The Return of the Groove Master

That's what the Classy Cats used to call me, anyways. True story.

So the first Sunday in August found us gearing up for our annual concert in the park.  By us I mean "Not Worthy," the worship band from church, and by "the park" I mean Stevens Park in GCK. I was pretty excited, as it had been a LONG time since I had had what you could pretend was an actual gig.

We got a little spit of "rain" while we were setting up, so everybody scrambled to cover all our gear.

I decided to go all out and play the full 7 piece this time. 

You may be wondering why we set up on a trailer instead of in the band shell. It has to do with sound quality and shade. The band shell is fabulous for something like the Municipal Band, where no one is miked and everyone is blending their sound and there is someone up front making faces at you if you are playing too loud.  But for a high volume miked situation where everyone has their own monitor mix and are playing really loud because for once we aren't playing in a church and it would be really nice just to crank it up and have some fun and if not now then when the band shell really causes problems. It makes Mark cranky because he can't control the mix as much as he would like. (The real reason is that I play too loud (see previous sentence) and by the time everyone tries to compensate it is just a big mess.) Also, a big chunk of the stage has no shade, which makes everyone (musicians AND instruments) cranky--'specially when it is a hundred and bazillion degrees out.

And here is a view from my seat.  They had a big cookout/picnic, so most people were sitting out in the shade eating.

Cephas wanted to be closer to the action.

And my little family came back in time for the show. Here's Anna jamming afterwards.

We actually had a really nice shower Over East that night.

We only got about .20" at the Gray Havens, so I decided I'd go ahead and a shot at killing weeds over there.

There were some very lovely (as in "pretty," not as in "rainy") clouds to keep me company checking the motors that evening.

I spent the rest of the week trying to take it easy, per doctor's orders.  Dad and Katie took it easy too.

The Roaches came through on their way to Denver, so we had a chance to meet their newest addition, as well as compare him with Katie.

The big kids had a grand time, too.

The next Monday Katie and Anna and Dad and I all went to the zoo while Betsy was at work.

We met a bird there.

He was pretty friendly.

I don't recall what kind of bird he is.

And I apparently had some irrigation engine trouble that day since I took this picture walking down the pivot road to reset the sprinkler.

One thing that I hardly ever seem to do is take pictures when things go wrong with the irrigation engines, probably because it just makes me cranky. Come to think of it, this whole summer has been unusually short pictorially for me.  Although between the back troubles and Drought troubles and a couple other troubles which shall not be discussed here, I am surprised I was ever in a picture takin' mood.
Luckily there is nothing like a nice walk through the corn at evening to set your spirits aright.