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Bands vs Weather 2024, 7-2
Jul. 17th, 2024 02:05 pm(plus an indoor concert that, while an exercise in staging, is not subject to weather unless roads to the venue are flooded.)
Monday, the Farmington Band was outside at a Senior Housing complex. It was hot and sticky, but we were in the shade of a building. Somewhat unfortunately, the building blocked some of the (slight) breeze.
Tuesday, the Livingston Band was outside in downtown Howell. It wasn't quite as hot, nor as sticky. I, however, was showing the effects of three concerts in three days, and was off my game (I got the tricky bits, but the easy stuff I flailed at. Why is it so freaking hard to count in 2?!?). The audience outnumbered the band by a wide margin -- they were sitting in various shady places all around the amphitheater. We didn't play as well as we often do, but I bet that's because we haven't played since June....
Today has been an annoying day. I woke up with a headache, probably due to too much reading music outdoors without sunglasses and/or not enough water. Then, when I went out to deal with the birdfeeders, the Camry was making noises (fan noises, mostly) and there were lights on. I *KNOW* that everything was off last night when I closed the garage door, so I was perplexed. poke the Start button "No key detected" (fair enough, they're in the house), try again with the key. Nothing. The dash flickers a little bit. well, f#$K - the battery's dead. Turn the light control to "no DRL" from "Auto" and the right headlight and left running lights go off. get out of car, close door. "Smart Key failure" (erm, no. smart key _sensor_ failure, yes.)
Text J (who is, of course, 600+ miles away) "where's the battery charger?' First, we try the smart charger. Says the battery is at 6V. Well, there's your problem. Put the smart charger on the battery. 10 minutes later, it throws a "battery failure" alert. (Apparently the smart chargers sometimes don't work if the battery they're connected to is under about 9V.) Dig out Papa's old charger, the one that he built from a Heathkit kit in the early 70's. (hook that charger up. the engine fan that's been surging from 'only if you're listening for it' to 'why is that fan running' (WHY?) revs waaay up immediately after plugging the charger in. jump into front seat and poke Start button. Fan shuts off entirely. starter clicking noise also stops.) Get the battery charged to 10V so I can put the smart charger on it. Now it's up to about 12.5V, so I'm going to drive into town and back and see if it will start again. If not, I guess I call the dealer and say "WTF?" If it does, I go to the gas station on the corner, then run into A2 so that the battery is charged. Then cross my fingers that the same thing won't happen tonight.
UPDATE: drove into town (the long way) and back again, turned the car off in the driveway. Came in to the house, did a couple of things, went back out to see if it would start. Yay! it did. So off to the corner store for gas, and back again. Now I hope that it starts in the morning so I can go to work. (We often buy gas at the corner store because an abandoned gas station on the corner is worse than a gas station on the corner. And really, they're not that much of a problem. The lights are good downlights, so that the only time we really get any skyglow from them is when it's been raining and the parking lot is wet and reflective; they're not open really early or really late; and it's far enough from anywhere that the "kids" don't hang out in the parking lot all afternoon.)
Monday, the Farmington Band was outside at a Senior Housing complex. It was hot and sticky, but we were in the shade of a building. Somewhat unfortunately, the building blocked some of the (slight) breeze.
Tuesday, the Livingston Band was outside in downtown Howell. It wasn't quite as hot, nor as sticky. I, however, was showing the effects of three concerts in three days, and was off my game (I got the tricky bits, but the easy stuff I flailed at. Why is it so freaking hard to count in 2?!?). The audience outnumbered the band by a wide margin -- they were sitting in various shady places all around the amphitheater. We didn't play as well as we often do, but I bet that's because we haven't played since June....
Today has been an annoying day. I woke up with a headache, probably due to too much reading music outdoors without sunglasses and/or not enough water. Then, when I went out to deal with the birdfeeders, the Camry was making noises (fan noises, mostly) and there were lights on. I *KNOW* that everything was off last night when I closed the garage door, so I was perplexed. poke the Start button "No key detected" (fair enough, they're in the house), try again with the key. Nothing. The dash flickers a little bit. well, f#$K - the battery's dead. Turn the light control to "no DRL" from "Auto" and the right headlight and left running lights go off. get out of car, close door. "Smart Key failure" (erm, no. smart key _sensor_ failure, yes.)
Text J (who is, of course, 600+ miles away) "where's the battery charger?' First, we try the smart charger. Says the battery is at 6V. Well, there's your problem. Put the smart charger on the battery. 10 minutes later, it throws a "battery failure" alert. (Apparently the smart chargers sometimes don't work if the battery they're connected to is under about 9V.) Dig out Papa's old charger, the one that he built from a Heathkit kit in the early 70's. (hook that charger up. the engine fan that's been surging from 'only if you're listening for it' to 'why is that fan running' (WHY?) revs waaay up immediately after plugging the charger in. jump into front seat and poke Start button. Fan shuts off entirely. starter clicking noise also stops.) Get the battery charged to 10V so I can put the smart charger on it. Now it's up to about 12.5V, so I'm going to drive into town and back and see if it will start again. If not, I guess I call the dealer and say "WTF?" If it does, I go to the gas station on the corner, then run into A2 so that the battery is charged. Then cross my fingers that the same thing won't happen tonight.
UPDATE: drove into town (the long way) and back again, turned the car off in the driveway. Came in to the house, did a couple of things, went back out to see if it would start. Yay! it did. So off to the corner store for gas, and back again. Now I hope that it starts in the morning so I can go to work. (We often buy gas at the corner store because an abandoned gas station on the corner is worse than a gas station on the corner. And really, they're not that much of a problem. The lights are good downlights, so that the only time we really get any skyglow from them is when it's been raining and the parking lot is wet and reflective; they're not open really early or really late; and it's far enough from anywhere that the "kids" don't hang out in the parking lot all afternoon.)
