Pawn Shop, Skaggster and Crash

I've had a lengthy and little-needed leave of absence from this blog as my band (more like a quartet) of loyal followers have pointed out, so I might as well get cracking.  I'm actually writing this on my "new" laptop, and by new, I mean the one I picked up at a pawn shop last week. And by laptop, I actually mean  "fattop",  a term PhillyTwo coined as soon as she laid eyes on the dinosaur I brought home. And if she thinks her nickname for my computer bothers me, she's mistaken. I like my honker of a screen. Let the young-ins buy those itty bitty scratch pads. Size matters to real women. Real, old sight-challenged women, that is. We like our laptops like we like our men: in good working order, handy, dependable, turned on when they're with us, in hibernation when they're not. Now, I want to mention something about my Dad, his old mandolin, and Ricky Skaggs one last time before I put that topic out to pasture. I first wrote about it here back in September, 2010, after Ricky Skaggs performed at Rhythm and Roots in Bristol, my hometown. I did a short follow-up here when Ricky Skaggs, or as we affectionately call him, the Skaggster, called my Dad (known affectionately by his grandchildren as Roy) and chatted him up about the three common bonds they share: their love of bluegrass music, interest in the history surrounding it and the Skaggster's mandolin that once belonged to Roy. They had a nice conversation and that was the end of that...or so we thought. At the end of January, 2011, the Appalachian Cultural Music Association honored  our 89 year old guitar-playin', mandolin-pickin, music-lovin' father, Roy Webb, and who should appear to share the moment with him...you guessed it...the Skaggster. When he got wind of the event, he called Roy and said, "I wanna be there." So Roy said, "Come on." And he did. But he didn't just come to the event  - unannounced to the public and unpaid by anyone, I might add - he showed up at the house early in the day, visited for a few hours, had lunch with the whole family (what a brave man), then he came downtown to the Paramount Theatre and performed with Roy that night. It was such a remarkable thing for him to do and it's a memory we will have to carry with us forever. Meanwhile, back at the ranch...Like clockwork, I brought the fattop home and the trusty desktop crashed like it was a dot-com company and this was April 10, 2000. I went from flush to hangin by a thread in a matter of minutes. I mean, I love my "new" fattop but I need my ol' reliable. This morning I schlepped that tower to the doctor like it was my sick child and hopefully after some hi-tech penicillin it'll be as good as new. Not that I'm all that into "new".