfield, North Carolina which is even smaller. And I was born in Montgomery City, Missouri which is even smaller. So we captured some of the charm and quirkiness of living in small towns that turned out to be a very fun song. One more to add to our growing musical pile.

 

SPEAKING OF THE OPRY

Friday night the lights and the power went out at the Grand Ole Opry for a bit.  A rarity. The Opry got flooded of course years ago and had to shut down. But power outages are pretty rare in that building. About 40,000 Nashville residents were out of power. For some reason ours stays on…and that rarely happens. But the next day…Saturday more storms and we did lose power for 3 hours or so. Lightning hit a tree in our neighborhood and it fell on some power lines. We live on a very curvy narrow two lane road so there was nobody getting out of our dead end road until they got the tree out of the way. I think we’ve already had our quota of storms and power outages for the year.

 

It's the heat that keeps bringing in one storm after another here. 90 for a high today in Nashville.

 

THIS THURSDAY NIGHT

I’ll be in Livingston, Tennessee for and “Evening in the Round” show with Linda Davis and Lang Scott at Americanaville. Dinner and a show combined in this great venue about two hours east of where I live. Tickets are on sale, and we surely hope to see a bunch of you there Thursday night.

 

 

HEALTH NOTES

Doctors say there are three types of cheeses that help slim our waistline. Feta, Cottage, and Parmesan. And of course I love cheddar.

 

Scientists have invented artificial knee cartilage that can outperform the real thing. That’s what they claim.

 

Medical tourism is a 70 Billion dollar industry now. A lot of folks going to foreign countries for surgeries and medicine because it’s cheaper.

 

FUNNY SIGN ABOUT RETIREMENT

 

 

LEAVING THE RETIREMENT STATE

Statistics are starting to show that a lot of folks who retired to Florida are now starting to look for other places to move to. Part of that movement is the cost of housing. In 2018 the average cost of a home in the sunshine state was $200,000. Now it’s $400,000 on average. One of the place a lot of Floridians are now moving to?  Baldwin County, Alabama. Right where one of my favorite go to places exist…Gulf Shores, Alabama. And you can see the growth there already.

 

I’ll be in Gulf Shores in both October and then again in November for show. Check my calendar for details.

 

CHA-CHING

Apple is now worth over three trillion dollars!  I know I’ve contributed my part to their wealth my multiple iPhones and Mac computers in the house. Like a lot of folks I started on PC’s…but once I went Apple?  I’d never go back. The thing I do hate about it is that every time I misplace my iPhone I panic and almost have a heart attack. Anyone else?

 

TSA

I’ve flown a bit this year, and every time I have to fly I’m thankful that I got TSA approved allowing one to get through the security line a whole lot faster. And I don’t have to undress. And yes, everyone else in the security line behind me is grateful for that.

 

Now we have self-checkout security that’s already in 25 airports including Nashville. I did not notice that a few weeks ago when I flew out to Colorado but I’ll look harder next time I fly. You stick your driver’s license ID in the machine then the machine scans your face and you pass through unless you look funny to the machine. I’m wondering if after you pull your license out of the machine if it will throw up a  would you like to leave a tip” prompt?  

 

 

TAYLOR SWIFT

How big a star is Taylor Swift?  HUGE. She sells out arenas for multiple days in seconds. Every ticket is expensive. But here’s the biggest sign of how big a star she is. Her fans, “Swifties” will camp out the night before the merchandise truck arrives to be first in line to buy Taylor Swift T-shirts, and caps, and who knows what else. I can’t guess how much the merchandise truck must take in every night at one of her shows. One report claims she sells 3 million dollars’ worth of merch per show! The current tour she’s on right now that was in Cincinnati over the weekend is expected to gross over a BILLION dollars. 

 

 

I have GOT to start writing more break-up songs!

 

RETIRED

The US Census Bureau reports that a record number of 40 year old’s in the US have never married and that most live alone.

 

What’s that old joke about marriage?

 

When a newly married man looks happy, we know why. But when a ten-year married man looks happy, we wonder why.

 

ELECTRIC PLANES

The FAA approved the first ever fully electric flying car and Alef Aeronautics who makes the plane is taking pre-orders right now. It seats 2 people and will cost you $300,000 to own. Here’s the first look at it.

 

 

SOMETHING ELSE TO BUY?

Home Depot is selling tiny homes for $6,000. Could you live in one of those? I’d need a large home sitting next to it to put my stuff in.

 

 

RUBIK

A young guy from California just beat the world record for solving a Rubik Cube. He unscrambles a 3x3x3 cube in 3.13 seconds! Good Lord. WATCH THIS.

 I still haven’t solved this bad boy…much less a danged Rubik Cube.

 

TODAY

Celebrating my wife’s birthday quietly. It is the 4^th of July weekend and that means in our neighborhood there were fireworks going off starting Friday. Then again Saturday, Sunday, and we can count on some booms today, tomorrow on the 4^th and a couple of days past the 4^th. Folks here REALLY love their fireworks.

 

Have a great Monday!