For the casual reader, two pieces of background information help set this story up: 1) I am a tech geek; 2) I am a board member on the board for the Woody Guthrie Folk Music Center in Pampa, Texas.

Today was the kind of day that you're morally compelled to write about. The very reason blogs exist.

It started on Monday. The Network Administrator of a large company that does business in the area was at the school helping with the network. I spoke with him about my designs on some older machines that the school will be auctioning. I wanted to use them for Linux test machines. He asked if I could use newer machines, I said heck yeah. Seems when his company upgrades, they have limited means of disposal, and usually have to pay someone to haul them off.  By taking them off their hands, we were doing them a favor.

I gave my friends the info and we planned to meet early today to head out there. The deal was we had to physically clean the computers and wipe them on site.

We showed up today and headed out to the plant. We got six machines to begin with, all Pentium 4's. We headed to the other building and cleaned several more machines. We also got switches (I have a Cisco Catalyst 2926 switch for my own use), KVM switches (I snagged a 4 port), laptops (got a decent laptop out of the deal, too), and furniture ( I got a desk). We were like kids in a candy shop. All of the equipment was less than new and some was less than perfect, but hey, you can't beat the price. So that by itself made it a good day.

Then the next part. Arlo Guthrie played in Amarillo tonight (with several family members). I had not planned to go with the cost of the tickets, but my ticket was offered to me so I went. As we were waiting for the show to start I started up a conversation with the gentleman behind me. I told him I was with the Woody Guthrie Center in Pampa, and he offered me the original album of Alice's Restaurant, for me to have signed and donated to the museum. There was more to the story, but, well, to find it out, you'll just have to come to Pampa, won't you?

The show was, in a word, spectacular. It was the second to last stop on the Guthrie Family Legacy tour, and they played a lot of Woody's standards, as well as some of Arlo's hits and some of Sara Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion's hits. Anyone who missed this show missed a great one. I'm glad I was not among their number.

After the show, I got to not only get Arlo's autograph, but formally meet him. I spoke with Johnny and Sara Lee as well, putting in the requisite plugs for the center. As we were talking, I also met a local musician and explained a project that I am working on. He expressed interest in helping me with the project, and I got contact information.

It rarely gets better than this. If it does, I'd have to say it'd be hard to handle.