The week before a concert is labeled at “Hell Week”. Rehearsals are longer and occur almost every day. The logistics of getting 50 people on and off stage in a manner that does not resemble a cattle stampede takes time. Mostly because the people insist on acting like cattle. Instructions are not always heard through the low mutterings and shuffling feet which leads to more muttering and shuffling feet. It is a slow process.

Generally the feelings go from “Yea, we are singing!!!” to “Really? Do we have to do that again??” to “I think I am going to cry”.

It can be frustrating and intense.

Going to rehearsal we had lighting out over the ocean. We knew that a good sized storm was coming. But we knew we would be safe in our rehearsal room.The rehearsal, with all its frustrations and noise, kept us from experiencing the the noise and rush of the storm.

Santa Barbara last night. Photo by Mike Eliason

The drive home from last nights rehearsal was the essence of tense. Flooded roads, threat of landslides from overly saturated hillsides, and remnants of trees scattered in our path were part of the problem. The constant, consistent rain was another. Dark was right up there as a leading cause of tenseness. General traffic using high beam headlights did not help.

Home should have come as a relief.

Arrival in that sanctuary was scary. There was a light in the back that I knew was a flashlight. That meant that spouse was back there doing something.

It is very late, I am tired and grumpy (did I mention that I have a cold??). I know that the flashlight and the person attached to it would be there only if it was absolutely necessary.

The storm had dropped over an inch of rain in less that 4 hours. The creek behind our house that I had frivolously named Mueller Babble was no longer babbling. It was roaring. It was racing down hill and trying to take our new fence and our well with it. The spouse was clearing channels for the creek, pulling out debris and obstacles that kept its waters from flowing. We spent the next half hour carrying sandbags to the well through the swollen and angry creek.

Trying to sandbag the fence

We have been lucky. The rain lessened, the well is safe. The fence may need repair. But we are safe. These pictures were taken this morning.

What better way to expend the  frustrations and grumpies of hell week!

Today is an off-day for rehearsals. I think I will go back to bed!

(Send those ‘break a leg’ messages!)