The Road (pt2)
Left-Brain
Left Brain Heaven
If my thought going into this was to take on a new challenge, I was about to get an education on what the definition of a challenge really was!
My new job was to direct the daily activities of a crew of about 20 people. (Like anything in my past realm of experience qualified me to do that!)
While doing that, I was responsible for operating and maintaining the $250,000 in digital recording equipment that was housed in this fiberglass, fishhouse looking thing called the Dog House (no idea why it was called that).
(For more information on what a seismograph crew actually does, check out this short seismograph primer.)
Inside of the Dog House. Where I spent most of my 14 hour days talking to people on the radio and blowing up dynamite and making sure that the 1/4 of a million dollars worth of digital recording gear were always working!
That's me with my feet dangling out, taking a load of cables from the back crew to the front crew.
One of the--upwards of a hundred--dynamite blasts we'd do a everyday.
And these are the squiggles that I recorded all day long. I'd neatly label each one and then roll 'em up and stick 'em in a tube for safe transport (along with the digital tapes) back to the client.
Right-Brain
Baby Onboard
Melissa was born in May of 1980.
We took some time to let Brenda and baby get their strength back, but by the first week of April, we were on the road.
We'd packed up almost everything we owned--not so neatly--into a UHaul storage garage and everything else was crammed in our rusted out, '67 station wagon with cartop carrier.
From there, the next year and half was just one long string of motel rooms one after another.
Mom and daughter would hang out by the pool (on the rare occasion we actually had a pool), while I worked from 5:00 AM to 7:00 or 8:00 at night, every single day.
Right-Brain Can Survive
While on the road--routinely working 80 hours a week--I always kept instruments with me. They were always there for me to retreat into.
I had an acoustic guitar, bass guitar with a Fender Bassman amp and my trusty trumpet.
I was loaded for bear! (What else could you possibly need, right?)
One of Melissa's first guitar lessons.