Summer breeze makes me feel disincline

I've been kinda sick lately. I haven't been doing much.

Summertime sickness is the worst. There's something especially vile about a runny nose and hacking cough in 80-degree weather. Healthy people give you extra space in grocery lines, pulling their children close to their legs like you have the Bubonic Plague. That's right lady, my cough might kill your child, but an extra foot between us will save the little bugger. 

Wednesday, Aug. 17

Speaking of little buggers, Aug. 17 I drove up for Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo's summer concert series. I was thrilled to see the Violent Femmes in what's portrayed as a relaxed, open-air viewing environment. Let me say I've felt more intimate and had more fun at my dentist's office. The grassy area in front of the stage was mobbed, literally, with SUV/mini van driving, LL Bean-wearing we waited to have kids till we were 40 families. You know what that spells? Parents who are too tired to manage their kids. My personal favorite: "He's just expressing himself," said by a mother in what appeared to be all hemp clothing and tevas when her charming 5-year-old ran right into me full speed while I was standing in line for the ladies' room and then proceeded to slap my ass and stomach in a rapid-fire back and forth fashion. Yep, I was in kiddie land hell. There were way more kids younger than 10 than fun to be had. Comolli, Sassy Sally and I wound our way through the masses, running into Derek from Jazzbones and his lovely friend, before coming to the beer garden where we'd be safe from knee-high bombardment. Sally and I willingly paid $6 for small Heineken drafts. Comolli hit the men's room, but got denied upon re-entry. Seems they close the beer garden before the concert is over, the bastards. So Sally and I chugged all three beers race-style (I won) and headed back out into the foray. Oh, did I mention that you couldn't smoke in the beer garden? Yeah, crazy. There was a small beauty bark covered strip of land at the very back of the concert, more like a smoking median. Josh from Engine House 9 hung with us for the rest of the show. The Femmes sounded terrible (open-air acoustics?), and what was up with songs all about God? I love God, and it's great that they've collectively been re-born, but nobody came to hear that. We came to hear "Blister In The Sun," "Gimme The Car," "Add It Up," and "Kiss Off." When the crucial moment for the Femmes to sing the F-word arrived, it was the crowd who yelled it out, and the band was dead silent. I guess swearing goes away when you sign up to play Kiddie Fest at the zoo. They were so much better when I was 17 and climbed over a wall at the Seattle Center to see them.