Hot Parades, Disciplined Hornlines & Cabs People...

What happened to spring? A few weeks ago it was cold and raining, now it’s 90+ and super humid! Well the added heat and humidity made for an interesting weekend that is for sure.

Rather then go into details about how hot it was for the parades and all that business, lets just jump to some good things for us this weekend. No one wants to relive those other moments anyhow!

Despite the weather and the improvised schedule this weekend, the attitude was very good. Not too much whining or complaining about the hot weather. A few “water” we doings, but that was really it. I drank water back in 94, so I don’t need any!

Somehow despite being absolutely freaking tired, we managed to get though the day and even get a dress run in. Well for the first run it was, shall we say interesting. We had moments where we were simply phenomenal, and moments where the normal “survival mode” kicked in. Lots of things affected us out there, like the heat of the day, a long ass parade, a small lunch after the parade, not being able to see yard lines, heat, humidity, among other things. Still we got through the show with minor bumps and bruises along the way, no major collisions, no major train wrecks, and only one nose dive that we managed to pull completely out of within a few beats. All in all, not bad. Certainly not great, but not bad either.

Sunday we were up at E.A.F. am (early as f**k for those of you playing the home version) to head to Canastota for the second parade. Well lets just say that yesterday was a complete fiasco in terms of logistics for some and bad luck for others. Our Ohio van complete with 8 horn players broke down, and we had no way of getting them to the rest of the corps for the parade. Luckily they made it home safe and sound. Another contingent of horn players and a drummer that were traveling together took a wrong turn along the way. They stopped for a map and called to try and make their way to us in time for the parade, unfortunately they did not make it. Traffic the way they were coming is horrible. So, two potentially dangerous setbacks for the horn line yesterday.

Now here is where professionalism and class come through. We had an outstanding brass warm up. We had a good little chat about the night before and how to make some other things better. We did an outstanding job in the parade despite being down a lot of horn players (we lost others due to sickness and injury shortly before the parade as well.) There were moments of that throughout the weekend. This horn line is far more disciplined then the past 2 years for sure. What’s scary is no one has to police us or remind us. We take care of business automatically, it’s just the way we are. These are small things that make it special. Those moments are easy to overlook. They did not go unnoticed, and that is a very good thing.

I see Cabs people! I had a great time with my friends over at the Caballeros school on Friday and Saturday night. One of my very good friends, former track teammate, high school friend, college buddy, and frat brother is over there marching. We always get together when we are in the same town. I met a whole bunch of other people too, and had a great time. This weekend in Wildwood we will see some of those guys again. After 12 years of drum corps you start to realize certain things. While it is a competitive activity, it all comes down to moments like we had with our friends on Friday & Saturday night.

Well I’ve said enough for today…I have to go and recover from the weekend…and work of course.

Wildwood this weekend!