Hitchless.

This morning's worship service went off without a hitch... once some technology glitches were addressed. Note to everyone involved - like I said a long time ago, it can't be the amp causing "reverb". The amp takes a signal and sends it to the speakers. There is no provision in an amp to "store" a signal and send it out twice (or more). Easiest thing to have done would have been to bypass the board completely and send an audio signal from a CD player or something directly to the amp. Also, if you're going to be working the sound board, might want to think about reading the manual to it **if you haven't already**. That's just common sense. There are a lot of knobs and switches on it and to try and fix a problem by twiddling something whose function you don't understand - that's bad juju. You might "fix" it but break something else in the process that won't show up till later.

At any rate, the latest techno bump was not met with the normal irritation that usually occurs. People were working on the problem and those not involved kept quiet for the most part to let the folks think through the problem. In the past, undergarments would have been puckering up and axles would be found to wrap around. It was a good excercise overall and a definite sign of more maturity in our group.

Kevin's keyboard sounded great! It kept the wall of sound more solid than when we were without it. Otherwise, it looks and sounds like a guitar trio on stage. Eric laid down the bass lines and I did my thing on the drums. What could be improved? The monitoring. Geez Louise. The girls definitely need more control over their mix. I really feel for them as they have to hear themselves over my drums and the guitar amps right behind them. It's a miracle they hit their notes at all. The ideal solution would be to use IEM's. They're cost prohibitive right now but the benefits would be awsome - lower stage volume because of the lack of monitor wedges, no need for separate amps to drive the wedges, more space on the stage (since the wedges would be gone), lower chance of getting feedback through the system and everyone, depending on the number of free channels can get roughly what they need to hear tailored to their needs. If we do move to IEM's in phases, the vocalists should be first in line. Despite the monitoring issues, Amber and Elizabeth belted out their parts. From what I could hear, they did well.

My drums sounded amazing to me this morning through my IEM's. Don't know what it sounded like in the crowd but I was diggin what I was hearing. Wish my kick had more bump though.

Plenty of visitors this morning. That was encouraging for sure. I hope they enjoyed what the heard and saw. The message was good despite the fact it got "Dave'd" a little. He handled it in stride though. You can see the experience at doing this coming out now. Nothing caught fire, derailed, or was folded, spindled or mutilated. Also, no animals were harmed during the message.

Went to KFC to pick up some fried bird. I ordered my usual but they ran out of legs. The woman at the window asked if I would have a problem with two thighs instead. I looked at her with a straight face and said "Two thighs are never a problem." Grrr. Wasted humor when no one was around.

Made a trip over to the Wall of Marts in Decatur. In comparison to the Madison store, the Decatur store is like a flea market... I'll just leave it at that.

Going to try and watch some of the AFC playoffs and think about some work issues. I'll be heading over to Kevin's later for some seafood and an episode of "The Man Show".