“Tim and Dee visit”
We did manage to stay awake and attend the Old 97s concert at Tipitina’s on Sunday night, and are quite proud of ourselves for staying out that late. This was a very good show, and a great way to close out Kara’s birthday weekend. Here are Kara and Nina enjoying the show:
The Old 97s are from Dallas. They formed in 1992 and have released thirteen albums. Starting out as a bar band, they were pioneers of the alt-country movement in the mid to late nineties. Lead vocalist and main songwriter (and Kara’s favourite) Rhett Miller describes their music as “loud folk”.
Here’s one of their more popular songs:
We had a sports medicine spine doctor visit on Tuesday. She ordered an epidural for pain relief and relaxation of the bulging disc and also enrolled Diana in a back and spine physical therapy group. So, Diana was excited when she got scheduled to go to the hospital on Thursday. Not so fast – that was for a visit with a doctor who really didn’t know why we were there. Not well received in the slightest! That doctor did manage to work some magic and get us in for the epidural procedure on Friday afternoon.
I picked up Tim and Dee at the airport on Thursday evening, while Diana cooked up a batch of jambalaya for dinner. We had a nice time hanging out and catching up.
Our guests met Denny and Anne for lunch at Juan’s Flying Burrito on Friday, while we visited the hospital for the procedure. Diana’s “angel hair pasta” veins didn’t cooperate with an IV – success on the sixth try, after over an hour of two nurses giving it their best shots. After the IV was in, the rest of the procedure went very quickly.
Oops – I forgot to share pictures of the visit we made to the State Street skeleton house prior to lunch at Juan’s:
We were in an Uber over to Gretna fest within a couple of hours. We set up in time to enjoy an excellent set from Galactic:
We had missed the opening Neil Francis set due to rain and the procedure. Fortunately he joined Galactic for a few songs:
I always love watching Stanton Moore, Galactic drummer:
The Revivalists followed Galactic, after a bit of a delay, and also gave us a great set. Here they are with a Radiohead cover:
What a pleasant and uncrowded evening at Gretna Fest.
We visited Elizabeth’s in the Bywater for brunch on Saturday morning. Tim and I laughed as we passed the empty field where Mirliton Fest happened years ago – it’s kind of a squash like vegetable and I’ve only ever heard of it in Louisiana.
Diana and Dee had their pink breast cancer awareness shirts on, and those were matched with the drink cups:
We had a very casual and enjoyable lunch:
Elizabeth’s was followed by a French Quarter Ramble (FQR) with Denny and Anne joining in. We started at Molly’s at the Market for frozen Irish coffees – a Timmy special request and progressed from there:
The ladies joined the Krewe for the Magazine Street Art Walk on Saturday night, running into our neighbors in some fancy menswear store:
We enjoyed lunch at the Rum House before dropping Diana back at Gretna Fest to meet up with the gang.
She had a good time and was dropped back at the house in one piece after enjoying this tiny cocktail chair:
Tim and Dee left for the airport in an Uber around 5pm, saying that they had done more in a few days than they typically do in three months – and I thought it was a pretty tame weekend.
I didn’t get much reading done this week – hopefully more to report next post.
Something new from Marc Broussard – he played at Tipitina’s recently but it would have been way too crowded for us old folks:
What about this different version of the Nick Lowe classic made famous by Elvis Costello (featured earlier in the skeleton pictures):
Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!