The momentum of being homeward bound mixed with being chased by arctic frosts and multiple states declaring a "state of emergency" hot on our tail combined with a glimmer of warmth all combined with the amazing south Florida crowd to create a stellar finale to yet another tour leg.
The end of tour mean gather all the bits that need to join me on the flight home and cram it all in suitcases in such a way that the airline will not hate me or capture it. It is always best to sort through things in an area that is spacious which is why I chose the largest and closest place I could find, which happened to be the parking lot next to the bus. For the most part everything went reasonably well with one exception
It appears that somewhere in my travels, there is a very lucky human that can enjoy the pleasures of hoping around on a very comfy left shoe. My initial reaction was one of dismay until I realized that having a single right shoe could come in very handy if I am skate boarding bare foot and I encounter some broken glass in my path, at which point I can whip out my comfy left shoe in order to navigate the obstacle. Wow, how lucky am I! And runing into Marcel, I said goodbye as he will not be joining us on next leg due to Mars Volta commitments.
I ran into Cee-Lo in the parking lot and hit him up for a photo op. Cool people and I have wandered on their bus a few times for beer after a show.
And for those of you curious, Cee-Lo is the human that sings for the Gnarls Barkley band. So show time rolls around and much to my concern, I notice that one of my tigers has escaped and after several seconds of searching, aha!!!
Ok, enough of this monkey business and pandering, off to face the other world called home and try and pretend to be a normal person, yet again,
Another phase of the eBay auction and today we fulfilled the "weaing of the ad." A bit of background. Scott and I had auctioned off the space on our backs in oder to finnance redecorating our front of house area. Twisting as things so do, the action exceeded our expectations and not only got us on the radio in several cities and a top spot on GoofyAuctions.com but it also brought in a whopping $ 406.00! Well, it turns out the winner was George Ravlich who owns a small sound company in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada. George, upon winning the auction, informed me that Rat Sound had been an inspiration in forming his sound company. His bidding was in part a way to say thank you and George, thank you! We on the other hand donated 25% to Surfrider Foundation and then failed miserably at attempting to decorate the FOH area in Tiki, switched to a Pirate theme and went way over budget, but all that was just burning time with smiles.
Following the auction and after after much thought, George decided that it had dawned on him that what would bring him the most happiness and the most memorable use of his unique purchase would be memorialize a good friend lost in a tragic way. He then had four shirts printed and sent to the Rat shop. So in a celebration of life and pulling threads of light out of darkness to weave a banner of awareness to possibly alieviate even one repitition of the senseless loss, we send our hearts out to Don Doucet who's life was taken by a drunk driver.
And so with unity and somber hearts yet smiles for perpetuating an uplift from down, the roadie advertizing adventure reaches reaches the finish line with roadies Leif, Scott, Dave Rat and Lee together. We are honored to be doing our small part in helping a global memory live of a life so carelessly taken.
To all the family and friends of Don, about the best I can come up with is
"Long after the band stops playing the music we remember can still make us smile." And from what George has told me, Don rocked!!
