Jam sessions

Well, summer is finally here, though after the last few months of unseasonable coolness, I won't complain over a few days in August in the 90s. It certainly won't keep us from having fun outdoors, such as having a family picnic for Hannah's 21-month birthday! My two ladies stopped by Stinson Park, and we had some sandwiches before letting Hannah run through the fountains by Center street. Then she found some kid's discarded toy car and decided to claim it as her own in-between shooting down the slides. On Saturday, we had another rendezvous with Dennis and his clan in Papillion. He had an "end of summer" party, even though it feels like it just got started. We had burgers and dogs with some of our mutual friends as the kids terrorized one another in the other room.

On Sunday, we had one last, hot Lindy in the Park for the 2013 season. It almost didn't happen, since Billy wasn't around to set up this time, but Dan Wondra stepped it with his Tailgater, and I'm awfully glad he did. Despite the heat, we got a handful of friends out to dance underneath the pavilion, but the real fun started when a few stray musicians wandered our way. If you've been to Stinson Park over the past few weeks, you may have seen a piano bearing the words, "Play Me, I'm Yours" (which part of a larger street art project). After an hour of dancing to stock swing tunes, local musician Gene Klosner dropped by to improvise some blues and boogie woogie for us on the fly, which was fantastic. About an hour later, a man named Jim Snyder came by to bang out some amazing rockabilly and bluegrass for us for at least an hour after we were going to call it a day. It was the first Lindy in the Park ever with live music, and you couldn't possibly have planned it. We had a handful of other jitterbugs join in the fun, and at least as many other pedestrians walking by filming the spectacle. I'm so glad we were able to have one last (hot) dance outdoors for the season! Special thanks to Dan Wondra, Jim Snyder, and Gene Klosner for making it so memorable.