The long grey drive home past the signs and sins of small-town Pennsylvania. Liquor stores and burnt out barns. Everything is beautiful in this grey light, the bursts of colour from roadsigns and autumn. Double yellow line down the centre of the street, churches and roadkill, mountains climbing past country stores and memorials.
Last night we played out at University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg – an annual visit that’s USUALLY a part of a greater journey – either the last night after month on the road or the first night before a month on the road. Last night was just a one-off because of Heather’s school schedule, but a welcome escape from Baltimore. We played to a packed room, but I broke a LOT of strings, still playing my backup Seagull, and I’m not beginning to legitimately worry that my CA will not be coming back into service. That sort of weighed on me last night, and I never quite felt like I hit my stride. Eyes bothering me, a little fatigue – for all that the day saw me swinging rapidly betwixt rage and giddiness, the gig itself just didn’t lock. We saw a lot of old friends, and that was awesome – but I think I was also craving a night at Jozart, not this school that came to us as an extension of the California scene.
Still. Good time had. Gave Heather an early birthday present in the form of a DVD set of The Pirates of Dark Water – a new-to-me cartoon that Heather knows from her childhood. I’d brought an HDMI cable and we settled in and watched an episode before collapsing into sleeeep.
