Ok. So maybe I'm not so smart. I've been having trouble getting my Windhaven Network mail for quite a while now. I assumed that something was screwy with our server, and that I would correct it the next time we were home for a while. Well, tonight I discovered that the reason we were all having trouble with Windhaven is that the domain had expired. Doh! I quickly renewed it, but I'm sitting here somewhat stunned by how stupid Mara and I have been. I think we both thought that it had been renewed. I'm just thankful that no one wanted our domain. We might actually put up a site there one of these years.

Lemme see. Since I'm here I should catch up on other news.

We gave Mama a gardener bear from Vermont Teddy Bears for Mother's Day and an Epson all-in-one printer/scanner for her birthday (the 11th). She seemed rather excited by both of them. Mama always does her speech about how we do so much for her, but I still look at it like I'm just trying to return the favor. She's always been there for me. It's my turn to be there for her.

I played my 6-string bass tonight. I actually played it more than the Alembic. Mara doesn't like to hear this, but I'm actually starting to like its sound better than the Alembic. Blasphemy, I know. But the damned thing still sounds good. I'm kind of proud of this particular purchase. Now, Mara hates the gold chrome hardware, but what do you do?

I'm getting bleary-eyed, so I think I'll go to bed. It's 4:14, but I can still get a little sleep. We'll be heading back out in a couple of hours for another wonderful week on the road. Neither of us are particularly looking forward to it. Ray fucked up again. He tried to screw us out of our week off; at one point saying that we needed to let him know ahead of time. Ahem. You know. Like more than the 3 times we had reminded him already? The compromise is that we won't get next Monday off. Instead we'll keep rolling through Monday and will run a load up to Waukegan, IL and then back from Bedford Park, IL to North Cove, NC. We'll do this twice. Then we'll have to rest of the week off. Ray actually tried to talk us out of it, but I was inflexible. The Lovelace reunion thingie is going to be on the 22nd. Ray isn't going to screw me out of that because he can't remember to write things down.

Speaking of the Lovelace reunion; I'm getting rather excited about it. I'm nervous, too. I mean, I've spent my entire life knowing that I was a Lovelace but not having any family to speak of. When I was a kid my father was someone I saw every year or so, but he was never a major presence in my life. I've literally only seen my half-brother, Justin, in person on 5 occasions; when we met in California in 1979 or so when I was about 14; when he and our sister, Tanya, visted our Aunt Margie in South Carolina in the early to mid 80's; when I flew to New York in 1992 after Tanya had died; when he surprised me with a visit in North Carolina in 1993; and when he served as Best Man at my and Mara's wedding in 1998.

So, I'm basically saying that I've never had a family of Lovelaces around me. The Chaney side (Mama's family) was certainly present, but that was only half of the equation. Now suddenly I have Allen, and he's offering me a whole new family. I'm really touched by that. Not many people would try so hard to bring a total stranger into the fold and make him feel like family. Not many people would stage a family reunion so that he and that family can get to know one another. I have to say; after learning that my Aunt Margie (a Blackwell from my grandmother's first marriage) apparently tried to keep Allen from me and Justin, it's refreshing to find someone who is that open.