Chicago 2007

6/13 Goin’ out west (well, part way at least)

For years I’ve wanted to do a cross country tour that takes the best stops of our previous trips out West and tacks on some new places. With friends all over the country, this would not be hard to do. But a cross-country tour is a long way off, and not on my current agenda. In the mean time, we try to do jaunts that may one day pay off by making us more familiar with the country. This time, our trip encompassed Columbus (which I once bussed to, but never drove through), and Chicago (a favorable destination in 2004 where I also had a gig). Having experienced all that Amtrak had to offer during our last trip to Chicago (12 hr delays, hot sweaty cars, and zero security), we chose instead to drive the whole stretch in our newly acquired 2003 Outback. (Alas, my ol’ 1996 Pontiac Bonneville, which seated two Hungarians and a string bass, is no more… )

My friend Mike (Mickey) Maguire is the person who, for better or worse, got me interested in building my own PCs and trying to make them do what I wanted. Over the years, Mike has been my mentor in a number of ways, but particularly with computers. He once drove to my house at 2:00 AM when I deleted DOS from my first PC. Yeah, I don’t know if either of us was right in the head, but moments like that built one of my strongest friendships.

Over the years he’s helped me get work stuffing multi-colored rabbit fur into plastic bags (yeah, it was legal!). We’ve co-written songs and recorded music. I’m sure Mike is glad that over the years I have had much fewer PC problems, or at least fewer that required his late-night support. Now I get paid to fix other people’s computer problems and design their software so they can do what they want to do (a mixed blessing, I assure you.) Truth be told, I probably would have went Mac if it weren’t for Mike, and if I wasn’t in a PC-based industry. However, I’ve been able to navigate the waters relatively well and despite many of the shortcomings PCs have had over the years, I think I’ve done pretty well. He bottom line is that most of the software on the market is crap (even the really expensive stuff), so use only what you need and forget the rest.

When I met Mike, he was recently divorced and had moved to PA to be with his parents. He worked for a time with Al Coucci, a flyfishing entrepreneur, and did a number of odd jobs and home businesses to make ends meet. After several years, his parents moved back to Columbus, OH (his home town), and Mike soon followed. He also had a son there from his previous marriage, and it was difficult to see him while Mike lived in PA. That was right around the time I was moving to Harrisburg.

We stayed in touch via the Internet, but musical collaboration soon fell to the wayside as both of our lives got busier, and as I took on other musical projects. My last visit was via Greyhound in 1999 or so, and though we continue to remain in contact via email and the occasional call, our 2:00 AM discussions don’t happen anymore, and those somewhat define the way our friendship works.

After our first trip to Chicago in 2004, I felt a bit guilty, and thought it would be good to work something out next time we were out that way. Since seeing him last, Mike had remarried, his son was grown and in Iraq, and Mike had done a variety of side businesses (he’s tremendously talented with photography). So with our second trip to Chicago, I wanted to work in a visit, however brief, to see Mike and his wife Mary Rose.

They greeted us kindly as we arrived late Wed night. We swapped stories and caught up as best we could. Audra was going to take the first leg of the remaining miles to Chicago, so she retired by midnight, and Mary Rose shortly thereafter. Then, just like the old days, Mike and I stayed up until 2:30 AM talking about our work lives, things that have happened in the intervening years since my last visit, and our impressions of computer technology. Mike described to me in somewhat scary detail how he single-handedly wrote a POS system on a Palm Pilot on his lunch break one day and totally blew away the company for which he was working (they had been working on such a system for two years.)

In the morning, Mary Rose and Mike were both checking email when I awoke. We checked our messages as well, and got to see some of the digital scrap booking stuff that Mary Rose was doing. She’s been doing “analog” scrap booking for a long time, but now is trying to learn about the computerized tools that are available. I’m sure Martha Stewart will have her hands all over this hobby, if she doesn’t already.

Mary Rose made a frittata, and we chatted some more about future trips and plans. It was hard to leave, and much too short a visit, but we had to leave early in order to beat the Chicago rush hour traffic.

Continued...