First day of autumn

and a gorgeous full moon last night. It really is starting to look like autumn already. And the squirrels have been so busy. I see them on the trail and in my garden and find peanut shells on my deck in the morning. Also they have been digging in my planters on the deck. I can't tell if it's squirrels or raccoons that are digging in my herb garden but I know raccoons come in the yard at night because my carefully plugged holes along the fence are newly opened every few days. I thought I was going crazy when Tink would keep getting out when I KNEW I had plugged the holes. Last weekend I discovered the logs pushed away from the fence again. Squirrels can't do that. Nor cats. Come to think of it, I've seen quite a few raccoons in broad daylight lately as well as HUGE spiders and webs all over the place. This morning I drove in and there was a web between my car and Mr. M's. Ick

We had rehearsal last night since I won't be in town this weekend and neither will the bass player. Doug is a very frustrating guy. I know it's his band and all but does that mean that his mic has to be 10 times louder than mine when he's just singing back ups? We recorded a few songs just for the heck of it and I am way down in the mix and the back ups right out there. *sigh* I sure hope the sound guy can fix it in the mix. Since Rusty, the drummer, is one of the coordinators of this thing he put us in the best spot, 9:30 to 10. I tell you, if you're starting at 6 pm and you tell bands they can play 30 minutes, how many of them do you believe will actually limit themselves to 30 minutes? And us -- I timed us last night and even with no chatting between songs it took us longer than 30 minutes to play 7 songs and Doug wants to do 10. And the songs he chose ... well don't get me started. He wants to start off with two songs using his acoustic guitar so he doesn't have to change to it later. That means starting off with either "Don't Speak" or "Another Round of Blues". While "Don't Speak" (recorded by No Doubt) is unquestionably the more popular song, it's slow! I'd rather start out with the P!nk song we do, "Who Knew", which is a rocker. But no, he won't budge no matter that all the rest of us agree. At least he was willing to switch around so that we can start with "Another Round of Blues".

I arrived home rather frustrated and in no mood to sleep so I watched "Inside the NFL" and another 30 minutes or so of some silly TV while I had a glass of wine ... okay, 2 glasses of wine, and tried to get into sleep mode. Once I got there I had a decent night's sleep, thank goodness. We'll be getting together Friday October 1st, the day before the gig and the new guitar player and Rusty and Doug are getting together this Friday. I am hoping it'll pull together because if we had to play right now ... I'd shoot myself.