Darrin and Ellie

Back in 1991 our friend Lisa found a song of Miles Davis with the New York Philharmonic-probably from 1969. It was incredible. -And it also sparked a tiny interest of jazz in me. Not too long after that I saw something on TV about Wynton Marsalis and his three volume set of 'Soul Gestures in Southern Blue' (I think is the right name). My friends had all graduated and left me (always the younger one) alone at school. I had planned to become anonymous and invisible--but it didn't happen. Instead-and I'm not sure how- I met this dude who owned these Wynton Marsalis albums. It was strange, because our school had thick lines between the cliques. Just how a freak hooked up with a geek is beyond me. (Maybe it's because his geeky friends had also graduated to become geeky college kids. [Whereas my freaky friends graduated to become freaky burnouts, inmates, and college/votech um...freaks.] ) So here we were, in a brave new world and all we had in common was good ol' Wynton. It didn't take long to become affiliated with other freaky geeks, PCs, and other non-popular doofs. But I had no closer bond with any of them than I had with my new friend, Darrin. Darrin, later, went off to college. We wrote to eachother a lot, and he came up to visit quite a bit. He got engaged and, when that dissolved, he came to crash at our place. We were honored to be his 'safe haven'. He would always come to stay with us for a week or so when he had some time. We loved it. Our kids have grown up with him coming and going. He is a permanent fixture in our family. The kids keep asking when Darrin is going to come again. -And we sadly have to tell them that he has a job now and it's not as easy for him to come over. We all miss him. We even named our dog after him. So, anyway, here's to Darrin on his thirtieth birthday! We love you, man!!!-kmf

Today was such a trip! On my way to work I saw a coyote run across the hi-way in front of me, then it crossed the ditch and jumped the fence. You should've seen it jump...it was so smooth and easy...so graceful. -like those wolves on those wolf documentaries! Then, like a half mile later, there was this pheasant rooster totally strutting his stuff on top of a big rock. After another short distance, there was a big, fluffy dog playing with something I couldn't see and he was wagging his ginormous tail like a madman. --but wait, there's more! As if that wasn't enough...tonight we were at home and my wife asked me what kind of bird was making this obnoxious noise. I knew I'd heard it before and just guessed it was a starling. So I got curious and started scanning the big maple in the back yard, and suddenly the bird flew out of the tree and perched on my electric line to my house. You know what kind of bird it was? It was my all-time-fave bird in all of God's creation: the KINGFISHER! It was in MY yard...on MY wire! I was just freaking out. I've never seen one perched anywhere other than over water! My wife was on the phone and hung up on whomever after shouting "it's a kingfisher!" into the poor person's ear. My entire family shared my excitement. They care about me enough to care about my (silly, old) favorite bird. What a family! What a moment -with us all standing like statues depicting 'awe' in our back window! -kmf