Hot, August Days

      Happy August! It’s so rare that I get to do one of these at the beginning of a month, I thought I’d take advantage. It’s really starting to feel like August, hot and humid. I really don’t know how the people in the southern states do it. I’m sure there’s some level of “getting used to it,” but when I see them being interviewed on the news, they don’t look like they’re “used” to it. I guess in that situation, you know that everyone is going to be sweaty, so you just roll with it. I’m glad it doesn’t get that bad here. That’d be worth a move! It’s hard to imagine before air conditioning. I know we keep hearing about climate change, and the hottest years on record, so maybe it wasn’t all that bad back in the day, but I have to imagine it was. There are still a lot of homes around here that don’t have air conditioning. Mostly old homes, but still, it’s strange to think that now, all new homes probably have it. It’s expensive! We keep our house barely tolerable, so we don’t rack up a huge bill, just enough to take the misery away. I hope the studio has A/C tonight. We had practice a month or so ago, and there wasn’t, it was nasty! I’m glad I get to jam with the Eruption again tonight! It’s been over a month! I feel like it’s been forever. 6 weeks can feel like forever these days. I have so much going on it’s hard to keep it all straight. I’m glad the Olympics are on. I enjoy watching the events that usually don’t get much airtime here. I heard someone on the radio once say that he finds it “stupid” that every four years people get all excited about watching things that they would never normally watch. And to that I say: That is the excitement! Things we normally don’t get to see, is what makes it worth watching!

     We were over at my mother-in-law’s house the other day.  My sister-in-law is in town with her daughter, so we’ve been spending time over there. They don’t have cable, and have not subscribed to Peacock, so getting to watch any of the Olympics over there is a challenge. A friend of the family was over too. She’s best friends with my mother-in-law. She’s a nice person. When we were trying to find something to watch, she remarked: “Oh, those aren’t even Americans playing, so it doesn’t matter.” I found that idea strange. That some people only want to see “Americans.” As mentioned earlier, I like watching the sports I don’t know that well. I want to soak in as much as I can. I can’t imagine just wanting to see if the USA does well. I can get that on the news. I find Rugby Sevens terribly interesting. I’d watch every match. I might want to go see it when the Olympics are in LA next time. I think that would be fun! A couple of years ago they had the Rugby Sevens tournament here, but I didn’t know too much about it, so I didn’t go. I wanted to, but things were really tight back then. When I tried to find out when it was going to happen again, I learned that it moves around, and is not scheduled to come back here. I wish I had known. Oh well, you live and you learn. Hopefully! I wasn’t as into it back then as I am now. I can’t imagine squandering the possibility now. I’m glad we have cable for it. Being able to see all the different stuff is fun. I’m trying not to watch too much, but I get caught up sometimes. The other night I stayed up way too late enthralled in doubles badminton! That’s when you know you might have a problem! Just, kind of, kidding. I was fascinated by it, but I’m not willing to admit I have a problem. Yet. There is nothing wrong with watching badminton!

     The gig last Saturday was awesome! It had its hiccups. We were supposed to start at 2. We got there at 1 to set up. I heard the sound team was getting there at 12:30, thinking when we got there, we would just set up and soundcheck. That wasn’t the case. I got to help set up some pop-ups, while I waited. We started soundcheck around 2:20. And, just as we were about to start the performance, the soundboard died! There was a lot of tension. Luckily, the promoter lived close and had another board at home, so they ran home and got it. We started playing at 3, just a little late. There was a good amount of people there to see us. I felt bad for them hanging around, waiting. The weather was nice, we got lucky. One of the bands made hand powered fans with their logo. I thought that was good marketing, and a good idea passing them out for free. As for the query I posed last week, I’d have to say that more of “my” friends showed up for the Calvins. There were quite a few people there for the Hustlers, but as “my’ friends go, they all started showing up close to six, when the Calvins were supposed to start. I couldn’t believe how many people were there. It really felt like we were the draw. So many people dancing, and singing along! Monday, when I checked social media, there were so many videos of us floating around, I couldn’t see them all. Plus, it was all basically the same thing, no real need to watch the same performance from 10 vantage points. Also, after the Hustlers were done, people were saying they couldn’t really hear the singing. People liked it, and said they couldn’t wait to hear us at a real venue, to see what we really sound like. But, when I watched the Hustlers videos, I thought we sounded good. I don’t know what all the complaining was about. Oh well!