Don’t Try This at Home!

I’m still really astounded at my strength and endurance for my old age. I work as hard, if not harder, than I ever have. It blows my mind seeing folks my age slowing down and becoming decrepit before their time. Here in Bunn I see a lot of that. I’ve started taking some new vitamins that seemed to have given me a little more energy but even without them I was going strong every day. For the past two weeks I’ve been working outside on a house in Raleigh. The first week wasn’t so bad heat-wise but man, this week was BRUTAL! Tuesday and Wednesday were both 98 degree days with high humidity sending the heat index up around 105F. Now just standing out there for 8 hours would be enough for most folks, old or young! But my job required me to haul a 32 foot ladder around, navigating bushes and trees, lean the thing against the house, without breaking any windows or hitting any power lines, and going up and down all day with a paint brush and a bucket in tow…and not to mention the PAINTING part! It was tough, but I came up with a pretty good idea that helped a lot. I brought a cooler (thanks Karen!) full of ice and wrapped a few cubes at a time in a bandana and tied them around my neck. As they melted they sent ice water down my spine. My neck was pretty much numb all day but it was worth it. I was wet but that was gonna happen anyway, so it may as well be a COLD wet, right? Afterall, there was hardly any wind stirring, adding to the misery. I think the hardest part of those days was the code orange air quality, it was just hard to breathe it was so hot. After work on Wednesday I had to go rehearse with two bands. We met over at Dave B’s place of business and practiced an HBO set (without the star, Chip Robinson) at 6:30 and went through the set we would play Friday night at midnight. Then at 8:30 we went through the OakTeam set we’d play in Chapel Hill at 9pm on Friday. I made it through practice OK, but by 10:30 I was outta gas, and rightfully so I think. I finished the job on Thursday (not as hot OR humid) around 1pm, and went back home to work some more on the bamboo flooring I’m putting down in the kitchen. It looked so amazing I couldn’t wait to finish. That’s a tough job too, with all the squatting-standing-squatting, up, down, up down…Friday was more on the floor, trip to the dump, then pack up the drums and head out to play the two aforementioned gigs. Both were REALLY rockin’! The OakTeam played great in Chapel Hill, KILLING all of the new songs we stuck in the set: Gambled and Lost, Enabler, Time for You to Go, Nervous (Around Pretty Girls) and my fav to play live, Ridin’ Around. It was a short set so there was only time for 4 others. Hence, a mudhole was stomped in dey ass! Headliner, Nashville Pussy had their work cut out for them! We quickly packed up and made the 30+ minute ride to downtown Raleigh and set up for the Chip show (The official name of the band is Chip Robinson and The Heavy Beat Outfit) Chip moseyed in just before showtime and we were ready to go. I was worried we would give him “sloppy seconds” but instead we were all (minus Danny Kurtz on bass) warmed up from the previous gig. We were on FI-YAH! I think it was probably our best show with him and (Slim’s owner) Van Alston was almost in tears he was so happy with it. He thanked me repeatly for kicking his ass so hard. It WAS a blast! The whole night was. Beats the hell outta sitting around and getting old!