Yee-haw!

Five years ago, according to Erica and Katie, I went over to the Dark Side: I started listening to country music. Fred had gradually become a fan about a year before that, instead of tuning in to the pop/rock stations we'd listened to throughout our marriage. I eventually got tired of switching the stations in the house and car back to "my" music, and the country stuff started to grow on me. I liked how nearly every song told a story, and how much truth there was in the lyrics. Some songs actually made me cry when I heard them--the Christmas one about the little boy who didn't have enough money to buy shoes for his dying mother; Martina McBride singing "In My Daughter's Eyes"; The Tim McGraw song, "If You're Reading This," about a soldier killed in war. Many made me laugh. In "The Truth About Men", Tracy Byrd and friends sing "When you come over at halftime and say 'Does this dress fit too tight?' We just look you in the eye with a big fat lie and say, 'Uh uh! Looks just right!" Smart man!!
Now that we're in Rhinelander, we live about 5-6 miles from the site of the annual Hodag Country Music Festival. The 4-day event runs from July 9-12 this year, and the line-up includes some big names in country music, past and present: Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Sawyer Brown, Phil Vassar, Neal McCoy, the Zac Brown Band, Merle Haggard, and Glen Campbell, to name a few. Friends have told us that we'll probably be able to hear the music right here at our house!
We would love to have any friends and family who are country fans head north for some of the performances. Just let us know, and we can have our own hoedown here on Silver Lake Road. (I know Erica and Katie won't be coming, so their room will be available!) Go to http://www.hodag.com/ for line-ups and ticket information.
In the meantime, I'll be singing along with Hodag country radio, 97.5, imagining Trace Adkins ogling my badonkadonk and Brad Paisley checking me for ticks. And remember: "Girls lie too...we don't care how much money you make, what you drive or what you weigh...size don't matter anyway...we like your friends and we love your mom....girls lie too!!"