Sunday Nights

i was talking to a friend from back home this past past sunday night - just catching up, chattin. i was telling her about boston (i'm still sorting through the pics - have em up soon) and just the road in general. she said she was jealous that i get to do all these things and go to these places . . . it IS cool, don't get me wrong - but then i mentioned to her how i'm jealous that she gets to sit on a couch! she gets to drive anywhere she wants, visit friends, go to all my favorite mexican restaurants, see all the local bands, etc. . . there're definately pros and cons.

my sunday nights, for example, are a bit unique.

we usually close the show for that city on sundays. saturdays and sundays are the busiest days with 3 shows on sat. and 2 - 3 shows on the sunday. after the last show is load out - as SOON as we play the last note of the exit music the crews get to it. i go change and put my hard hat on and help load out with the sound crew. the whole process takes anywhere from 5-10 hours depending on the building and how many hands we've got. each crew has casual labor, which are performers who want a little extra cash - i'm casual labor for the sound, the other c.l. for sound are some of the chinese - some of the nicest folk on the show! and some of the most efficient workers.

anywhoo, so load out is heavy, hard, long work and is a ton of fun, and the best part is the load-out shower! the bus takes us back to the train after all the wagons and semi-trucks are loaded, while the "transpo" crew takes the wagons back to the train to load them onto the flats.

now, at this point the train is split up into "cuts" and is "spotted" (parked). once everyone's on the coahes they close the vesibules and start hooking the train back up and getting it ready to roll out. i hopped in the shower and was enjoying the time limitless warmth. washing the work off of my hands , thinking how i need a haircut - when all of a sudden the lights go off. this may seem odd, but it's quite normal around here, especially during spotting and hooking up. they have to dettach and re-attach power lines between cars during all this. we've got back up lights, so no worries.

i'm continuing with my dark shower experiencing a smidge of what it might be to be blind, then the water goes off - this is less common during hook ups, but it Does happen. i was done anyway.

this time of night is always nice. i'm out - so fresh and so clean (clean....clean...clean) i slip on my comfy clothes, tidy up my room a bit, put my house slippers on - make some tea and CHILL!

the train's bustling with music and movies, drinking, and talking. no one's allowed off the train, there's nothing to do for the next couple of days, and the pie car's open 24 hours during runs!

when the train makes that first shift and starts rolling -it's pretty exciting - we're not leaving yet, but just hooking up. nice and easy until the cars slam each other in order to lock latches. it's a small jolt - so you've gotta make sure your TV's strapped in with the provided rubber straps and that you've got heavy things down from high places in your room! :)

where else do ya have to do that? that quickly becomes second nature though. train runs tend to be a nocturnal time. people are up late which suits us perfectly. it's a train full of artists, performers and kooky people. not your regular 9 to 5 , tie wearing folk.

and then we're all hooked up and slowly rolling out, the train starts rocking and your engage that train run "walk" head out into the vestibule - raise your glass and say goodbye to whatever city this was - we'll be doing this again next sunday.