Raggin' Piano Boogie

 

 
HIS SPIRIT LIVES ON! ... BONER, THE PIANO DOG ... November 27, 1994 ... February 20, 2010

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August 31, 2007


August 30, 2007


August 29, 2007

Every time I drive into a cemetery in the middle of the night, I have to shrug off any impulsive thoughts of uncomfortability. It is not fair that horror movies and such have given creepy vibes to what is an amazingly peaceful environment. Boner opted to stay in the cab for the second night of this full moon. It is the second night, right? Maybe he could not shrug off his creepy thoughts. Really, he would rather just sleep in comfort at 2AM. Every time I play in this local cemetery, the tombstones become more of an audience sitting in rows. I do not think there are spirits hanging around in cemeteries anymore than any other place.

I am happy with myself tonight. I figured out how to connect my computer to the piano without the need to use a headset. It was quite simple, I knew it would be and it took less than five minutes to figure out. It took me three months to calm myself enough to attempt it. I was afraid to attempt it and that fear looks like chaos in my head. It is what it is. I thought, "you know you are such a late bloomer in everyway but you always bloom." I have always sensed that time is an illusion, that is my safety net from beating myself up from moving forward so slowly... as it seems.

So... tonight I added another dimension to my creating music. There is a difference when I know that I am recording, a unique awareness... and tonight I was able to blend that awareness (its an energy) with my soul, the environment and the piano sound. People have often said how Boner must enjoy the vibrations of the piano. I have never said anything to destroy their thoughts but the piano is not acoustic so there have never been vibrations from it. This piano I now have... the sound comes from the instrument itself and with it being on the truck bed platform well... my ass vibrates from the sound. I can now feel my musical vibes more than ever. I can never have enough stimulation! Ha.

August 28, 2007

I was playing with my head today... I am not going to do this blog, I am not going to play the piano, I am not going to over eat... over and over in my head... over and over... well, I ended up doing this blog, playing the piano and over eating. I enjoyed it all the best that I could. I left the house about 1:30 in the morning to go play in the cemetery. It is a full moon... I feel like celebrating whenever it is a full moon anymore... I am definitely "something" when it is a full moon, always have been. I wanted to record music. I sat with the headphones on because the piano does not make sound when it is connected to the computer. One of these days, I will figure that out. What is wrong with me that I have not done it yet? That should be a priority because I realized when I was done that I do not enjoy playing with the headphones. I am too much in my head. When I play the piano, I want to hear the sound coming from the piano and also all the sounds of nature at the same time! I enjoy being musically connected with something else besides my own head. I like the relational aspects of using my body to connect with another "body" (in this case the piano) to create. Someone drove by within several feet of me while I was playing, they never stopped, and they kept driving right on out of the cemetery. God, I would love to know what was in their head as they saw this guy sitting in the back of a truck playing the piano with no sound coming out of it! As I was driving out of the cemetery myself, I thought about how a year ago I would go out and play for twenty minutes and would be exhausted and done. Now, after an easy hour I need to tell myself to go home, I could play and play and play. I rarely stop to breath musically when I play... I just keep going and going and going....

August 27, 2007



Today was a day I could never have dreamed of two years ago. As my life unfolds, I am constantly enjoying discoveries for it. I am aware that I am creating them, not the specifics, I am just aware that I am creating goodness. I am enjoying this life journey I am on... it certainly becomes difficult at times but thankfully I really have gained some perspective on that. I went to the park to jam with musicians! I am now playing music with other musicians. I have begun to create my own music and now I am creating improvisational music with other musicians. I can do it feeling safe and with other people listening. This fact is truly beyond my Wildest of Dreams. I lived my whole life being afraid to connect on any level with other musicians. I tried it no more than five times in my entire life and it was unsuccessfully each time. Today was the second time with this guy named Mike and his friends. Different friends would come and go over a period of two hours. One guy pulled up with his sofa seat ready pickup truck to hang out. I heard new things musically today from these musicians. I enjoyed letting them use the truck and piano. I found myself getting serious with my thoughts, it was necessary to focus musically because I had to consider others! I listened to connect with them musically in the same way that I listen to the sounds of nature to connect musically.

August 26, 2007

Focus Danny. Keep your eye on the journey. I so much enjoyed the first half of the year sharing what Boner and I have to offer and interacting musically with new people everyday and all the perks that went along with that. Now I sit on my sofa working on html, cleaning out stuff, listing items, notices etc... on the internet, staying unafraid, fixing the house, wondering how to keep a life of fun. I have faith. It is now almost 12AM I have finished cleaning up the water from my basement, I won't go into detail... I just listed another hundred cookbooks on on the Boner The Dog website, I cooked a healthy dinner for myself today and now I am going to go outside to create music somewhere. It is almost a full moon, the temperature and air is wonderful, it is a clear night and creating some music is how I will create joy for my day.

August 25, 2007

It is 85 degrees in my house and the air conditioning has been on for twenty four hours. Water is dripping from the ducks. That'll give you an idea of what it is like outside. Did I go outside to create music today? No. I spent nine hours writing an email to send to my blast list. If you have never received an email from Boner and I in the past I do not have your email address. Go to the CONTACT US link on the left side of this page and send it in. I keep my email list private and send only a few per year. You want this email! Ha.

August 24, 2007

I went to a children's pool birthday party today as a surprise but alas, I was the one surprised. There was no pool, children or party at the location. I ended up in Tyler Park and it was humid! I left Boner under the truck as it was too hot for him on top of it. I did not mind the sweaty musical workout, I needed it. I musically rambled and rambled and rambled and intensely rambled and rambled myself out of rambling and then I came home.

August 23, 2007

It has been awhile since I last visited the river. There was no one there when I arrived so I pulled right up to the waters edge with no worry of bothering anyone. Boner was happy to be there and jumped right up onto the piano. I forgot to bring his rug. I used the tarp so he wouldn't slip off. After about five minutes, we both started to get a little nervous because a squirrel ran up the nearby tree and within seconds it started to rain chestnuts. A huge city block long barge followed by a sharp red tug boat drifted by. I improvised to it and also the birds swirling around. I became aware of how my music is stimulated by movement. The environment was silent when I started out but as twilight began the locusts came to life.



A car drove by and a girl jumped out to tip me a few bucks. I have always had a positive response from this park and what I especially like is that most of the people are the kind of people I am out to reach. Most do not own a computer and do not often get major jolts of fun in life. Dot happened by with her son Bill. "You are such a gift to us as we are dealing with mom's alzheimer's and financial problems. Mom said she needed to get out of the house right away to get a change of scenery and here you are." Dot jumped up onto the truck to create some music, turns out I graduated high school with Bill but we never knew each other. Karen and Bill pulled up a short while later and Karen told me what a great Birthday present I was for her and we celebrated tomorrows birthday with the birthday song. Are you ready for this? I can't put the chords to Happy Birthday I can only play the melody with both hands. Stream of conscious musical improvisation I can do out the schnozzle, remembering a structure, playing known music by ear... nada.

August 22, 2007


August 21, 2007


August 20, 2007

In The Clouds, West Virginia

Argh... or something like that. It rained all night on the truck. and underneath the tarp inside got wet but only towards the back of the truck. The speaker and piano were spared. I'll need to deal with that issue. I settled back inside to do some work while listening to the Andrea Bocelli, Amore CD produced by David Foster. It came in the mail the day I left and I was waiting for a special time to enjoy it. After hearing the CD I was strongly inspired to create music and it was not raining so I climbed to the top of the local mountain with Boner and the truck. I played for a good half hour and we got our "alone" time, it was just us and wonderfully inspired music. Damm, damm, damm something went wrong with the recording application on my computer again and none of it recorded. Oh well there is more where that came from. Now on to the even better stuff.



So here I am playing the piano, creating music in the clouds! How cool is that? The visibility was about twenty feet all around me. The mist and clouds were thick and strong, the wind was blowing, and I was creating music in the clouds with the thunder and lightening. Wow, how cool it that? I threw the tarp up over the cab so I could access it in a hurry and set the computer up inside on the front seat. Bo stayed on the ground most of the time and it was just us the earth and heavenly spirits and then... out of the mist a car appears. Can you imagine the experience of driving up a foggy mountain on cloudy rainy day knowing that you will probably be the only one there and to your surprise discover live music from a man playing the piano on the back of a pickup truck with a dog sitting on top of the piano? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha... I just love it. Creating music for people to discover. Two women friends jumped out of their vehicle, "something pulled us up here, we were going to turn around and go back down but something said, just keep going to the top." And then another car appeared and this guy was like, "wow, something pulled me up here, I had just taken a picture of a deer with its fawn and was going to go back down and something urged me the rest of the way up." They all played some piano on the truck. I finished up and the rain started. The timing was perfect. It poured rain the whole way home. The whole experience was magical.

August 19, 2007

Berkeley, West Virginia



I have these "moments" of musical bliss that I want to create for longer lengths of time say like... for a second instead of a moment would make me happy? Thinking that no one would be on the mountain today because it was about to rain, I went there to record some music. Yesterday it was so amazingly quiet... no crickets, planes, barking dogs or sounds of anything electric, no sounds of leaves blowing in the trees, just footsteps on the ground every once in a while... yesterday I was abe to experience an amazing equal presence of musical sound and silence. I wanted to share that with others through a recording. I had found myself completely joined with silence through the music. Well I was wrong about people being there today and of course it was necessary to engage them as it does not feel right to keep the truck experience all to myself. When I was done the usual fun, I went to work to record.

I have a sound speaker behind me and sound also comes from the piano right in front of me. When I hook the computer up to the piano, I lose the sound from the piano it comes only from the speaker behind me. I lose a presence from having sound right there with me up front so I tried headphones and then... lost the presence of the environmental silence. I think I may have been just a bit chaotic in my head today so there was no way I was going to experience the stillness needed to experience the silence. Ha, I better stop as I am beginning to transfer the chaos into this writing!

August 18, 2007

Cacapon State Park, West Virginia



Up to the top overlook we go. I did some work to get myself in the right frame of mind. Gratitude, joy, embrace everything with love, open myself up to the possibility to find a good spot to play in, to gift people with music, to create opportunity for fun, friendship and respect you know... all the stuff that has been missing while I sit on my couch at home trying to get my act together. The work I did on myself worked. At the top at the overlook, at the first sign of interest, "come over here and meet Boner". It works every time and then the experiences begin to snowball into more and more goodness with both children, kids and adults jumping into the piano to play.

Later on, we are in town to buy a hotdog and I am parked on the curb. A group of large ladies who reminded me of that singing group of women on America's got Talent jumps into the truck to all tinkle together. Man was that fun! They all thanked me for allowing them to pet my Boner. Everytime I began to leave someone else would approach, "are you going to play"? I had my fill of interaction today; I want this to be my life's work. I want to make my career and to pull in lots of money from what I have to offer. Well, right now it is one foot in front of the other, lets introduce Boner to the world while continuing to gift people and communities while visualizing a streak across the superbowl field as part of the fun entertainment.

August 17, 2007

Morgan County, West Virginia

It was necessary for me to interact with some close friends. I have been in my house without intimate contact with anyone for too long. So here I am in a teeny house in the woods with three dogs, two kids, my friend Cindy and her mom for a few days. No one sleeps less than ten feet from each other because that is how big the house is. It feels good even though I know I will get no sleep. I brought the Traveling Piano truck with me. I could not leave home without it. I cannot not pass up the opportunity to, "do my thang". I do not need to take a vacation from that. Creating music and sharing Boner and the truck with people gives me the juice I desire to live from. I have no internet access unless I go to the top of the mountain so here I am sitting on the top of a mountain with Tyler and his friends James. I started to create music on the mountain and people who live up the side of it started screaming within sixty seconds, "hello, hello, hello, excuse me, excuse me, hello..." It was like "ALIEN - INTRUDER - KILL! So they were ignored while I finished, ha ha they could not get to me because of the tall weeds.

August 16, 2007


August 15, 2007

I was out in the dark tonight playing with the wondrous pulsing of crickets and locusts. I felt sedated by it all. I'm afraid to think about what I am about to achieve. It will be... when it is all over, a momentous accomplishment. I am talking about getting the truck, Boner and myself to China while gaining permissions and financing. I am choosing to actively feel my way through this Wildest Dream. Thinkin' ain't gonna do it. I had a new muffler installed on the truck today. No more upkeep needs for this truck... before a new one comes down the road!!! I have many pictures of people playing on the Traveling Piano from the past few months so I am going to begin posting them. I'm sick of posting pictures of me playing in the back yard and in the same neighborhood places. I WANT OUTTA HERE! :) Fun! Share! Fun! Gift! Fun! Fun! Fun!

August 14, 2007

A note from Tennessee:


Dear Danny,

You were a big hit in Waynesboro - thought you would enjoy a copy of the front page of our paper after you were here. I think you set a new trend - before you came they just put mug shots of criminals on the front page, but since you were here they've started having more good news.

We loved having you visit Dunmire Hollow and Wayne County and hope you're having a great time on your journey.

Best wishes,

Dunmire Hollow Community

Gotta keep this Traveling Piano going!

August 13, 2007


August 12, 2007



Today started so ruff I went to breakfast with a friend and came home to go back to bed. On my second try with the day I woke up, took a shower, groomed myself, journaled a bit and then life began. I went to visit my friend Marianne who just had a major medical operation and met with a few of her friends. They are all local horse track workers. Mary Beth is the spectator of the group, Marianne works with the horses, Mike picks up the jockeys when they fall off the horses he is the track medic and Sherri is the horse police woman she rounds up the horses when they get out of hand. It was nice to learn how all the workers there are a family who care for each other. At least three fellow workers called Marianne while we talked. I had the Traveling Piano truck with me because I was going to force myself to go play somewhere later on before bedtime but as it turned out everyone wanted a small concert. So, outside I went to play in the driveway of Marianne's row house home on this tight little street in Northeast Philly. I stopped creating music after about ten minutes of play and turned around to the applause of a street full of people sitting on their stoops, coming out their front doors, hanging from second floor windows and kids who had jumped out of their swimming pools to hang around the back of the truck. The, "hey, there is a guy sitting and playing the piano in the back of a pickup truck with a dog on top outside... right now" spread throughout all the houses in a matter of seconds. And then... the neighborhood took over the piano and truck into the night. I think the kids would have stayed all night playing on the piano taking turns while policing themselves. I finally left them all outside while I went inside to visit some. I left feeling grateful that I could have so much fun while bringing to the neighborhood some creative spontaneity, inspiration and music for people to discover.


August 11, 2007



I woke up this morning determined to have fun today and to create some "journey" energy. I sent my first piece of improvisational music to a radio station in the Bay Area of California at the stations request. It was interesting because I have never given a second listening to any of the music I have created and published on this site. I started to go through it until I found one that had no major mistake. I did not judge or think about it I just sent it. Afterwards I talked with a new piano player friend in Minnesota and we threw around the idea of creating an improvisation dual with two trucks driving at each other. Ha! I then went to Tyler park for the first time since I returned home. Its one of my favorite spots. I threw on my headphones to record some music and started to wail away. It was crazy because a hundred cars must have pulled in behind me, it was a beautiful day and I was ignoring them so they were too hesitant to approach me and they wanted to. "There's that guy who was on television who's selling all his stuff." I thought, "man you have really been isolating yourself, what happened to inviting people in?" It did not take long before I started to talk with people and then I hooked up with Brian, Mark, Mike and Anna... really fine musicians, guitarists and singers and percussionists between seventeen and twenty. I mean they were really good! We jammed. I cannot express how good it feels to be alive to create music with other people. It took me fifty years! Brian took some video of it and it is amazing to me. I started to get lost in music with other people for the first time! I improvised music in the moment not only by myself but also along with other people and it was good. We stuck to a few chords and just improvised on them. If you can access the video page, I downloaded the musical clip it is titled August 11 and will take a couple minutes to download... worth the wait if you have been following this musical process of mine.

August 10, 2007

Someone online at a radio station asked if I had a cool piano track for them to check out. Hmmm... Here is something interesting... In case you did not know I never before two years ago improvised a note of music, played successfully by chord and could not (probably still cannot) pick out the happy birthday tune on the piano. I began to improvise and from the start began publishing a different music track on this website and I have been doing it everyday since January 1, 2005. I have never, ever stopped and listened to one of them! I have never edited one, never judged one. I hear the day's piece once to make sure where it starts and ends, turn it into an MP3 and that is it. I publish to the site. So, I just sat down to listen to some of my music pieces from July today for the first time and these are some of my thoughts. "Wow, that's pretty good, that was exhausting, that was amazing, too much... talk about rambling, ahh... almost, damm that one note, losing energy, you sound like a computer chip... I can hear the Ragtime-ish attack on the keys, there is style, China will love this, fluid, losing interest, playful, angry, experimental, that is something that has never been heard before, the emoting would express itself ten times as much on a real piano, this is great music to do an activity with." I am very grateful to be able to create music. I have left behind the feeling and thoughts of musical repression that were my life up until two years ago and I have no interest in revisiting them. I played one hour of memorized sheet music over and over for twenty years! I now know of musical uniqueness that I can create. it is of my mind and feelings. I hope to become stronger and clearer everyday through and with the communication of it. I embrace it, love it and intensely want to share and integrate it successfully into the world. My music is of my spirit. it is of pure love and nothing else.

August 09, 2007

I got up nice and easy this morning. Today was the Baby Parade in Ocean City New Jersey. It was the last booking I picked up when I returned home from Virginia Tech. I have been doing the parade for almost twenty years. Last year I did the parade with Boner lying very sick inside on the front seat. I thought he was dying after having spent the night before at the vet hospital. That is all written about in the blog archives. As I was driving down the expressway today I got caught in an accident backup. By the time the traffic began to move it was fifteen minutes to the parade start and I was a good forty five minutes away. I created one of my miracle moves and put complete focus on getting to the job in time. How could I miss the Baby Parade, my last booking? I embraced the results even if they were the worst. I put my foot to the pedal and rode the truck at top speed, seventy two miles an hour and I made it. I am amazing!

A guy named Stu was there waiting to drive us. Thank you Stu. I jumped on the truck and calmed myself for about five minutes into a wild performance mode with quiet improvisational music. Does that sound confusing? That is what I did! My improvisational music makes for a fantastic soundtrack in a setting with major activity and thousands of people, very surreal. I wished that everyone could see the fun view in front of me from on top of the truck. I visualized driving across the superball football field through much of the parade and man I was pumping up the joy through my Boogie Woogie. I also did the parade without sunglasses for the first time and made eye contact with every person that I could. When I am in a mode of joy... fear on any level does not exist. I saw only positive energy. I gotta remember not to wear a light blue shirt when performing. I was grossy wet from sweat... ewww. When I was done before I even got Boner off the truck, I stopped and connected with a piano player/teacher named Elaina who has had the same musical issues that I had my whole life. She jumped up onto the piano to play some while her husband watched her courage in amazement. When I went to start the truck, it was dead. I pushed the truck while Stu did a jump start with the clutch. I drove home waiting for the muffler to drop off. It will happen any day now. There was a time when the drama of it all was completely overwhelming. Now it's like... sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes its this, sometimes its that... it is what it is.


August 08, 2007







Bo says, "Are you gonna come with us to China?"

August 07, 2007

I am staying inside not because it is hot and humid outside, which it is, but because I want to stay inside. I did go out for a walk with Boner. I need a jolt, hopefully a good one. I am isolating myself socially and emotionally. Thankfully, I have the Ocean City Baby Parade on Thursday although the intimacies and connections in relating and communication will be an illusional substitute for the underlying lack of emotional intimacy that I desire but have been avoiding and pushing away because I have been too fearful and angry to deal with it all so far in my life. Hahahaha... am I too much in my head or what???!!! It's all true tho... I wonder if I can work it all out through music. My analyst says no. He says to talk out loud to myself about the past experiences that have damaged my spirit. . Scary. I took a ride today to the Harbor City Ocean Center near the Tim Sha Tsui MTR stop in Hong Kong today. I'm visualizing but not allot. I do want to give to... and share with the world. I would like for a patron to come into my life to help finance the cause. Going to China is-a-gonna-cost.

August 06, 2007

It is after 1am in the morning. I have been avoiding the taking of my Wildest of Dreams to the next level of clarity when it comes to FEELING... more feeling about it all. I can get very confused when I consciously deal with feelings and when it comes to clarity about them. Attempts are often an opportunity for fear and a state of unknowingness and not being allowed and chaos. I was afraid to go out to create music tonight because, "I'm not allowed, someone will stop me, I'll get yelled at, pulverized". Well, I had to empower myself, so I went to the local school field and setup. I could not use the excuse of my batteries being dead because I put out $300 today for two of the best ones I could get. So now, I once again have enough power to blow out a few windows and play for hours. I left Boner in the cab he did not have it in him to hangout on top in tonight's air. The humidity is about 92%; it is one hot, hazy evening. I covered myself with bug spray, setup my computer and began to play. I started to meditate on the music that was coming out of me. I either kept my eyes closed or focused a light in the distance. I was "trancing out". I felt an open channel to the universe through the music. It was a free feeling with no need for care. Does this sound crazy to you? It is all true and I never really talked this way before but these are my thoughts. All the amazing things that have happened to me in the past where from subconscious input and I am determined from... well from two years ago... I became determined to consciously create, accept and allow the reality that I am in control of my life. I do it through God, the universe or whatever but... it is I alone that create my life experiences, the experiences that others witness.

August 05, 2007



I was in this park in Shanghai; it was Fuxing park at 6:30 am playing for the people who were doing their Taichi. Wait... let me switch that frequency ...it was 2pm in the afternoon ...yea that's a bit better. Everyone embraced what was happening and enjoyed us while they continued with their activities. They were just happy we were there and there was no need for special attention. They approached us one by one to smile and say hello and to thank us for being there. I was also in my backyard today; hooked up to my power plug for sound. The other day I used the fact that my batteries were dead as a reason that I did not play. I need to stay real when I am messed up.

August 04, 2007



Today went a lot better than yesterday concerning clarity of self. I went to get some pictures with the truck today. my friend Cindy came along and I got about thirty minutes of music out of the piano before the sound quit. The moment I touched the keys I had a feeling I am not sure I can describe it. I experience the feeling now every time I sit down to play. Today it was stronger because I did not play for the last two days. As soon as I hear the first note I experience truth? I also feel a validating impulse of security, of what "is" and should be. It was really hot out so I thought about riding up an Alaskan glacier on the journey to introduce Boner to the the world.

August 03, 2007



The Traveling Piano truck is dead... it needs two new boat batteries for the sound. I can barley deal with it. I am caught in big time resistance on every level but I will push through it to get back on track. My nutrition, exercise, and socialization it is all messed up but then again I ate fruit and had a healthy subway hoagie today. I am going to go for a walk after I am done with this writing and I am going to hang out with a friend tomorrow. I reached out to several online communities today to relate with people. I put over sixty new items up on Bonerthedog.com and that is allot of pictures and html to create and file. In addition, I am still publishing music everyday and writing this blog. I helped my neighbor today. What's the problem? Fuck it, I am doing great! It is difficult to get honest with the fact that I have some repressed disappointment that I have not heard from Harpo productions yet because I had felt it would happen by the end of July. I must rid myself of all expectation from outside sources, not cut anything off, just keep the focus on what I am doing and continue forward. Playing music has helped to keep me centered plus the fun of playing in different places outside all the time. Well, the creating of music has been down... I am getting sick of my backyard... and very little money has been coming in so go figure... I am just going to have to put more fire under my ass to stimulate creativity on every level.

I sent an email to someone in China today as I have begun to explore possibilities. I learned four symbols that I included in the visualization created for today. 1.Harmony 2.Blessing, Good Fortune, Good Luck 3.Happiness 4.Wealth, Money

August 02, 2007




The Traveling Piano is not working at the moment so I could not play today... boo hoo. The troubleshooting process "is what it is" I will survive. I am working strong to raise funding. Bonerthedog.com is still in the creation process; I am loading my possessions onto it. My niece asked me last night, "is that my dinner plate on bonerthedog.com'? "I brought you dinner on that plate the last time I visited!"

August 01, 2007

Today was a fun day. I performed for the Hermit Crab Race and Miss Crustacean Contest in Ocean City, NJ on the boardwalk So silly... I was deciding what to wear and seeing that it was 94 degrees out side I said, "you're not wearing a tie." The fact is I do not own a tie anymore, I threw them all out! Ties have never been my style. I did need to look performer like so I wore my black pants and a white shirt. Today was the first time in my entire life that I wore a white shirt without a tie. It was a self-image thing in the past; in my mind, I looked too fat without a tie. Wow. I do not feel fat anymore. Wow. Fifty years of feeling fat, no more, did that done that, never again!!!!!!

As I was driving to the job I thought of how I am still committed to the giving of my music as a way of life, I might have to go back to charging money for my music and time for awhile at least. I want to gift what I have to offer to the world but I cannot do it alone because life does not work that way. I continue to ask for support and try ways of garnering financial support so I can continue to pay it forward as I have done for that last two years. A patron would be great. It is not like I am profiteering from what I give to the world. Some people say, "why should I give you money to have fun". I say, "because work is supposed to be fun and look at the fun I am creating for others especially those who can use fun in their lives and... I'll even give you some of that fun too! This way of thinking feels good and right for me.



So the fun began when this vacationing family from New Mexico happens buy and the dad is a piano player who jumps up to play some. I had two umbrellas on top of the piano for Boner, I did not benefit from the shade at all but it did not matter because I was so focused on the job. I had fun doing stupid drum roll notes on the piano for the hermit crab races and messing up and not caring if it was good enough or not. It added to the silly chaos of the event. The sound batteries went bad so I had to run the truck to feed energy to the speakers for the entire gig. I must deal with this problem of the trucks falling system. It took me only a few minutes to get some performance bounce going with my Boogie Woogie, it was all slower then usual with the heat but I took advantage of that and played around with how I approached the music. As I was driving to the event I deal with crazy drivers all the time because I do not go over fifty-five miles an hour with the truck and ninety nine percent of the drivers go over fifty five. The dangerous crazy ones are always talking on a cell phone while driving. I have not gotten used to using a cell phone yet, I resisted getting one until this year and here I am now doing the driving cell phone thing... as well as the cell phone thing while performing on the job??? If someone during a performance ever sees me answering a cell phone, please slap me instead of taking my picture. Slap me. Slap me.



Three girl friends waited over two hours until the hermit crab races were over so they could get onto the piano and play. I left them up on it for over forty-five minutes and they playing on the boardwalk while I talked with a woman who approached me who used to be a chauffeur. She chauffeured Oprah several times in the past. How does that twilight zone tune go? Then it got even better. The girls, Marie, Chris and Joy were having such a good time I said I would drive them through the streets of Ocean city while they played. Joy was the piano trooper of the group so we took down the umbrellas, Boner stayed on his perch, and we drove off the boardwalk and into the streets playing music and waving to everyone through the neighborhoods while yelling, "ice cream, ice cream" and passersby waved back thanking us all along the way.

Here is where it gets really crazy! Joy began to play the same piece of music that Mario the guy I met in Mexico played as we drove through the streets of Zacatecas just a few months ago. I couldn't believe it! I said, "whats that tune"? She said, "I don't know I picked it up somewhere along the way." That is exactly what Mario had said! It was a perfectly stupid Ragtime piece to be playing while riding through the streets in Ocean City. When I was in Zacatecas, I kept asking Mario to play it repeatedly as we drove along the streets of Mexico. How crazy is that? I just love it, love it, love it.