Message board topic:

We worked again last night and man it was so hot!  A few days ago it was getting down to freezing then yesterday it was 94.  We played inside last night but there was a big garage door behind us and they opened it.  Before we even started there was a minor forest fire right behind us.  They were barely able to get it out with a garden hose.  The night went OK but I was tired and hot and miserable.  The stage lights drew in all kinds of bugs which dive bombed me all night.  When you're playing of course, you can't stop and brush them off or wave them away except on rare occasion.  I was closest to the door and the stage lights so of course, I got the majority of bugs.  My hands got so sticky with sweat it made it hard to run my fingers up and down the frets and the end of my fingers were getting sore.  I know I was getting dehydrated.  I was drenched in sweat.  I was drinking coffee at first until a moth landed in it.  Then I drank a Coke, which I almost never drink.  I know the French say drinking a hot coffee keeps you cooler than a cold drink.  With apologies to the French, no it doesn't.

Paul and I did all the packing at the end of the night and it took an hour and 45 minutes.  By that time  the little forest fire behind us had kicked back up.  It was an hour drive back home.  I was so thirsty when I got here and so tired.  Then for whatever reason, I couldn't sleep well.  I kept waking up.  I slept about 6 hours and felt awful when I got up.  If every night goes like that, I can't keep doing it.  Hoping it was just a bad night.  Today, I'm not doing anything!  John

It is good you have a few rest days then. Hopefully the nights playing are not all like the other night.

And it does not surprise me the French are wrong, aren't they usually? ;)

 

Here lots of things going on. One of them is Apollo. He is going to be 19 very soon and not doing well. He is on several medications now including for pain. He is losing weight (in the 9lbs range now) and now spends his days just speeping most of it away. It will be crushing if I have to lose another cat in May and especially if it falls on the 27th (^Copycat^ and ^Andromeda^). But I am unsure how long he has now, could be weeks or months. :(

It took me a few hours to get feeling better yesterday but I finally did.  I told Paul months ago that the one concession I'll make to old age is, I'm not playing outside in 100 degree heat anymore, and that's about what it was Saturday, at 94.  Anyway, I'm feeling a lot better today.

Cheri is not feeling good though.  She's been going with me when I play but she didn't feel up to it Saturday.  She's felt pretty rotten since then.  She's got so much she's got to do though.  She had a doctor's appointment this morning, which she didn't make.  Now for the next 2 days I have to drive her over to Columbia, which neither of us is looking forward to.

I'm still keeping up with my chess.  I've got 2 great teachers I listen to on YouTube, Igor Smirnov, (The Remote Chess Academy) and John Bartholomew.  I've learned a lot from both of them and they're both a lot of fun to listen to.

The furkids are all doing OK, and so is our squirrel.  It amazes me how little water Piggy goes through.  He drinks less than an ounce a month!  His hay is bone dry but he goes through a lot of spinach, celery and carrots every day, which is I guess, where all his water comes from.  He's an amazing little guy.  I'm starting to think Van Gogh is getting a little chubby.  She has all the food and water she wants 24/7 but unless she gets too chubby, I won't be putting her on any diet.  Our squirrel Feather, seems to have taken up residence in a tree across the street.  It's not a busy street so I don't have to worry about it much.

I do hope Apollo will be OK.  19 seems extraordinary for a cat.  I don't think I've ever had one get past 15, although I don't really know how old some of them were.  Like Fluffy or Socks, I couldn't begin to guess how old they were when I got them.  Van Gogh is 8 years old now and Piggy is 3.  I've heard wildly varying accounts of how long guinea pigs live so I'm hoping he has a good many years left.  John

Another miserable, hot, steamy night outdoors.  We were pretty close to a creek so there were a lot of bugs.  I felt a big one land right on top of my head, then I felt him walking straight down toward my forehead.  Of course, when you're playing you don't often have a chance to stop and brush them off.  The deck we played on was at the end of a long, wooden ramp, so set up and tear down were that much harder.  It was 92 last week and 91 last night and I doubt if the trend gets any cooler througout the summer.  Every job we have coming up so far, is outdoors, and I specifically told Paul last year, I didn't want to do that anymore and this year, that's all we have.  I don't know why standing there playing gets so hot.  I don't do any jumping or running around up there but I still put out a lot of heat.  On break it's not so bad just sitting there but I burn up when I'm playing.  Then the drive home was about an hour and 20 minutes.  We'll just see how this goes for a while.  John

John, a good investment may be something to make you cooler:
https://www.amazon.com/personal-cooling-device/s?k=personal+cooling+device
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0916GR4FR
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001P30358

You should insist Paul get some of these. ;)

I am so glad it is not in the 90's here yet. Though we get little humidity so it won't feel quite as bad here when the temps go up like that.

Sad weekend for me. A year ago on the 11th was moms birthday and the day she got sick. A year ago I was getting concerned and preparing to fly out. :/

Anniversaries can be so hard.  Mom died on January 7, which I found out later was her fourth wedding anniversary.  There eventually get to be so many anniversaries and birthdays you simply begin to lose track.  A few I'll always remember, but most are lost to history.

The band does use "squirrel" fans but that's something of a problem for me.  With this long beard, it blows back and covers my face.  I can't see what I'm doing and I look like Cousin It.  My old bass player liked tying a wet scarf around her neck, which might make you cooler but I wouldn't think it would be very comfortable.  I know there's been at least once and maybe twice, when I got overheated.  Once was to the point of dizziness, but like an idiot I hid it and toughed it out to the end of the show. How I kept playing through it without looking stupid, I don't know.  I've got to figure something out though.

Humidity here is always sky high.  I remember being in Arizona when it hit 113 but it was so dry, as long as you were in the shade, it really wasn't bad.  I had to play every night but I spent every day swimming in the Colorado river, which felt absolutely perfect.  Lots of wild memories connected with that tour.  John