No cover

When you were younger - or maybe even still - didn't you just love it when a club advertised a band and had those sweet words added . . .No Cover Charge. It was doubly nice if the band happened to be good - or your favorite - or you had a crush on the lead singer/guitarist/drummer/your pick.

All this week we have been treated to nightly performances of a local favorite band - at no cover charge. You see, the leader lives in the house catty-corner across from us. The band members pull up, park their vehicles, pop open the garage door, tune up the mics and instruments, and let go. They must have a gig coming up.

Sometimes it is good - sometimes it is tedious as they go over the same riff, the same drum solo, the same vocal line . . . over and over and over again. Sometimes it is extremely loud as the noise bounces off the houses and reverberates through the open windows (remember the "heat" story of a couple of days ago) and over the noise of the Olympics on our tv.

I will say this for them, however. They always close up by 10 p.m. at the latest. And, that is a blessing. I do sorta wish the drummer would improve - but then I always did like a good drummer.

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On a good note for us . . . it began to rain during the night. Yay! And, it is a steady dripping sort of rain. The air is a bit cleaner this morning and the temps have gone down a good 20 degrees. It was noted on the weather report last night that yesterday was the 44th day (not consecutive) this summer that Anchorage and areas surrounding had temps exceeding 70 degrees. That bested the previous record of 43 days. Today is a welcome reprieve.
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We had Employee Appreciation yesterday at our all staff meeting. The director baked her "better than s*x" cake which I had heard everyone rave about, but which I had not yet tasted. (can we say sinfully YUM? I knew we could) One of the supervisors had put together a couple of neat activities - one was a list of activities such as "I like to walk my dog" and we each had to go around to find someone to fit that category. The one that most people asked me about was scrapbooking, although I did sign a couple for country music. We only had two people who were born in Alaska. That was sort of cool.

Each supervisor gave her staff an appreciation card - as I have no staff, being a supervisor of one, I gave cards to the receptionist and another staff person, both of whom have helped me in various ways recently. We all received a certificate of thanks and a rose.

I had been asked by the activities person to put together a "slide show" and had a great time doing that. I dug through envelopes and boxes full of pictures showing how our agency got its start - from hole in the ground to today. Then I asked Lessa to do some scanning for me, and then I put together a power point presentation. Wow! That brought back a lot of memories - people who are now gone - people who have moved on to other jobs or towns - people who are now in elected office . . . and oh, my, the hairstyles!!!! One photo was greeted with "oh, that must be from the 60's" but in reality was taken in the early 80's. Does that say something about how far behind Alaska is in hairstyles and other such things? lol

The presentation had to be approved by the director before I could show it and I was a bit nervous about that because there were pics of her in there taken a long time ago. She doesn't like her picture taken much so I wondered if I would have to delete those. Thankfully, she flipped through the slides and approved it on the spot. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and I got a lot of comments that made it totally worthwhile.

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One of the photos brought back a lot of memories. It was a shot of the lady who hired us sight unseen to come from Ohio to live and work at the fish plant. It looks like she was one of the movers and shakers for our agency, too. It was cool to include her in the show and to let folks know that she was part of the reason I am here.
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Countdown: I leave for Ohio in five days. My friend has promised me as much time to myself as I need - as much together time as we both need - some snarfing about for Ohio historical markers - some fresh tomatoes from the garden (yay-yum). In short - a vacation!!! She is able to take some time off work herself, and we will go together to visit my aunt whose daughter recently died of breast cancer.

The reunion is on Saturday the 28th and I am looking forward to that as well. I have gathered up pins from the local mayors and our state senator and representatives to take for everyone. Am also taking some purple moose (of course) and a couple of t-shirts from our recent run. Those will be given as door prizes.

Not sure if I will get any computer time while at my friend's house. So there may not be any updates. But I will bring home pictures and maybe some stories to share.

Okay, folks, I need to get my act together and get dressed for work. I just had to quit writing long enough to run outside to take the trash can to the end of the driveway . . . not a pretty sight - I am in my robe, hair still wet from my shower - no time to get dressed because I could hear the truck coming down the street next to us. Phew! Made it back into the house before the men on the truck got a "treat" for their eyes - but the neighbor had a visitor just coming into her driveway. Sigh! So much for clandestine, eh?

Have a great day, everyone.

Posted by Purplemoose at August 19, 2004 08:39 AM