What an awful 36 hours. Went to a free concert on Sunday night, saw two great bands and came home on a real high, happy and carefree and ready to take on the week. Then I saw the news about Vegas. When I went to bed there were 2 confirmed dead. When I woke, there were 59. How do you make sense of that? Then Tom Petty died and it all just felt like a punch to the stomach. My dad always says, life is for the living, and that's probably the best way to think about this madness. You can't just sit around and feel sorry for yourself. You get back out there and try to make a positive change. Still, though. There's something strange going on right now, something poisonous. Devastating hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, mass shootings, and, for the past year-and-a-half, the nastiest, most divisive political rhetoric I've ever witnessed. Who are all these insane people? And why are they part of the national conversation? I don't know. That dream of living in a small cabin on a remote island, surrounded by books and art and happy thoughts, sounds really appealing.