Page 19 - MN

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hopelessly bland and I think hers is lethal. Years ago I heard a great story about Japan when they'd had the Sarin gas attacks and one day the alarms went off, people evacuated, only to find a Thai family cooking dinner.
Jintana's mom does like waffles and spinach quiche and when Jintana and I go to breakfast I generally bring one or the other home for her.
Later I had lunch and headed to the driving range, where I found swing thought number 589, which I'm sure will solve everything. The only problem is I can remember all the other 588 thoughts as I'm standing over the ball on the course and grow paralytic.
I had muesli, fruit and yogurt for lunch, and I should explain that if you spent 45 years on the road, you discover the great freedom of eating any food at any time. Want pesto pasta for breakfast? Go for it! Cereal for dinner? No problem. Pie ala mode any time of day? Highly recommended. Even better news is that Jintana is on board with this thinking. Lasagna for breakfast is just fine with her. In the early years of playing bars in the Northwest, I found pie and ice cream to be dependable in almost all restaurants at all times. I also found if you're playing towns like Spokane, Cheyenne, Helena, etc. and get off work at 2 a.m., you will soon have the Denny's menu memorized. Want to meet barroom musicians? Late night at Denny's was the place to go.
I know now I was lucky to have played those bars. There is no greater training than to have to fill up four hours a night with two hours worth of material. Comedians, especially beginners, have a terrible time getting stage time, scratching for five minutes here, ten minutes there, and it's no wonder it takes ten years to come up with 45 minutes of material. The Beatles filled 8 hours a night when they played that bar in Germany, and it was insane, but worth it. I played guitar and did folk music, but always tried to inject humorous songs and stories and those became my career later on.
I'm now back listening to the book, "Straight Man", in the car and thanking all the great authors who have made my life so much more enjoyable. Richard Russo, Walter Mosely, Robert B. Parker, John Steinbeck--there are too many to name but they enhanced my life during those long years on the road. I wonder if they ever sat down and said, "I'm going to write 60,000 words no matter what". I could've taught them how to set the bar really low.