Spring

For the last four weeks the weather has been interesting, to say the least. First, there was a storm that came charging into the county like an intruding army. Mt. Shasta City, thirty five miles south of us, received five to six feet of snow overnight and pretty much shut the town down for a few days. Thankfully we here in Yreka were spared the snow and just got rain. The next week we had all the windows open in the house for two straight days because the temperatures were in the sixties. Then it rain and snowed again, and a couple days after that we had the windows open again. On Tuesday morning of this week we traveled twenty miles from here down to Weed to watch my daughter's high school choir perform. It was raining down there, but was not bad temperature-wise. We went to bed that night and it was warm and dry. When I climbed out of bed on Wednesday there was two inches of snow on the ground here at the house and eight inches down in Weed.

It's obviously spring in Siskiyou County.

I don't know what spring is like where you are, but for here this weather pattern is pretty much the norm. Nice one day, horrible the next, nice the day after that. It can be bitterly cold on Monday, and tee-shirt weather on Wednesday...then it can snow on Friday. It's been that way every year since we moved here in 1989. At least it's not boring, I suppose. Dressing in layers is a very good idea when living in this county. Maybe the weather is one reason there's only 43,000 people in the entire county. Well, that and the fact that the unemployment rate has been well over 20% for quite a few years.

I like spring. Spring means baseball season is almost here. Spring means bluegrass festival season is almost here. Spring means it's getting close to the time where I won't have to thaw the door of my pick-up so I can open it to get in. Spring is a time of hope, or so I hear. For the last thirty-six springs I've hoped that this would be the year my Cubs would win the world series. They say hope springs eternal: that's good because it my take the Cubs that long to even win their division.

I am looking forward to doing more things music-wise this summer. I am playing guitar in a bluegrass band and we are booked at a few festivals in June-August. That should be a lot of fun. I am also putting on my own festival in Susanville, California the last week of June. Rumor has it that psycho mom may even come down for that one. Here's the wed address for that one if you'd like to check it out: http://susanvillebluegrass.com.

Another music thing that has happened for me is that my bluegrass music radio program is now on a streaming internet station. I have a friend in Oregon who has had his station up and running for awhile and he asked if I would be interested in putting my show on his site. I said sure and last week it started airing at 8AM (Pacific time). It's an hour long, with no commercials, and you can get to it here: KENC Radio. I try and mix up the content with old and new, fast and slow, and it seems to turn out pretty good. Check it out if you get a chance.

Alright, that's enough jabbering for one morning...time to go check out some other things. See ya.