[Elspode]

Today my oldest and closest confidante, Lane "Penni Pennington" Lambert, friend and musical partner, achieves her 60th rock surfing trip around the sun. We have known one another since our Sophomore year at Grandview High School...she was 16, and I was but a tender 15. The first picture was taken by my mother on my 16th birthday. She wasn't supposed to be there in my dining room that day after school, because I was the classic boy from the wrong side of the tracks...persona non grata with her folks, just the way all good tales of unrequited love start out. But it was a big day for me, and she was there despite the risk, because, well...that's who she was...who she still is. Steadfast, patient, devoted...an enormous talent who has written more songs than most of us have written checks to pay our bills. We go through long stretches of separation, almost all of which are my fault as I fumble through life, and yet...we have some connection, some invisible thread that binds us. The second photo is one I took on what was either a clandestine visit to her place after school before the folks were home, or possibly on one of the rare and infrequent sanctioned visits that were allowed. I once thought I might be a photographer, and this picture of her is exactly as I always think of her to this day. Lane Penni Pennington Lambert...you could have done a lot better where friends are concerned than you got with me, but I could have never done better. Happy Birthday.