Iced Tea Forever

So when I was moved to my current plant several months ago, I met a lot of new people. One guy that kind of stuck out was this old dude who worked not far down the line from me. Had his head shaved on the sides and back with the top grown long and worn in a pony tail. And this dude was old. Had the tats too, but that’s pretty standard for the Den of Iniquity. Us with the inkless hides are in the minority, I think.

Anyway, he’s a really nice guy. Friendly, liked to joke with me, we got along fine. Then one day this week he didn’t show up for work.

“He called in sick” is what we heard first. Then a rumor went around that he pointed out and was fired. No, a foreman said, he hasn’t been fired. But the next day he didn’t show up either.

Then another rumor started to go around. Seemed pretty far-fetched at first, but turns out that it was true.

Oops!

He was arrested for running a meth lab!

Yep, these are the people I work with.

Not long after Purpose was released, I received an email with a review of the album.

Now this is not a typical written review, it’s a visual review!

Daryl is a missionary in Grenada. My brother-in-law Kevin VS’d down there many, many years ago, and since coming home usually sent some CD’s down whenever AHQ made a new recording. So they’re familiar with our stuff.

And our good buddy Rick was a missionary down there for several years too. Kon and I stayed with his family one night on tour when we sang at their church. As I recall, me and Kon kept Rick up late into the night goofing around on our laptops, and he had to get up very early to teach school. Sorry Rick! We got up later and went and sang for their chapel service.

So anyway, one day down in Grenada (this was pre-hurricane) Rick told Daryl, hey, I got a new AHQ CD! He agreed to lend it to Daryl that afternoon. However, that morning Daryl received a package from a friend in the States, and any guesses what was in it?! His own copy of Purpose! Good story, huh. Grenada is infested with AHQ recordings!

Oh yeah, here’s Daryl with his review of Purpose.

Yesterday I went to a birthday party. The honoree was somewhat of a stuffed shirt, he needs to learn to loosen up and have a good time.

Wait a minute, he didn’t even have a shirt on!

It’s back to the basics when it comes time to eat cake!

Inspecting the silverware.

Actually, he doesn’t seem too interested in eating the cake!

An action shot of the cake toss.

Ready to do it all over again!

Remember this car? Yesterday I found its cousin.

Actually this happened in front and center of the whole scene. Requested by Hans.

AHQ was on tour in Catlett, VA, I don’t remember when. We love Catlett, we always have a wonderful time there. I’m still rather bitter that Tapestry ’05 went there without me.

Anyway, we were singing in the conference wing of the Choice Books building. They had set up a sound system in there and packed the place out. The sound was fairly robust, it wasn’t bust-your-eardrums by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn’t quiet either.

At that time we were usually opening with “Keep in the Middle of the Road,” which has a nice loud and high tag. We came to the end of the song and while we were hanging there crushing that last chord, I noticed a kid sitting down front. He was around 6 years old, had red hair, and was shifting around in his seat with his head cocked to the side while grimacing and PLUGGING HIS EARS!!

It was all I could do to maintain my quarter of that last chord. I came perilously close to just busting up laughing right then and there!

The church at Catlett has a wonderful tradition. Whenever they have a group or choir in for special music, at the end of the program they take a few requests from the crowd and have the group do a few of their songs again. That night one of the requests was “Keep in the Middle.” I couldn’t help it, so I told them the story of the kid plugging his ears. I think they liked the story about as much as I did!

A week or two ago I was driving through the Hoosierville countryside and my keen powers of observation arrested my attention. In disbelief, I looked over and saw a filleted fish draped over a reflector.

Yes, a fish draped over a reflector.

For you locals, this amazing visage is at the intersection of CR 34 and 35.

The chances of this happening naturally are about a billion to one. Just think, someone premeditated this!

I’m sure they were just wearing their Hoosierville citizenship on their shirtsleeve.

I received my first ever Husband card today.

My in-laws sang Happy Birthday in tune. Well, up until the last phrase anyway, I think that was as much as they could handle. You can’t understand how big this is unless you’ve heard them sing Happy Birthday before.

Happy Birthday to me! I’m not going to tell you how many this is, you probably can’t count that high anyway.

Normally I don’t mention my birthday, I just ignore it and deal with it as it comes. But not this year, and I don’t know why. I kept telling my wife about it and saying stuff like, “Do you know what today is? It’s my birthday eve!”

And here I am telling the whole world about it just as the clock creeps past midnight and enters the first minutes of this golden day.

I do get a great present. I don’t have to go to work today!

Today I decided to work on some future ITF travel plans. I logged on to my favorite travel agency’s website (GoldenRuleTravel.com) and filled out the form for a fare quote.

A mere few minutes later I received an email from the company owner! It contained the following:

Now that’s what I call service!!

I received the fare quote in just a few more minutes, it was very reasonable too. Golden Rule is a great company, give them a shot the next time you find yourself needed a travel agent.