The Night Shift

[Novel-T]

WC1 I'm so sorry about your theft.I know you have a positive attitude,but it's still a big disappointment,when a thief thinks he is entitled to your belongings

[draglist]

Sh*t, sorry about that, Cat. bp

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, guys. That's Show-Biz. I've been lucky in the past, only had one item or two taken here and there, but this was the big one. Unfortunately, Lynn has been kind of snotty towards me since I took the gig in Carthage last weekend, and when he heard about this, he acted almost kind of, well, snotty about it. I hope he doesn't have anything of his stolen...it really hurts and I'd sure hate to see him lose any of his stuff. You feel raped, and there's nothing you can do about it but try to replace your stuff so you can keep going, ya know. He'd have a rough time trying to replace some of his stuff, because it's just as valuable and painful to lose like my stuff was. His only concern is how I'm going to play gigs without an amp. He said my Twin Reverb amp was really not powerful enough to cut it and I need to get a better amp than the one I had. He said he won't run me through the PA because Brandi wants her voice in the monitors only and no instruments, so that's out. He has one of my guitar effects and I asked him to give it back today...for the 4th time in the last month...and he said yeah, yeah, sure. But you need a new keyboard amp. To be honest, a new keyboard amp is not on my top priority list at the moment, ya know. I have some other issues to deal with that supercede sounding like he wants me to at Shakedown gigs after having been ripped off for all the stuff he's been using and I've been carrying around for him. I have another set of PA speakers, EVs, that are heavier than the Peaveys, and I asked him if I should bring them tonight. His answer was "That'd help, yes...but only bring one because they're too loud." Great, Lynn! Would you like a shoe-shine to go with that, or should I just start paying you for me to have the privilege of jamming with you? Sorry, y'all. I'm kind of mad at him right now. Life goes on. WC1

[jim sanders]

damn John.... i was looking foward to reading plain old fun stuff... now i am bummed out... i will call John the Plumber tomorrow to ask what he has availible on a good deal to you after your theft of good stuff... we ( I ) am in a high crime area... lots of burgurlies, drive-by shootings, drugdeals gone bad etc.. if i am watching cops on tv i hit the mute button to determine if the sirens are coming from the tv or outside my living room window !! It seems rto me somebody knew to watch for your van and knew it was full of valuble stuff ?.... jeeeez i feel bad hearing this news WC...

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, Doc...the reality of it is starting to sink in and I am running out of words or ways to describe what this is. I really have no choice but to move forward and not dwell on it. I am concerned about our neighborhood, though, because this sort of thing hasn't happened here before. We have our own cops. Technically, this should not have happened here, but I should have known better than to leave my stuff in the van, too, ya know, no matter how many cops we have. Somebody has definitely been watching me and my van. I don't know if they would have broken the window anyway, but there's probably a better chance they would have left it alone without anything in it, especially my musical stuff. I've been doing that for 9 years here. This was the time it happened... I have an American Fender Precision bass in excellent condition that I'm going to try to turn into a keyboard amp and an off-the-shelf Yamaha keyboard like the one I had. If I can swing that deal (I'm calling Mikey tomorrow about it), then I'll be good to go. I just gotta remember that nothing is safe, nobody's above being ripped off, and not to trust my good karma too much <g>. I decided tonight on the way to the gig to give my '69 Les Paul to Kyle. He'll keep it safe. I'm going to focus on keyboards. The Citykings will have to keep me as the keyboard guy, and maybe finally bring Lynn into the band. I don't know, that could be pushing it a little too far. Right now I'm going through a lot of ideas in my head. Life is good. WC1

[WildcatOne]

Today was busy. I have an insurance deal and it might cover about half of the cost of what I lost, but that's better than nothing. Big deductible, ya know. Folks around town know about what happened. It got all over town within 24 hours of it happening. Now they're talking about doing a benefit. I'd accept it, but I didn't ask for it. I've done a whole bunch of benefits and me and Shorttsy have raised a ton of money for folks over the years, and we used the equipment that was stolen out of my van the other night for them. Anyway, I got a new keyboard today. I absolutely had to have one. I'm booked well into 2007. I called Mikey at Rockin' Robin and he already knew what happened. How it got that far, I have no idea, but there is a grapevine that reaches farther than I thought it did...I had an American Fender Precision Bass and a Fender BXR-200 with a blown speaker to deal with, so he told me to come down there and they'd make a deal with me. I got a deal. I traded the bass straight-up for an identical Fender Twin Reverb amp to the one I had that was stolen, the only difference being that this one has better speakers in it (Peavey Scorpions) and a reverb and tremelo pedal, which my former one didn't have. Also, it has silver grille cloth whereas the one I had had black. It's a GREAT trade and my ass is so bailed out right now, I just can't say. Mikey wants the bass amp and he offered me money, but I'm going to have him replace the 12" speakers in my Peavey monitors that got blown playing 120 gigs a year with Shakedown and throw in a couple of cords and a guitar tuner and we're square on that. Life is incredibly good, y'all. I want to thank Bart, the owner and president of Rockin' Robin Guitars and Music for his compassion on hearing of my situation and his generosity and straight-up and honest dealing with me on this. He came through like a champ. WC1
http://www.rockinrobinguitars.com/

[WildcatOne]

Here are some pictures from the gig in Carthage last Saturday night. Cat at the keyboards, (Note I have lost 25 pounds)...and The Stumblers (L-R) Johnny Keys, Ross Johnson, Steve Bounds, Don Barnett, Curtis Walker. Have Nitro!?, WC1

[pro70z28]

Hey WC. I just got here. Been busy the last few days (O.T.). Very sorry to hear about what happened. I hope everything works out for the best once the dust settles. Like updated equipment & finding out you've got some very good friends pullin' for ya' when things get tough.

[jim sanders]

great news WC !!

[draglist]

Great news, John! Hey, I'm digging that keyboard logo and your attire! bp