Man.

I’m *so* close to possibly thinking about the fat chance of me trying out for this.

Maybe you don’t understand how much I enjoy YES’ music.

Maybe you don’t see how an experience as grand as singing with Jon Anderson would be for me.

Maybe you fail to grasp how the weighing of that grand experience against the potential humiliation I would face is a monumental task my brain is struggling to deal with.

Maybe you’re ok with ending a sentence with a preposition, or with one word sentences in general.

Maybe.

(*thinking*)

(Note: this is not an Obama post )

Some great things happened this week, and some not-so-great. 

In not-so-great news, our dog Jupiter had knee surgery Tuesday, poor thing, and then Friday he chewed through some of his staples so we had to take him back in.  The wife’s knee also experienced a couple setbacks so we had to get additional xrays and we’re hoping it doesn’t get any worse.

Let’s see, there’s more.  I also failed to complete the video in Absurdist’s contest on time, and am still working on it, having experienced some video issues on Vista (about the only issue I’ve encountered other than Trillian crashing)  I also didn’t survive through the qualifying round of the Guitar Hero Madness tournament.

But there was some GREAT news as well.

My all-time favorite band of all time has started a world tour!

I’ve always been entranced by YES.  One night, probably in the late 80’s, I was driving in my parent’s white Ford E150 van down Anderson Mill road and 93.7 KLBJ FM was doing a special on some band.  I remember hearing Starship Troopers for the first time, followed by And You and I and I literally had to pull over and listen.  I was simply taken by this music.  The voice, the bass, the keyboards… everything just grabbed me and wouldn’t let go.  I think I stayed for 45 minutes on the side of the road, just listening to all this wonderful music.

That week, I purchased as many YES CD’s as I could afford, which wasn’t many - I think I bought two.  But every week when I got my paycheck, I went to the CD shop next to Lone Star Cafe and would pick up Fragile or Going for the One or Tales of Topographic Oceans.  By the end of the year, I had every album/CD they ever made.  It wasn’t long before I had 40+ CD’s of their music from their original discography, solo projects, live albums and special editions.  My YES music purchases represent the largest investment I’ve made in audio, and it’s paid off tremendously.

Thank you so much, Jon, Chris, Rick, Steve, Bill, Trevor, Alan, and Tony.  You have touched my life in ways I cannot express.  And also thank you to Peter, Geoff, Billy, Patrick, the other Trevor (Horn) and Igor for filling in when you did.