Soggy.

The Remnants of Rita are in the valley and she's making her presence known with some heavy rain. We need it though coz' it's been pretty dry around here the past few weeks. This will also help with that aphid problem I mentioned a couple of posts back - knock 'em out of the trees and keep them from getting that honeydew crap all over everything.

Last Friday night I headed over to Big Spring Jam. Through work I get a pass for the whole weekend and access to the hospitality tent for food and a place to kick back. Despite the heavy traffic, I was able to get a good parking place in a public lot. Made my way over to the stage where Theory of a Deadman was playing and met up with some friends. When they got done, I moved over to the middle of the crowd and scrunched up with some more friends of mine along with a bunch of teeny-boppers to catch the Alterbridge show. I'm glad I had seen them before at the Roxy over in Atlanta and at the VonBraun center in town because the sound where I was standing sucked. I had my earplugs with me so that made it better but despite that, I had a good time anyway.

Saturday morning I had committed to take photos of a friend's family that's a missionary. Called and woke Kyle up because I needed him for lighting help. Got through the first shoot then was on to the next with Wendy. She needed some new shots for her theatrical stuff. Ended up shooting over at the Old State Bank. It was a good backdrop for the kinds of shots we were doing.

I spent the remainder of the day on domestic stuff. I wanted to go back to Big Spring Jam to check out The Black Crows but I was tired and didn't feel like driving to Huntsville and back.

The music at church was good today. I was off duty this week so I got to enjoy things from off the stage for a change. I did bring in my sound meter and MD recorder though. I had been meaning to check on some sound levels for awhile and had time to get my stuff together and "git 'er done" today. On the high end, we hit around 110db a few times in the middle of the room. In the back, there was about a 9db decrease. Took some notes for reference that might help us in the future.

Made a trip to Home Depot after lunch. I was still looking at gas grills. While there, I went ahead and picked up a strong electric hedge trimmer so I could whip the holly bushes around my front porch and around the side of the house into shape. Those things are a BITCH to trim with hand clippers. I also got some dryer ductwork. There's a pretty sharp bend in the existing ductwork that if I get straightened out, I think my dryer will work significantly faster. We'll see.

Oooo.... congrats to Fernando Alonso of Renault for clinching the 2005 F1 World Champion title in todays Brazilian Grand Prix. Exciting race to watch. Speaking of F1, I got my refund check from Michelin for the mess at this year's US Grand Prix. I also found out that I get 2 extra tickets for next year's race! I've already renewed my tickets for next year AND gotten my hotel reservations - I'll have 4 tickets total. Might be able to bring along some F1 newbies!

On another note, I've been eating with a group of people on Thursdays at a local Mexican restaurant. It's just different folks - friends and clients. Remember back last fall when I had a problem with my heating system? The guy that owns the service company that worked on my heating unit is a lunch buddy now. So, if any of of you local folks need good people to call for HVAC service, I've got someone to recommend to you.