A Perfect Fit

A friend of mine keeps posting songs I love yet have forgotten on his facebook page, here is one:

A long long time ago

...so long ago, I dunno how to think about it, The Ticks recorded this.  91 or 92... Anyway, the other day I found it on a decrepit, disintegrating cassette tape.   You can hear the tape noise as it rolls before the song starts.  Classic Ed: it's not a happy song, in fact it's sarcastic and biting and telling the damn truth.

https://www.reverbnation.com/theticks4/song/24747267-rock-n-roll-sewer-copyright-ed

This picture was taken around then:

Ticks with original drummer Tim Bagley early 1990s

My memory fades but I think that recording was the first time I used the Marshall half-stack JCM 900, which I borrowed from a friend, who sold the rig to me a couple of years later.


Well, now we're doing some reunion shows, next one will be at the Nick on Christmas night.  we used to do this Christmas night show back in the 90's, so it is fitting that we do so again.  We did a show at Daniel Day Gallery in October, this photo is from that show:

Ticks at Daniel Day Gallery in October 2015 with drummer Carey Jacks

We kinda look different, but I think we sound better than ever.

The years have passed so quickly

My first horizontal caving trip as an adult

In December 2000, or January 2001, I'm not sure which, I went on my first horizontal cave trip as an adult, on what I was to find out afterwards was a dare. Kelly Norble had dared John Van Swearingen IV to do the thru trip from the upper entrance of Hurricane Cave, down and out of the lower entrance. 
Very few people to my knowledge have actually done this trip.
I weighed about 30 lbs less at the time, (long story why) which means I would not fit in the upper entrance if I tried today. I truly was surprised I fit when I did the trip back then.
At the time, I thought I was being tested to see if I had what it takes to be a caver, kind of like being beaten into a gang, only with better scenery. As it turned out, it was not the case; I was just along on a different, more sporting kind of trip than Hurricane Cave usually doles out.
I wrote a trip report for the Birmingham Grotto newsletter afterwards, and today I found that old newsletter in the grotto archives. Since it is in pdf form, I can only post images of the two pages of the trip report. It amused me to re-read what I wrote so long ago, so here they are: http://www.bhamgrotto.org/bham/judy1st.pdf

There I am on the cover of that month's newsletter with the white helmet on, behind Scott and Amy Parvin, Crissy Frotten in the background, Scott Fee on the hill to the right, at the entrance to Blowing Saltpeter Cave.  I had been bitten by the caving bug.  I'm afraid it's a life-long condition.

...and for those curious as to my first horizontal cave trip ever, it was Anderson Cave back when I was 11 years old.