I'm on my way, Dave

I've planned to go see the Dave Mathews Band three times before. It's never happened.

This weekend, I have a ticket to see him at Shoreline near San Jose. My and four friends are packing up and heading to San Francisco tonight. The concert is Saturday night.

I'm really excited, you just can't tell because you can't hear my voice right now. Really, I'm yelling this with glee.

Lessons learned: Dreams do come true.

Plans foiled

Yesterday, I was supposed to be on my bike, in a line of about six others, weaving on a single track trail from the top of a peak down to where I live.

It was a 50-mile trek that I and others spent about three weeks planning. We had drivers to take us up there. My friend Jenn had offered to be one, and then make us dinner when we got back. She had a babysitter for her new baby in the morning while she drove. Everyone knew where they were meeting and what they needed.

I was like a kid on Christmas Eve.

The only thing we didn't have nailed down was the weather. And of course, that was the one big thing that could thwart our plans. When I woke up at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, my frined and coworker, Amy, called to to tell me she had heard it was pouring rain and lightening in the high country. Ironically, it hasn't rained in the past five months, and both Friday and Sunday were precipitation free.

So we bagged the whole thing, and Steve and I went to breakfast to mourn.

We did take a shorter ride today to try and make up for it. It was fun, and the ditch is more beautiful than ever, but I can't help but still be a little sad our plans didn't work out.

Lesson learned: The weather is such a buzz kill sometimes.

Off the hook

For a year I had a land line, but no phone. (It was for my DSL mostly).

It took my cell phone breaking for a day for me to finally go out and get one. I even got a slightly fancy one — you know, a mobile one with buttons that light up and 40 different rings and wings that will fly it to you when it rings. But not that I actually have one, I'm wondering what the point is.

I have only had one person that I know call me. Two of the other calls have been wrong numbers and four have been automated telemarketers.

The latter cracks me up. There's little chance I might sign up for that credit card anyway, but that falls into the negative numbers when the pitch comes from a robot. At least they're easier to hang up on.

Lesson learned: My knew phone does come in handy when I lose my cell phone, which happens all the time.

Eating garbage

If you think vegan is extreme, check this out. People called Freegan seek to not use money at all. Their argument is that while vegans' efforts to boycott products that harm animals is noble, they are still supporting companies that do equally unethical things.

One of the ways they do that is by dumpster diving at stores and other businesses. They say they find discarded food there that is perfectly clean and eatable. To each his own, I guess.

Lesson learned: Good for them for reducing waste, but I might stick to eating expired foods in my own refrigerator.

Health nut

It's fitness challenge time again, and I'm back at drinking lake-sized amounts of water, eating vegetables like a herbivore and spending extra time at the gym.

Like I explained when I participated last year, the fitness challenge is where teams from businesses and organizations in our area compete to have the most healthy habits. Certain things, like exercise, eating vegetables, taking a multivitamin and getting eight hours of sleep are assigned points, which participants keep track of daily.

It's supposed to make you think about adding healthy habits to your daily routine. Of course, the added element of competition makes people, including me, take it too far. Last year I was captain and got really to into it, so this year I resolved to take a milder approach. Of course, that only lasted the first week — after I saw everyone else's point scores.

I actually traded weight lifting the other day for running because I get more points for it. I'm drinking so much water I'm visiting the bathroom ever five minutes. And don't get me started about fruits and vegetables. (A friend of mine at the gym suggested I bring some vegetables to eat while I'm working out, but I haven't reached that level of insanity yet. Maybe in week three.)

I don't think I will eat any fruit or vegetables for weeks after this is over. I'll trade them for all the deserts I'm skipping.

Lesson learned: If I really want to be fit, I just shouldn't participate.

Sleuthing

I had some pretty big breakthroughs on my shooting coverage this week. I think I wrote about this before, but there was a man killed when a friend of his allegedly shot him at home near Sonora, then dumped the body in a ravine. I'm not sure how much I should write about it, because I worry that I'm going to go and get my self subpoenaed.

That aside, I did get to do what I really love this week, which is a lot of in-depth interviews and investigating. The downside is it requires a lot of working. I am a little relieved its the weekend and I can relax.

Lesson learned: When asking for court records, ask for them in three different ways.

Memory loss

I've always wondered if I would go insane some day, considering I have a lot of the elements of those who do. I'm a musician. A writer. I dabble in craziness occasionally.

It's official. I think my brain has given up, and it's finally happening. Today I was sending a Birthday Card to my little brother — who just turned 14. (Yeah, that's hard enough to take on its own). But as I was writing out the address on the envelope, I completely spaced the post office box number.

This is the same number I had for 15 years while I was growing up. And I have sent things there for years since. Never for one second in my life have I ever had problems remembering it.

But this morning, it was just gone. I kept saying combinations of numbers trying to fish it out of the cabinets of my mind. But in the end, I had to look it up on a people search online, mostly because I was too embarrassed to call my parents and ask them what my very own address for years was. They can laugh at me when they're reading this and I'm not there.

Lesson learned: I think I'm suffering from early onset Alzheimer's. Very early.

No labor

I almost had the all-American Labor Day weekend. It consisted of going to a lake, a barbecue and an attempted camping trip.

The latter is why I say almost. A friend and I tried to meet up with a group that was camping at a river about a hour away. We drove down there but never found them — probably because we didn't get down there until 10 p.m.

But otherwise, it was nice to relax. The lake we went to was great, and I had a cat nap in the sun. I needed it after sort of a crazy week. I'm not ready for summer to be over.

Lesson learned: People are easier to find in the daytime.