Monte last October at the Jave Bean Café in Mt. Holly, NC. A beer or two, he reports, and he’ll be fine.

 

NASCAR is over for a while, and while I’m glad to be rid of it for a while, it’s left me spent and unmotivated.

I’ve got a good excuse: the ailing foot, which is getting better all the time and is reasonably close to OK. It weathered the trip to the high-school playoff game on Friday without undue incident.

So I’ve been doing the minimum. I’ve written a new song, "I’m So Sensitive," but I haven’t really practiced it much. I’ve learned some new covers: "Old Habits" and "If We Can Make It Through December."

So I’ve spent most of the past few days writing a little, playing guitar a little, watching football a lot, paying bills and reading books. I’m almost finished with an obscure Steinbeck novel and am about to start a biography of the writer Terry Southern.

Doing the minimum, I’m getting ready to start doing the things I need to do: getting some free-lance writing done, setting up some interviews, finishing a book proposal and trying to find some places to play music. The motivation will come, I hope. In due course. It reminds me of the words of "Ro-Deo-Deo Cowboy" about the stunned cowboy after being bucked off a bull: "Gimme a beer or two and I’ll be fine / At least it worked every other time…"

The highlight of the week coming up is going to be the state championship football game in Columbia next Saturday. The last time Clinton advanced to the state championship game was three or four years ago, and just like this time, the game was Saturday night. Half the town partied all day in the parking lot outside Williams-Brice Stadium. Folks from Clinton, Joanna, Cross Hill and Mountville towed barbecue cookers, set up tents and socialized four hours. I toted my guitar from place to place and must have sung "Go Big Red" two dozen times. I thought to myself that high-school football would be even more popular if the fans could drink in the parking lots for hours on end before all the other games. Of course, I suppose, some might see a down side …

I had a great time, though the Red Devils lost the game. I’m planning on having another large time this week. Clinton hasn’t won a state championship in 22 years, though it has been in the hunt many times. This would be the most unlikely of state champions. The team was only 7-3 in the regular season but has now won four straight playoff games, all on the road. It’s like a football version of "Hoosiers."
It’s not done, though.

And I’m not, either.

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