Antje Duvekot is on the stereo and we’re listening and hurtling down … down whatever it is that we’re on. Up. Actually, we’re hurtling up I-71 headed back towards Columbus, OH. Antje has a beautiful song about visiting her grandmother as she loses her battle to Alzheimer’s that always reminds me of my father. I couldn’t listen to that song for a long, long time. I’m listening to it now.
I’m remembering how my dad was worried about the horses. We never had horses. And his religion. He never really had religion. He was worried about a lot of things in the last throws of losing to cancer. Most of which he’d never worried about before – as far as I know. It was a terrible dissolution. I’m not sure that I’m able to write a song about that yet – and it’s been years.
The day is brilliant and brittle. Not headed towards cold yet (though the nights have been getting bitter and we’ve left the threat of snow behind us but only by a day and a state) but the air is definitely brisk.
The whole trip has been graced with the faded greens and explosions of colour that signal a brilliant fall and the rains that have cut through have been close to vicious.
We’re headed back East, Columbus to Columbus, and tonight we’ve got the night off to spend with friends. It’s a welcome respite as I’ve been struggling with what I’m now convinced to be a pretty awful cold. I’d hoped it was just allergies, but I’ve been feeling sluggish and congested and sniffly for days and now the sneezing just won’t stop. Betwixt string issues and the congestion I’ve been kind of struggling and I’m just incredibly grateful for the coincidence of calendar.
Last night in Columbus, IN was a little bit disappointing. Lots of people just couldn’t make it that late on a Monday night, and with relatively short notice (it was a last-minute booking to cover for a venue’s double double-booking) I guess we knew we weren’t going to see most of our familiar faces.
Still, it was a satisfying show in that we got to play our music to receptive ears, and the couple of fans that DID come out had chipped together and got us a surprise hotel room at the Indigo – which is not something to be sneezed at.
Though unfortunately, sneeze at it I did. Multiple times.
Yeah – a night off sounds freakin’ awesome.
