A SHORT RIDE AND WHY

We only rode for about 12 miles on Saturday - out along  a residential and vineyard lined road to Starbucks (where I purchased a gift card to put in Ally's birthday box) along with my iced tea enjoyed on the patio overlooking the vineyards and the hills.

It is a nice ride but there is a killer hill on the way back which I always have to get off my bike and walk up - until Saturday, that is! I finally rode the hill to the top.  Whoo hoo!

There was a reason we just went on a short ride - well, two reasons.  It was going to be over 100 degrees on Saturday and I didn't want to be riding in that heat.  Also, we went out on Friday night and wore ourselves out.  Tom got it in his head that we should take dance lessons (long story) and found a place that offered an hour long introduction to West Coast Swing for only $5.00.

Not our class but this is pretty much what it looked like!

After along day of work, a light dinner and a couple of drinks in us, we wet to the dance studio.  There were a dozen people there already dancing, others were arriving and changing into their dancing shoes.  It was intimidating.  Eventually they herded all the first timers into a room in the back and we had a whirlwind lesson
on the basic 6 moves.

The guy directs the type of pass the woman does while she is moving up and back in a "slot" of space.  There were steps to count, hand positions to learn and turns to be done in the proper way.  Oh.  And the "sugar push."  So we practiced the moves, and watched the professionals who looked nothing like the rest of us when they did the same thing!

Then they dimmed the lights and opened up all the spaces for dancing.  We gave it another half an hour when dizziness and sore feet took their toll.  We are going back, but maybe I need to get some of those special dancing shoes...

ROCKING TO THE OLDIES WITH THE OLDIES

It was one of those spur of the moment purchases - discounted tickets to go see Chicago and The Doobie Brothers at a local outdoor pavillion.  As the day approached we kind of lost our enthusiasm for it, but off we went.

Going to  a concert to hear bands which had their hay days in the 1970's means that the majority of the attendees were not carded at the walk-up bars.  Even so, there were a lot of people there younger than Tom and me and those were the ones I noticed because their approach to attending a concert are decidedly different than ours.

We went early because we had will call tickets and thought we would just relax and have dinner.  Except that there weren't many choices of things to eat and no where at all to sit.  There were no fewer than 5 bars set up, but only 1 stand with junky food.  The concert started at 7 but crowds were filing in steadily until about 7:45. which meant a lot of hopping up and down to let people squeeze down the aisles to their seats.

It was very odd.  The atmosphere was more like a sporting event.  People were carrying on conversations shouted over the music.  The vendors who roamed the aisles hawking popcorn, lemonade and red ropes stopped shouting but kept going up and down the steps all through the performances - and so did the people going to the bathroom and for refills on the beer.

The last time we went to a concert in this venue, we were down in the floor seats.  It had an intimate feel and, if all that other stuff was going on up in the levels above, we were not aware of it.  It may be that times have changed  or it may be that people just don't get as involved with the band and music when they are up in the cheaper seats - watching the big screens is kind of like being home watching TV.

Otherwise, the music was good - though the productions were very, very choreographed.  No room for the relaxed, personal or improvisational.  Chicago was one of my all time favorites back in the day and they still had that great music and sound - even if some of the voices are not as good as the originals.

We had fun doing something we rarely do but we agreed we enjoyed  music in small clubs and bars much better.