Extremely boring to everyone else.

Yesterday at the cookout, Cynthia mentioned that today would be a "free fishing" day. Apparently everyone may fish with artificial bait regardless of whether they have a license. So, I invited them to come. This morning at about 8:45 Justin knocked on the door, which was closed and locked. My mom let him in and walked him to the bathroom. I went to see what was going on; Justin had been stuck by a catfish on his hand between his thumb and index finger. Lots of blood.

I took a shower and Lindsey got ready, also. We gathered our fishing supplies (I had to open a new rod and reel that had been in the corner behind the TV for a couple years—my other reel had malfunctioned two days ago). I was excited because I hadn't been fishing with Justin in years. We used to do it all the time.

Lindsey and I walked over to the deep end, as we all call it. Justin and Cynthia had been there since about 7:30 AM. We fished for several hours. Carlyn eventually came out and used one of Justin's rods. It wouldn't cast far, so Carlyn just let it sit right off shore. He caught about 15—one catfish with my rod when I was away, 13 brim (you might know them as bluegills), and a raccoon perch. I caught a few catfish and brim. I went away from the group several times and three separate times with three different people my rod brought in a fish. Lindsey caught her first catfish, another, a brim, and a bass. Cynthia and Justin each caught a few brim and catfish. We kept a lot of them in buckets. Carlyn ran to the building and found one that I had forgotten I bought.

At one point I had just started to walk back to the house when Lindsey yelled and Justin scrambled. My rod had gone into the water. I quickly grabbed Lindsey's rod to attempt to snag it. Miraculously, it hooked the rod right away and I slowly reeled it in. It must've been a large fish. No one saw the bobber go under—Lindsey just saw the pole slide into the water before she could grab it.

Dad went to get everyone breakfast at Bojangles', and also stopped to get more worms. At noon we all went in to eat. We watched the Andy Griffith episode in which the crook rolls into town and becomes Mayberry's guest of honor for Founder's Day. After breakfast/lunch we went back, but I realized how tired I was and Lindsey and I went in after a few minutes. The rest followed shortly after.

They took the fish home with them after I covered the bucket with plastic wrap. Cynthia called James before to make sure he would be willing to skin them. I asked Justin if he was going to set off or see any fireworks tonight. He said he had a few from Wal-Mart that he's going to set off for Alexis. I invited him to come over here to do them if he wanted, and said there would probably be others setting some off as well.

Cynthia called shortly after I wrote the above, asking if we'd like to join the fish fry. Lindsey and I arrived before my family, at around 4:20. Alexis was sleeping. Lindsey wanted to see "Apollo 13", so I put it in. James changed it later, though, to "I, Robot". It played through the meal. Lindsey ate two fish and some fries and hushpuppies. I had a few tastes of hers, but didn't fix a plate for myself. After the food, I took her around James' property and told her of memories. Before we left I found out that they were coming over tonight.

Justin, Cynthia, and Alexis showed up at 9:15. We took the white bucket that housed the fish earlier to the middle of our yard. Justin just had a pack of various "fireworks" he bought at Wal-Mart. It was fun, though. I tried to set off a few of my old rockets—they're about 10 years old. One went into the air fine, but I stuck the screamer too hard into the ground and it just whistled and popped on the ground. Apparently, it was hilarious.

It began to rain and we grabbed everything as we ran for the house. Justin let me have what was left.

I woke Carlyn at 7:45 this morning to go fishing. We used the worms that were left over from July 4. He tried the same technique and caught 13 brim. I caught 4 catfish, 1 bass, and a brim. We sang Brian Regan's country song parady, "You Kicked My Heart's Ass" and talked about other things. We came in at 9:45.

I cooked breakfast: scrambled eggs, seasoned fries, and biscuits. While we waited for it to cook we played My Word!, which is a card game Gammy (Lindsey's grandmother) gave me for Christmas. We watched the first half hour of "Dumb and Dumber" (the DVD Lindsey and I bought last year). It was a good morning.

Lindsey is driving home from the apartment in which she's been living near Liberty. It's Alison's. She was alone for most of the time because the other girls were gone for the summer. Before this house she stayed at Tiffany's.

Or! An entry wherein I reveal my gene composition more truthfully.

On June 19, I bought tickets to see The Dillards perform at Oakboro Music Hall. I had hoped then that Lindsey might be able to go; but, she needs to be home to practice for the beach dance. My dad went with me today.

It was to begin at 2:30, and so we left at 12:40. We needn't have done that as our seats were reserved—we had seats 3 and 4 on the front row. When first arriving we saw a replica of Mayberry's squad car parked in front, with a marquee on the building above anouncing The Dillards performance today. We first went into the diner because we didn't know what we were doing. We eventually made our way to the music hall. It was very warm in the building, and people slowly piled in. We were very close to the action. Speaking of which, a camera crew from the Action 64 television station that sponsored the event was there. As everyone was setting up, they were taping the two brothers and Maggie Peterson speaking about The Andy Griffith Show and recording promos.

After the 90 minute wait, it began. Maggie came on first, looking to have aged very well. She sang three songs, beginning with "Put on a Happy Face" (she pulled a friend on stage to comically personify the song), followed by a song about having the feel-too-good-blues. Lastly, she sang a song she dedicated to the Darling family's father, actor Denver Pyle, which may've been called "Buddy".

Jeff Branch, the man who owns the music hall (and who looks a bit like the The Andy Griffith Show character Howard Sprague) was the host of the event. He ran the videos that opened the show for Maggie, lead into the Dillards performance, and which helped to end the show with a tribute to Howard Morris.

After Maggie came The Dillards, who consisted of Doug and Rodney, as well as another younger man on mandolin and fiddle, and another older gentleman on a large bass in the back. Rodney was the speaker of the group, and they joked around a great deal between songs in addition to telling funny, interesting, and touching stories about their lives and their wonderful experience on The Andy Griffith Show. Songs they played included "The Old Home Place," "Dooley," "Doug's Tune," and "The Andy Griffith Show Song". (I need to learn about punctuation). Overall, the crowd gave the greatest cheer for "Dooley". The Dillards also did a cover of Bob Dylan's "Walkin' Down the Line". It was amazing to see Doug and Rodney play as well as they did considering their age. They sounded as good as they did forty years ago.

Terry Smith, whose wife works with my mom, got up on stage and played with them.

After many songs, it was time for questions and answers. One very small boy asked, "What happened to the Darling's mother?" The boys didn't know the answer, but Maggie reminisced about Charlene's wedding, before which Mr. Darling said that she looked like her Ma, who had been run over by a team of hogs. My dad asked how long their day usually lasted on the set.

At the end, "Charlene" came back out and sang with the boys. She sang the salty dog song and "There is a Time," which was excellent.

After everything was finished and they left the stage, most filed out behind them to buy things and get autographs. My dad and I got two pictures, which were signed. I met Maggie and Rodney. I talked with Maggie briefly, and noticing that Rodney was very tired, I simply shook his hand and said, "I just wanted to thank you." Doug, who was noticeably tired at the end of the show, had gone to lie down.

Every so often I let the southern hick in me burst through. That's all right though, because The Andy Griffith Show was a nice part of my youth, and I still watch today.

Here is a video of their performance of "Dooley". It was recorded with my wimpy digital camera, which was also balancing on my knee at the time, so give me a break.