It started with rain

It's been a helluva week. Weather calamity. Injury. Even (dare I say it?)...death. Yeah, you read that right. Somethin' died. So, don't even think your week has been bad. Just read about ours, tell us what troopers we are for soldiering on, then go buy our CD or something.

It started on Saturday. We were scheduled to play at Little Woodrow's in Bee Cave. On our way out to the venue, we saw a few clouds here and there. They seemed to be dropping some rain in the distance, but the weather reports said it would all fade out by around 8:30pm. We were set to play at 9:00, so that should have been manageable.

We got completely set up. All that was left was a sound check. And then I looked up, and saw this:

Okay, that's not actually what I saw - I didn't have time to snap a picture of the storm that was descending on us at that moment. So that photo is just a really cool photo of a supercell. But the storm that swept over us had the same basic elements: rain, wind, clouds. And when I say I didn't have time to take a photo, I'm not kidding. I saw the cloud approaching, pointed it out to Johnny, and we immediately started putting out tarps next to all of our gear.


Just as we finished setting out the tarps, drops started falling, and it was a full-blown thunderstorm within seconds. We turned off the power immediately and got all the sensitive equipment covered, except for our subs, which we didn't have tarps for. But Johnny and Joe actually had to huddle on stage to hold the drum tarp over the drums because otherwise, the wind would have blown the tarp off, and the rain was coming down too heavy to move anything without it getting soaked. So, they held the tarp manually until the rain finally stopped...an hour later. An. Hour. Later.

Joe was positioned behind the tarp, but Johnny had to kneel to the side of it, which meant he was soaked to the bone. That wouldn't have been a big deal except that his cell phone was in his pocket, and he didn't realize it until he was thoroughly and utterly drenched.

When the rain finally stopped, we unplugged, toweled off and re-packed all of our gear. We couldn't take the chance of trying to play since turning on wet gear is a good way to destroy it. So, without ever playing a note, we packed up and headed to IHOP to drown our sorrows in syrup. Johnny and Papa K were both completely wet and did not have a change of clothes, so the a/c at IHOP was a bit of a challenge, particularly for Papa K, but a little hot chocolate and late-night breakfast can cure a lot of ills.

What IHOP does not do is wipe down all of your gear for you. Johnny and I had to do that ourselves all day on Sunday. We set every single piece of everything out, dried it by hand, let it get a little sun to try to dry the spots we couldn't get to, then just as we were finishing...another rain cloud. Seriously!! We did manage to get everything indoors before it got wet again, but sheeeeeeesh.

We had to finish getting all of that done on Sunday anyway, though, because the city notified us they would be tearing up the street in front of our house on Monday, and we weren't sure what kind of mess we'd be dealing with on that front. We didn't need gear around, getting dust, etc. in the crevices on top of whatever damage the water may have done. It was a reasonable fear, because they done tore up the street but good.

I'm sorry to say that the phone did not survive the drowning. Here it is all gutted and impotent (and YES, we tried burying it in rice for 24 hours - it didn't work. Even rice has its limits apparently.):

Johnny secured a temporary phone (same number for those of you who have it) to use until he can save up for a long-desired iPhone. He lost all his contacts, though, so...if you thought he was supposed to call you and didn't, it's probably because he can't. Just call him instead.

We wouldn't know the fate of the rest of the gear until Wednesday. We had to let it sit for a while to make sure it was totally dry before we lit it up.

But before we could get to Wednesday, there was Tuesday. On Fateful Tuesday, as it shall henceforth be known, Johnny went outside to go mow the grass. Such an innocent, that Johnny. Thinking he could mow the grass, when we were clearly in the throws of an apocalypse.

See, they tore up the street on Monday, but they didn't bother to actually fix it until Wednesday. So on Tuesday, when Johnny went to mow, it was still a bit of a war zone. So, we probably shouldn't have been surprised when Johnny accidentally stepped off the curb into a gouge in the street and twisted the living shit out of his ankle:

 This is what it looked like after 24 hours. Imagine how 

bad it would have looked if he hadn't iced it immediately

and repeatedly right after he twisted it.

Here's our cat getting a drink from the delicious foot-flavored 

ice water that we so kindly provided her. Delicious.

The mowing did not happen. Johnny is now hobbled for the foreseeable future, BUT there is some good news. We tested all the gear on Wednesday, and everything works. PHEW!

Seriously, I can't tell you how relieved we were. We've got two gigs this weekend, and we were not looking forward to scrambling for working gear if some of our stuff was damaged. I'll blog about the gigs later, but just as a teaser, one of them involves Johnny and Joe on electric bikes. Let your mind go wild.
 

So, we're a bit banged up and worse for wear, but we're resting up for a weekend of gigs that will involve a lot more sitting and a lot less jumping around for Johnny. But you'll be able to hear us, and that's the important thing...at least until Johnny is vertical again.