November 28th, 2021. I found the edge of my envelope.

Setting up on the streets of Alexandria VA in a tent right NEXT to the sunshine!

My brother painstakingly got me and Kristen’s hand measurements so he could surprise us with strange 80’s gloves. Kristen had never HEARD of Freezy Freekies but understood the concept that if the Freezy Freekies start changing colours, it’s gonna be a hard gig!

Saturday I think I found out my lower-temperature-limit for performance. We persevered and we played fairly-well (though we had to resort to a beatbox / a capella version of “Winter Wonderland” to give our hands some time in our pockets) but it’s probably not an experience I’d care to repeat. I’ll probably add a “46” to our contract. We don’t perform when the “feels like” temperature’s expected to be lower than 46. I WOULD say “45 and lower” but have developed an aversion to that number.

Speaking of 46 – weirdly – as we were playing the streets of Alexandria, Kristen’s sister’s family were busy meeting the 46th president of the United States. (Joe Biden checking out Kristen’s sister’s husband’s brother’s bookstore? I’m not sure of that chain of lineage…)

I pawsed (see what I did there?) the end chord of “Slight Departure” for about a full minute or two to pet these new fans.

Scratch all the “probably”s from the above paragraph. It was too fucking cold. Saturday I think the “feels like” temp was actually 39, but… “Lower than 46” should be our number. 46-96? A 50 degree temperature range beyond which ilyAIMY cancels the show? I don’t think that’s madness. We’ve pushed our limits this past year and I think we’ve really found the edges of them.

Brr. I’m spending today in my Lair. Recovering!!!!

My guitar, carbon fiber beest though it be, struggled with tuning – though that was probably more a factor of a string on the edge of dying (lost my G halfway through the first set) and the fact that the cold, winter sun was glaring over my tuner… restringing my guitar as Heather performed a Christmas carol offered no real respite. I’m a quick restringer, but my fingers barely kept hold of the string, temporarily lost a string peg, were shaking so badly it took a whole song before I was back up and running.

Our friend Paul (Budgie Dome) hangs out for our frigid set and gets treated to some choice banter : “We’re ilyAIMY from Baltimore, MD, and after the show we’re going to go home where it’s warm and rest in a tub filled with pasta.”

I resorted to keeping my fretting hand gloved, I tried to keep my right hand covered too but rapidly discovered I couldn’t play that way. Still unsure why the tone and strike of my guitar was so weirdly muted, I think I was just sloppy because I literally couldn’t feel how hard I was fretting.

I was VERY impressed at how well Kristen weathered the temperatures, Heather and I definitely didn’t fare as well. And beatboxing left the mic cold and wet in a horrible way that was like receiving unto the lips cold-wet dog kisses without the charm.

I received a couple of cold wet dog kisses for comparison. No griping about that. (no bitching either, cause it was one of them “family-friendly gigs”)

Came home. Took two excedrin PMs. Was in bed by 10pm with a heating pad and a book and barely made it through the chapter.