Tim on Bass, Tony's Graciousness, a Go for Golf and Even Some Fireworks Pics!

When my brother Tim was attending college at St Cloud State University in the mid-'80s he would occasionally fool around with some other guys playing covers of songs. Decades ago Tim gave me a tape he'd put together of some music he liked from around that time and one of the songs on the tape was a recording in which he played bass. I believe they only played for fun and never took it seriously enough to have a name for their band of buddies nor did they hire themselves out. I remember him telling me something about the lead singer being the son of Bobby Vee—an artist from North Dakota who had several hits in the '60s.

Years ago, I digitized the song Tim played bass on and uploaded it to a safe spot on my website where I'd always have it. It's a song called Homicide that was originally done by a group called 999. I think it's really well done and Tim rocks on the bass!

Homicide by Tim and his friends.

We have a Celebration of Life picnic planned for Tim on Saturday, July 23rd at Antler's Park in Lakeville. There will be no formal funeral service and although we never talked about it, I think Tim would've wanted it that way.

I have his ashes stored away on a shelf in a cabinet in my garage and they'll be taken to Michigan's Upper Peninsula and buried in a plot by our father and mother's graves. Keith and Tracee ordered headstones for both Mom and Tim. Mom's headstone will have an engraving of an angel and Tim's will have a guitar. That's so appropriate.

Jackie wrote the obituary to the left and I think captured nicely the essence of Tim.

I got a call from Tim's good friend Tony on Saturday morning. He had 4 tickets to the races that night at Elko Speedway for their yearly Eve of Destruction event that he wanted to give me. How nice! We rendezvoused at Fleet Farm by the silo near the entrance. We've been Facebook friends for a number of years but we'd never met until that morning.

Rachel got back into town from camping in the Boundary Waters, just in time to take a quick shower and join us for the race. We had such a nice time and Tony stopped up twice into his private suite to visit with us. Later, after the races were all finished, we walked down to pit-row where fans can mingle with the racers and see their cars up close. We were impressed with Tony and how he graciously took time with all of the little ones who wanted to have their photo taken with him or an autograph or both. He's a good guy!

There's a video at the end of this blog post of the finale of the night—the school bus race. Check it out.

We had our annual neighborhood 4th of July party at Bob and Karen's next door. We kept things pretty tame this year and closed it down early at around 10:30. They're the best hosts ever! Remind me to never do chest-bumps with Bob! He's got a hundred pounds on me and it's simply not a smart thing on my part. And yes, I had been drinking.

We walked to Lakeville North high school to see fireworks last night. I staged one of our cars there earlier in the evening with some fold-out seats so we could have a nice spot to the view the display from and then drive home. The city never fails to put on a nice show. A strong enough breeze kept the bugs away. Perfect!

I'm golfing again after having to sit out a 2nd 6 week period after re-injuring my intercostal muscles. I didn't really miss the game while I was away because there was so much else happening in my life and I was also trying to focus on my riding for last week's race. But I'm ready to hit the links again with the same zest I had for the game at the beginning of the season.

I've been working with a physical therapist who specializes in golf-related injuries. Lana is certified through the Titleist Performance Institute and has been having me do a series of strengthening and stretching exercises leading up to today when she analyzed my golf swing. She's happy with what she sees (and that made me happy) but she did make a couple of key changes that will hopefully get me into a more proper position to avoid future injuries. She saw that I was too upright to begin my swing and that I needed to have more flex in my knees and flatten my back. They're changes that have a very different feel at address and as I begin my backswing but they're changes I can adapt to. I'm excited to get working on them.

I'm enjoying going to the course and playing along with whomever I get paired up with. A few days ago it was Won and Tee; Sunday it was Freddy and Denis and today it was Andrew and Josh. New faces always seem to make for a more interesting round of golf.

Here's a collection of photos from this past week and a video of some Americana from the races. Enjoy!




















Comments

Popular posts from this blog

David Crowder Concert, NWA188 and Photo Review

Riding, Retirement and a Home Revisited

A Tragic Loss