It was a strange weekend, I didn't notice the fb msg. until yesterday saying my nephew, Luke, was hit by a truck  Thursday, while snow-blowing their driveway. He'd come to the end of the driveway, looked both ways and stepped out to turn the machine around. The truck coming over the rise couldn't stop, it took out the mailbox and Luke, and then slid another quarter mi.down the road.  When his brother Zach found him, he was seizing and made a mess of his tongue. The ambulance took him to Parkview and thankfully the mri didn't show any brain damage. His left leg won't bear any weight, and there's been some sort of damage to his knee still to be determined with further x-rays. Luke's experiences have run the gamut for stress this week. He was one of the ten finalists selected from Steuben County to interview for a Lily Foundation scholarship. His interview was Tuesday and by Thursday afternoon he was lying in a hospital bed in Parkview.

The news cast a pall on our weekend celebration of J's birthday. I bought tickets to see Governor Davis at the Philmore on Broadway. The printout from the ticket sale said tickets could be picked up an hour before the show starting at 6, so we decided to walk down. When we arrived we found the doors still locked, but J saw Carol Lockridge and we chatted with her for a few minutes before sneaking in the side doors. J asked me to show the wait staff our tickets and ask if we could wait inside. The staff deferred to some little brunette woman wearing stiletto heeled boots, and she icily told us the doors didn't open until 7:30. I think she must have been so rude due to those stilettos drilling right into her brain. No one can wear stupid heels like that without great pain. A couple of times I mentioned that we'd walked and how cold it was outside, but the atmosphere inside was just as frosty. J and I headed out the door to friendlier climes at the Munchie to sit and drink a glass of wine with Kelly, one of our favorite bartenders and belly dancer extraordinaire. We headed back and arrived before the 7:30 door opening time, to find that the doors were already open. When we walked in, we were pleased to find a lovely table right up front. The decor was luxurious with lots of interesting art on the walls, and we took a stroll up to the balcony level to find another bar and tables with a great view of the stage, but claustraphobically low ceiling. When we returned to our table the waitress was efficiently taking orders as the band was still setting up, but she neglected to tell us that we were sitting at a reserved table until the show finally started at 9.  We were graciously moved to a table further back and  I was still adjusting to that new reality while we looked around the room at the crowd. We were definitely some of the youngest in the audience and probably the poorest . We agreed that Governor Davis had modified his song list for the white affluent audience, including more show tunes and less real blues. We drank wine, ate flatbread pizza, and then tipsily walked home. We had a really good time, but I don't think we'll be going back. The atmosphere was lovely if less than friendly, the food was mediocre, and the ticket price was high. We agreed that the laid-back  casual atmosphere at Calhoun Soup Salads and Spirits Tiger Room was more to our liking.