Two Riders Were Approaching, The Wind Began to Howl

Last week we saw Bob Dylan in Wellington.

New Zealand is a stop on his "Never-Ending Tour". He now dresses up like a riverboat gambler with a pencil thin mustache. Actually, pretty cool. But he's 65 fer Christ's sake.

We try not to ever miss Bob if we are around..... and after each show, we swear we will never go to another concert of his.

This was no different.

We think he performed many of our favorites, but we aren't sure. Lately, he chooses to play keyboards, not guitar. He also has developed a singing style that removes all emotion from the lyrics. We were forced into a game of "Name That Tune".

Here is the setlist for fans who know his work:

August 10, 2007

Cat's In The Well
It Ain't Me, Babe
Watching The River Flow
Lay, Lady, Lay
Rollin' And Tumblin'
When The Deal Goes Down
Honest With Me
Tangled Up In Blue
Spirit On The Water
Highway 61 Revisited
My Back Pages
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Nettie Moore
Summer Days
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Thunder On The Mountain
Blowin' In The Wind

It is difficult to criticise a hero and genius and New Zealanders appreciate him just for coming here, But airfare, cabs, meals, hotels, and tickets are expensive and in the end, it ain't no Dead show, no matter how much one prepares, and I prepared well.

Wellington was extremely windy, as it often is. There were whitecaps in the toilet water. So it was cold and difficult to walk around downtown without leaning a lot.

Somehow the top button on my coat was AWOL so I needed to wrap a scarf around my neck to keep from having my coffee ice up on the way down.

Unlike me, Kimberly had all buttons on high alert and, of course, also remembered gloves. Guess who was warmer?

We only stayed the night and headed for home the next morning. The cabbie to the airport was Iraqi so we spoke about the war. You know about the war...it's in all the papers. Oddly, we don't hear about it on FOX. Even our driver knew about it, but he could not figure out what's going on over there. For sure, he was happy to be driving a taxi without a gun turret on the roof.

The plane ride back to Nelson only takes 20 minutes, but due to the tremendous wind, we were being heavily jostled while on the tarmac waiting to take off. I'm not sure, but I may have even prayed. When we finally landed, all the passengers applauded and offered to buy drinks for the pilot.

The good news was we brought back some bagels. The baker explained that we need to freeze them and then "paint" some water on them before toasting...that will make them taste pretty close to normal bagels. Who knew?

A week has gone by and today is Saturday. There was an Eco-Fest in town so we went and Kimberly decided that the time was way overdo for us to start composting. So she purchased some items to get the rotting food rolling. But we still needed a large container in which the decomposing occurs.

On the way to the hardware store, we stopped in at Nelson College to watch a championship high school rugby match. Nelson won in a squeaker. 2 more victories and they can be best in the country. But mind you, it's a small country.

At the store were lots of compost bins. The one I was looking at would have involved going to another guy to buy a few thousand worms. Kimberly read all the material and choose the one a proper butler would. It happened to be on sale. On top of that, the city council gives anyone who buys one of these things a rebate. Cha-ching!

Now all I need to do is assemble it and start eating.


The more I eat, the greener the lawn will be.