Riders In the Sky

John and I went to Fort Collins last night to the Lincoln Center, the closest performing arts center, where we paid a modest eight dollars each to see a wonderful concert by the cowboy band, Riders In the Sky. I got to meet Ranger Doug and the whole group afterwards. We actually talked for about ten minutes. I was amazed by how nice they all are. 

Their voices are as great on stage as they are on their records. And Ranger Doug can really hit those high notes. I've never heard anyone who can yodel like he can, and some of the kids in the audience probably tied their tonsils in knots trying to imitate him. Those gentlemen had the whole audience laughing at some of their antics, but no one could ever complain about their mastery of their instruments. They put a lot of music out from one guitar, one fiddle, one bass, and one accordion. It was a great concert. I'll be keeping the autographs I got from them right next to the ones I got from The Statler Brothers and Mark O'Connor. 

It really amazes me, how lucky I've been to have seen so many wonderful live events over the years. The only way last night could have been better would have been for Sherrie to have been here to enjoy it with us. I kept thinking about her last night, and knew she'd really have loved the show, so I was going to rush home and blog right away, but then my computer died. 

Did I panic? Of course. I've never had a Mac just die on me. It wouldn't respond to anything. It was just dead. Nothing. I diagnosed it as a dead drive. That had to be it. Luckily, I was all backed up, so wouldn't lose more than an hour, since the new system software does this automatically, and I don't even have to think about it anymore. Still, how could I live without my trusty laptop for a week while it went in for repairs? I called Sherrie and she commiserated. Then I told her about our night out and she was fittingly impressed. 

We said goodnight. I closed up the dead Mac, cleared up my desktop table, noticed the cord on the floor and absently plugged it back into the Mac, then went to bed. At about 3 a.m., I got back up and went into the living room, opened up the Mac again, and everything sprang to life. It wasn't dead. It had been unplugged long enough to drain the battery completely. I had been in the other room when the warning flashed on the screen. I came back in to a dead Mac and thought the worst. As Daddy used to say, "That'll learn you."