Posted Sunday, April 17, 2022
Two events highlighted our Easter holiday this year.
Saturday, April 16, 2022
A friend came to stay with Wendi while I went to the “Farewell Party” at the Exclusive Company, which is going out of business, being the last record store in Janesville. The show ran from 1 to 6 pm. Performers (one each hour) included Candace Griffin, Kat and the Hurricane, Kharlie M (myself), Matthew Buckley, and Elmer and the Ceramic Trees (Robbie Haas’ one-man band). ~ I missed Candace, but she was on stage with KatH and hung around for my show too. KatH had another show in Kenosha that night, but they stayed to hear me play. ~ I went on from 3:16 until 4:04 (it took a while for KatH to tear down, as they are a three-piece band) and played 12 songs, which all went over very well. ~ Matthew, the assistant manager at Exclusive, was quite entertaining. I stayed to hear Robbie play his first two songs and part of a third, then went home, getting take-out dinner from Wendy’s on the way.
Other than a few open mic sets and livestreams, this was my first public show since 2019. My set list appears below; all songs were played on a Lohanu tenor ukulele, plugged in.
Sunday, April 17, 2022
Easter morning was hectic; I intended to go to church but ended up staying home; we watched nearly all of the service online, including Jon Grice’s sermon on Lazarus. Jon’s father, Earl Grice, himself a great preacher, passed away at 12:30 pm yesterday in Minnesota, at the age of 99.
I drove to Fort Atkinson to pick up our friends, Julie and Craig (who spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with us), at Craig’s apartment, arriving home at 1:24 pm. Much of the afternoon was spent in food preparation, but I had plenty of help: Craig and Julie peeled the eggs for the deviled eggs, and Wendi made some things to bake using cocktail smokies, American cheese, and bacon (Julie helped her). Wendi cut and served the ham. Served at about 4:40, the meal included ham (bone-in, butt portion), sweet potatoes (with brown sugar and butter), the smokie/bacon things, tropical fruit salad with whipped topping, jellied cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, and to drink, Martinelli's Sparkling Cider. There were also some Funyuns snacks that Julie brought with her. Everything was delicious. The fruit salad and smokies were all eaten up.
The next hours were pretty quiet. We had watched “CSI: Miami” on Ion Mystery until 6:00; then Wendi put on CBS for “60 Minutes." They ran a piece on Russian hackers, one on electric cars, and another on eVTOLs, which are a sort of electric helicopter/plane hybrid. Wendi fell asleep during the program, exhausted from the day. ~ I took Craig and Julie home, leaving just after 7:00 and arriving home sometime after 8:00.