Tiger! Tiger!
	My long time friend, Patsi, had moved to Atlanta to live near her daughter Buffi and Buffi's husband Patrick. Buffi and Patrick are an awesome couple. When they walk into a room, everybody knows it. They each have their own rock band. Hers is Tiger! Tiger! and his is The Woggles. They are astounding performers. Buffi has the mystique of a Gypsy princess. Usually dressed in black, she wears a tiger claw necklace mounted with a silver cap and simple silver chain. Patrick is British and you feel like you're in the presence of one of the Beatles. They are a perfect couple. Christmas, a few years ago, I was going with a friend of mine to Ellijay, Georgia. It's a quaint little town north of Atlanta that's not as big as a minute. He dropped me off the night before in Atlanta to stay a night and a day with Patsi. The following day Patsi drove me to Ellijay and she and I and my friend, Arnold, went into the little town to look at some of the shops and have lunch. Everything was decorated with Christmas lights and wreaths of holly. We sat at the window of a cafe' with a view of the center of town. The streets were lined with little antique stores and people bundled up, hustling and bustling up and down the sidewalks. All of a sudden I said, "Hey! It's snowing!" It was just like looking into a Christmas card. It's one of my favorite memories. It was magic. The day before, when I was in Atlanta, was great too. Patsi and I went to see Buffi and Patrick play at a nightclub. This time they were playing in the same band. They were more incredible than I could've imagined. The place was packed solid with standing room only. We angled our way to the front, next to the stage. We didn't want to miss one second of it. We stood through five or six songs. Unfortunately, standing for prolonged periods is one of the hardest things for me to do. I'm no spring chicken anymore but I wanted to enjoy it all. And I hadn't seen Patrick play before. I thought as I watched them performing and the crowd of fans filling the air with open hands of adoration, that that morning I'd seen them shuffling around in their kitchen fixing breakfast in their pajamas. Finally, I wasn't able to stand up any longer. I started looking around the club for a place to sit down. I knew if I didn't I'd have to find a non-existent empty spot on the floor to sit and the fun part then would be getting me to my feet. During one of the breaks between songs, I bet I'm using all the wrong terms, Buffi and one of her friends very thoughtfully brought a chair for me to sit in. I can't imagine where they found it. I had looked everywhere. I had even gone outside looking for a bench on the sidewalk out in front. It was so cold outside I could see my breath. There was no bench. I did, however, see a concrete planter. It was about two and a half feet tall, round, and filled with dirt. It was about as big around as the circle you can make with your arms. The plants had long since been replaced with a solid layer of cigarette butts. I didn't care. I had to sit down. When I did I realized that the layer of cigarette butts was not on dirt. They were floating on four inches deep of freezing water. YIKES! It actually was pretty funny. And the warmth and kindness that Buffi and her friend showed me when I went back inside, bringing me the chair, made that wet bottom just warm right up and go away. That was one of the nicest and most memorable times I've ever had...savoring the fantastic songs of Tiger! Tiger! Lash Out Loud