Although the stats say barely anybody reads this space anymore since I started inconveniencing electrons here two decades or so ago, I nonetheless feel compelled to tell the reader I’m fine.

I’ve just been scary busy since the November holiday break.

The holiday weekend was fine; quiet and disengaged on Thursday, and a pleasant, reasonably low-key weekend at the con; both my solo show and the band show went well, and people seemed to like what we were putting out. The drive home, all seven hours of it, however, wasn’t the greatest experience, but we survived.

The work week following, however, has been kind of the opposite. I’ve been fully engaged in all-day workshops with the folks from the PM center working to peer review and finalize business cases, and when I say that, I mean…all day.

As of right now, where I am on Friday morning, I’ve got thirty-three of my officially scheduled thirty-two hour four day work week on the books, and I bailed an hour or two early yesterday afternoon to spend some quality time in the periodontist’s chair. I logged thirteen hours on Tuesday, nearly all of it on the conference line staring at documents and scribbling notes, and getting relatively little time outside fitnessing, because of rain and 4:30pm sunsets.

As an extra bonus, after the lidocaine (or whatever they use these days) from yesterday’s quadrant scaling, I’ve got that familiar hung-over feeling I always get from that crap, so today, if it follows the pattern, is going to be an absolute joy.

Thankfully, I don’t have anything serious booked for the weekend; I can do laundry and line up set lists for next week’s bar gig.

Once I finish tonight, though, being a happy hour patron at the Kilt rather than the entertainment feels like the right plan. I’ve earned it. I think I’ll raise a glass to the memory of Rep. Donald McEachin, my congressional representative for the last half-decade or so, and a generally low-key and effective public servant, who passed away on Monday. Damn.

But anyway; here are some tunes this week; a few classics, and what could easily be an average afternoon’s playlist on wnrn:

1. “Believe” – Caamp
2. “Paddle to the Stars” – The Dip
3. “Barefoot and Pregnant” – Joan Armatrading
4. “Gold Past Life” – Fruit Bats
5. “This Will Be Our Year” – The Zombies
6. “You’re The Reason Our Kids Are ugly” – Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty
7. “Kangaroo” – The Big Wu
8. “Harvest Moon” – Sunflower Bean
9. “Only Songs” – The Wild Reeds
10. “Money (live in Hamburg 1964)” – Jerry Lee Lewis
11. “Jesus on the Telephone” – Machinery of the Human Heart
12. “The Last Dance” – St. Paul & The Broken Bones
13. “Sexy After Dark” – Joshua Ray Walker
14. “The Only Home I’ve Ever Known” – The California Honeydrops