Playing hooky

I took today off for mental health reasons. I've been spending all my weekends hobbled and not moving around much, but my job still requires me to use my legs. It is nice to have a day, a work day, where I don't have to move around. I'm going to finish another Hard Case Crime book (Donald Hamilton's Night Walker) and surf the 'net a little, and listen to the Giants on the radio tonight. Last night we went out late and saw a show at Sengthong's Blue Sky Room in Dunsmuir. Yes, little Dunsmuir has the happening-est spot in Siskiyou County. Roy Rogers, the Golden State's blues guitar king, showed off his sensational chops. My head is still ringing! He is a diminutive fellow and hid his face behind a grey fedora, but his fingers flew off the fretboard like little dervishes and the clean, clear notes piled on top of each other with amazing speed. He played with a slide on his baby finger, and sang his own compositions along with covers of Willie Dixon's "Built For Comfort" and Elmore James's "Shake Your Moneymaker." He managed to update the Delta sound (he played two Robert Johnson numbers, "Kind Hearted Woman" and "If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day") and fuse it with a rollicking, upbeat Chicago-style boogie. This guy is the real deal and deserves to be "checked out." His website is The Slide Zone. OK, OK, I'll admit that I played hooky so I could stay up late partying to some great live blues. Not being able to dance, I happily sat at the bar and drank pale ales and double bourbons on the rocks. I'm paying for that, a little, today. You know the rules: do the crime, do the time.