By fortunate happenstance, I actually got the chance to go home for one night! My good friends Ernie & Mary Mazza attended the concert in Bronx (NY) at the Lehman Performing Arts Center on Friday night, and since they’re from my hometown, I talked them into giving me a ride to my house. Got a chance to see my kitty kat – she was very good actually, naturally missed me and wanted to cuddle but otherwise fairly emotional healthy, and a little fatter than when I left her!

Then my friend Pam came down to visit with her mom and the two dogs, my best walkin’ and hikin’ buddies. Though it was short, it was sweet. Pam and I drove to the hotel Saturday night and she rode the bus with us to the gig Sunday at Stony Brook, LI.

Had a great gig at SUNY Stony Brook, small recital hall, packed house. AT least Pam came, AND the band was healthy again!

Oh, didn't I tell you about the strange stomach/intestinal bug that caught at least half the band on Friday in the Bronx? OMG, you wouldn’t believe how much, um, vomiting and diarrhea there was. We think it came through the ventilation system at the hotel in Bethesda. Even on stage, during the performance, there were 4 pails in case anyone had to throw up – no one did. Yes, it affected me personally: at the start of the sound check on Friday I had to abruptly excuse myself in order to, excuse me, barf rather violently for about 5 minutes.

Anyway, by Sunday afternoon in Stony Brook the band was for the most part healthy again and the concert was great.

But good things don’t last long, and Monday morning we headed from NJ to Ohio tracking Route 80 West all the way. So, just because we were still in NJ on this FRIGID morning (15º at 8 am), what should happen?? The bus broke down, of course. The NJ gods just wouldn’t let us get away cleanly! A hose on the rear tag axle (extra turning wheels) gave way after a bump on the roadway. It’s not a serious problem affecting safety, but the damned alert signal (an annoying high pitch) wouldn’t go off, so Pete and Bob had to don overalls UNDER the bus to disconnect the lousy signal alarm. Yucks!!

Two events of note (or notoriety really) recently on the bus. Yesterday during the long drive, we had a marathon showing of “The Godfather” on the bus’s video screen -- Steve and Mike Fahn providing alternate comic relief during some of the more intensely violent and dark scenes, and Vito providing translation from the Italian into English. (What does “pezzanovanta” mean, Vito?)

The day before, Wendell and Steve got into a hilarious trivia session about -- of all things -- ROLLER DERBY. You know, the staged matches between teams like the Detroit Devils, Bay Area Bombers, Texas Outlaws and L. A. T-Birds, where real men and women skate around the way-too-small oval track doing their best to hurl and strike, hurt and maim each other? Who could forget the memorable skaters like Ronnie “Psycho” Raines, “Skinnie Minnie” Miller, “Toughie” Brashoun, Honey Sanchez, Lester Quarrels, “747” Earlene Brown, and the #1 skater of them all… Shirley Hardman. Really... who could forget them?