Tuesday, July 23, 2024

From Last Friday

       I can’t believe I missed last week. I feel like such a turd. I was busy though, but I could have, or should have, found the time. So, now I’m in a pickle where I have to write 2 in the same week. I’m not sure how that’s going to go. If I tell you everything today, it won’t leave much for Thursday, since I’m not really doing anything exciting in the next two days. At least I don’t think so. I suppose I’ll try to write this as if it were last Thursday and see how it goes. Otherwise, Thursday might be more boring than usual. I wouldn’t have had, nor did I have, time last Thursday, so we’ll pretend it’s last Friday, when this probably should have been done. So, in your mind, picture that it’s 7/19/24: Pretty tight squeezing this one in today. (Insert juvenile joke here.) This was the week we took our daughter out of town for her 25th birthday. Originally, we were going to take her to Laughlin, with my family, but my mom had to have a medical procedure done. It was scheduled for the 16th, and she did not want to reschedule. I can’t blame her. It seems that sometimes, when dealing with the hospital, you have to take what you can get, as soon as you can get it. Sometimes she has to wait months for an appointment. I don’t really understand how they can expect all of this money from us, and then seemingly not want to see us. Does it really make sense that someone in pain, and afraid, should have to wait months to find out what’s wrong? I don’t think so. I know they get backed up, and I know there aren’t enough doctors, but still, it seems like there could be some kind of better screening system, to calm people’s nerves and ease their discomfort. It doesn’t always have to be a doctor. My sister notified me that my mother’s angioscopy went well, now they just need to fix the problem.

     Instead of Laughlin we took our daughter to Pala. It’s far enough north of here, that it felt like a destination. It has a really nice pool area, and that was the main point: Chilling out. Pala is in enough of an isolated surrounding, that we felt like we could be anywhere, it was as if we were on a different planet. I wish it had been all inclusive, but that’s neither here, nor there. I was a little bummed because the buffet was closed. We went there once to see a concert. That’s how we found out about it. My wife and I thought the food at the buffet was awesome. Some time after that, on Thanksgiving, my wife and her family all went to northern California to one of her sister’s for Thanksgiving. I decided not to go. So, it was just 4 of us and I suggested Pala. It was great! The food was awesome, and ever since then, I’ve had a favorable idea of Pala. That was years ago. They no longer have a buffet, and the rest of the food I tried there this week was nothing to tell you about. I’m not going to complain about Pala, we had a good time, but I’m not much into gambling, so food is a big draw, and when I have nothing to say, you can take that for what you will. We got up there Tuesday afternoon. We got there before we could check in, to beat traffic. We had lunch when we got there, and that’s when we found out that our plans for dinner Wednesday would need altered. We spent pretty much all day Wednesday in the pool. It was windy, and not quite as hot as we expected, but it was nice. I thought it was interesting that our daughter just wanted to sit there and read, but hey, if that’s what she wants to do with her vacation, then that’s what she gets. Oh well, everyone gets to chill in their own way.

     Thursday, we got back with just enough time to unload, unpack, unwind, and then get to practice. Our first show is happening tomorrow, so we needed more practice. I had already told the Eruption, only one of them seemed to care. I’m not sure what that means. Practice went pretty well, I’ll keep my fingers crossed for tomorrow. The songs are starting to sound pretty good, it just seems strange that people are trying to change the songs at the last minute. It feels like maybe we can change them later, let’s just get through these next two shows! The show last week was awesome. The Calvins played the Jim Rao Fan Club show at the Casbah. The JRFC show is the one to be on if you’re in the punk rock community. We were so glad to be invited. Plus, the Casbah is like “The” place to play, and getting to play there was awesome. We went on first, and I think we killed it. There were people as far as the eye could see. It seemed like we were a really good fit to kick the show off. People seemed genuinely pleased. All of the other bands I wanted to see played after us, close to the beginning, which I was glad about, so I didn’t have to wait around all day to see them. People kept coming in waves. Every once in a while, I was like: “Did the bus just drop some people off?” I got to see people I haven’t seen in 30 years! It really felt like old times. I was stoked. I’m still stoked. Once it turned night, and the venue was filling up, the singer of Kid Galahad decided to stage dive. Nobody was ready. Some people think he jumped, some think he tripped, but either way, he launched off the stage and fell directly on his head. Blood was everywhere. They had to clear the floor and wait for the EMTs. It really put a damper on the whole vibe. We decided to leave at that point. Which was probably best.

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