And the rain just keeps on coming...it's supposed to let up by the end of the week. We got a brief respite on Friday afternoon when we drove down to New Jersey. By the time we got out of Massachusetts, the skies started brightening and it was downright sunny and nice in Ringwood. We got there in time to head down to the lake for the first "Fabulous Friday" of the year, which is a community thing where there's a big cookout and everybody just enjoys it. They had a guy playing acoustic rock including some Dead, Neil Young and Kinks tunes, so I was digging it. And the kids had a blast playing on the beach and the playground.
Deb and I got up early Saturday (5:45) to get the kids ready and out to the start of Tricia's triathlon at Franklin Lakes. The weather was nice. There were about 900 entrants in the event, which started with a quarter-mile swim around the lake. Tricia was nervous, but she did great. She said afterwards there were so many people around her that she was only able to do the dog paddle for most of the swim, but she was calm and got through it. The bike portion was 17 miles, so we just hung out with the kids at the finish and waited for her to get back; we had some other folks out along the course who let us know when she was on her way back. Then she had a 5-mile run that wound around the neighborhoods near the finish. Every time we saw her she had a smile on her face and she finished strong in 2:21. In fact, she's already signed up for a shorter tri in August.
Not long after she finished, the skies darkened and it started to rain lightly but steadily. I had planned to run 13 but I ended up doing 10 miles; felt a little twinge in my left knee about halfway through, walked a little, but was able to finish pretty strong. I saw a couple of good-sized deer as I was heading out of Ringwood State Park. I was happy to get the 10 in. The rain picked up as the evening wore on and Matt and Tricia threw a party to celebrate Tricia's great accomplishment. I stopped drinking around 6:30, which was a good move; kinda had a headache, anyway. I got a good eight hours of sleep, which was nice and which I knew I'd need since I was going out later. We hit the road around 10:30 and got home in time to relax a little.
I headed into Cambridge at 8:15 to go to the Condo F**ks/Bevis Frond/Sleepyhead show at TT the Bears; the sold-out concert was a celebration for the 25th anniversary of Jon Bernhardt's great Breakfast of Champions show on WMBR, the MIT college station that we listened to at Webnoize every day. I listened to 'MBR on the Web for several years afterward, but the last few I haven't because my RealPlayer kept crapping out. Anyhoo, I was supposed to meet OJ and Doobs at the club, since they both had tickets. I got there a little after 9, picked up a Tremont Ale and watched Sleepyhead's set. They were excellent, with good vocal harmonies and punchy pop-rock tunes. The place was full of aging indie rock hipsters, as well as some of more recent vintage. OJ showed up around the end of Sleepyhead's set and I hung out with him in the back of the club for all of the Bevis Frond's set, which started out acoustic. Mary Lou Lord joined him to perform "Lights are Changing," the BF song she covered for a minor FM hit in the late '90s. Then BF (aka Nick Saloman) rocked it up with pair of locals as his backing band; he flew over from England especially for the occasion. My brother and I saw him play at South by SouthWest in Austin back in 2000 and he had impressed me then as an excellent guitarist. This time around, he looked a bit ragged and a lot older (he's 56), but he sounded great and seemed to have a really good time. I shook his hand after his set as he went to get a beer and he had a big grin on his face.
The Condo F**cks (aka the great Yo La Tengo; this is a side project that traffics in garage punk) were supposed to come on at 11:15, but since Bevis Frond went over, they came out at 11:50. They proceeded to bang out the majority of the new CF covers album in quick succession and with great fervor. OJ took off at 12:30 because he had to get up early for work; I did, too, but I figured I'd lasted this long, I might as well see it through. They powered through 20 more minutes, playing a new YLT song and then bringing up the other bands for a tribute to Chris Knox of New Zealand's Tall Dwarfs; Knox had a stroke recently. The conglomeration played "The Brain That Wouldn't Die," with YLT/CF frontman Ira Kaplan singing while wading into the crowd, to the back of the room right in front of me, and then jumping up on the adjacent bar to belt out a few verses before making his way back to the stage (see the accompanying photo). It was pretty great stuff.
I was home by 1:30 and got about 4.5 hours of sleep last night, which made for a long day today. But I got through it and it was a great weekend. Now excuse me while I pass out.
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