Bono

We had some sun yesterday, a welcome change! The garden's color scheme is slowly shifting to yellow and red. The Japanese maple really stands out in the back. It always sends up a flame of blazing color in November. The walnut and hazel have normally shed more of their leaves by now, I think.

Looking at this photo makes me glad the tree trimmers are coming in January. It's all getting a little out of control.

Yesterday's visit from Thames Water was pretty anticlimactic. The guy showed up about 10:30, ran a couple of tests and announced that they were "negative" and he would "take us out of the system," which means we don't have any leaks. The water company recently replaced some kind of junction box or meter at the street, and he theorized that our "leak" was detected prior to that, and then corrected when that work was done. Regardless, that's one less thing I have to think about.

It was nice to have the morning off, though. I didn't read a lick of "Great Expectations," but I got caught up on a bunch of housework, like cleaning the dining room windowsill and rinsing off the orchids. We're going to get quite a few flowers in a couple of months -- seems like almost every plant has a flower stalk.

I finally got to work about 11:30 a.m. and spent an uneventful day before meeting up in the evening with some co-workers to see Bono, of U2, perform in Soho. He's just released a memoir -- which he jokingly calls in an exaggerated Irish accent "me book wot I wrote meself" -- and his show involved telling stories from his life interspersed with snippets of songs. I've liked U2 since the '80s, around the time of "The Unforgettable Fire" (which I still think is their best album), and in fact I saw them in concert many, many years ago.

Here's my ticket stub from that show, which I still have. Pretty amazing that in 1992 it only cost $25 to see them live. (Last night's ticket was £140.) And that 1992 show was special, because it was the launch of their "Achtung Baby" tour. The Lakeland Civic Center is not a big arena by modern standards, and it felt pretty intimate compared to the stadium tours they did later. Here's my account from my journal at the time:

I saw U2 in concert on Saturday -- it was the most UNBELIEVABLE show I've ever experienced. I actually touched Bono's leg! (What a groupie!) I'm sure I'll never forget it. The set was incredibly slick -- with all these video screens flashing images and messages ("Call your mother," "Guilt is not God," etc.) and cars hanging from the ceiling. Bono came out onto a runway stage that brought him within feet of our seats. (That's when I touched him. He was wearing black leather pants that felt very weird.) Our seats really made the experience for us, too -- they were great -- 15 rows back in the media section. Arthur got the tickets purely by luck; the show's been long sold out, but he called late and they released these tickets at the last minute.

It was the same week I saw George H. W. Bush make a campaign appearance at the Strawberry Festival in Plant City, and I was kind of star-struck -- though obviously I was much less excited about Bush than Bono. I did not touch Bush's leg.

Anyway, it was interesting last night to watch Bono on stage, a 62-year-old man, and think of that earlier experience, when I was 25 and he was merely 31. A copy of his book came with the ticket. I will surely read it and probably donate it to our school library.

One interesting side note: Audience members at last night's show were required to put their phones in security bags and leave them with the theater attendants, to prevent illicit photos or recordings. (The show was being recorded professionally for some kind of future production.) Knowing this in advance, I didn't take my phone at all. It felt weird to be without it, but I'm not very phone-dependent so I coped!