I was SO tired when I got in last night (Friday night) that I don't even
remember coming home. We started the day (Friday) off with two stages
left to be built and a deadline of 12:Noon. With only a few minor snags
we made it with plenty of time to spare. If any of you caught the
picture that was on the front page of the Sat B'ham News that showed a
bunch of people dancing on a red stage, that would be the Dance Depot
stage and was built by yours truly (and a lot of others too).
After the place opens, we just ride around in our little golf carts
doing sort of a "rolling check" on our stages, or position ourselves so
we can respond to where ever we're needed to nail/screw stuff back
together. We had received constant weather briefings throughout the day
and had been warned of high winds coming that evening so we tried our
best to lash everything down. We had one 48mph gust before I left that
was an oman of things to come.
We had sandbagged or tied down all of our stuff before I left at 6:PM,
but this morning our stuff looked like a nuclear blast test site. Tents
reduced to shreds, sign boards that wouldn't budge had their signs
ripped away and blown to God knows where, our decorative picket fence
panels that go with the Sampler stage were blown all over the city. I
even saw one on Southside this morning as I was heading in, it had
traveled over TEN blocks from where I had screwed it to the front of the
stage the night before.
We had a lot of clean up and repair to do. I think we got most of the
damage control done by about 10:30AM. A lot of the venders tents and
displayed didn't fare so well. Their merchandise was scattered all over
the site when we got there this morning. I secured the perimeter
fencing in an effort to keep everyone out while the rest of our guys
loaded golf cart after golf cart with merchandise that we took back to a
central "dump" for the vendors to sort through. And the 45 degree
temperatures and 20mph winds all day long made things miserable. I was
fortunate enough to have taken Joy to work earlier this morning and
realized it was to cold for the shorts I had on. I did put some pants
on, but was counting on warming temps so only wore a T-shirt. Bad
mistake. I did manage to dig another T-shirt out of my truck box but it
didn't help that much. No sun, all day, just cold and windy. My entire
head is beet red from wind burn!
By noon, the people had decided to venture out and give it a shot.
Driving a "silent" golf cart amongst a crowd of people is no easy task.
We try our best to drive slow and not to "spook" the people, but with
golf carts that only run at idle, or wide open, it's hard. We had so
much trouble with the carts today, many ran out of gas, I towed 4, and
pushed 3 back to the "corral" that had broken down, none of them would
run except wide open which made for some "interesting" situations. Even
our radios took a nose dive today. We had so many that the mic buttons
stuck on that no one could actually use the radio net to talk.
BUT... All in all, I think the day was a good one, I saw so many kids
in the "Children's" area that were having a ball. They have a ton of
stuff for the kids in Linn Park. They have their own bands that really
put their heart and soul into performing for the kids.
We're all hoping for a record breaking Sunday tomorrow. If you come,
come early. AND I saw that they had plenty of wheelchair accessible
Port-O-Potties for the first time. The Hewlett Packard Technologies
display (2 tractor trailers) had one of the coolest wheelchair lifts on
it that I had ever seen (yes, I took pictures, see below). And
remember, I can be contacted on FRS Radio Channel 9.15 during the day,
or grab anyone with a Yellow Labeled radio on their hip and get them to
give me a holler by name on the "Site" channel (Ch. 2) and I can drive
my happy little butt over to see ya.
The down side of all of this for me personally will be tomorrow night.
I'll work something like 8-4 tomorrow, and then be back around 9:PM to
start getting ready for the shut-down at midnight. Then what took us a
week to haul in and set up, has to be off the streets by 7:AM Monday
morning. We somehow manage to do it year after year though. We usually
sleep Tuesday and then haul and pack everything back to the warehouse to
sit for another year the rest of the week. Between the heat last week
and the cold this weekend, my body is asking me why I do this every
year, and I really don't have an answer. I enjoy being a part of
"something", making it happen, watching the people enjoy the fruits of
my labor, working with my two sons and the rest of our bunch. Plus,
it's sort of like my "annual testosterone report card", can I move 600
concrete blocks by hand? Can I move 400 sheets of 3/4" plywood by hand?
Can I work 16/18 hours in a row doing physical labor? Well, it
looks like I get another "A" this year, but my joints are telling me I'm
not 20 any more, and I'm doing more damage than good. If I could learn
to "not help" and just drive the truck, I might do it again next year,
if I get the invite. And this isn't a job, you can't apply for any of
our positions, it is by invitation only, and I am proud that I have been
on that very small list for two consecutive years.
Here's the pictures, what few I had time to take today.
Tim.