Tickfest '07 and cetera

Tickfest was good. Not so many people this year for a variety of reasons. No shocking incidents or amazing happenings, just the usual low-key pretty good time. I’ve been slow in writing a summary, because I can’t actually think of much to write about. Only a couple of things stand out in my mind, one of which was the fact that Phil’s ticktarp finally split down the middle when a gust of wind hit it, another institution bites the dust. LVJ went on stage with a guitar and sang a song, allegedly for the first time ever, and it came out pretty good. Bill Rexroad forgot his cannon and had to go to the microphone and say “Bang” to start the festivities. What a letdown. Jeff Brown’s Claytonmobile wouldn’t start when he got ready to leave, but it would have been remarkable if it had. Once again, the Burr of Knowledge was not found. Far as I know, nobody even looked this year.

The music was as good or better than ever. Several new bands were formed as usual at Tickfest. I was in a couple of them, but can’t remember the names right now.

I noticed a fair amount of Codgertalk creeping into the camp discussions. “What year was that when (whoever) sang that freaky duet with (whoever). And (somebody else) was playing the electric (random instrument)? Wasn’t that ’97?” “Nah, that was in ’03 ‘cause that was the year that (anonymous) got so drunk and fell in the fire pit.” I suppose all that discussion will eventually degenerate to endless repetitions of “Whad-ja say sonny?” if we all live to get much older.

Not that it’s a bad thing. As the old song says “Good memories are what we’re living for.”

I observed two unusual examples of natural phenomena during the weekend. Friday night about 1 AM I, along with a two or three other festers, saw the brightest and most spectacular meteorite of my life. It passed almost all the way from the eastern to western horizon’s, took at least 4 or 5 seconds to do it, and was amazingly bright the whole time. It could have been the spirit of the Great Tick arriving at last after all these years for all I know.

The second occurred on Monday afternoon. Jeff Brown and I were sitting on the porch south of my house waiting for a shower to pass when a very localized blast of straight line wind came out of the north. It lasted for about 20 seconds and was strong enough to break limbs out of the large Sycamore tree in my yard. It only seemed to hit the one tree. Again, it could have been the spirit of the Great Tick leaving in disgust after seeing that not all that much was happening here.

I probably missed most of the good stuff, so if anybody knows of any, feel free to fill me in. I’m leaving Monday to go to Clifftop finally after threatening to go for each of the last 10 years. Will report on that in good time.

As a postscript to my June post, my knee is steadily improving and I can sort of dance. I plan to try quite a bit at Clifftop, so may have to UPS my knee home early.