Habitat House

Family is frustrating, no doubt about it. But this isn't about that. This is about the foundation family lays and what can be built from it.

This past Saturday all members of my family volunteered with Habitat for Humanity to help construct a house for the Watson family. The money for the house was raised by Grace Episcopal Church in memory of my late Uncle Ned.

Please check out some of the pictures here: Habitat House Gallery

My cousin Harris instigated this project during Christmas '05 with a letter to all family members explaining that Grace Church and Habitat of Hall County would raise the money and get the house started, but at some point during the building process he wanted our entire family to come get our hands dirty.

Since Christmas, it took a few months to get the logistics worked out, but they broke ground the end of June, and this past Saturday morning at roughly 9am every family member & a couple close friends came straggling in for work detail: Puttin' up the roof.

The start was slow and unknowing. If anyone had asked me the day before who would be the first family member to climb on the roof, Harris would not have been the guy. But to my surprise, Harris not only got on the roof, he led the charge!



Before long, my cousins Stuart & Rob, my brother Darrell, and Harris were all up on the roof talkin' the talk and walkin' the walk. Between the four of them, they laid well over half of the ply wood sheets for the back part of the roof (in hundred degree heat no less).

Meanwhile, my father, who has always shied away from manual labor, was measuring plywood, cutting wood with a buzz saw, heaving wood up on the roof, and mixing up concrete with my cousin Meigan.

My Uncle Bill, Aunt Laura, and cousin Liz were busy nailing up the weather proof plastic sheet around the house and cutting out the windows.

My eighty-year-old grandparents even made a showing around lunchtime with homemade sandwiches and sweet tea.

All in all it was a momentous afternoon for our family. I'm sure my Uncle Ned was thoroughly entertained, laughing, and smiling the whole time.

To cap the day off, we drove into the foothills of the Appalachians and my Dad treated a group of us to dinner in Dahlonega at a place called the Oar House. We sat outside on big wooden deck next to the Chestatee River listening to a two-piece jazz band while eating prime rib and pork tenderloin.

As a family bonus, Sunday morning got started with a breakfast batch of grits and a drive to Atlanta. Darrell & I met my cousins Seth & Meigan, and they treated us to the Allman Brothers concert at Lakewood Amphitheater. Summer ain't summer until the Allmans play.

I walked out after the concert feeling physically exhausted with blisters on my fingers from playing too much air-guitar, but my conscience was clear and my heart was full.

It was a workin' man's weekend full of family.

Yokkaichi Summer Music Festival

This is a tip of the hat to my buddy Richard and the rest of the promotion staff for organizing this music festival and a wag of the finger to anybody in Japan that doesn't go.

It's the 10th and last time they're gonna do it, and it's for a good cause; all proceeds go to local Yokkaichi charities.

If that's not reason enough to go, the lineup looks good too! Big Frog, A-Fank Syndicate, and more will get the place rockin', and Tokyo Ale will be serving up cool refreshing beverages, so pack up the car and get down there this weekend for some fun in the sun!

http://www.cty-net.ne.jp/~rtjordan/yokkaichi_promotions/

(*~*)/

Bound for Glory

I shit you not, since being back in the States; I've been on the run the entire time. If I only had a guitar, a few chords, & some truth, my hard traveling and easy riding would make even Woody Guthrie proud.

I hopped on a Greyhound bus out of Boston bound for Brattleboro to pick up the used car I'd bought the previous week. Much to my family's dismay, I decided to break it in by driving it down the East Coast, making a few pit stops along the way to check in with some good friends.

First stop was New York City. I met my friend Daniel, who was fittingly wearing a T-shirt sporting a "100% Organic" logo. Daniel, to me fits the bill as a true activist, and I draw a lot of energy from my meetings with him. This time was no exception.

Daniel now lives in Harlem, and he first spotted me in his neighborhood as the, "white guy driving." The streets were full of African-Americans, Latinos, and the buildings had graffiti memorials to lost friends, but the best part was watching them play games in the streets. The road I parked my car on was blocked off so kids could play a supervised game of basketball.

Then, Daniel brought me up to speed on his current projects, which are always interesting. He is now working with the Gaia Institute in hopes to plant Green Roofs across New York City. A Green Roof, I learned, is exactly as it sounds, vegetation on roof tops to help prevent excessive runoff water, provide more oxygen in the city, help clean dust particles out of the air, keep the soaring summer temperatures down a little, and of course provide a more attractive cityscape.

It's just my opinion, but I think Daniel is really onto something here, and I wish him the best of luck as he tries to market this idea to the city of New York over the next year. But, just remember, to paraphrase my buddy Bubba, its progress not perfection.

The second stop on my southbound tour was Charlottesville, Virginia to visit my friend Alexis. She had recently returned to America from teaching English in Japan due to a job offer from UVA to work on the George Washington papers. I believe it involves digitizing all of George's writings.

Lex was nice enough to show me around Charlottesville and UVA's campus, but she had work everyday I was there, so I spent most of the time sleeping late, lounging around the house, chilling in a hammock listening to Muddy Waters, watching groundhogs trot around the backyard, and reading a JFK book I picked up while in Boston the previous week.



For my third stop, I was lucky enough to have Lex join me, and we drove down to Asheville, North Carolina for the annual Bele Chere Arts & Crafts Festival. This was nuthin' but a big party with good music and lots of beer!

Check out the pictures here: Bele Chere Picture Gallery

My good buddy Stiles (aka Silver Fox) met us downtown as we joined my brother Darrell and cousin Stuart, who both reside in the Asheville area, to check out the last few minuets of a funk band from New Orleans. The keyboard player was wearing a T-shirt that said, "Make Levees, not War."

Later that night we saw hometown hero Warren Haynes with Gov’t Mule rock the main stage before heading back to Darrell's house to play a ring toss game they nicknamed Kasey 151 because it took Stuart's girlfriend Kasey 151 tries to get a ringer.



This video shows 4.5 minuets of Stiles & Lex displaying a total lack of natural ability. If they only had 1/10th of Darrell's skill!

The following night we went back downtown to see Galactic play an incendiary cover version of Zeppelin's "When the Levees Break", and then onto a place called The Root Bar, where the owner has set up a sandpit in the back and patented a game which crosses horse shoes with botchy ball. Root Ball, we were told, is the fastest growing sport in America.

The following day everyone went their separate ways, and I continued south past old Cherokee Indian places like Tallulah, Chattahoochee, Nantahala, and Chatuge into the southern end of the Appalachian Mountain range to Hiawassee, Georgia where my father lives.

I spent a nice quiet evening eating dinner with my dad and stepmother before driving the rest of the way to Gainesville early the next morning.

All in all, I put 1200 miles on my new car, saw some good friends & family, drank a few beers, heard some good music, and watched the sunset over the mountains with my dad.

If Woody Guthrie was here, he might say we're bound for glory. Life is good.

(*;*)v