39

Yesterday was our 39th wedding anniversary. No big party. No huge gifts. Just two people who have shared a life together and continue to be in love with each other. We did go out to lunch and did a little shopping. Then it was back home for a bit before we went to Monmouth. We went to Deep Blue Innovators Blues Festival at the Rivoli Theater. The draw for us was the opportunity to see Carol's former boss Glenn Brooks sing and play.

This is Glenn. He is an extremely accomplished musician and as he admits "a bit of a ham". There are many things to love about Glenn. His outgoing and unfailingly happy demeanor. The fact that he is in his 70's and can still make everyone in the crowd remember the rock and roll of their youth.

Manning the drums was Glenn's younger brother Chris Brooks. He is a bit younger than Glenn and is probably in his late 60's. His conduct and demeanor are much the same as Glenn.

The young fella pictured above is named Jay and he was playing lead guitar. He related to the crowd that he met Glenn and Chris when he was a student at Knox College and they had gotten him his start playing in bands with them. He now lives in St. Louis and drove up just to play in this show with them. He said he would drive anywhere for that opportunity. If you look closely you will note he is playing a right handed guitar left handed. The pic guard is up instead of down and the bass string is on the top rather than the bottom. He is the first person I have seen play this way other than Jimi Hendrix. Jay appeared to be in his 30's and was quite and accomplished guitar player.

This is a picture of the group playing. When they finished their set I went out front to buy a half rack of ribs from the local fella providing the food for the evening. Carol and I shared some of the best ribs we had eaten in several years. We stayed around for a while to listen to the next man playing but decided after a bit we had seen the group we wanted to see and it was time to go.

 

It was off to our favorite spot Budde's Pizza and American Craft Beer.

Kate Budde was kind enough to take a picture of us so we would have a photo to remember our 39th anniversary. We were enjoying a couple of Oktoberfest beers. It was also the bar's halloween party that night. We didn't stick around for all that but did get to see a couple of interesting costumes.

This couple came in walking abreast of each other basically dressed as a giant bra with two huge tits.

The cutie in the foreground is Tami. She is one of our favorite bartenders. We actually love all the bartenders there since they bring us beer. She is doing her best angry zombie impression. The man behind her is Mike Budde dressed as Walter White from breaking bad. After taking these pictures we went home to take care of our dogs Teddi and Lily. Carol was kind enough to let me watch my Cardinal baseball team play in the World Series. I wish my Cub fan friends could experience how good it feels to say playing in the World Series. Mike, I know it has been a while for your Mets but at least you have memories. Pat is still waiting. So that was our 39th anniversary. Next year maybe we will have a party since it will be our 40th.