This past weekend I made a pilgrimage to Jonesboro, Arkansas, to see one of my favorite grown-ups in the world, Dr. Ross

Dr. Ross is an oboist who teaches at Arkansas State University and also makes a really cool piece of oboe equipment called a gouger. There are lots of different gouging machines in the world, but Dr. Ross is the only man who makes the Ross gouger– one of the most popular kinds and my personal favorite. I met Dr. Ross in 2003 almost immediately after he had been diagnosed with cancer. A bad kind of cancer. We thought he only had one year to live! Luckily, he proved cancer wrong, and now we get to hang out every year when I invite myself to visit him.  This year, I didn’t have to invite myself to Jonesboro because my friend Jen did it for me.   She has a Ross gouger and needed a little tune up, so she made plans a couple months ago to visit Dr. Ross.  Of course when I heard about this, I told her I was coming, too.

We left at 7:00 AM on Friday morning, equiped with gobs of oboe gear, lots of snacks, and a full tank of gas. We were road warriors and made it to Jonesboro in just under 11 hours. On the way, we saw this:

It’s a building shaped (sort of) like the Battelstar Pegasus from the TV show, Battlestar Galactica. Who would have imagined culture like this in Italy, Texas? Best part? The building is for lease! It’s just waiting for Lee and Duala or some other interracial, intercolonial couple to make it their home sweet home. Or for Caine and Gina to move in. I don’t know how the locals would react to a lesbian cylon, but I took the Pegasus sighting as an omen for good things to come. (To be continued…it’s time for bed tonight.)