for the kid

Rudyard's, Houston thursday
a great audience
the sound was impeccable
sold a bunch of cds afterwards
Buttercup was brilliant
as always
Bernd and Yoli were there
Greg too with the posters
made some new friends too
the Deathray Davies came on at the end
and got everyone outta their chairs
up at the front of the stage singing and dancing
i've missed seeing them play
it was really nice to see John D. back
fronting his band
Jason on the drums is Keith Moon as God
our gang conquered
we stood around afterwards loading the vans
in the 2am heat
so humid our guitar cases were sweating
i got back to the hotel at 3am
content but exhausted
we took Gavin to NASA Friday afternoon
got there at 1:30
after fighting the rain
and traffic
he was Disneyland excited
ready to learn about science
and see rockets
it was mayhem at first
kids running around everywhere
yelling out joyously
G got caught up in the rapture of it all
we raced around various little play stations with him
i even rode on a simulated space rollercoaster with him
he got scared when we saw Darth Vadar
and gulped root beer from his $5 Alien souvenir alien mug
around 3:30 it was time to go
if we were gonna beat that notorious Houston rush hour traffic
G had his heart set on taking the tram tour though
and seeing the rockets
Jayme was not in a good way at this point
on her feet for too long and her back beginning to kill her
she made a sacrifice for Gavin though and said "yes" to the tour
we crowded into and long line and got right up
to where they were slowly loading the trams
then the security people walked off
and the tram left
we waited in the muggy heat for another half hour
while the 17 year old employees gingerly loaded the next tram
Jayme was in exquisite pain now
i began to worry about our impending trek to Austin
the clock was ticking
our happy day melting away into a glob of stress
we finally boarded our wagon
we finally rolled forward
our first stop was mission control
from the '60s
it was cool to see but then they ushered us into some seats
to sit and listen to a guy blather on for 20 minutes about
nothing that interesting
then we were herded back to the tram
it was almost 5
i felt my blood pressure on the rise as i pictured missing the gig
i just couldn't relax and be in the moment
i was annoyed by the terribly unorganized crass NASA tour
i felt part of a tourist trap
we moved like turtles to the next stop
but my son was thrilled and that made me glad we stayed
by the time we got back to our car it was 5:30
i don't think i'd ever been happier to see our little Mini