Had an interesting, if somewhat tiring weekend.

Spend Friday evening building another effects pedal, this
time just a very simple distortion just to get back into
the swing of things.

Saturday, got all dressed up and drove down to Winston-Salem
(well, Clemmons actually) for a friends wedding. Wedding
was at a tiny chapell in Tanglewood Park. The wedding
was presided over by this guy, aka my friend Doug Hawkins. Ceremony was short and the to the
point (15 minutes tops…). After much photo taking, the
happily married couple drove off in a late 70’s El Camino
with a cow skull decorating the grill and a stream of pbr
cans flowing behind it.

Reception was held at ps211,
which had been decorated quite nicely. Lated in the evening,
several bands played, including The Bo Stephens, Tetragramaton,
and Autopassion. The Bo Stephens version of “Ring of Fire” seemed
to be a big hit with the older crowd. Though I wonder how many
of the older (and ugh, younger…) crowd recognized the various
bits of “Reign In Blood” thrown into the song. An interesting
version ;->

Then, knowing I had to be in Raleigh Sunday to leave for
Asheville to see Einsturzende Neubaten, I headed out a
little after midnight. I think I made it almost two miles
down the road before I blew a tire.

Okay, so blew a tire. No big deal. Put on the donut spare,
and either get back on the road, or crash in winston and
head back in the morning. So, all was going well till I
tried to actually get the tire out of the truck. Theres
a big metal washer and a wingnut to hold the tire in place.
After many attempts with various tools including vice grips
and a hammer, it was clear that the wingnut was not going
to move.

At this point, it was clear brute force was the only answer.
After some attempts using the claw hammer and breaker bar
I keep in the car, it was clear a bit more brute force was
required. So with some clever placement of the claw hammer
and some screw jack abuse, I finally broke the bolt that
was holding the screw in place. At which point it was clear
that was the only way it was coming out, as the nut was encased
in a thick layer of rust and was pretty much permanently attached
to the bolt (at least, sans cutting torch…).

Change the tire, got back in the car. And it wouldn’t start.
Apparently an hour of blinkers and headlights is too much
for my battery. Turned everything off, let it sit for 20
minutes and tried it again, seemed to work.

So stayed in winston, then finally got the tire replaced
on a sunday, met badger at ps211, drove up
to Asheville for the show. Ran into lots of Raleigh folks.

Excellent show. Air compressors were sold and bought. Rode/drove
back to raleigh.