May the peace of the season be on you, friends. It’s been a great vacation, but, with the weekend and dutiful spouse Kathy back to her prep routine for teaching next week, it’s pretty much over. Lubbock and  its snowy Christmas are but memories as is the cursed-by-many year, 2009.

We celebrated its end with a trip to the movies last night, seeing George Clooney’s latest, “Up In the Air.” Good movie. See it. Also consider Frank Rich’s column on the movie’s back story- Clooney’s character’s work is flying from city to city firing folks whose bosses don’t have the balls to do it themselves (although, to be fair, in outsource America, most probably don’t have the human resources personnel necessary to do the job, having fired those folks first).

That followed a separated New Years– first one in my memory– as Kathy went Moon Partying celebrating the blue moon as well as the New Year while Joel and I, Long Time Comin’, went to Harley’s Country Store and Beer Garden for the advertised jam. That was a good time. Fiddler Jason showed up with a couple of guitar players and did some great blue grass. Jason was the guy I found fascinating  on a Harley’s visit last January because he worked a crowd so well, keeping them dancing for ten or fifteen minutes to a solo fiddler’s jig. He says he’s going to be around for a while, and we told him and his crew they’d be welcome on any stage we were hosting. After this week, Long Time Comin’ will be the regular hosts for Saturday nights at Harley’s, so come on out for the party. Doug says he’ll be showing up and we might talk him into a tune or two.

And, in case you missed it, here’s Ben Sargent’s latest. Bet he’s gone too far for you, hasn’t he?

Stan