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we are brothers from another mother, so we don’t look like each other. donald sutherland was a lecherous pothead college professor when animal house hit theaters in 1978. david hasselhoff played a “salt water junkie” lifeguard on TV’s baywatch during the 1980′s. what’s my claim to fame? sometimes i wear hospital scrubs in public, and when someone asks “are you a doctor?” i always answer “no, but i play one on TV.” anyway… we were all born today, july 17.

i walked to vinyl renaissance saturday afternoon with jenny and hoovie. it’s pretty cool that there is a record store within walking distance of our house. it’s even cooler that they have a healthy selection of new and used vinyl. i picked up the soundtrack to the last picture show. hoovie bought over 60 records from the $1 stack. the cashier put hoovie’s records in a box that we carried back to the house. jenny carried my soundtrack.

i don’t need quarters anymore thanks to hoovie. he’s one of my oldest friends, and when he found a guy who makes affordable bartop arcade machines, he said “i’ll take two.” i am now the lucky owner of one of those machines. in addition to nostalgic games like pac man, galaga, dig dug, moon patrol, and gorf– this system has 18,000 games. josh came over to play donkey kong and joust, and when he texted his dad & brother they literally ran over to play paperboy and pitfall! afterward we ate lunch and talked about other things… but i know we were all thinking about those old games.

jenny found this boss oven mitt at a river market gift shop. she is a person who will assess a situation and take charge. after all these years of telling me that she’s the boss, she finally found a basic cooking accessory that proves it. just writing that last line reminded me of mick jagger’s 1983 debut album. heck, even he needed a woman to take charge!

26 years ago my friend hoovie received this license from the state of missouri. i’m not sure what he was licensed to do, but i do know he liked to see how many traffic lights he could speed through before one of them turned red– and that was when we were in high school! he told me he was coming up to kansas city around mid july, and wanted to crash at our house. i said that was ok as long he didn’t crash into our house. after jenny goes to sleep we’ll probably go driving through the city like bill murray and peter boyle in where the buffalo roam, looking for the heart of friday night.

me: hey fellas! can you dig it?
alex, nathan, josh: yes!
yesterday i paid 3 young men to do the manly work of digging a french drain in my backyard. alex and nathan are pictured above. josh came a little later & was followed by his brother and dad. apparently i needed all the help i could get! the crew got the job done in 90 minutes.

wednesday: watched the kansas city t bones beat the sioux falls canaries in 11 innings, also got to see TWO firework displays!
thursday: binged the first 6 episodes of stranger things 3rd season, joined a handful of moviegoers at the glenwood arts for yesterday, and drove through fog, firework smoke, and all of the explosions we could find after dark.
friday: watched the last two episodes of stranger things, taught mary lynn how to drive a stick shift in the old mission bowl parking lot, ate dinner at the ship, talked to some friendly bikers in the west bottoms, and hiked to the liberty memorial.
saturday (today): in progress

heading down to nevada to meet my sister and my oldest niece. mary lynn asked to spend the week with jenny & me, so we’re meeting at the burger king just off the interstate. when they called to say they were running late, i was already an hour down the road, so i told them that was alright. it gave me a few extra minutes to stop in ft. scott, drink a red eye, and catch up with dav mohler’s daughter, ceilidh. she works in a local coffeehouse on main street.

when you sign up for karaoke in a small town bar, EVERYONE eventually grabs a microphone. here’s an incomplete list of the songs that we screamed, sang, butchered, and swayed to:
invincible by pat benatar & bridget
big bad john by jimmy dean & me
whip it by devo & curtis the bartender
great balls of fire by jerry lee lewis & curtis’ dad
delta dawn by helen reddy & jenny, bonnie, donna, and penny

BIG SIS: come out of there bubba! the folks won’t think twice about making you ride home like that!
LIL BRO: but i don’t wanna come out! i don’t wanna go home! why does the family reunion have to be over?
BIG SIS: you do this every year! why do you put up a fight? why do you ALWAYS try to make this weekend last longer? people have jobs! y’know? we can’t stay here forever!
LIL BRO: aw c’mon sis! there’s another kennel right over there by the kitchen! i bet if you climb inside that one and join my revolution, it will buy us some time until someone airs the bouncy house back up! then before you know it we’ll be circling up to eat spaghetti again!!! whaddya say?