Synchronized Desk Dancing … 5,6,7,8

I have a car !!!!

Sound the trumpets, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead. It’s not my heart’s desire as cars go and yet it’s exactly perfect … well except for the humongous “Harley Davidson” sticker in the back window (which I may elect to simply leave on because I like the consternation it may cause other drivers and who knows, it may have the added bonus of them giving me a wide berth – after all I may be a Hell’s Angel on the creep right? – don’t mess with me!). At the very least, anyone who sees it will suspect me of wearing leather … or being leather-wearing capable. Anyhoo, it’s an escort wagon, it’s clean, it’s silvery blue, it’s in pretty good shape and because it’s a wagon I finally have enough room to carry ALL my guard stuff the year I’ve decided to finally retire (and there’s God’s wacky sense of humor at work again). I’ve named my new little car Hoo-Ha. I have no explanation for this, it just fits and I have a habit of naming inanimate objects -- my TV remotes are named The Big Kahuna and Momo respectively. I hope Hoo-Ha lives a long, long time.

On Saturday I left the house at dark o’clock and made the three hour drive down to Madera where I judged a parade and a field show. It was raining and thoughts of Rochester kept running through my mind. I will say that rain and wind make a judge’s job really easy because it quickly separates the big kids from the little kids. Those with training and composure do a really good job of pushing through … the others get exasperated and just give up ... you see it in their faces first, then their carriage and then the work just stops and finally they walk like pedestrians through the rest of the zone. It confirms my belief that training is the most important aspect of guard. One of the other judges and I killed the lag time between parade and field by camping out in a booth at McDonald’s where no topic was sacred and we gossiped about everyone we know mutually. Good fun. By Saturday night the rain had stopped but the wind had picked up significantly. Flagwork was a special challenge and a lot of equipment hit the ground. I rewarded those who heroically pushed through it knowing that heroes are created via good training and development of technique … and I’d rather see a bad catch then a nice recovery any day. The day finally came to an end at 9pm and I beat it out of there to get the long drive home started – I had to stop and nap twice and had to drink a lot of coffee but I finally made it. Next time (which if I have even a single ounce of active brain matter there won’t be one) I’ll get a hotel room.

Sunday was a lazy day. We slept in til 10:00 then went to IHOP for breakfast. Afterwards we stopped by Home Depot to choose a new (and yet to be installed) shower massage – mainly so we can wash Teddy (who hasn’t had a bath since his last “vacation”). I had no idea there was such width in the shower massage market and such a wide variance in the amount of money one can spend on a shower massage and I quickly felt overwhelmed. After an hour of negotiation we compromised and settled on a $40 4-position shower massage. Overcoming the always serious challenge of self-check out (which I despise), we went home and discovered we suddenly needed a nap. I love naps! And I think I will love the new shower massage. Around 4:00, I headed out to my friend Stu’s house to hook up with him and some other guard folks to go over some “conceptual” winterguard ideas. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do with one of the shows. It’s “been done” but not by me and not in this circuit. It’s an idea I can’t get out of my head so I’m going to try to it. It was hard listening to music for four different guards, of varying skill levels, at the same time but I think by the end of the evening we had sorted out at least one school’s music and had several solid ideas for at least two others. It was fun times just getting our guard geekiness on with GREAT pizza as a bonus.

The coming weekend will be another busy guard weekend and the last one of this marching season. I’ll be at the Lincoln/Stockton show on Saturday and then for Sunday I have plans to attend an MBoB reunion and go be a spectator at WBA finals where I’ll get a chance to see some of the better Cali bands just for the fun of it.

Next on the agenda … a driver’s license !!