55 years!!!

our parents have been wed for 55 years today! just called & sang to them. they are near-crazy, sez dad, doing the last-minute details for their Big Party tomorrow. in the other room, i hear rat-tat-tat-tat-TAT! james is playing a ww2 game on his oculus. the oculus is a stunning piece of tech. he had me sit & put the goggles over my noggin & suddenly i was in kenya with elephants walking all around. a big wowza! overall, however, i'd rather work on stuff outside. the latest experiment has been the second driveway. we bought things called permeable pavers made from recycled plastic that can hold up to 2800 lbs per panel. they arrived on a pallet, seven feet tall, looking like the monolith from 2001: a space odyssey. they snap together like legos (well, not that easily). each day after work, when there's no snow, i've been "working like a donkey," as dad said, & the driveway is nearly done. now if i can just get the kid who said he'd transport the new shed to actually bring it here, we will be in biz. as you know, when it rains, it pours, so that means the septic overflowed (yeeccccccch) as well as the washing machine broke. the two might be related, & could have been caused by me dropping a rock down the sewer pipe (oops). on the plus side, we are not sick & each have four able (tho sore) limbs. the chango jam was a big success tho james tore something in his knee & did not go. he was greatly missed. the house was packed, the people who attended seemed very happy, & all was much in the christmas spirit tho after the show, andy from the rush st boys posted a christmas video of us all playing with manuel singing & leading the band & i realized we all suck by comparison to him... but still he loved or at least liked all of us who played with him, & there was only one big manny & ever will be, so i need to be ok with my relative mediocrity & grateful i got to play with him at all. nice moments during the show were standing with ruben, nearly elbow to elbow bc the stage was packed with bodies, & trading parts. then when jaime sang "somebody please," tex nakamoto looked over & nodded & we did backups together & it really sounded smooth & angelic. "i nearly escaped, then i stepped on a land mine," laughed james as he tromped through the room just now, so i guess now that he's done & i've exercised & written here a tad, we can watch some tv together before hitting the sack then loading up for tomorrow's songs at the anniversary party. happy holidays to all.