The last couple of days have seen absolutely vicious thunderstorms. Any storm that comes blazing over from Indiana and arrives in Maryland in about 6 hours is clearly going way, way, way too fast. Wind gusts of 85mph, lightning lighting the sky, the weather report called for “blinding deluges” and of course the famed “flying debris”. We were at band practice at Rowan’s house in College Park when the storms came barreling down on us. At 9pm we were all ready sitting with 100 degree temperatures outside and if anything, the mercury climbed as the winds picked up. Stepping out on the porch to save the potted plants was like stepping behind a jet engine, and watching the wind whip branches and stones and leaves was slightly terrifying.
We continued to run through songs as the house shook. Rowan got his candles ready and we all downloaded flashlights to our phones – we lost power for a moment but we were lucky and light was swiftly restored. Amy reported from back home that we still had electricity, Joanna reported to Sharif that they did not. I’m writing this three days later and Sharif and Joanna got power restored just minutes ago, many friends still have no electricity and the temperature has rarely dipped below 90 degrees even at 3am.
Driving back from 98 Rock last night led us through huge tracts of Baltimore that had no electricity. Baltimore sans power is completely alien to me. Neighbourhoods that I’m wary of stopping in in broad daylight were somewhat terrifying in the inky darkness, and people don’t sleep in temperatures like this, hanging out on the porches and streets, darting back and forth across route 40, momentarily lit by headlights and then vanishing back into the night. It’s amazing how delicate our Lives of convenience can be.
On the way home Sharif and I stopped at a 7 Eleven where people were clustered around the entrance waiting for the ice truck. When the truck rolled up they were swarmed and greeted like heroes. The doors were opened for the tattooed luggers of ice bags and half of them didn’t even reach the freezers, grabbed from the truck, scanned at the counter, and carried straight out again. There was no pizza, hardly any Slurpees, cold water was scarce, no already-made foods… suddenly Living in a strange kind of scarcity.
During the Journal transfer I found a big swath of photos MISSING from my archives, and a stretch of time kind of blank from the Journal – so weird formatting may about – rob 3/30/21
Setting up for our show at Church of Boston, I’m reminded once again of just how freakin’ tall Ethan is. Apparently one of the only times he’s ever felt “small” as an adult was when he once went to see a WWF show. Madness satys I. Pesky J. Nixon performing at Church of Boston in Boston, MA. Jake Bush joins singer/songwriter Hugh McGowan. It was absolutely wonderful to see Hugh play again!
Ethan purports to be a rocker. But…. he’s doing it wrong. Or maybe he wanys me to call him? (at the Chestnut Hill House Concert Series in Oxford, CT.
After our trip through New England for the NEFRFFMWPT – we got to come home for about 60 hours before shipping out again to Pittsburgh, PA to play Bocktown Beer and Grille
We were so exhauted that we didn’t even totally register what our host said when she told us we could park in the garage, but “watch out for my TARDIS”. Heather thought she had a pet tortoise and we were kind of surprised to encounter THIS! We also got to spend the night in Monaca, PA with a Lovely, Lovely cat. What a charming (if shy) beest!
