Day #252 – Process Note - Blogging

Gatlinburg TN

Every now and then, someone points out that I haven’t blogged in forever.  Not quite true.  I blog nearly every day.  What doesn’t happen is the posting.  At the very least, I make detailed notes of the day and what I want to blog about.  I have to sit with some of the entries for a while, to make sure I got the tone right and expressed the feelings and ideas accurately, while omitting unnecessary words.  “Coat of Many Colors” and “The Good News” would be examples of that.  Some entries, like the one I’m working on about Tom’s mother, aren’t connected to a specific day.  Those I work on even longer, trying to make them better pieces of writing.

We have a fairly involved process for getting photos ready for the blog and for online viewing.  We have been so busy lately that we haven’t even taken photos off our camera cards.  I’ve been procrastinating on posting to the blog because I don’t have photos to share.  If I were to post them as they are now, without processing, it would be a nightmare to go back and fix.  I finally looked at a calendar, muttered under my breath, and decided to post without pictures.

I’m trying to figure out how to post some of the extra material we’ve accumulated.  Some of you have asked for budget information because you’re thinking of doing a road trip some day.  Some of you have asked for gasoline/mileage data.  We’d love to post restaurant reviews and other notes that might come in useful when any of you pass through places we’ve been. 

For us, the answer is a web site.  Kelly wants to write it in PHP.  It’s a great language, but I don’t know it.  I’m more familiar with HTML.  We’re both pretty good with CSS and XHTML.  Sorry about the geek-speak – we can’t agree on a language to use to develop the site.  We have style clashes, too.  Her work in web design required her to build and implement sites that were totally complete.  My work experience is in building large sites in phases.  We have agreed on a design for the home page and a layout for the site itself.  We’ve also pretty much decided to build our own blog within the site so that we have better control over how it works.

Day #251 – Kelly’s Day

Gatlinburg TN

Kelly has been singing the blues that she hasn’t had a day to herself in the trailer in way too long.  She’s right.  On weekends, she’s been too busy driving the shuttle vehicles to enjoy any time to herself.  During the week, she tends to be the one who runs the errands, either by herself or with the campground manager.

I knew better than to leave her alone.  When she’s away from the trailer all day, it only seems like I have the day to myself.  I generally end up doing at least one load of laundry, making a quick check of the shower houses, running garbage to the dumpster, cooking, feeding kittens, etc.  Since she’s gone, she really doesn’t see all the things I do during the day.  If I had left her in the trailer, either important things would not have been accomplished or she would have felt cheated out of “her” day.

So, I gave her a day where she didn’t have to do any “work” in the trailer.  I made her French toast with turkey sausage and Clementines for breakfast.  I did all the laundry.  I made her a nice lunch and served it to her next to her computer table.  I did the kitten feedings on my own. (She wanted to play with the kittens at one point, but that was by choice.)  So, except for solitude, she got what she needed.

Things broke down a bit at dinner time.  Kelly likes to play with fire.  She loves to build a campfire in the early evening.  So, when she said she wanted to grill dinner, I thought it meant she wanted to do that herself, as part of her day.  No, what she wanted was for me to grill dinner.  Oops.  Nevertheless, she seems to have had a really good day.

Day #250 – The Front Porch

Gatlinburg TN

The Front Porch restaurant serves Mexican food and is open on Friday and Saturday nights.  They don’t serve alcohol, but you’re allowed to bring your own beer.  Sometimes the waitresses sit down at your table to take your order.  Sometimes, one of the kids will take your order.  If it’s busy, you’re encouraged to refill your own beverages.  Usually, there are lots of kids running around.  While everyone is expected to have a good time, drunkenness, rowdiness, and swearing are not tolerated – it is truly a family establishment.  There is live bluegrass music both nights.  The restaurant is also open on the first Sunday evening of the month.  The Sundays are special – acoustic music only and an open mike. (http://dininginthesmokies.com/_cosby/aafropor.htm)

We go to the Front Porch nearly every week.  The food is very good and so is the music.  It’s one of the few places we’ve found where the music is not overly produced.

Tonight we went to the Front Porch for an evening of old time acoustic music.  The regular Sunday musicians were there.  There was a woman in her sixties who played the bass fiddle.  A woman my age played the accordion on some songs and a guitar on others.  A woman Kelly’s age played the mandolin. (She apologized that she wasn’t very good yet as she’d been playing only five years.)  A man in his sixties played the mandolin.  A woman in her thirties played piano on some songs and fiddle on others.  After they finished their two sets, the fun started. 

A man from the audience sat down at the piano (The piano is “tacked” – thumbtacks in the hammers to give it a honky tonk sound.) and started playing a show tune.  Soon, the other musicians came back onstage and joined in.  You haven’t heard anything until you’ve heard bluegrass musicians play Broadway tunes!  Then, the owner requested a series of Irish tunes.  They tried to pick them out, but no one really knew them.  We were told that the older musician also played the corded zither.  We requested a couple songs on that instrument.  He was so good!  When the musicians forgot some of the words to “In the Sweet Bye and Bye,” we helped them out.  Everyone joined in on the last song of the evening, “Goodnight Irene.”

I just found out, from the Internet, that this restaurant is for sale.  Golly, it’s tempting!