For Mom

My cousin, Keiko, took some of Mom's ashes back to Japan and had her interred in the family site with her mother and sister. They had a memorial service for mom's sister, Fumiko, who died 13 years ago. Apparently it is Buddhist tradition to mark the 13th anniversay. I'm glad Keiko was able to do this for mom. It is somehow comforting. It is certainly more meaningful since mom didn't have a real connection to NC. It's been 6 months now. I think of mom a lot. I certainly miss her, but I miss who she was, not who she had become the last 5 or 6 years of her life. Dad really misses her. He misses her so much that it actually hurts. But, he stays very busy which is good for him. And we all keep chugging along. You have to live until you die, might as well make good use of the time.

Mike, Guitar God

Mikey, with the Village Pistols, Fridays Reunion show at the Somewhere Else Tavern, December 30. Yes, it's a wig.

Friday's Reunion

Back in the day, about 30 years ago, there was this rock club called Fridays, in Greensboro, right near the UNCG campus. A lot of interesting bands came through, touring up and down the east coast and doing the college circuit. Before I met Mike and made an honest man of him, he played in several bands and hung out at Fridays. He was part of the "scene" at that time...because he was a musician and also because he worked at a record store down the block. Last Friday night, Dec 30, there was a Fridays reunion. Since Fridays no longer exists, the show was held at "Somewhere Else Tavern." Mike current band, Stratocruiser, played a set, then there was a short set by the Village Pistols. This was a punk band Mike was in when he was 17 or 18. They reformed for this one gig and played all 3 of the songs they knew. It was hilarious. We had a great time...it was a lot of fun seeing people we hadn't seen in years. Since I wasn't one of the old Fridays gang, I was introduced as Mike's wife and Trish's old roommate. Wow, I wonder what happened to Trish. The picture is of Bert, me, Barbara, Jessica and Courtenay.