And so here we are. Self-quarantined, etc. I'm not someone who likes to talk, let alone write, in superlatives, yet this is truly the weirdest time of my lifetime. An unknowable future. Weird doesn't even scratch the surface as a description.
Things happened so quickly. Only last week I was celebrating a return to Honky and a fun show at Valhalla. The very next day, one week ago, the screws really started tightening down. Within three days, bars and restaurants closed, and here we are. We didn't stock up on any supplies, so we're kind of winging it at the moment. Not really out of anything, but I do hope that the issue of grocery store stock improves soon; I think it will. People have to get used to a new reality, and when they do, I think things will settle down. But then, so much is up in the air.
The few weeks before the Honky show had been a blur of activity. Many rehearsals, an appearance at the workplace of some higher-ups, commanding mandatory attendance....a tiring couple of weeks, for sure.
Honky rehearsed four times (the three of us) and one time with just Jeff and me. And actually, Bobby and I ran through the set ourselves before Jeff got there at one of the aforementioned four. And we were pretty good at the show. Right afterwards, Jeff thought we'd played pretty fast, but I think it was good anyway, and video evidence doesn't really bear that out. Nothing got out of hand, for sure. I had a fantastic time, but playing that stuff is pretty brutal on me now. Hickoids and Pocket FishRmen shows can certainly be draining affairs, but nothing like this. It's probably largely due to the amount of singing I do in Honky. We revived a lot of songs they haven't done in ages, so all three of us were in the same boat for most of it. The night before, they played with a new drummer, Tom, who is their drummer going forward, I believe. But it was nice to be in the saddle one more time with these guys. I hope it's not the last, but chances are, it will be.
The Harvey McLaughlin Quartet (HMLQ) rehearsed a fair amount, working one new song up that's perhaps the most ambitious yet. I'm looking forward to playing that live, whenever that might be. Shane's really making his presence known now; it feels like a real quartet, and we're still not stepping on each other yet. Pretty happy with it.
The Hickoids got one rehearsal in before the shutdown. The new songs are played better each time. Again, can't wait to play 'em live, whenever that is. We had an Alaska trip planned (this is the first time it's been mentioned publicly) for May, but that was cancelled, unsurprisingly. Michelle was going, too, and now we have to figure out what to do with her plane tickets. First world problem.
Pocket FishRmen have two new songs recorded and ready for a single release. More backup vocals have been added to the mixes, and they're sounding great. Again, we'll release them when it's feasible. So concludes the music portion of this post.
My work schedule has been modified to work-at-home-every-day, as expected. I've found it very hard to concentrate on anything work-wise, though. A couple of days were okay this last week; other days, not so much. Maybe this week I can get going on stuff, not that I have that much to do. Putting out fires, mostly. We have a lot of courses with Flash objects embedded in them, and these objects will not work in browsers after November of this year. I've been tasked with finding them and doing something about the situation. Well, I was able to "fix" the two that were mine; others....I just don't know.
Being at home most of the time now (we do go out to get food on occasion) means lots of watching, and maybe I'll detail some of that soon. Michelle's wanted to watch "Tales from the Crypt" and "Night Gallery," so it's been fun beginning to binge those again. And of course, I have a rather large stack of unwatched stuff to go through.
If anyone's reading this, I hope it finds you healthy. I think we'll get through this.
