Never a dull moment here in moving-land… We returned from Los Angeles Wednesday night, and after a brief spurt of packing on Thursday, we headed to Boston to be with Aimee’s family for the weekend. Friday and Saturday were spent hanging out with the kids in Portsmouth, as well as with lots of family friends at a Saturday afternoon barbeque/whiffleball/karaoke/wading pool party, blessed with some cloud cover on a ridiculously hot weekend.
Sunday morning, I headed up to the North Shore to check out some photobooths I’d heard of but never had a chance to visit, in Salisbury and in Salem. One more New England ramble, one more trip across the Zakim Bridge, one more hot afternoon wandering the arcades full of barely-clothed kids stuffing their faces with fried dough, clutching wads of skee-ball tickets. The trip was a success, for sure, with six old-style photobooths at five arcades in the two towns.
From Salem, I got on the Pike (ah, one more insane Pike traffic jam at Chahlton Plazah) and headed to Amherst, to check out the architectural changes afoot since our last visit, and to grab a black bean avocado slice at Antonio’s for dinner. Plus a cheese, of course, and a couple of punches on the free slice card. The new buildings look good, at first glance – I didn’t have time to really look around – and the campus is currently overrun with little tennis brats. I’ll have more time to get a sense of the changing campus next June for our tenth reunion.
From Amherst, it headed off down Route 9 to Northampton to meet up with Josh and his family and friends at Look Park for an unexpected and wonderful show, the tireless Wilco in the lush confines of the Pines Theater. I’d never been to the Park, much less even heard of it, and I’d abandoned hope so seeing Wilco on their only Northeast date this summer, thinking I’d be too busy. Josh came through with a ticket, and the scheduling worked out, so at 8:30, we ran in as they opened with “Via Chicago” in that incredibly beautiful space, surrounded by trees, under the stars. Eventually.
The sound was remarkable – really clear, with great definition on every note, definitely some of the best sound I’ve heard at any Wilco show. This marks the eighth year in a row I’ve gone to see them, and they’re always evolving. Jeff and co. were in a playful mood last night, the last night of the tour, and they played a relaxed, totally enjoyable show, making fun of themselves, the audience, and Canadians in general. It was a long drive home, but I explored the depths of Sirius satellite radio – extended baseball recaps, old “Twilight Zone” episodes, lots of old new wave tunes to bring back summer camp memories…
This morning, we headed back on the Pike to Rochester, returning here one more time before we leave. We packed a little more, though it was so hot it seemed dangerous to do much more than sit as still as possible and drink water. Now is the time for starting up utilities in L.A., changing addresses with insurance companies and banks, and finding new homes for our air conditioner and redundant DVD player. Tomorrow is the last day of packing, and we’ll try to perform the key move of getting two cars parked in front of our apartment so we can move them on Wednesday morning when the moving truck comes.
