Happy Friday everybody. That means my new article is up on the City Wire. If you’d like to read it, click here: Hot Link.

As you know, I’m in Memphis at the Pink Palace craft show. I haven’t been to this show in a very long time. So long, in fact, that I had forgotten that I bought my hammock here. Since the untimely demise of my previous hammock, and since I’m considering taking on yet another job, I figured that I really really deserve a new one. So, I went to chat up the Eagle’s Nest Outfitters guy. His name’s Walker. I explained about my old hammock and told him that I am needing a new one. Most of their signage was concerned with hammocks and straps. Nothing about the rest of the amazingly cool stuff that they offer. So, I just had to inquire about a complete kit. Walker informed me that he had everything for a complete kit with him, but they don’t market them to the general public because they are a little more expensive than most people want to spend on a hammock. And the complete kits are for advanced hammock users, not novices. So he tells me what they normally run for and assured me that since I was a long time user and also a vendor at the show, that he’d take of me. And take care of me he did. I think he might have been more excited that I was. He was digging through crates of hammocks for the perfect color for me. Red and charcoal. I recall him saying something about building the most badass kit ever. By the end of it all, I got the whole she-bang. I got a new hammock, straps, a bug net, a rain fly, a bag for my stakes (the ones I have at home), a speaker system for my iPod that attaches to the hammock, and one big gear bag that holds it all. It is roughly a $250 value that I got for much less that that. I am so excited. Giddy is a better word for it. I’m back. Back in red and charcoal.

In addition to me blowing my financial load the first day of the show, the music actually rocked. Normally the first day of the show’s music blows because they don’t want to pay anybody to play. So what you get is a bunch of people from the retirement home having an open mic day. Kill me. But yesterday was not that. One guy had all of his different bands play. And they were amazing. The first set was a traditional jazz trio. And the front man played trumpet and sounds just Frank Sinatra. Then the second band was a New Orleans style jazz band. They actually walked around the show playing, second line style. They ended their set like it was funeral with “A closer walk with thee” and then “When the saints go marching in”. Brilliant. Then the third group was a country band that played a good bit of the Hank Williams catalog. Good stuff.

So yeah, Thursday was a good day for me. Good hammock, good tunes, and good food. We went to the world famous Gus’s fried chicken for dinner. Best fried chicken in a restaurant that I’ve ever eaten. Today is Pronto Pup day. I mean, why not? I’m surrounded by delicious fair food and I love corn dogs, so there’s no reason not to eat a foot long corn dog made by some of the best corn dog makers in the friggin’ world. Corn dogs. Anywho, I’ve got run. Have a wonderful Friday. More soon. ~SC