Heydilly-ho bloggerinos!

Not much up here.

Softball team is 10-1 (w/ 5 to go). If we win tomorrow, we all but clinch the regular season title. This would be the first Law Office title in 8 years of trying. Yay for us.

APD's team broke a 5 game losing streak w/ a tie tonight. APD gave up 2 runs in 2 IP, but actually pitched really well striking out 4 w/ no walks. The other team had some good hitters. He also played some good defense at 3B. He walked all three times up.

Work is ok.

Not much is up in Apex either. There was a flasher who got arrested. That's been the oddest thing lately. Let me know how many "Keep Apex odd!" t-shirts you want. $14.99 per shirt.

We're sweating out the last week of rotisserie baseball. Currently, the glorious O'Jimmies hold a beyond tenuous 0.5 pt lead. If we were to hold on, it would mark back-2-back championships. Our geezer brigade of Glavine and Moyer let us down tonight. Ideally, MLB would decide that the season should be cut short by 5 days.

Worst. Entry. Ever.

The Value of an Extra Hour of Sleep

Everything these days is gauged by its monetary value. For instance, at work, we promulgate rules only if we can prove the rule will save more money (e.g., reduced health care costs) than it will cost. Obviously, some things are harder to quantify (e.g., the value of a pristine bright blue sky). I'm not sure if anyone has quantified the value of an extra hour of sleep ... but we can attest that it's at least $6 ... which was the cost we gladly agreed to swallow this morning in order to return our rental car an hour late.

If there are any UK fans who read this blog ... go away! No, I'm just kidding. I thought UK played an exceptional game. This morning ... after a rough night of sports ... and thinking about the value of time ... and pondering two funerals ... and wondering what people'll say about me when I pass on ... I decided I was giving up sports. BUT that was before the O'Jimmies pulled to w/in 1.5 points of first place, so I'm sticking around for another 2 weeks. After that, I'm finding something else to do.

Interestingly, as I'm writing this, we're watching the Emmys and they just had a classic line from Michael Scott: "A boss’s salary isn’t just about money. It’s about perks. For example, every year I get a $100 gas card. Can’t put a price on that." Oh here's an even funnier one from the same episode ... "Negotiations are all about controlling things; about being in the driver’s seat. And, you make one tiny mistake and you’re dead. I made one tiny mistake, I wore woman’s clothes."

Rampaging bull loose in Apex!

Yay. Another crazy Apex story. Loose bull last Friday. Eluded capture for some 6 hours. Well done Bone Collector.

It was a draining week at work. A two day weekend was not enough refilling.

Our softball team is in first. 5-1.

APD's team is 2-2. They lost two 1-run games this week (3-2 and 4-3). He pitched three more scoreless innings (6.2 on the season w/ no runs). Plus, he went 2-4 and made three putouts in the field. We have (ahem) an arrangement in which there are benefits if certain milestones are hit. It is working too well. APD came off the field last game & said "You owe me big." We're trying to recommunicate that it's not a job.

Can't believe UL only lost one spot in the rankings.

The ever-increasingly beautiful KMD & I celebrated our 15th (crystal) anniversary this week. I offered to download a Crystal Gayle song from Itunes for her, but she said no thanks.

Hey, I turn 41 tomorrow. Joy! Thanks to all for putting up w/ me, some if not all of those years.

Keep Louisville Weird

Hey all. Hope all is well.

I wore my "Keep Louisville Weird" t-shirt out & about today (an X-mas gift from Uncle Sparky). Interestingly, the ratio of people who asked me what the shirt meant to people who saw the shirt was 1.00.

I patiently explained that it was a campaign by independent Louisville businesses to encourage patronage of non-chain type stores/restaurants/etc. Well, I patiently explained it the first 5 or so times ... after that I made stuff up.

The best response to the shirt ... from the beautiful KMD who said that if I wanted to keep Louisville weird, then I should move back there.

All is fine here ... KMD & Dolberry went out on an actual date on Friday which was nice. Dolberry had a stellar softball game last Wed. 4-4 w/ an HR and 4-5 D plays at 3B. Then APD showed me up on Saturday as his team improved to 2-0. He came in to pitch in the bottom of the first w/ the bases loaded & 1 out. He struck out the next two guys. Then after giving up a hit and a walk in the 2nd, he struck out the next 3 guys including the leadoff & #2 hitters. He's pitched 2.2 innings, struck out 8, 1 hit, 1 walk, and he has a win and a save. Plus, he was 1-2 batting w/ a run scored.

Oh, and I fixed some more stuff this weekend ... installed a 3-way wall switch dimmer (easy) and new TP roll holders (easy, once I quit following the directions)

Have a good week.

Advice from Dolberry

If you live in Louisville KY, you should consider going to the State Fair tomorrow night & seeing Switchfoot. You will not be disappointed. Preview here.

Hey, I'm in a bad mood tonight & I thought I'd let the whole internets know about it ... plus I wanted to check how long a title Blogger would let me

... have.

4 letters too short. Typical.

On the bright side, APD had a dynamite fall baseball debut. Going 1-2 w/ a walk, two runs, an RBI, and a one inning save in which he struck out the side on 11 pitches. His team won 10-7 in extra innings. He's awesome ... like all you guys.

Stay alive!

Hey, sorry I haven't blogged in a while

Not really that much to say ...

We had at lot of fun at the beach w/ the Burbach crew. The temps were nice & hot (at one point the heat index was a crazy 125F) & the water temps were pleasantly cool. And of course the company was nice.

I still feel great satisfaction upon tinkling in the newly restored toilet. More pride than I've felt peeing since I was two years old ... ok three .................. all right seven. Are you happy?

We were helping the beautiful KMD w/ the dishes tonight (a very rare occasion) & I was washing, Alex drying, & tbKMD was putting away. I was telling Alex how when we were younger, Aunt Kathy always washed, I dried, & Kristin put away. I said I thought drying was the easiest job. Alex agreed & then added why did you have the easiest job being the oldest ... implying my skills should have been applied in a tougher role. The beautiful KMD & I both laughed out loud.

Softball's started this week, but it's been a strange bummer. Our first opponent forfeited & the team we played tonight was the worst team I've ever seen. They had trouble catching the even the easiest pop flys. We scored 21 runs in only 3 innings before the mercy rule was invoked.

Hope all readers are doing grrrreat.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!!

DOLBERRY HAS FIXED THE DOWNSTAIRS TOILET!

After being broken down for roughly 36 months, Dolberry spent about 2 hours today and fixed the downstairs toilet. Turns out it needed one of these and Dolberry needed some of this.

Needless to say, "We Are the Champions" is blaring pretty loudly from the Dolberry household this afternoon.

Top 3 things Dolberry has ever fixed:

1. Downstairs toilet

Hurricane Conrad

Do NOT mess w/ this man ... Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher!

Catching DCV readers up on the goings-on at the Hurricane Center:

When we last left this sordid tale, ~40% of the NHC staff had signed a letter asking for the head of the Center to be reassigned. The letter was produced and signed while a NOAA assessment team was on-site to investigate concerns about dysfunctionality at the Hurricane Center. Not surprisingly, the assessment team recommeded his (Bill Proenza's) removal for fear that his presence there would cause "disruption that threatens the Tropical Prediction Center's ability to fulfill its mission to the American people." (TPC = NHC)

(Dolberry advises that when you hear a politician or government bureaucrat hail the "American people" ... run for cover.)

So yesterday, NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher (esteemed boater of some sort), was called before Congress to explain his actions. Here are some of the highlights, see here for complete transcript: (Dolberry in green.)

1. He starts off by assuring the (get running) "American people" that NOAA and the NHC is fully prepared to do their job this hurricane season. Hey, what a difference a couple of weeks makes.

2. He then recounts what made Hurricane Conrad mad in the first place, that Proenza complained about the wasteful NOAA "200th" anniversary spending and how that money could have been better used for almost anything (he used replacing a satellite as an example). IMO, this infuriated Conrad because it's not the way a junior officer is supposed to behave.

3. He then goes on a bit of a "money laundering" tack, saying he hired this Mary Flack'n, er Mary Glackin (Hey, that's good angry blogosphering there. I'm sticking w/ Flack'n.) who in her first days on the job was instructed (by whom it is not named, but we can guess) to improve managerial rigor. She sent a memo to Proenza reminding him "the need for adherence to ... the chain of command".

4. Conrad says Flack'n got a call on the evening of the 6/18 from NHC staff requesting a call about the situation down there. The call took place at noon on 6/19. There's your most convincing evidence that this was a total whack job. In the government, nobody gets a conference call set up for the next day. It's simply not heard of. And in the summertime? Right.

5. Turns out the NHC forecasters were "scared", "anxious", "felt muzzled". They basically didn't think Proenza was up for the job. (That's fine. Um, NHC staff join probably 30-70% of the rest of us working stiffs inside and outside the government. The line is back there.)

6. The assessment team came down & felt they couldn't do their job w/ Proenza being there, trying to maintain support from those who hadn't signed on to the coup. Which would seem to be his right.

7. They receommended his temporary reassignment so they could finish their assessment.

8. The assessment (surprise, surprise, surprise) came back unanimously that Proenza needed to go.

OK, realistically, if you say something your boss doesn't like, it's (generally) within his right to prevent you from saying it again. And I don't think this rises to the level of "whistleblower" incident. NOAA's wasteful spending on stupid Safety Seagulls and spamming their own employees w/ "200th" anniversary nonsense are a matter of public record. But, you really have to marvel at the colossal blunderingness w/ which this has been accomplished.

Conrad, you got your guy. In the process you got a) major media coverage about problems w/ one of your premier groups, b) set a precedent for future staff insurrections, & c) raised the ire of a Democratic-controlled Congress right in the FY-08 budget discussions. To put it in your terms, I believe this is called "winning the battle, but losing the war."

(update)

Um, the DCV has to apologize. The picture above was not Hurricane Conrad. This is him below. We sincerely apologize to anyone offended.

We're Number 14! We're Number 14!

So says Money Magazine in their ranking of Great American towns. If you throw out all the crazy cold places in MN, NE and WI that they have in the ranking, we'd be in the Top 10. No place where the average high in March is < 50 F should qualify for anything but a prison camp.

We scored high in the categories of low crime, educated citizens, and sheep-to-citizen ratio.

All right one last pop music thing, then I'll move on

I'm kinda stuck using Napster's online music service because my portable XM satellite radio is affiliated w/ them (& seems to work most smoothly w/ that player). Anyway, it's way inferior to Itunes or Walmart.com, but like Itunes it feels compelled to recommend music to me "based on my tastes". (Itunes' app like this is very good.)

Napster's #1 recommendation to me? Hannah Montana 2.

Um, no thanks.

DCV Top Bands of the 80's: #1

1. U2

Reasons why U2 is better than every other band of the 1980's:

a) The songs. There are about 20-30 U2 songs that make Dolberry very happy whenever he hears them. (I'll list them under "best songs".)

b) There was never a better video than U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" where they were at Red Rocks outside Denver. A storm rolls in. You can see the band's breath as Bono waves his white flag and screams his frustration "I'm so sick of it!" He was sick of the violence in Northern Ireland and 1983 Dolberry was sick of doing homework, taking out the trash, or having girls not lining up to date him. Nevertheless, we were kindred spirits against cruel outside forces. (Video added to sidebar.)

c) No other band of the 80's played a concert in St. Louis MO in 1987 on the same night as the 6th game of the World Series (Twins - Cardinals) and sucked up to the crowd by having their lead singer come out emblazoned in a Cardinals jacket and hat (which he threw to the crowd).

d) More than any other "star" I know, U2's Bono has leveraged his fame to do something other than general self-indulgence. Personally, Dolberry thinks he's done almost entirely good things which is an added bonus.

e) The Edge's guitar sound.

f) U2's Super Bowl appearance which paid tribute to the 9/11 victims while reaffirming that the US and people of good faith everywhere will not bow down to evil.

g) My Dad once said, while demanding that early U2 be turned off, that "this is awful" & "those guys will never amount to anything". It is, to my knowledge, the only time my dad was ever wrong about anything. (For the record, my mom was only wrong once as well ... thinking potato soup was edible.)

h) I heard Bono say once, "Quit asking God to bless what you're doing. Instead, find out what He's doing and do that. It's already blessed."

i) I like how U2 rebounded from a period in which they thought songs about this citrus fruit were good ideas. I like the fact that they tried that whole weird mid-90's Pop Mart thing ... even if I never got it. (Others 80s bands rebounded, but not to the same level as U2.)

j) U2 is from Ireland. Dolberry ancesters are from Ireland.

k) I like the fact that U2's absence from Live Earth was advocated by the antiGores as evidence that the concept of global warming is somehow flawed. (They're recording a new album in Africa at present.)

l) I like the fact that when U2 was starting out they claimed "I can't change the world, but I can change the world in me."

m) I like that U2 is so into America (our strengths, as well as our failings)

n) I like the fact that there's no better song to play on your headset while walking on the beach on a grey cloudy day than "The Unforgettable Fire". Seriously, I think that's one of the best experiences one can have on Earth.

o) I like how U2 usually opens "Where the Streets Have No Name" w/ a snippet from one of the Psalms (e.g.: Ps 116-12-13).

p) Bono's 80's hair, while widely mocked, is still a target that to which Dolberry aspires.

q) I like the fact that the Edge so admired Stuart Adamson and paid a touching tribute to him upon his death.

r) I like the fact that Bono's been married to his wife for 25 years.

s) I liked the U2 appearance on the Simpsons and that Monty Burns thinks they're "wankers".

t) I like how U2 pretty much carried both "Do They Know Its Christmas" and Live Aid.

u) Who knows to what degree, but it's pretty impressive that a band would have any role in bringing warring parties to peace as U2 did in Northern Ireland.

v) I like the fact that U2 claims to be the best band in the world.

w) I like the fact that U2 has stuck together all these years. Not just the band, but it seems like most of their team members have stuck together all these years.

Best songs: Pride, Where the Streets Have No Name, Walk On, Until the End of the World, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Beautiful Day, New Years Day, The Unforgettable Fire, Vertigo, The Fly, I Will Follow, With or Without You, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, One, In God's Country, October, Gloria, Wake Up Dead Man, Elevation, Out of Control, All I Want Is You, Bullet the Blue Sky, etc., etc.

Worst songs: Lemon

Future spring training trips in jeopardy?

It's looking pretty bleak for future spring training sojourns to see the Reds in Sarasota FL. The Sarasota Herald Tribune has run several articles recently on the (lack of) progress in securing a long-term arrangement. Earlier in the year, it looked like the Reds, the State of FL, Sarasota Co., and the City of Sarasota were going to jointly fund a $55 million dollar stadium that would rival Clearwater's Bright House Networks gem of a facility. The political environment in the area appears to have somewhat soured on public funding of a ballpark in the last local election cycle. In recent weeks, the Reds have advanced a scaled-back plan ($45 mil) that would upgrade the current Ed Smith Stadium (which I never realized is built on a landfill), but that doesn't look to get local public funds either.

I don't really blame the local Sarasota government for not wanting to fund it. Here's my quick estimate of how much money goes into the local economy based on our travels there: a) we spend about $200-300 dollars a day there (mostly to hotels, but some to restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, convenience stores, golf courses, & then $ to the Reds for tix, souvenirs), b) by my calculation there are probably 500-1000 families / spending units doing the same thing on any given home date that wouldn't be there w/o the Reds (figuring the crowd is ~50-75% local). My rough guess would be about $2-4 million a season comes into the Sarasota economy. There are costs as well (traffic control) that would have to be subtracted. Over 30 years (length of proposed deal), the $ in would almost certainly exceed the initial investment (probably about $25-35 mil after overruns). But the investment would directly only benefit a few sectors of the economy and only indirectly help (taxes, jobs) the local populace as a whole. The apparent competitor for the local money potentially slated for the Reds is seaweed cleanup along the beaches. That would appear to help more people & would also probably maintain more tourism inflow. Also, cheaper events like the Sarasota Marathon probably have way higher tourists/investment ratios.

The bottom line is (to me) that there's already enough tourists in Sarasota in March to support the local economy. When bargain-basement hotel chains can charge triple-digits a night, the demand is strong. Also, I think the Castellini-led Reds deserve some praise here by (at least according to the local paper) not blatantly trying to extort a new stadium from the local government w/ threats and artificial deadlines.

So, while Dolberry will miss the times in Sarasota here are my preferred locations for future Reds spring training locations:

1. Orlando FL - I believe Griffey Jr would likely personally defray $2-3 mil of any costs associated to spend March at home. Hotels are way cheaper in Orlando & the non-baseball entertainment is pretty nice.

2. Clearwater FL - The Reds could share Bright House w/ the Phillies, thereby enabling Dolberry to eat cheesesteaks 4 times a year, instead of only 1.

3. Apex-Cary NC - They could play at the new USA baseball academy; Josh Hamilton could spend his days at home; and we could charge people to sleep in our shed (which is at least as nice as that Knights Inn in Sarasota). The weather's pretty nice in March.

4. Toyko Japan - The Reds could just play Japanese league teams all March & in 30 dates maybe draw 750,000 people. If they could make an additional $1 per ticket than present, they could funnel that $750K into buying a relief pitcher that could get a guy out in the 8th inning occasionally.

5. Las Vegas, NV - The potential Pete Rose tie-ins are innumerable.

6. Anywhere but Arizona - The world does not need any more 17-11 Spring Training games.

7. Oh yeah, and not Winter Haven FL - Ugh.

Need your faith in humanity restored? Check video to right.

Hard not to like the Phillies after that.

You know what bothers me?

The 'Just For Men' commercial where they say "Let the real you come through", then encourage you to hide the real you by coloring your hair.

That's just stupid.

All of the other commercials irritate me just slightly less. Not enough monkeys in commercials anymore.

What doesn't bother me? The O'Jimmies are in 2nd place ... our high-water mark for season. (Of course, Josh Hamilton strained his wrist tonight swinging @ the on-deck circle. ?!?)

Embarassing days for NOAA

Have you guys been following the soap opera at the National Hurricane Center? What a truly embarassing display by government employees of many ilks. The quick synopsis is this:

New guy (Bill Proenza) hired to manage NHC. Complains about NOAA budget decisions hurting the NHC's ability to forecast hurricanes. Congressional Democrats pressure NOAA to quit hurting the NHC's ability to forecast hurricanes. NOAA reprimands their new hire w/ a humorously threatening e-mail, saying he's hurting the NHC's ability to forecast hurricanes. New guy leaks reprimand to media. NOAA brass get bad press. Congressional Democrats pressure NOAA more.

This Monday, NOAA's administrator and long-time Dolberry nemesis "The Admiral", sends an assessment team down to Miami because of stated concerns about the NHC's ability to ... everyone now ... "because of concerns about the NHC's ability to meet its mission". (In The Admiral's world, everything is a mission. He's presumably talking about predicting hurricanes here.)

Now yesterday, about 40% of the NHC staff signs a petition calling for Proenza's ouster, saying (yawn) they're concerned about their ability to forecast hurricanes w/ him in charge. This seems rather suspicious, in light of NOAA's advance scouts being on-site.

Dolberry suspects none of the players in this whole drama are really concerned about protecting the public by accurately forecasting hurricanes. They are driven by either pride, anger, fear, opportunity, greed, or some other baser instinct. It's sad and embarassing for all of us in the public sector.

Lautenbacher should resign or be fired. This whole reckless incident has made the NOAA brand a laughingstock & more importantly has needlessly antagonized Congress. The Admiral is reminding me more and more of this ship's captain.

The ultimate reason to be against global warming

The more CO2 in the atmosphere, the more poison ivy grows and the more itchy the plant becomes.

Now ... it's personal.

Latest Apex oddity

In October we had the chemical explosions and the resultant toxic cloud.

In March we had the guy w/ 70 sheep in house.

Last week, a guy was arrested in Apex for having: eight guns (including SKS and AK-47 semi-automatic weapons), $7,910 in cash, numerous knives, 3,000 rounds of ammunition, two gas masks, a Kevlar helmet, a flak jacket, material for explosives (a time fuse, blasting caps, tubes and pipes), & 17 marijuana plants. He was arrested by Apex Police who had been called to his townhouse by his own complaint of a neighbor's barking dog (they smelled the marijuana & searched his premises).

I'm thinking that neighborhood dog was extremely lucky the police came when they did.

Holiday from Blogging

Hey, a lot's gone on since I last blogged ... here's a quick update:

June 1: Mom, Dad, Tim, Kris, & Mojo came in from Louisville for trip.

June 2: Went to Carowinds w/ TCC youth group. Much fun. It rained on us despite my assurances to all that it would not (for about three hours). Saw the Newsboys which is always nice.

June 3: Headed to Emerald Isle w/ the extended Dolberry clan. Caught up to the tail end of former Tropical Storm Barry. Swam in the pool in the rain. Ocean was a churned up.

June 4: Am sure we had fun on this day. Can't remember exactly what we did.

June 5: I'm gonna say we went golfing on this day. None of the golf was that memorable. APD and Sparky impressed at times. Scott & I hit a (curiously stupid) fish with our drivers.

June 6: Maybe we putt-putted and go karts on this day? I remember I lost at putt-putt. G'Ma won.

June 7: More fun at beach. I think I clinched the pool battle royale between KMD & I on this night. 3 nights to one.

June 8: APD and I made a cool sand stadium that got wiped out by a rising tide, despite numerous Dolberry forecasts that it would not.

June 9: Sad goodbyes to beach clan. What a great, relaxing, fun trip. Blow was softened by returning to a softball game. We only had 8 players and got pounded. I'm too out of shape to play OF in a 3 OF alignment.

June 10: First game of Apex tournament. We lost to #3 seed (as #2 seed) 14-9.

June 11-12: Two crazy days at work. Catching up from a week off & trying to prep for three more days away.

June 13: Headed out to Boulder/Denver for conference. Got to see Aunt Jane, Uncle Mike, and Jeannine, Shannon, and Michelle (and families). It was very hard to see Aunt Jane so sick. Was so glad to hear she was able to be returned to Louisville & hopefully will be transferred to a rehab center soon. As sad as it was to see Aunt Jane, it was equally happy to get to see all the (former) Fitzgerald cousins and their families. What a great group. I'm proud to be related to 'em.

June 14: My day to lead the conference and give two talks. Think it went well. Ate dinner in downtown Boulder. Boulder is always nice ... even the time I went out there for a job interview at NCAR and totally bombed the seminar I gave. Once the bombing was complete, I went and drove into the mountains which saved the trip.

June 15: Left Boulder at 3:15a local time to get back for our softball tournament that night. Plus, I was able to catch a show from a band that a YG member drums for. The key to good softball is waking up 2000 miles away, flying coach most of the morning, going to a smoky bar for loud music, than playing ball from 8-11p. I was 4-4 w/ two walks and flawless SS defense in two St Andy's wins (17-12 and 19-6).

June 16: Unfortunately, Catholic Blue team ran up against Baptist Blue and they beat us again. 9-6 this time. I had a chance to get us into a tie in the 5th, but flew out w/ 2 outs & a runner in scoring position.

June 17: Fathers Day was nice. I was treated to Philly Cheesesteaks for lunch & we had a TCC picnic that evening. Started to itch from poison ivy contracted presumably from yard work the day before.

June 18-21: Everything basically settling down. Over this month I applied for my own job and got it. So, I'll be switching over from NOAA to EPA sometime in July. It's only a slight raise, but is good to be actually working for the agency I've always done work for (if that makes any sense). The humorous bureaucratic thing is that I'll be on a 1-year probation (again) & they're doing a background check on me. I told HR that if there was anything worth stealing; I'd have stolen it already ... which they didn't think was funny. I itched profusely over these 4 days and moaned unceasingly to KMD and APD.

June 22: Went to doctor and got steroids. Immediate relief. Went swimming w/ APD and KMD. Very much fun. Hung out w/ some friends that night.

This weekend was fine. Went to Harvest Crusade w/ youth group. Other than that, just relaxed.

There! You are now all caught up on the tediousness that is Dolberry!

DCV Top Bands of the 80's: #2

2. Big Country

The DCV countdown started way back on January 6th of this year w/ a note about the scoring system. Assuming most folks don't remember, it was a combination of

- how much I liked them in the 80's (60%),
- how much I like them now (30%), &
- how popular they were w/ other folks (10%)

Big Country lost big on the 3rd criteria, & got nosed on the 2nd criteria, but they were the clear winners in the "how much I liked them in the 80's" category. If it wasn't such a countdown copout I'd just call them #1a to the next band's #1.

It's sounds weird to say looking back, but Big Country's music was just incredibly instrumental in Dolberry's surviving (and perhaps prospering through) the high school and college years. It's cliched to say so, but their songs we're the soundtrack to the 80's for me.

I can still vividly remember sitting in my room listening to The Crossing and being inspired. Not necessarily inspired to be doing the homework I was supposed to be doing, but inspired to live my life in a certain way. Big Country's root-level philosophy was embedded in their one big hit "In a Big Country" (peaked at #18 in the U.S. in 1983) and it was to "stay alive". Stuart Adamson and the lads spun huge anthems about you-and-me people trying to make it in a world that was/is not always necessarily looking out for us. But the people in BC's songs always held onto a spark, always yearned for something better, always strove to stay alive (in the figurative and literal sense).

Some sample lyrics (that still come immediately to mind w/o need to reference them):

In a big country, dreams stay w/ you. Like a lover's voice fires the mountainside. Stay alive.

I will carry you home w/ the stars in my eyes. I will carry you home while the westerlies sigh.

It's just a shadow of the people we should be, like a garden in the forest that world will never see.

We save no souls. We break no promises.

But when I look at you I see you feel the same way too. And you will take my hand and be w/ me in wonderland

Im not expecting to grow flowers in the desert, but I can see the sun in wintertime.

The memories are very fresh when it comes to Big Country. The Crossing was always my get-fired-up-for-races tape. I still remember getting the Wonderland EP cassette from that mall south of Louisville (the same one where we got Intellivision) and wearing it out. Every Friday at SLU was Steeltown afternoon. The tradition was to listen to that tape in its entirety as part of the transition from school week to weekend. I wore lots of plaid back in the day in my attempts to emulate the lads. I still vividly remembering driving down Taylorsville Rd. one day and hearing "Look Away" from their third album The Seer on the radio.

The 80's were a great time for Dolberry up through 1988, when I dispatched myself to the wastelands just south of downtown Chicago for grad school leaving most of my friends behind. Big Country hit the skids (inside joke there) that year as well w/ their dismal 4th album Peace in Our Time.

Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, Dolberry and BC's fortunes both picked up in the early 90's w/ me leaving school, getting a job, getting engaged, getting on a good softball team. Meanwhile, Big Country blasted back to life w/ Buffalo Skinners. Again, the memories are vivid of an afternoon in Stephen's apartment in Elgin IL, him saying he'd gotten BC's new album & I should give it a listen. Not expecting much, figuring they had wandered off the track for good, I was surprised that the first song ("Alone") really rocked. Figuring that would be the outlier, was surprised the second song ("Seven Waves") really rocked. The whole album really rocked.

BC put out three more studio releases in the 90's and while never reaching the unobtainable heights of The Crossing or even Buffalo Skinners, they all had several very good songs on them.

I'm guessing that most readers know the total irony of how Big Country's story ended, or at least how Stuart Adamson's story ended. (I love Tony, Mark, & Bruce, but Stuart was the heart of BC.) He hung himself in a Best Western hotel room in Honolulu, on December 16th, 2001. His blood alcohol level at the time was > 0.279. Stuart had reportedly battled alcoholism for many years. It is strange to me how a life spent encouraging others to stay alive would end w/ someone taking their own. I get teared up thinking about it even now.

I was playing indoor soccer that winter in an attempt to stay in shape in the softball offseason. It was a team consisting of individuals who had signed up to be on the house team (i.e., no one knew each other) and we played that way. We lost nearly every game and most of the time was spent in endless recriminations of overly long shifts and not enough passing. I was pretty detached from all of this as I was in way over my head as far as my soccer skills go. I'd take a shift or two a half and try not to embarass myself. The night of Stuart's death (& I believe Kristin broke the news to me), I vowed to get a goal in his memory ... as he was a big soccer (football) fan. Amazingly enough, I got two. My only two of the season. Things like that make me think that there's a God, and he's real, and he's there for us, and he wants the best for you-and-me in a world that's not always looking out for us, and that we need to keep that spark, we need to keep yearning for something better, and that we need to stay alive ... just as Stuart said.

Best songs: In A Big Country, Fields of Fire, Wonderland, Harvest Home, Where the Rose Was Sown, Chance, all of The Crossing, You Dreamer, Look Away, pretty much all of them.

Worst songs: Eggplant, King of Emotion