Re: The Night Shift... Continues!
Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 11:10 pm
It's been 3 months since my last post in here so this might be a little lengthy and convoluted, but here goes...
Somewhere around mid-June, I moved out of my house in Stafford. I got an apartment down in Dickinson in the Bay Area. Long, boring story as to why, but I was certain that I was doing the right thing. However, I had been gone so long that by now I can't remember the point of it anymore. So I came back. I know there were and are issues but I'd just as soon ignore them and live in peace. My wife didn't exactly throw a party for me when I came back. She didn't want me to leave, and now it looks like she didn't want me to come back, either. Well, here I am. It's nice to be here, I don't care what anybody says.
There was a personnel spasm in the band and with the departure of the keyboard player, Pee Wee had to make some changes. I am now the keyboard player, and the guitar player who was in the band when I joined on keyboards in 2006, Jim, has returned to the guitar slot. Cool with me. I like Jim. He's a great player and a good guy, he builds his own instruments, has his own guitar shop and brings great chops and experience to the band. For me, becoming the full-time keyboard player is exciting, challenging and more convenient. No more buying guitar strings and stringing the guitar every week. No more tuning up between sets. No more cod-theatrics and crowd-surfing. Just show up, plug in and play. Life is good. I also have been playing a lot with OTA and it's been good. Keyboards and bass with those guys. Almost the whole time I was not here, I had a situation to deal with involving Sylvester the trombone player. He called me on a Monday morning in late June. He said he was sick, dizzy, and he needed me to come get him and take him to the hospital. I went over and got him and saw that his left foot was swollen and he was extemely sick...I took him to the VA hospital. It took 4 hours to get him in and hooked up to an IV, but once we were in the cubicle and he was hooked up, he asked me to take his socks off. I put on latex gloves and carefully removed his socks and I saw that his left foot looked like he had stepped on a land mine. He had gangrene and he was definitely knocking on Heaven's door. The doctor came in and within 3 minutes they wheeled him upstairs. At 2 AM the next morning, they amputated his left foot. That saved his life, but after 2 1/2 weeks of trying to get his diabetes and high blood pressure under control, they took more of the leg off in order for it to be adaptable to a prosthetic leg...6 inches below the knee. That hit him like a lead pipe. He was in the hospital 6 weeks before he finally came home. There is a lot more to his story but it's his business and I'm not sticking my whiskers where they don't belong. I did get to be friends with a couple of his sisters and their husbands, and I am very happy to have acquired their friendship. I got called back to GRI for at least a couple of weeks...I sure hope Charlie says the magic words this time, but if not, I understand. I need one more year. I will qualify for Social Security in September 2011...looking forward to that...hope we all enjoy the US Nationals! Cheers, WC1
Somewhere around mid-June, I moved out of my house in Stafford. I got an apartment down in Dickinson in the Bay Area. Long, boring story as to why, but I was certain that I was doing the right thing. However, I had been gone so long that by now I can't remember the point of it anymore. So I came back. I know there were and are issues but I'd just as soon ignore them and live in peace. My wife didn't exactly throw a party for me when I came back. She didn't want me to leave, and now it looks like she didn't want me to come back, either. Well, here I am. It's nice to be here, I don't care what anybody says.
There was a personnel spasm in the band and with the departure of the keyboard player, Pee Wee had to make some changes. I am now the keyboard player, and the guitar player who was in the band when I joined on keyboards in 2006, Jim, has returned to the guitar slot. Cool with me. I like Jim. He's a great player and a good guy, he builds his own instruments, has his own guitar shop and brings great chops and experience to the band. For me, becoming the full-time keyboard player is exciting, challenging and more convenient. No more buying guitar strings and stringing the guitar every week. No more tuning up between sets. No more cod-theatrics and crowd-surfing. Just show up, plug in and play. Life is good. I also have been playing a lot with OTA and it's been good. Keyboards and bass with those guys. Almost the whole time I was not here, I had a situation to deal with involving Sylvester the trombone player. He called me on a Monday morning in late June. He said he was sick, dizzy, and he needed me to come get him and take him to the hospital. I went over and got him and saw that his left foot was swollen and he was extemely sick...I took him to the VA hospital. It took 4 hours to get him in and hooked up to an IV, but once we were in the cubicle and he was hooked up, he asked me to take his socks off. I put on latex gloves and carefully removed his socks and I saw that his left foot looked like he had stepped on a land mine. He had gangrene and he was definitely knocking on Heaven's door. The doctor came in and within 3 minutes they wheeled him upstairs. At 2 AM the next morning, they amputated his left foot. That saved his life, but after 2 1/2 weeks of trying to get his diabetes and high blood pressure under control, they took more of the leg off in order for it to be adaptable to a prosthetic leg...6 inches below the knee. That hit him like a lead pipe. He was in the hospital 6 weeks before he finally came home. There is a lot more to his story but it's his business and I'm not sticking my whiskers where they don't belong. I did get to be friends with a couple of his sisters and their husbands, and I am very happy to have acquired their friendship. I got called back to GRI for at least a couple of weeks...I sure hope Charlie says the magic words this time, but if not, I understand. I need one more year. I will qualify for Social Security in September 2011...looking forward to that...hope we all enjoy the US Nationals! Cheers, WC1