[Previous entry: "The Cereal MI-5"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Some Changes May Be Coming"]

10/02/2006 Entry: "The Weekend Wrap Up"

My weekend started when I left the office on Friday, and headed for my gig. We played the Midnight Blues Club in Waterville. It was about like you would expect.

Saturday I was supposed to work at the office, but Barry covered for me. So I got to sleep late: 9am. Of course, I didn't get home 'til 3am. I got up and made breakfast for Susan and the boys; Julia had spent the night at Grammy-Nan's. Then, I washed some dishes. After that, I did some work on the web for a customer. In the afternoon, we ran some errands. I didn't get a chance to take a nap in the afternoon before I head to Skowhegan to play my Saturday gig. I was in bed at spot on 3am.

Sunday, I was up at 8am. Susan wasn't feeling well, so she didn't go to church. Julia and I left about 9am, and got breakfast at Tim Horton's. (The pumpkin donuts were fantastic!) Dwane was working, so I acted as the worship leader. After that, we went to lunch at China Harbor. Well, we got take out. Man, my daughter loves her some Chinese food! I took a nap in the afternoon--no one was going to deny me. At 5pm, I left for my Sunday night gig with the steel drum band. Yup, three gigs this weekend. And I even skipped church to catch the last one. I had two "train wrecks" during that gig. A train wreck, for you non musicians, is a big mistake--one that even non-musicians would notice. On "Mission Impossible," we switch from the traditional 5/4 version to the newer 4/4 version that the movie uses. I'm supposed to make the transition, and the other instruments then follow me. Well, I kept playing in 5/4 for about 4 measures before I realized I hadn't changed. That kept the other instruments wondering where the heck I was. The second time, some people ended up behind the beat. I was trying to accent where we were for them, and I blew right through a feel change. I was supposed to switch from a bossa nova feel to a songo feel. Nope. I just plowed right on through. Nice job, Bill. Then I came home and went to bed, after watching a documentary on the English language.

Oh, and speaking of that, I learned something cool about English. The words cow, ox, pig, sheep, and deer are all Anglo words. The words for the meat from these animals (veal, beef, pork, mutton, and venison) are all derived from French. Why? Because after the Norman conquest of 1066, England's primary language was French and Latin. But those languages never filtered down to the working class. So the animal names were English because the common people worked with the animals. They butchered the animals, and the meat went to the upper-crusts, who all spoke French, so the meat from the animals all had French names. Neat, huh? (Well, I thought it was!)