Weathering storms and the art of guitar upgrades
I think all the weather guys did a good job of forecasting all the severe weather Friday night. Luckily, most of the tornadoes around here that popped up on radar didn't cause much damage. I read somewhere that every county in north Alabama was under a tornado warning at some point during the evening/night.
The worst weather we received here was hail. Golf ball sized hail that left 2 or 3 'dings' on the roof of the Expedition. I won't complain...they're nearly invisible (and you'd have to be 7-feet tall to see them anyway). The direction the wind was blowing the hail also meant that the house itself deflected most of the hail that could've dinged up the hood, so the hood wasn't damaged at all.
All in all, the hailstorm/tornado warning was a pretty nervous event. When your house is being pelted with thousands of golf ball size pieces of ice simultaneously, the noise is nearly deafening. Throw in a couple of nervous/crying kids and...wow...I was almost longing for the classice 'freight train' sound they talk about... Heh...not really. I'm glad hail was all we had and that damage was minimal. I know some of my friends' vehicles received more damage than ours, but even then, I think we lucked out.
...
After the storms passed, I went "chasing" with Eric. He's got a HAM radio setup in his jeep, and he listens to a network of guys who report storm activity and he contributes when he can, too. Being night time (and, thus, dark), we decided not to venture out during the peak of the activity, and instead drove out after most everything had passed. Though Eric had heard reports of tree damage and powerline damage, we only saw a lot of flooding and some spectacular (even blinding) lightning strikes. As Eric put it, one strike was like staring into a 'welding torch.' Took a couple of minutes it seemed for the 'after-image' to disappear from our vision. Ventured home and finally crawled into bed around 2:00 a.m.
...
Saturday was a gloomy, cold day, but perfect for a band rehearsal at J-mo's house. Brought back lots of memories of the early days of the band. What's really cool, though, is that our talent and our dynamic control has improved so much, that it wasn't nearly the deafening experience it used to be. (Either that, or we really have killed our hearing over the years).
Headed up to Ruby Tuesday's afterwards...got our orders in before 2 busloads of large groups ordered, so that was cool...
...
After church Sunday, I headed up to Spooner's house. Spent all afternoon working on my old Epiphone electric guitar. Well, he did pretty much all of the work while I stood there feeling like an observer. I won't complain. If I'd done it, it would've taken much, much longer. Now it sounds better, plays better, all that... I was fearing that the "glory days" of that guitar were long gone (playing "Higher" by Creed with Ben Gallaway, Jon Nickerson, Donovan Harris...and others in front of a large crowd at MountainTop back in the day...at the time, doing a song that heavy blew the doors off the church...good memories...). In any case, the weather outside was beautiful. Nothing like working in a garage when it's 70+ degrees, crystal clear outside, and you're listening to Dave Matthews Band...
...
Anyway, it's Monday. My throat is sore (I hate pollen), and I didn't sleep well. But after a weekend like this that turned out pretty good, I don't really feel like complaining...
The worst weather we received here was hail. Golf ball sized hail that left 2 or 3 'dings' on the roof of the Expedition. I won't complain...they're nearly invisible (and you'd have to be 7-feet tall to see them anyway). The direction the wind was blowing the hail also meant that the house itself deflected most of the hail that could've dinged up the hood, so the hood wasn't damaged at all.
All in all, the hailstorm/tornado warning was a pretty nervous event. When your house is being pelted with thousands of golf ball size pieces of ice simultaneously, the noise is nearly deafening. Throw in a couple of nervous/crying kids and...wow...I was almost longing for the classice 'freight train' sound they talk about... Heh...not really. I'm glad hail was all we had and that damage was minimal. I know some of my friends' vehicles received more damage than ours, but even then, I think we lucked out.
...
After the storms passed, I went "chasing" with Eric. He's got a HAM radio setup in his jeep, and he listens to a network of guys who report storm activity and he contributes when he can, too. Being night time (and, thus, dark), we decided not to venture out during the peak of the activity, and instead drove out after most everything had passed. Though Eric had heard reports of tree damage and powerline damage, we only saw a lot of flooding and some spectacular (even blinding) lightning strikes. As Eric put it, one strike was like staring into a 'welding torch.' Took a couple of minutes it seemed for the 'after-image' to disappear from our vision. Ventured home and finally crawled into bed around 2:00 a.m.
...
Saturday was a gloomy, cold day, but perfect for a band rehearsal at J-mo's house. Brought back lots of memories of the early days of the band. What's really cool, though, is that our talent and our dynamic control has improved so much, that it wasn't nearly the deafening experience it used to be. (Either that, or we really have killed our hearing over the years).
Headed up to Ruby Tuesday's afterwards...got our orders in before 2 busloads of large groups ordered, so that was cool...
...
After church Sunday, I headed up to Spooner's house. Spent all afternoon working on my old Epiphone electric guitar. Well, he did pretty much all of the work while I stood there feeling like an observer. I won't complain. If I'd done it, it would've taken much, much longer. Now it sounds better, plays better, all that... I was fearing that the "glory days" of that guitar were long gone (playing "Higher" by Creed with Ben Gallaway, Jon Nickerson, Donovan Harris...and others in front of a large crowd at MountainTop back in the day...at the time, doing a song that heavy blew the doors off the church...good memories...). In any case, the weather outside was beautiful. Nothing like working in a garage when it's 70+ degrees, crystal clear outside, and you're listening to Dave Matthews Band...
...
Anyway, it's Monday. My throat is sore (I hate pollen), and I didn't sleep well. But after a weekend like this that turned out pretty good, I don't really feel like complaining...
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