I buried the family cat today. I cried like a baby. Amazing how attached you become to an animal. Almost 2 years ago exactly our family dog died. It's like burying a segment of your life. I think of all of the things that happened during the animal's life. I remember my son when he brought the kitty home from his buddy's, he was thrilled. I remember how much simpler our life was then. It makes me wonder why we've made some of the decisions. I know that everything we've done has been an attempt to make our lives better, and yet looking back, things were excellent. Strange how things change. I think we all need to realize how wonderful our lives are today. Sometimes we can't see that because we spend too much time looking around us.

This cat, Speedo, was raised by our big yellow lab. I think she was more like a dog than a cat. She would sit on my lap and I would scratch her neck, just like my lab enjoyed. So today, I held her one last time, scratched her neck, told her I loved her and said goodbye. I know that she's where all good cats go.

We hosted the Tommy Bolin Music Fest at the Chesterfield this Saturday. It was a very cool event. The young man obviously reached many people. There were green 22 year olds along side the 50 something hippies who grew up listening to Tommy. I was an 18 year old kid when Tommy Bolin died in 1976 so I've been aware of his music, and the bands that he played with for many years. I never thought about the fact that he was only 25 years old when he died. Most people are still searching for themselves at 25. Tommy Bolin had been in several popular regional garage bands, played lead guitar for 2 influential 70's bands, the James Gang and Deep Purple and recorded 2 hit solo albums. And he was only 25 years young. It was a very cool day, old friends hugging, old musicians reuniting on stage to light the fire one more time and everyone celebrating a rock n' roll legend from Sioux City, Iowa. A highlight of the evening had to be his godfather speaking softly about the "young man he misses so much." I hope the Tommy Bolin Music Fest grows every year. It could become a major rock music festival.

Once again an event like this rekindles my faith in the people of this unrefined blue collar town. It makes me feel good to see people from all walks of life coming together in the name of live music and one of their own. One thing is for sure, whether you're a doctor or a ditch digger... in Sioux City, Iowa you're not too different from each other. I think that is what makes this city cool. Our fathers and their fathers were all common folks who knew what it meant to put in a hard days work and then celebrate life with passion to make it all worth while. The city was built by hard-living men and women who bent the rules to make ends meet. I think we all need to grasp the fact and be proud of who we are. Let's not try to be something were not.

Party on Sioux City!

I'm back. It's strange that time is flying by, yet things seem to be standing still. We somehow keep on keeping on. It's amazing that we are able to continue to keep moving forward. I don't think that I appreciate this fact enough. What we are accomplishing under the circumstances is nothing short of a miracle when you step back and think about it. It's easy to get caught up in the trials and tribulations and lose sight of what is really going on. As you may be able to tell, I'm having trouble getting my head around my life lately. I feel like I'm floating between a dream and a nightmare. In a weird way things are serene.

To make things even more surreal, my son's fiance gave birth to a baby Monday morning. She is a beautiful little girl. This is definitely the dream part of my life. So many things race through my head as I sit in the hospital room watching my wife holding this innocent little human. What's going to become of her? Is Jordan going to treat with brotherly love or resent her? What are these children going to look like when they're 18? Will I be able to help them through life? I guess all any of us can do is continue to live in the "now", and the rest will take care of itself. As I talked about in earlier blogs, we can't do much about it anyway.

My family and friends are anchors in my life that I need to hitch to so that I don't float too far.