Woke with a vengeance this morning! Well, not a vengeance....I don't feel like I have a vendetta against anything.....except maybe the flu. So, really, I woke with energy! Coming out of these two illnesses is starting to feel really, really good. There's a lot coming up, and much to be happy about.
Undeniably, what's been first on my mind has been the impending Honky reunion (to me, it's a reunion, while for Jeff and Bobby, it may only be a show). I've been running through the songs at home when possible (mostly impossible last week), and they're an intriguing bunch. For the Saturday, March 14th show, the concentration will be on the first two albums, although I suspect other nuggets will be thrown in. Drumbeats and lyrics are coming back to me, but it's a bit of a slow process. When I played with them off and on during 2011-2013, it seemed like the stuff came to me quicker. And maybe since we did some of their newer tunes, there was less of the old material to play. There are a few parts that were probably second nature to me back in the late 90s that are now kind of "huh?"
One striking case in point, and this was a problem in 2011 as well, is "Nice and Tastee." A really simple song through and through (one of the first ideas Carson put forth), but it has a repeated accent part of snare drum-crash/kick, snare drum-crash/kick that is almost foreign to me now and feels completely unnatural. Weird. So, oddly, that song is receiving the most practice from me at home; just to get those accents feeling more natural. Other songs, it's just a matter of getting the grooves down and the number of times for this and that...and of course, the words, if I'm singing. I've only been singing backups in the Hickoids and Pocket FishRmen for a number of years now, although in the Hickoids I do have some solo vocal lines....so that helps a bit. I have to relearn how to carry a song again, assuming I knew how years ago! Hard to believe I used to do most of our stage announcing in the old days; I might've talked more about that in my history of Honky post from way back.
So, that's been on my mind a lot. Jeff and I got together Jan. 29th and ran through some songs, and that's been it so far. Bobby and I are getting together Thursday; maybe Jeff will join us, as I think he'll be back. Fingers crossed for this whole endeavor. I'm treating it as the last time I'll be doing it.
The other bands are doing fine, although illness (mainly mine) have kept us apart. The last Hickoids show was fairly sloppy, so I think we have work to do. Certainly, the future Alaska version does. I suppose we'll get on that next Tuesday; some version, anyway.
I bought tickets today for both Wishbone Ash in San Antonio on Saturday and Dweezil Zappa at the Paramount in Austin on Wednesday, the 26th. Looking forward to both of those. I seldom go to anything but local shows nowadays....not that that's not a good thing!
Tonight, Michelle and I are going to early vote in the primary election. Need to read up on our local contestants. That's about it for now!! Energy!!
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Sunday, February 16, 2020
Heartily Getting Over It
Almost back! Despite some weakness, I can almost say I'm back. Pretty brutal, although this stomach flu was not as bad as the one I had in the spring of 1980. That was still probably the sickest I've ever been. The type where you have to hold a bucket as you sit on the toilet, because there will be a dual spray with each heave. (Aren't you glad you're reading this?) Single spray with this illness, folks, single spray. I feel somewhat lucky.
I did not talk about anything else in the last post, because of, well, sick. I did play a couple of shows last weekend that were quite fun. The first one was the Harvey McLaughlin Quartet at the Black Sparrow Music Parlor in Taylor. Nice place. Actually....very nice place. The green room was part of a very fancy apartment in the back of the club, with antique furniture and a wisely-padded-in-certain-places spiral staircase. The staff were really friendly, and I can tell they just want to build something up there. There's even a house drum kit (which is almost a necessity, due to the lack of both parking near the door of the club and no close place to offload gear), although I was told the house kit's hardware is garbage. I did not check it out, though. From a distance, the drums seemed fine, but I had brought my own.
HMQ played a fun set. Harv had problems after his piano slipped off its stand and hit the ground; some of the keys were stuck up or down. Frankly, I couldn't tell audibly. One of our newer songs he could not start due to the key issue, and before we could agree on what to do, Rice fired up the opening riff, and we were off. As bands do. Beautiful. Bigfoot Chester and the Beautiful Delilahs followed us, and we were out at a decent time; the bar closes at midnight. Michelle and I even got Thai food in Manor on the way up. Seems like an odd place, and it was dead for sure, but the food was quite tasty.
The next early evening, the Hickoids kicked it for the first show of the year at the Lonesome Rose in San Antonio. Lonesome Rose has a nice house kit for use that sounds great. I did use my own snare stand and swapped out the drum stool for my own, due to my backward slippage in the first few numbers. We had a sloppy but okay set. It's always wondrous to me the things I forget when we haven't played for awhile. It's never any trickier numbers; it's the ones that I should know without thinking about anything. Still, we did fine overall. We followed the Beaumonts, so it was one of those "homecoming" shows for us. Great crowd, fun time.
Still in recovery mode, so I'm going to leave it at that for now. I'll talk about some movin' pictures next time, maybe....
I did not talk about anything else in the last post, because of, well, sick. I did play a couple of shows last weekend that were quite fun. The first one was the Harvey McLaughlin Quartet at the Black Sparrow Music Parlor in Taylor. Nice place. Actually....very nice place. The green room was part of a very fancy apartment in the back of the club, with antique furniture and a wisely-padded-in-certain-places spiral staircase. The staff were really friendly, and I can tell they just want to build something up there. There's even a house drum kit (which is almost a necessity, due to the lack of both parking near the door of the club and no close place to offload gear), although I was told the house kit's hardware is garbage. I did not check it out, though. From a distance, the drums seemed fine, but I had brought my own.
HMQ played a fun set. Harv had problems after his piano slipped off its stand and hit the ground; some of the keys were stuck up or down. Frankly, I couldn't tell audibly. One of our newer songs he could not start due to the key issue, and before we could agree on what to do, Rice fired up the opening riff, and we were off. As bands do. Beautiful. Bigfoot Chester and the Beautiful Delilahs followed us, and we were out at a decent time; the bar closes at midnight. Michelle and I even got Thai food in Manor on the way up. Seems like an odd place, and it was dead for sure, but the food was quite tasty.
The next early evening, the Hickoids kicked it for the first show of the year at the Lonesome Rose in San Antonio. Lonesome Rose has a nice house kit for use that sounds great. I did use my own snare stand and swapped out the drum stool for my own, due to my backward slippage in the first few numbers. We had a sloppy but okay set. It's always wondrous to me the things I forget when we haven't played for awhile. It's never any trickier numbers; it's the ones that I should know without thinking about anything. Still, we did fine overall. We followed the Beaumonts, so it was one of those "homecoming" shows for us. Great crowd, fun time.
Still in recovery mode, so I'm going to leave it at that for now. I'll talk about some movin' pictures next time, maybe....
Friday, February 14, 2020
Another Flu?? Really??
I think my last post had me talking about the regular ol' flu. And that took a good three weeks to get over. And then, hello February, what ya got? How about the stomach flu?
On Monday evening, after dinner at the Texas Chili Parlor and some follow-up yogurt at home, I started getting this bloating sensation in my stomach. I've had light versions of this before, so I took some antacid tablets and thought it would pass (ha ha). It did not. Instead, when I woke up Tuesday, I felt like I'd swallowed a watermelon, and a watermelon that wasn't breaking down. Still, I wasn't nauseous at all and bathroom deposits were normal, so again, I thought I had some weird gas issue. I felt just poorly enough to take the day off work and napped some, especially once I found out others in the Hickoids were ill and we were going to cancel rehearsal anyway.
By Wednesday, nothing had changed. I had even eaten a chicken burger Michelle brought me after she got off work, and again, no nausea. No change in the bathroom. Later Wednesday, the bloating became painful, mostly from pressure, but sometimes sharper. I made dinner that night (unbelievably, I think now), and we ate, and I thought I was fine after that. I even went to Walgreen's to pick up some Gas X to try. But later, even more discomfort, and I called an after hours nurse at ARC to see what they thought. They thought I should come in the next morning, which I did...the office in Buda. The DO I saw seemed pretty thorough in patting me down, etc. and said, yes, stomach flu, or gastroenteritis. And there wasn't anything I could do about it. Just wait. He said I should get some Pepcid and try some probiotics, both of which I acquired. He had some paperwork, which I should have read better before I took the next steps.
Keep in mind, I hadn't had any nausea yet, and the DO had said as long as I stayed away from dairy, I would probably be okay. Well, when I ran to HEB to get the Pepcid, etc., I picked up a donut (why not?), and figured I'd eat some oatmeal when I got home. The oatmeal was strawberries & cream....hey, Lance! What is cream again? Hoo boy.
By Thursday afternoon, I was a mess. Still not really nauseous, but uncomfortable in the extreme. The only way I could not be moaning in pain was to lie propped up in bed; for some reason that position seemed to work okay. So I fixed my CPAP mask to sleep that way (I normally sleep on my side) and was able to get some fitful sleep in that position. By nighttime, I was feeling a little something finally...something in the way of nausea....not much, but maybe...
After two trips, I had managed to expel the oatmeal and the donut and instantly felt a bit better. Not great, but anything would have been an improvement. Another hour later, and I was able to sleep normally again, and I slept all night. I woke up feeling much, much better, although I'm taking little baby steps now. Nothing but water for awhile. Just a bit ago, I had a piece of unbuttered toast and a few pretzel sticks. And just now, I had some Velitta biscuits. So far, so good.
We had to cancel our Valentine's Day dinner tonight due to all this. I'm bummed about that. But we'll make that up soon enough. Here's hoping your Valentine's Day week was much better than mine, and as I said late last night, I'm glad I was able to get all this out.
On Monday evening, after dinner at the Texas Chili Parlor and some follow-up yogurt at home, I started getting this bloating sensation in my stomach. I've had light versions of this before, so I took some antacid tablets and thought it would pass (ha ha). It did not. Instead, when I woke up Tuesday, I felt like I'd swallowed a watermelon, and a watermelon that wasn't breaking down. Still, I wasn't nauseous at all and bathroom deposits were normal, so again, I thought I had some weird gas issue. I felt just poorly enough to take the day off work and napped some, especially once I found out others in the Hickoids were ill and we were going to cancel rehearsal anyway.
By Wednesday, nothing had changed. I had even eaten a chicken burger Michelle brought me after she got off work, and again, no nausea. No change in the bathroom. Later Wednesday, the bloating became painful, mostly from pressure, but sometimes sharper. I made dinner that night (unbelievably, I think now), and we ate, and I thought I was fine after that. I even went to Walgreen's to pick up some Gas X to try. But later, even more discomfort, and I called an after hours nurse at ARC to see what they thought. They thought I should come in the next morning, which I did...the office in Buda. The DO I saw seemed pretty thorough in patting me down, etc. and said, yes, stomach flu, or gastroenteritis. And there wasn't anything I could do about it. Just wait. He said I should get some Pepcid and try some probiotics, both of which I acquired. He had some paperwork, which I should have read better before I took the next steps.
Keep in mind, I hadn't had any nausea yet, and the DO had said as long as I stayed away from dairy, I would probably be okay. Well, when I ran to HEB to get the Pepcid, etc., I picked up a donut (why not?), and figured I'd eat some oatmeal when I got home. The oatmeal was strawberries & cream....hey, Lance! What is cream again? Hoo boy.
By Thursday afternoon, I was a mess. Still not really nauseous, but uncomfortable in the extreme. The only way I could not be moaning in pain was to lie propped up in bed; for some reason that position seemed to work okay. So I fixed my CPAP mask to sleep that way (I normally sleep on my side) and was able to get some fitful sleep in that position. By nighttime, I was feeling a little something finally...something in the way of nausea....not much, but maybe...
After two trips, I had managed to expel the oatmeal and the donut and instantly felt a bit better. Not great, but anything would have been an improvement. Another hour later, and I was able to sleep normally again, and I slept all night. I woke up feeling much, much better, although I'm taking little baby steps now. Nothing but water for awhile. Just a bit ago, I had a piece of unbuttered toast and a few pretzel sticks. And just now, I had some Velitta biscuits. So far, so good.
We had to cancel our Valentine's Day dinner tonight due to all this. I'm bummed about that. But we'll make that up soon enough. Here's hoping your Valentine's Day week was much better than mine, and as I said late last night, I'm glad I was able to get all this out.
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