Thursday, July 18, 2013

Day 17 -- Off day in Pennsylvania

Monday July 15

Finally got some sleep early in the morning and had one hell of a fucked up dream:

Was on a trail carved from limestone cliffs.

There were cockroaches of various sizes and age ranges, crawling and flying around. Suddenly Fox 7 Austin news anchor Joe Bickett was there, with a BB gun that resembled a 9pm semi-automatic pistol. He said "Watch this" and shot at two roaches that were mating. The males had slightly different markings on the tips of their wings, identifying them as such. His shot hit home, there was a splatter of guts, and the male flew off.

Then there was a turtle. Weird looking. The shell of a box turtle or a tortoise, but the head/neck of a soft-shelled turtle. It moved by moving both front legs forward at the same time then pulling forward. Made me think of an old lady on a walker. It stretched out its neck and looked at me. Joe Bickett was there still with his BB pistol. He put it on a low power setting and said, "Watch this."

He fired a shot, which bounced harmlessly off the side of the turtle's shell. He picked it up and showed me. "See this?" he said in reference to the side of the shell, which the bottom and sides were different than the top. He knocked his knuckles on the top of the shell to show me the increased thickness. "You see that? That's ME" he said in reference to the harder top shell. Weird.

Then our Wisconsin friend Jan's daughter was there, young and 20's. She was playing with the turtle on a flat surface of rock. It was in a small enclosure, like the black lining shit you put on edges of flower beds, to keep it from falling off, I presume. She was teasing it, trying to get it to bite her but keeping her hand in a position where it couldn't get it's jaws on her fingers. Like my Chihuahua trying to bite a toy too big for his mouth. I didn't like this much.

Suddenly the turtle managed to nip her, she withdrew her hand and the turtle fell off the surface, landing on its side. There was of course a sickening dull crack. The turtle righted itself, but it's shell had come apart on one side. As it tried to right itself and crawl away, it's shell came completely off and I turned my head to avoid watching it drag its guts with it as it crawled from its shell.

I kept my gaze elsewhere but could hear behind me the turtle scrambling around and the daughter trying to catch it, all the while saying "Oh no, no, no, no, no!"

What the fucking fuck?!?



Anyway. Disturbing dreams aside.

Met Rick's dad and step mom, Rich and Judy, in the morning. Mainly laid low all day, trying to shake off the dream and get some rest. But the heat and humidity had finally found us, and we're staying in a house without central air. Rest was not easy to come by in my upstairs south-facing room.

Farm house on a hill in the middle of the country, surrounded by forests, cornfields, cow pastures, with a small pond nearby complete with a belligerent swan. Quite tranquil, to say the least. The cat and dog, Bo, liked Eric and I immediately.





Attempted afternoon thunderstorm




Finally took a shower during the day, funny how gross and disgusting sitting in a van for 14 hours can make you feel. Add the extra unseasonable humidity and stickiness... Felt like I had shed a layer of skin.

Judy cooked us all an awesome lasagna dinner that evening before the three of us headed into town.

Plan was for a brief run-through that night with the guitarist (James) and drummer (Steve) who'd be joining us for most of the rest of the dates, local players whom Rick has known for years. Steve's dad owns Marks Music in Mercer so we practiced there in a back room, Eric Rietman in tow so he could translate to drummer speak for us should the need arise (it did).

Went well, as well as it could for not quite a full rehearsal before our first gig at North Country Brewing Company the next night in Slippery Rock PA. We'll see how it goes. Already missing Matt and Eric, as we'd been playing with them for 2 weeks straight and getting tight musically and personally as a result. But adjusting to new drummers is part of my job description as a bass player, so I'll figure Steve out after a gig or two.

Back to the house, I did my best to get to bed early, and succeeded to a point.




 

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