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Uncle Crappy

“words. pictures. beer.”

July 18, 2006 hot. damn hot.

Phil was hot. Our apartment, as of today, is not.

An exceptional weekend in Columbus was highlighted by two things: the Phil and Friends show at Lifestyle Communities Pavilion in the Arena District, and a full day of hanging out with our nephews and niece at the original Uncle Crappy homestead.

I’ve said this before: Phil’s band — whoever its members happen to be on any given tour — is one of the best things going, musicwise. He does an excellent job of finding musicians who are solid enough to listen to his on-stage prompts about where a jam should go but open enough to head out there when its time.

The band we saw this time was identical to the November version, with three exceptions: Rob Baracco on keyboards, New York jazz dude Greg Osby on sax and the amazing Joan Osborne on vocals. Larry Campbell continues to shine, and Barry Sless sat at the pedal steel all night, adding sweet country color.

Check this shit:

Set one: Althea, The Other One, Cold Roses, Cryptical, Cold Roses, Candyman Blues, Candyman, Casey Jones.
Set two: Bird Song, Watchtower, Nobody Girl, China Doll, Nobody Girl, Unbroken Chain, The Wheel, China Cat, I Know You Rider.
Encore: A Little Piece For You.

I think I’ve mentioned this before: love Joan. Hearing her sing Althea was priceless. The homestretch, from “Unbroken Chain” on, was staggering. I guess my only gripe is with the encore, a song Phil wrote with Hunter. Not as bad as, say “Wave to the Wind,” but not the encore I would have picked.

After the show the entire group — Uncle Crappy, The Wife, Fred, Juan and HP — headed to our local White Castle to initiate Fred into one of our favorite late-night rituals. He liked them at the time, but I think he suffered a bit the following day.

And a word about Lifestyle Communities Pavilion: I’ve never been to a better-run venue. Anywhere. It’s the perfect size — capacity of about 4,500 for outdoor shows — beer lines move quick, and they sell White Castles on premises, for crying out loud. Security is totally relaxed. Plenty of bathrooms. Excellent sound. No-hassle parking. We’ll make an effort to see shows there again.

Saturday was driven largely by the whims of two young boys and their baby sister. The nephews are nuts and Miss Mollie is still about the happiest kid I’ve ever seen, even though she didn’t take to her scary-looking uncle. We visited Ohio Stadium, played soccer in the front yard, scribbled up Mom and Dad’s pavers with colored chalk and played a kid’s version of Cranium. And then we collapsed, because we were exhausted. The adults. Not so much the kids.

We endured nasty heat all weekend, but we were sleeping in air conditioning as well. That changed on Sunday, when we returned to an apartment that was around 85 degrees on the inside and getting warmer. Yuck. The cat briefly said hello, and then returned to one of the two places he feels are acceptable when it’s that freaking hot — under the couch or sitting on top of a big plastic cooler we keep handy for beer runs. Monday was worse. Ninety five plus outside and, when I left for work at 2:30 p.m., nearly 90 inside. Miles wasn’t even moving, just trying to sleep on his cooler.

We’ve periodically had discussions about the potential benefits of a window air conditioner, but we’ve never quite gotten miserable enough to actually go and buy one. We saw lots of drawbacks: noise, prodigious use of electricity, the cost, air that’s somehow not as fresh, the fact that a window unit would be sticking out on the front porch of one of our neighbors, who might not take kindly to its presence … you get the idea.

But on Monday, with the fur-covered member of our home unwilling to do much of anything because of the heat, I had a change of heart. The Wife, grudgingly, did as well, especially after she took a walk around our building and found that WE WERE THE ONLY TENANTS WITHOUT AIR CONDITIONING.

OK. Enough. She found a 6,000 BTU unit on sale at Home Depot; I picked it up this morning and got it running. Sweet Holy Jesus, is it ever nice. The cat started feeling more perky after it had been running for about an hour. I didn’t start sweating immediately upon completion of my shower.

Life is good.

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