4th of July

When we were at the Kevin Sharp concert last week, Beau mentioned that Straight Away would be playing out in Homedale on the 4th of July after the big demolition derby out there. I opened my big mouth and asked who was running their sound. . . turns out they were planning to take their own small system and run it themselves. I continued to blab my mouth and "volunteered" our services as a possible exchange for tickets to the derby since we had yet to make plans for the 4th. He said he would find out from the event promoter and would get back with us. To make a long story short, they were happy to have us come out in exchange for tickets and to top it off, Beau and his wife invited all of us to a BBQ beforehand at their new house-
Gloria would even get to ride a horse.

I was actually looking forward to all of this, but after the news we recieved on Tuesday night, I felt like I needed to stay close to home. There wasn't too much for me to do in the afternoon, so we went ahead and drove out to Greenleaf for the BBQ.
I told Rob I would help him set up the system for the band at the fairgrounds in Homedale and then I'd head home to help with whatever. . . .

The band was a huge help for the set-up and everything went up quick. The last order of business was to plug in the power. Rob had made arrangements earlier in the week to buy a breaker to snap into their existing power in order for us to have enough juice to fire up the system. Everything seemed to be falling into place. . . Unfortunately, one whole leg of power just wasn't there. We couldn't power up. . . Rob is a great trouble-shooter so I wasn't worried. No one else seemed to know what to do, so they all stood around and watched Rob figure it out:

It took a couple of hours and a bunch of power cords, but he figured out a way to make it work. I knew he would.

Gloria made a friend early on and spent the entire day/evening with her.

By the time we had power and ran through the sound check, it was too late for me to be of any help in Boise. Rob and I caught the very last demo derby of the evening. . . so much for our "payment"!!!

The band played until 1:00 a.m. By the time we loaded everything up, and drove back to Meridan, it was after 3 a.m. when we dropped exhausted into bed. Me and my big mouth. . .