Less Money... More Granddaddy...

I was heading to the mall at lunch today and saw the most peculiar sign. It read: "El Toro. Less Traffic Congestion... More Trees."

Now, how do you manage that? Put trees in the middle of the road? That would just congest traffic more! Drop the trees on cars? Again, it would just impede traffic.

El Toro's not a small town. They don't have fields for trees or for widening roads. I'm thinking the only alternative they have is Car-Eating Trees.

Think about it.

"Look out, Bob! An elm!"

Anyway, I was heading to the mall to pick my mom up a birthday gift. My mom's birthday is coming up, so... And I had a good idea what I'd get her - but I'm not going to tell you and ruin the surprise.

(And who knows, maybe she's reading this. I never know who reads this thing. Stephanie emailed me yesterday, asking how things were, and I asked her if she'd seen the blog. She used to be a loyal reader - now, she can't even remember what it's called! The world is fickle, I tell you!)

So, I'm at the mall and there's a Tower Records. You gotta hand it to them, even after records weren't records anymore - after vinyl died its quiet death - they still call themselves Tower Records. So, I'll support a little anachronism - I go inside.

And there it is. The new CD by Granddaddy. I love Granddaddy. I have almost all of their disks. (Unlike Clostio, who illegally downloads them from what I've heard. I can't bring myself to do it. It's not that I'm that ethical - I'm just too lazy. It's easier for me just to spend the money.) Granddaddy is like cherry soda, nothing to write home about but damned good just the same. They're not Pink Floyd or Zep or ELO and they don't try to be... okay, maybe they try to be ELO a little but that's okay, too. Granddaddy is like honey to my ears - no, actually, it's like junk food. Cause I'm hooked. I want to listen to all of their albums in chronological order before hearing the final one.

Yes, this is the final one. How awful is that? And how often do you hear a band saying that this will be the final cd? Usually, someone asks about their final cd and they say, "I think it was the last one. Sorry." Granddaddy is breaking up and this is it.

Sigh.

Oh, I got my mom's gift, too. Just between the two of us, I got her a