The Friend Finder



Crowds at ACL Fest 2009



As we all look forward to one of the largest events held in Austin every year those of us that attend must be thinking about what we will carry in order that we can find each other in the crowds. As any festival goer knows the best way to experience a music festival is to be together with friends. However, when at a crowded festival, visitors tend to lose each other especially when a lot of people are in motion. The annual ACL Festival which is produced by C3 is a 3 day, 8 stage live concert event that will be held on October 8-10 in Zilker Park. The crowds are so huge that many event goers carry long poles with some sort of distinguishing item at the top of the pole so that their friends can locate them on the event grounds. As there is no official name given to these poles, at least that I know of, I will dub them the “friend finder”.

Gary and I attend some, or all, of the event every year. With the event coming up next weekend I am reminded of some of our favorite “friend finders” that we saw last year.

I think my very favorite was “The Order of the Stick”…..so classic. This “friend finder” needs no explanation. What would have made this “friend finder” even better were if the group had all been wearing Monk robes, but it was way too hot and muggy that weekend for this added touch. It reminds me of something you might see in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”.  It’s only a flesh wound.

Another pretty hilarious finder bore a sign at the top of it stating “Beach Closed…..Shark bites have occurred in this area”. All of the people associated with said finder were wearing fins on their head. Too bad Jimmy Buffett wasn’t playing during the event last year….it would have been so apropos for the shark head troupe to circle the crowd while Jimmy was singing “Fins”. Can’t you feel ‘em circlin’, honey….can’t you feel ‘em swimmin’ around……

We just haven’t been that creative in our friend finders. Ours are usually a very primitive apparatus consisting of a pole that a duster attaches to in order to clean ceiling fans or light fixtures. We hang a kerchief on it during the day and a glow stick on it at night. Simple, but effective.

For more information on the Austin City Limits Festival go to ACL Fest

Baxter Boot Camp

When Gary and I came to LA recently for my foot surgery we wanted to bring our Yorkie, Baxter. We are going to be here for a little over two weeks, staying in Hermosa Beach, so we didn’t want to have him stay at the kennel for that long. I got Baxter as a Christmas present for Gary after our Lab of 15 years passed away. I deliberately chose a dog that did NOT shed and was small enough to take on the plane when we travel. Little did I know that we were getting the Super Size model of Yorkies. As he grew from puppy-hood he just kept growing and growing and growing……

We often joke about Baxter’s size calling him the Yorkie on steroids or claiming that he is just “big boned”, but it wasn’t so funny when we decided to bring him to LA with us. After reading the guidelines on the airline website for pets travelling in the cabin I realized that we had a problem. The guidelines stated the following “Animals must be able to stand up, turn around and lie down in a natural position in the kennel” and “pet and container can weigh no more than 20 lbs. combined”. Well, there were two major problems with this. The maximum size of the carrier is just a tad shorter than Baxter himself and Baxter weighs about 22 lbs. outside of the carrier. I knew we had some work to do.

Thus, the birth of Baxter Boot Camp. We knew there was nothing we could do about the length of our overgrown pup, but we were hopeful that if he lost a couple of pounds the fact that he was squished in to the carrier may not come to the attention of the airline employees should they have a weigh-in. Of course, Gary kept pointing out the likelihood of Baxter losing 10% of his body weight in 2 weeks was a little optimistic, but I felt like we had to give it a try.

Baxter’s exercise routine consisted of multiple walks per day, with a couple of jogs thrown in for good measure. His most strenuous workouts were the walk up Hillbilly Lane, better known to Baxter as “Kill Hill”. This is a street that is about a half-mile long and in all probability a 30 - 40% incline right by our house. The first few times he would have to sit down in the middle of the walk or lay down in the little stream that runs alongside the road. After only 2 or 3 times up the hill, though, he could make it without stopping.

Ultimately, Baxter got down to about 20.5 lbs, but I’m pretty sure part of that loss is because we started taking his collar off when we weighed him. In any event, Baxter made it on the plane. The agent didn’t weigh him (and the carrier) when we checked in so it wasn’t a problem. Now, we just have to hope he doesn’t gain weight out here in LA!