on the move

my hobbies have taken on their own lives.  they’ve all stepped themselves up a notch, and i’m being lifted in the process.  i know my month of May is shot between gigs, tournaments, and practices for the gigs and tournaments!

HOCKEY – i used to play in what i affectionately referred to as the “local geriatric league”.   it was a close quarters game where positioning, stick handling, and shooting skills were the difference makers.  there were young guys who did things like p90X for shits and giggles, and tougher guys who were in the military machine.  but there were enough old farts, and i’m talking 50+, to balance it all out. 

mind you if you’re 50 and you don’t know where to be, when to be there, and can bring it, you’re not still playing hockey.  so i have  a group of athletes that whose bodies have left them and they’re basically distilled skill sets versus those who have strength and stamina, but less than stellar skill sets.  that’s the game in the geriatric league.  and it’s usually “old guys v young guys” where the geezers win the first two, and lose the third. 

NOW, i’m in this travelling group who has yet to play an officiated game.  it’s five on five on the big court, and we’re taking this untested machine into philadelphia.  that’s the sixth largest city in the U.S.  no sense taking it to like Harrisburg or Scranton first. 

there are three practices (only one of them full) left before we go.  so hopefully i’ll have enough time to bang strategy and coverage responsibility into most people’s heads. 

anyway, i went from  Sunday afternoon three hour workout that’s closeby to this adventure.  it’s certainly a step up.

DRUMS - this thing blew up too.  i’ve been playing with a blues band that was in essence a musical collective for years.  we’ve had players come and go.  the band is whoever showed up that night, and we played whatever songs we could do with the people at hand.  some shows were just us, camping in the woods, playing for ten to thirteen hours in some way, shape, or form. 

now this thing has distilled to a more or less solid lineup of five, and we’ve been playing parties and benefits.  which is cool.  but now there is a desire to venture out into the “paying gig” scene.  so, we played a show last week for a party.  there was a “set list” which is standard fare for a band to have.  but, the blues band never has a set list.  we just wing it.  well, i guess we’re getting civilized, lol.

we have a paying gig lined up for the end of the month.  and they want to “practice” for it.  lol.  it’s a fine idea, but nine years into it and Now we’re going to practice?  it seems so odd to me. 

on the rock front a group of guys i’m jamming with looks like we’re coming together as a group.  we’ll be playing a Relay For Life benefit later this month, so that’s more music to be played.  i haven’t played a rock gig for i think a year and a half at least.  and even that was just a party in a hall we rented.  so an actual set with other bands and someone else running the sound/lights . . . closing in on three years. 

LOL, i guess it is time to get playing again!

 CRUX –  my “goofing around on Friday Nights” looks ready to take off into a band.  my “goofing around on Sunday afternoons” looks ready to take off into a hockey team.  and my “goofing around every six weeks blues thing” looks ready to take off into a band as well.

life just changed again.  maybe it’s waking me up :)

and now i’m off for a run.  maybe i can make myself puke?  oh, before i go . . .  

Snippets from the Tavern  – you hear the strangest things in there.  one fellow has an elderly mother who wakes in the middle of the night to pee, and then falls asleep on the toilet.  so he wakes in the middle of the night to pee, but its kindof like he gets blocked and has to find a creative way out.  terribly odd, and for me, very amusing situation.  so . . .

Spearsy: “Hey, is it true you pissed in a Mt. Dew bottle last night, and then took a sip of it in the morning?”

Man: “It was can, not a bottle.”

deadpan delivery as well.  i almost pissed myself.  that’s something you just can’t make up.

May 5, 2010   Posted in: Uncategorized

One Response

  1. Rasputin - May 5, 2010

    My mother had done some renovation in the bathroom, fixing a hole in the wall and painting it this ridiculous rubber ducky yellow.

    I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.

    She gets up in the middle of the night and decides to check out her handiwork.

    So there I am sitting on the toilet naked as shit when she walks in. She doesn’t see me right away and I have to make a snap decision, do I say something or do I not?

    If I say something it will startle her and she will scream bloody murder and wake up the entire family. Snap call, I’m freerolling by keeping my mouth shut.

    Of course, she turns the wrong way, sees me and screams bloody murder waking up the whole family.

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