Wandering Where We’ll Be

Open letter to LGBA Band-members who marched in the inauguration parade:

(Sung to the tune of Rudolph the Rednose -Reindeer)

You know music and marching, instructions and Lisa.
bullhorns and cold feet, sore muscles and warm tents.

BUT DO YOU RECAAALLLLL…..
ANY BACKROUND DISASTERS AT AAALLLL.
I am one of your Band Aides.
Tryin’ to make ends meeeeet.

trying to find the suuuggaaar
so every drop of coffee is sweet.

Is there per-chance hot water?
Anyone seen trash bags?

I can’t find any tables
and the LGBA sign’s in need.

Running my muscles sore so you
won’t fall into pot holes.

Jackie we know you are great
won’t you please give me a break.

Making lines in the car lot
with little more than hope and care.

If you remember your lost lunch salads…
They’re still in the church Fridgidaaaiiiirrre.
—————————————————–End song.

Hello all!!!

Dan here with an update on all the background stuff you DIDN’T and WEREN’T SUPPOSED to see.

Scene 1: Photo limitations.  Sunday afternoon and Tim and I had just entered the parking lot.
Of course, it is now time to begin the photo-fest.  Someone hands me a camera.
Snap,Snap,Snap…oh, by the way, don’t take photos of ANYTHING nearby other than a plain parking lot and a street with little of interest on it.
We are SURROUNDED..almost..by really cool buildings.
As a Band Aide, it eventually becomes my job to tell everyone coming into the parking lot where they can’t take pictures.

Scene 2:  The minister is blocked in.  Okay, now to the consolidation of cars in the parking lot.  Okay.  The lot is now packed tight.  Oh gosh, the minister just pulled up and told me his car is one of the first ones parked..and behind another car which needs to be moved.
You all probably remember my shout about someones car needing to be moved (by the way, notice that without a bullhorn, I have a voice that “naturally carries” 🙂  Okay, car moved.

Scene 3: Woe in the parking lot. The Band-Aides now got the job of making lines on the parking lot every 10 meters….with chalk we can’t find.  Tape.  Rope.  aaaannnd The Drum-major mace which was exactly 3 feet long according to the 11 inch piece of paper we used to measure it.  Of course, once all of the band members lined up, we knew our work was in vain.  You were going to head out and march the grounds.

Scene 4: Cue the broken LGBA sign.  The pole in it snapped.  Some of us head out to Home Depot for 12ft of conduit pipe, which would be cut into 3 pieces.

Scene 5: Band members marching, Band Aides on the run.  Must…..run….to….every possible pot hole you may trip on or into.  We point, stand in, make faces at these holes so you notice them (and us, some of us adore attention) during your 28 inch stride and concentration.
Actually, all this was a lot of fun so don’t get me wrong…
The next day was MORE fun.

Scene 6: Coffee deficit.  First thing the next day, we waited outside for awhile and got in the church late.  OH YEAH, the coffee took 1/2 hour to percolate…Hot water took less time.  Eventually things started heating up.  Good cookies though….

Scene 7: Recycling and trash issues. Next on the agenda was breaking down boxes and taking out the trash and dealing with recycling…what? NO recycling?…eventually we found out they did recycle but the boxes still made it to the dumpster.  We filled the dumpster twice and more.
Some of us went to pick up lunch.

Scene 8: Lunchroom set up.  We had 4 tables with 12 seats to a table.  Hmmmm, 48 table seats….177 people.  DISASTER READY TO HAPPEN.  At the last minute, I fOUND TABLES!!!    Fantastic!  Disaster averted..almost.

Scene 9: Doesn’t anyone like potato salad?  Okay, you all remember me going around and asking if anyone wanted the extra potato salad some people didn’t want.  Next I knew, I was handed MORE…AND MORE.  Then add cole-slaw.  I had a few takers for macaroni salad..which I handed them double the amount they asked for.  A few wanted some cole-slaw as well.
I eventually just left 25 containers of mostly potato salads in the fridge in the church.  It is probably still there.:)

Scene 10: Trash Mountain.  Lunch had barely started and some had just finished their lunch, and the trash was a mountain.  There was a secondary bag which was also full.  The upstairs trash was nearly full.  Ummm, are their any more trashbags anywhere……..no.  Oh yeah, to consolidate and condense the trash, I eventually sat some of the bags so they would be compact enough to tie shut.
Then one of us Band Aides found more trash bags but they were smaller.  She held open these bags for you…Thank you, Thank you, I don’t know your name but Thank you.

Scene 11: Mystery of the dumpster.  IT’S GONE!!!  Lunch is now over.  There are bags and bags of trash.  We go out with them to the dumpster…and it is gone!  Okay, the front security gate will take it and the dumpster magically reappears later.

Scene 12: Cue the broken LGBA sign…AGAIN!  Oh yeah.  It sags at the joints because of the cold.  The sign must be rigidly straight (unlike the rest of us).  So on to Homo Depot.

Scene 13: Hell to Home Depot.  That’s right.  We went to a Home Depot that required us to cross Washington DC proper.  Right in the middle of the city.  About 2 hours later, we were back.
At least we cured the sign issue.  One pole with another pole that fits into it. No chance of a break or a bend.

Scene 14:  A bus named Frigidaire.  Yep, no heat on the bus from Fairfax to the morning breakfast. As a Band Aide, I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with this one.

That’s it from a Band Aides point of view.  I actually had a really fantastic time being a Band Aide.  It was all a lot of fun!  These instances were far from unpleasant.  They made the trip.
I was glad that few to none of you even knew any of this happened.  You were all great!  Thank you to my fellow Band Aides!

My next blog will be about me making it to both the Mall and the Parade.

Cheers,
Dan

We’re heading east on I-94 in Wisconsin approaching Madison at about 9:15 am. We just filled up the tank, changed CDs in the six-changer (yea, I know, it’s old school, but works OK) and cleaned the windows. Also, the hose leading to the passenger-side windshield washer fluid squirter was pinched. It seems that the hose was knocked out of a clip that is supposed to hold it in its proper position, resulting in the pinched hose when the hood was closed, and thus, its inability to squirt the windshield. Rather, it kind of just spit out washer fluid onto the hood — not very effective for cleaning the windshield! So, the passenger — Dan, in this case — had to look out through muddy, salty streaks in the windshield. At least it wasn’t the driver’s side. I put the hose back in the clip and voila — the squirter squirted again.

We got up at 4:30 this morning (Sat. 1/17) and got on the road at 5:09. We stopped one other time at the wayside rest after Mauston WI. The roads are decent, with just a dusting of snow in Minnesota and the first bit of Wisconsin. Now, they’re just wet.

Driving this stretch of road brings back memories of other trips — trips to visit my brother, Mark, in Madison, trips to Chicago with our friends, Fritz and Kenny, camping trips on which we stopped to visit my grandma in Illinois and our friend, Dave, in Indianapolis. We’ll now add this trip to those memories — a trip in which we welcome a new president and turn a historical page on what many — myself included — view as a disastrous eight years of failed presidential leadership to one of great hopefulness for a new era of American confidence in our president.

I wrote the previous three paragraphs as we were driving on Saturday. It is now Sunday evening after our first rehearsal.

After Madison, and until we got beyond Chicago, the roads were very icy, and we saw several cars in the ditches, a couple of fender benders and a rollover. The going was slow, but we made it through OK. Then, the roads were decent until we got into Pennsylvania. As we traveled over the Alleghenies, it was snowing, and traveling was slow. We got to Sunhearth Trails Bed & Breakfast in Roaring Spring, PA at about 11 pm. The women who run the place are very friendly and hospitable! They didn’t blink about us getting in two hours later than we were anticipating, made us tea and chatted with us a bit before we all turned in for the evening. The place is very beautifully furnished. Check out their website here: http://www.sunhearth.org/ Tina made us a great breakfast the next morning, and we got on the road toward D.C. just after 7 am.

OK, I’m tired, so I’ll just add for now that we made it D.C. in good time, and our first rehearsal went well. After rehearsal, Dan and I checked into our hotel in Fairfax, VA and had dinner at a nearby Ruby Tuesdays. We have our next and final rehearsal tomorrow. Then, it’s on to the big parade on Tuesday!