Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst

Even though I am writing about Sydney, I am actually at home staring at my lonely phone. The world stops, no I stop, and the world continues. Once again the rush of tour motion drops me in the place I live, I find myself once again fully responsible for my own humanly self, something I so easy to take for granted when whisked away. The resistance to change. A year ago I was ripped away from the stable patterns that made me smile at home and today I am once again plopped back where I started as if I have been left at a truck stop or dropped off to do homework after a month away at summer camp. The silence of a hotel room is an asset that I frustrate over when denied, while the silence of my home begs me to venture out and find momentum. Acclimation. It is easy to acclimate to a sunny pool side chair or a tropical beach with a daiquiri in hand, a bit harder to acclimate to rocking boat in rough seas and nearly impossible to acclimate to jumping off of a cliff, unless you are a lemming of course and even lemmings can only acclimate to it for a relatively short period of time before splattering on the rock below. It is not that there is a lot to do and it can be a bit overwhelming. Perhaps a bit of the "grass is greener on the other side of the plane ride" syndrome is in in effect.

Oh wait, lemmings don't jump off cliffs, that is just a myth perpetuated by our friends at Disney. Anyway, back to Sydney, where we are actually pretending to be right now as this is the day we are in. Imagine sunshine and beaches, imagine being in a state of happiness and relaxation where everything is ok and so ok that you don't want it to go away, imagine opening the door to your hotel room balcony and seeing

and walking down to the water for a run and swim to start your day or two or five. Imagine being at home 6000 miles or so away and thinking of all the the things you could have done with 20/20 hind sight and imagine that it is still ok anyway as that just gives you something to look forward to revisiting.

And in the mean time, are we thirsty?

Today, as will be the next three, is a gig here

And today is special. Over the two decades or so that worked with the Peppers I meet many people in the surrounding circles but it was not till fairly recently that I have really spent some time getting to know Peggy and Pat, Anthony and Flea's moms. With so many parallel experiences over the years with differing perspectives and having met many times in passing but never past the cordial and familiar hello's, this tour and perhaps the blog has brought the time and opportunity for me to get to know them and they came to visit me at front of house and it was fun!

Oh, and though I rarely take take bloggery requests, I who am I to say no to mom and especially two? So here is a shout out to "Our Dutch Friends" from Peggy and Pat, you know who you are!

Off and away to start my day,

Dave Rat