2008-08-01

The Ohio River Valley Steambath continued. After Morning Offering, Mick and Gary went out to gang up on the Friday mowing and gardening bonanza while I drove up to Avalon in order to back up Melissa as she worked on the steepest part of the access road with the tractor. I stayed with her for most of the day, getting back in time for some e-mail before bath time. She accomplished about forty percent of what she wants to do there, so I shall go back up next week.

Gary left Jim and the mowing at noon so that he could stand in line at Slugger Field for the Dave Matthews Band/Willie Nelson concert tonight. He and his party – his sister and her boy friend, his friend, Jessica, and her boy friend, and Valerie – had tickets for the infield, which has no seating at all. Everyone has to stand. They won’t even let people bring their own seats. I look forward to hearing about his experiences tomorrow.

After Mick and I bathed, we also took off to go to the concert, our tickets having been birthday gifts to us both from Gary. I had a wheelchair seat and Mick had the attendant’s seat next to me, so there was no jostling for position. Actually, someone had taken our numbered seats, but we went down the line and found empty seats of the same type, and no one bothered us there.

However, as Willie Nelson and his band were thoroughly drowned out by an ever-increasing crowd noise, we became less and less happy to be there. We never go to football or basketball games because of the incredible noise and the somewhat tense and nervous energy – unlike baseball games, with their far more relaxed energy – and the noise and crowding all around us got more and more aggravating. After two hours, we left. We did not hear Dave Matthews, and Gary will be unhappy with us for bailing out. But we did, and we were almost silly with relief when we got out of the crowds.

Mick took me to Applebee’s for a late dinner and we offered the Gaia Meditation there, while waiting for our food. We shared the ending prayer by holding hands, looking into each others’ eyes and praying, “Peace!”