Show Day in W. Long Branch, NJ

"Excuses only satisfy those who make them." -- Bob Davis

Yep, I said. I believe it. And you can quote me.

I later changed that to "Excuses only satisfy those who make them – they don't do a damn thing for the rest of us."

Either way, his was a lame excuse…

My bus driver Steve shut off the main engine this morning at 6:33am. With it, went the air in the bunks. All well and good, if things follow the natural order of bus life. Which means that he should have switched over from "bus air" to "generator air" at 6:33:01. Or even better, he should have turned on the genny air BEFORE killing the main, thereby providing those of us sleeping in our self-heating coffins with an uninterrupted flow of cool, fresh air. Ask any roadie, he can tell you what it's like to be in a bunk with no air.

When I heard him step off the bus immediately after killing the engine, I accepted the fact that my night was likely done. I thought maybe we were at a truckstop and he was gonna fuel up. In fact, we were at the gig, and he was helping one of the truck drivers back up. He was using a handheld CB radio to help truck driver Timmy, so I could hear it all over the CB on the bus, which he had left TURNED UP LOUDER THAN A FUCKING 747 TAKING OFF when he got off the bus.

Being the nice guy (pronounced "Sucker") that I am, I didn't want to interrupt him doing something important.

It was a bitchin' turn that Timmy had to back through, so it took some time. After Steve got him where he needed to be, I grabbed the radio's microphone and told Steve that I needed him back on the bus because we had no air in the bunks. Duh! He's a great driver and all, everybody sleeps great, but part of driving includes the little things, like making sure the air never goes off in the damn bunks!

By this time (6:51), there was no way in hell I was gonna go back to dreamland to await my 8:00 alarm. I tried, lying there for 15 minutes tossing and turning. If I'm not asleep within 3 minutes of my head hitting the pillow, it's just not gonna happen. So here I sit, typing and listening to CNN Headline News in the background.

Well, OK, watching the news while trying to type. Geez, Christy Paul is gorgeous. And their entertainment reporter, a diminutive Eva Longoria-looking hispanic chick named Adrianna Costa, is totally hot and waaaay prettier than Eva. Yowza!