Sunday, September 03, 2006

Bat Party

Took Mr. Blueberry to the airport Friday to send him off for a weekend visit to his folks in St. Louis, where the temperatures are enviable right now. I am having a spouse-free weekend, which means I have more chores to do, like litter pans, birdbaths and trash duty. I thought "Labor Day" was for working less. harrumphh!!

Went down to the Congress St. Bridge Bat Fest. They closed off the whole bridge for the sake of arts & crafts, pony rides, and live music... and bat-watching too. I am too big and old to climb on a pony, but couldn't resist this photo-op. I am thinking of dressing up like this to attract a bat to our lonely, empty bat house in South Austin. Maybe a sign that reads "All the mosquitoes you can eat, FREE" would help. They don't know what they're missing.

The bands I saw were Big Blue Hearts (a nice twangy, Elvisy, Chris Isaaky, Orbisony pop band), and the Tyrone Vaughan band. Tyrone's foot in the door will always be that he is the son of Jimmie Vaughan, and the nephew of Stevie Ray Vaughan (you are not ever going to get out of that shadow in this town, maybe not in any other town either. You might not even want to). I have to admit, I do think he is starting to look like Uncle Stevie. His band was really good, it's a very soulful guitar rock sound. That's Bruce Castleberry with him there. You might recognize him from Vallejo. My concert-buddy is a friend of Tyrone's, so we got to go backstage and chat. Nice guy. Look for a new CD in a few months.

It was hot and sweaty (still 100+ degrees) on Saturday. Didn't even watch the bats at the batfest! I can do that any time though. Mr. B visited the bats today in St. Louis, which are mainly the wooden kind at the ballpark.

Today (Sunday) we've experienced a "cold front" which has brought the temps down into the mid-90s. Whew! Where's that jacket?

- - - - - -

2 comments:

Ptelea said...

I love bats. Putting up a bat house is on my list of things to do (in this lifetime!) I have heard that it is often difficult to actually get bats to start using them! I got to see the bats leave the cave at Carlsbad this summer - it was quite an enjoyable experience!

Hope your weather cools some more soon although you'd be freezing here - it's about 75 degrees!

Blueberry said...

75 is not uncommon for winter here (the 60s are more common). It's the perfect temperature, isn't it? I do need to visit the bats this year before they go back to Mexico or wherever they go. There are several places close by (in the urban area here) with bat colonies.