It was a pleasant day today - glad I get to spend most of it out and about. Started off my day by fixing a printer at work. The lights were flashing with the message “call for factory repair” - not good. I searched a good bit and finally found a copy of the service manual online. That did the trick. I was able to diagnose and fix the problem easily at that point. I’ve still got the skillz to pay da’ billz.
Went over to a friend’s photo studio over in Madison. Nice setup! HUGE studio with garage door access to photograph cars or other large objects. I also got an interesting lesson on how large-format cameras are used. Very cool stuff.

While I was over there, I stopped over at Edo’s to see my old friends there and have some sushi. Ahh… that was nice. On the way back to the office, I realized I was supposed to do a photo shoot for a local politician sometime before Wednesday. Hopped on the phone and set all that up then drove over to the photo locations to scout them out. Looks like I can handle it without needing the studio lights. I hope so at least.

Had band practice tonight. It’s usually on Thursdays but some scheduling issues came up and it got moved. One of the other drummers that was supposed to play also had a snafu so I’ll be playing this week instead. No worries - it was an easy set. Looking forward to the get-together at Jack’s on Saturday night. I think just about everyone that plays an instrument (among our friends) will be there for a jam session. Maybe we’ll have some pictures, we’ll see.

After practice, Kev and I went enjoyed some good eatin at Dead Lobster. Woot!

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My usual routine in the morning is to get up, turn the TV on for news, make and eat breakfast, brush teeth, shower, put on “work” clothes then head out. I got all the way to the clothes stage and did not have any socks to go with the pants I had picked out. You see, I typically wear business casual attire nowdays. And that’s only when I plan on seeing clients. Other days I’m fine in jeans. Anyway, I’ve got several pairs of slacks that aren’t true khakis but are have more of a golden tan color to them. I only have one pair of socks that match that color - and they were in the laundry basket. Re-wearing the socks was out of the question without laundering them. That’s just nasty. Swapped out the pants for a dark navy pair. I’ve got socks to go with blue for days. After work, I made a stop at TJ Maxx and got 9 pairs of socks that will go with the pants now. I’m happy.

So much for my sock saga.

Oh - in other fun news, one of my termite people called. They found termites in 3 stations around the perimeter of my house. I think I have 25 stations in all. I’ve got that Sentricon system going on so now they’ve changed the substance in the affected stations to bait and installed extra stations right around them to eliminate the colony. I should probably say something to my neighbor on the driveway side because the termites were coming from his direction.

That does it for my bug saga.

My plan was to get my hedge trimmer out tonight and get work done with that. My sock shopping adventure changed that plan as it was getting dark when I finally arrived home. Hedge trimmer in the dark = jacked up hedges and possibly a cut power cord. I’ll put that off till later in the week when it’s supposed to get getting cooler anyway… highs by the end of the week are in the mid 70’s. With the weather changing, I have to be extra careful to try and not get sick because traditionally, I get some kind of sickness on the season change. Being sick sucks. Especially when you have to take care of yourself. Luckily, my sister lives here in town and helps me out sometimes. She’s ran to the store for me for stuff and for medicines.

I’m off to bed.

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The Remnants of Rita are in the valley and she’s making her presence known with some heavy rain. We need it though coz’ it’s been pretty dry around here the past few weeks. This will also help with that aphid problem I mentioned a couple of posts back - knock ‘em out of the trees and keep them from getting that honeydew crap all over everything.

Last Friday night I headed over to Big Spring Jam. Through work I get a pass for the whole weekend and access to the hospitality tent for food and a place to kick back. Despite the heavy traffic, I was able to get a good parking place in a public lot. Made my way over to the stage where Theory of a Deadman was playing and met up with some friends. When they got done, I moved over to the middle of the crowd and scrunched up with some more friends of mine along with a bunch of teeny-boppers to catch the Alterbridge show. I’m glad I had seen them before at the Roxy over in Atlanta and at the VonBraun center in town because the sound where I was standing sucked. I had my earplugs with me so that made it better but despite that, I had a good time anyway.

Saturday morning I had committed to take photos of a friend’s family that’s a missionary. Called and woke Kyle up because I needed him for lighting help. Got through the first shoot then was on to the next with Wendy. She needed some new shots for her theatrical stuff. Ended up shooting over at the Old State Bank. It was a good backdrop for the kinds of shots we were doing.

I spent the remainder of the day on domestic stuff. I wanted to go back to Big Spring Jam to check out The Black Crows but I was tired and didn’t feel like driving to Huntsville and back.

The music at church was good today. I was off duty this week so I got to enjoy things from off the stage for a change. I did bring in my sound meter and MD recorder though. I had been meaning to check on some sound levels for awhile and had time to get my stuff together and “git ‘er done” today. On the high end, we hit around 110db a few times in the middle of the room. In the back, there was about a 9db decrease. Took some notes for reference that might help us in the future.

Made a trip to Home Depot after lunch. I was still looking at gas grills. While there, I went ahead and picked up a strong electric hedge trimmer so I could whip the holly bushes around my front porch and around the side of the house into shape. Those things are a BITCH to trim with hand clippers. I also got some dryer ductwork. There’s a pretty sharp bend in the existing ductwork that if I get straightened out, I think my dryer will work significantly faster. We’ll see.

Oooo…. congrats to Fernando Alonso of Renault for clinching the 2005 F1 World Champion title in todays Brazilian Grand Prix. Exciting race to watch. Speaking of F1, I got my refund check from Michelin for the mess at this year’s US Grand Prix. I also found out that I get 2 extra tickets for next year’s race! I’ve already renewed my tickets for next year AND gotten my hotel reservations - I’ll have 4 tickets total. Might be able to bring along some F1 newbies!

On another note, I’ve been eating with a group of people on Thursdays at a local Mexican restaurant. It’s just different folks - friends and clients. Remember back last fall when I had a problem with my heating system? The guy that owns the service company that worked on my heating unit is a lunch buddy now. So, if any of of you local folks need good people to call for HVAC service, I’ve got someone to recommend to you.

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Completely random shot of my car’s odometer with 100 miles on it. It had 37 miles on it when I picked it up.

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Decent shot of Scott Phillip’s drum kit.

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Here’s a shot showing how far I was from the stage.

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Myles on-stage in front of Scott’s drums.

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Mark Tremonti on guitar.

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Myles Kennedy of Alterbridge. He had come down off the stage into the tunnel for the sound cables. Snapped these shots with my little Sony camera.

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That would be how I would describe the photo shoot yesterday at the rubber mill. One thing that is a nice benefit of my job is that I’m exposed to plenty of different industries and processes that you don’t normally just run across. Rubber manufacturing for example. You can’t stay clean in that environment. Natural rubber is kind of taupe in color. A product called carbon black is added to it to give it the characteristic black color we’re used to seeing. I saw how raw materials are mixed and processed to yield products with different properties. I also saw how compounds were formulated and how they are tested in the lab. Very interesting learning experience.

On the photography side of things, a lot of powerful lighting was needed to light up machinery up to 3 stories tall. From the preliminary samples I looked at, we’ve got some good shots. That’s a relief. It was hard work getting those.

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