Ever been at a loss as to what to do on a day off? I am not sure that I have ever really felt like I didn’t know what to do on a day off. Usually it is just sleep in and hang out for a day. I mean, last night I was practically falling asleep during the show. Keeping myself awake was a challenge even with the fact that there are a lot of cues in the show. This weekend though I volunteered to help load in for an ice show.
Yeah, at the time of the volunteering I didn’t realize that I would have to be at the rink, which is 20 minutes away at 8:00AM on a Sunday Morning. Generally I wouldn’t bat an eye at this, but it has been a long week. Whatever. So, with a 6:45 alarm set I was out the door and up to the theatre to grab my wrench. A quick stop at Einstein’s for bagel and coffee and then off to the rink. My timing worked out pretty well arriving just before 8.
This was not the most complicated setup, just six pieces of truss, five chain hoists and 46 PAR cans. Sure, there were dimmers and a console as well. I suppose the three followspots count too. The truss went together pretty fast and then the just kinda turned me loose on the cabling with the help of SJ and RJ. Some people may not think that cable looming is not fun, but I take pride in my work (and I kinda enjoy it). We laid out the cables pretty darn fast. I think that we were basically set with all the motor cables and the mults by the time they had dropped the points so we had the truss floated pretty fast.
Getting 46 PAR cans hung is a pretty easy job when you have a bunch of help. The funniest part was the fact that I was the only person running around with a wrench. So everyone put lights on the truss and came by and tightened all the c-clamps. Worked out pretty well. Drop color, hoist truss and we were done. They said we were finished about three hours faster than last year. I am happy to help.
So, that is my volunteer/community service for the weekend. Now I am going to hang out with Ruth and her family for the rest of the day. We had a great waffle brunch and will probably just chill for the rest of the afternoon. My kind of Sunday.
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