Got to the shop around 10:15 this morning, only to discover I'd left my cell phone on the night-stand. Great. After sitting at the gate honking the horn for almost 20 minutes (with no answer), I decided to take-off to the house to retrieve it (no pay phones on-base, after all... or at least, I have no idea where they are). Got back on into the shop around 11:00AM. How did we live without those things anyway?

I finished up modifying the passenger side seat platform and finally decided to test-fit the drive side again. After looking at the pictures of the stock locations, I decided to move mine back about 2" for just a little more legroom (I had it almost 5 inches back from stock location yesterday). Sat in there, and everything felt good, so that's where they're going.

The passenger side dropped right in, so I 'Sharpied' the flat tabs (full length) so I could remove some material later - this would allow the tabs to be hammered down to match the contours of the floor, since there are some high and low spots from the stamping (to make them more rigid). The driver side needed a little more modification, as I didn't get the floor pan in just perfect on the driver side. So, after the modification, I cleaned and painted the underside of the seat platforms to prevent future rust issues (since they're bare metal and will never see the light of day again after I weld them in).

While they were 'drying,' I took the 3M 'cookie' to the floor pans where the seat platforms will live and stripped off the primer/paint the vendors put on - can't weld through primer/paint, after all. OK - that's not entirely true... after cleaning the pans, I sprayed on some weld-thru primer and let it dry as well. Ya just can't weld through Normal primer or paint, that is.

I found the small patches I'd made a few months ago (for the tops of the torque boxes, and they'd rusted a little from being outside. So, I popped them in the 'blaster and cleaned 'em up - then sprayed on some more weld-thru primer.

Today was short, since it's Christmas Eve, so we left a little after 4:30 or so, after helping Gonzo with getting the intake manifold installed onto the 327 that's going into his son's '68 Camaro RS.

Basically, first thing Monday will be all about zapping down the patches and seat platforms. Then moving onto the cowl damage. So far, so good - it feels like I'm making some decent progress. Once I get the cowl damage done, then it'll be time for the trunk - which I'm thinking might be starting on Wednesday - if I'm lucky with the cowl damage. That should give me 4 or 5 days to finish it up, then put on the rear suspension and drop in the engine and transmission. Keep 'em crossed!

Wow - today... what a long-ass day. Took off this morning on the battery tray. I'd picked up a whole new apron, but decided against taking the whole thing apart and replacing the entire panel. I would've had to remove the radiator support and pretty much probably would've screwed up the factory alignment of those panels. So, I busted out the cut-off wheel and removed the damaged area, making a slightly larger 'patch' from the new apron. Got it in, lined it up, and welded it down. Ground down the welds and it looks pretty good, actually.

Then, I started eyeballing the seat platforms I'd gotten from CJ Pony Parts. They said they were for fastbacks, but they're too tall for sure. After bolting a seat to the driver side, I placed it in the car and sat down (yes, the floors held), it was just a little too tall, and I had it a bit too far back, as I could barely touch the firewall with the seat all the way back. Gonna hafta check the pictures of the stock platform locations before I weld 'em down.

As for being too tall, I did notice that a slight angle change (as I rocked back a little since it wasn't welded down), made a big difference. So, I took out the sharpie and drew some lines - then fired up the cut-off wheel and removed about an inch of material from the backside upright area of the platform and re-bent some 'new' tabs. That dropped the back of the platform almost an inch - but I also found the end of the day at almost 9:00 PM. Not going to do that again... my dawgs are killin' me since I haven't sat down all day.

OK - so today was the TubaChristmas concert, and as usual it was a great show and everybody enjoyed it (probably mostly because it was free, but still...). So, here's how the day went.

I woke up 20 minutes later than I wanted to... but still managed to get out the door pretty much on-time. I got all of the TubaChristmas stuff loaded into the truck (including the music stands, 'Nacho,' 'No-name-yet,' & 'Ugly Bessie,' - two of my Euphoniums and my beat-up old tuba), and headed for The Donut Stop to grab some donuts for the musicians, and a couple breakfast burritos for myself and whomever showed up to help me set-up for the show.

I got to The Heights about 10 minutes after eight, and Doug was waiting for me. He already had the coffee going, and pretty much everything I'd picked up last night was already available and laid out. Dang! That's cool! So, we carted the music stands in, along with all the horns and complimentaries I'd picked up and set-up the TubaChristmas registration table. After everything was all set-up, I looked for the money box and 2011 buttons - yeah... I'd left them at the house, and it's now 8:30AM. Crap!

So, I hop in the truck and head home. I pass one of the guys from Brass Band on the way and remembered that I'd promised to bring him a horn to borrow for the show... but forgot to pack it initially. Wow - I'm really on my game today. Got to the house, grabbed the money box, 2011 buttons, and 'Mini-Me' (my Chinese 'proper' baritone), and headed back to the venue. I made it back right at 9:00AM, and went in to see what I'd missed. Nothing. Nobody had showed up yet (unlike last year when a half dozen or so showed up an hour early to register). So, I got settled, had a breakfast burrito, then had to fend off one of the musician's little kids (two little girls and a boy). They were cute and all, but wanted to get into everything and know what everything was - and they were also actually polite. One of the little girls asked me if she could please have one of the donuts and some hot chocolate I'd put out for the musicians... and of course I told her to get one for her sister and brother as well. Hey - 'tis the season, right?

More folks came in... Dr. Scott showed up, and we talked for a bit (still really liking him - I think it's because he's more like what I wish my high school band teacher would've been like). Soon, it was time for rehearsal, and he asked which horn I was going to play. I asked him which one he wanted me to play, and he asked if I was OK playing tuba? Sure - why not? That's why I brought 'Ugly Bessie' (my rather wrinkled-up, well-used, Besson 600 tuba) along with the other horns, after all. We were a little unbalanced for tubas - 19 horns, and only 7 were tubas... plus me makes 8. Better, but not optimal. Oh well - I hadn't actually played tuba during a TubaChristmas concert, so now was my chance. Then Tom Gregg showed up late into the rehearsal, so we had a total of 9 tubas, and 11 Euphoniums. Not too bad.

Rehearsal was fun, and I was still wondering if Mr. Cleere was going to show up for emcee duties. Well, he didn't... bummer. I guess I need to make a better effort to get him firmed up to do it next time and not just assume he'll be there because someone whom I thought was his secretary said, "I'm sure he'll be there."

The show went well. Dr. Scott's actually pretty funny when talking to the audience, and his conducting is first-rate... especially if he can take 21 musicians who've never played with each other (for the most part) and turn us into an ensemble in two hours.

Even saw a couple of friends in the audience - for which I'm grateful. It's fun playing for people, but it's just that much more fun and enjoyable when you have friends in the audience to hear you play. Kinda almost like being back in school when you're looking for your parents in the audience at the school play or something.

Clean-up was not so bad. Just wound up stacking some chairs and putting all of the complimentaries I'd brought in the kitchen - I'm sure the churchgoers will happily use the stuff during their Sunday meetings in the next few weeks. Then went to Logan's Roadhouse with some of my Brass Band friends and had a nice late lunch.

All in all - it was a good day.

So, tomorrow is the concert.

A few short months ago, I began all the coordination to get the concert scheduled with the Concho Christmas Celebration Committee (after the first meeting notice came to my inbox), secure the venue, do some promotional work, and order the 2011 TubaChristmas materials from the Harvey Phillips Foundation (founders of Merry TubaChristmas concerts worldwide).

The 'normal' venue (San Angelo's McNease Convention Center) was booked by West Central Wireless/Net (my ISP, BTW), for their bi-annual Christmas party - two years ago, they booked it. Crap! Now what do I do? One of my good friends from the Ice House Brass, Doug Smith, bailed me out and offered up his church (The Heights Baptist Church) as the venue, since the City of San Angelo can't seem to get their renovation projects done on-schedule - and he was going to do it for free, too. But I asked him if he would accept 'something' for 'renting' his church, and he reluctantly agreed. Then my good friend Jake Martin paid the 'rental fee' himself. Thanks, Jake - YOU are The Man.

This evening, I made new registration cards, printed new merchandise lists, picked up the 'complimentary' coffee & hot chocolate for the musicians (that only cost me $50 this year), and borrowed some music stands from Glenn Middle School (Thanks again, Kristin).

Because of some SNAFU at work, I was unable to make a promotion gig at the local TV station (KLST) to talk about our TubaChristmas concert. The guy promoting the TV spot wanted me to get the 'TubaChristmas Band' together and play a couple tunes on the local entertainment/variety show, but couldn't quite get his head around the concept of the concert - TubaChristmas is an EVENT... not a band. Despite it all, I was thinking about getting 3 others together and doing a couple of tunes as a quartet (to cover all the parts...) but it fell through anyway. Bummer. I just hope they'll contact me a little sooner next year so I can get a group together - IF they'll even have me after I unintentionally 'blew them off.' (sorry, TV guys... didn't mean to...)

Tomorrow, it's up at 'oh-dark-thirty' to load all the stuff up the truck (along with my Tuba, Baritone, and two Euphoniums), pick up 4 dozen 'complimentary' donuts (that will cost me another $30), and show up an hour before registration begins to get it all set-up. The stage, the music stands, the podium (hopefully, with a PA set), and lay out all the TubaChristmas merchandise, music books, and registration materials.

Then I get to sit around drinking coffee and 'registering' people for an hour - collecting $5 from each musician for the privilege to play a 'free' concert. I sent out invitations to all of the musicians from the last 3 concerts I've been involved in, only to have 4 people actually reply back - so I have no idea if it'll be just a quartet, or more players than we had last year. I'll also try to actually talk with Dr. David Scott (our illustrious conductor) because I really like the guy, but he's always been more or less kind of just 'cordially-friendly' to me. Maybe, I'll get to rehearse for roughly 90 minutes - or not, depending on whether or not any of the musicians show up late to register.

All this time I get to hope like Hell that Mr. Sonny Cleere (our distinguished emcee) will show up, since I never found the time to formally ask him if he'd be available.

Then at Noon, it's time to play the 45-ish minute 'free' concert for a bunch of people I don't know (since only about 3 of the 300+ people I personally invite every year actually show up).

And finally, I'll spend another hour after the last people leave packing up all the stuff back into the truck and cleaning up the mess made by the 'complimentary' coffee and donuts, to return Doug's church back to the same impeccable order it will be in when I show up in the morning.

It might sound like I'm doing a lot of complaining, but I really do love the job of being the TubaChristmas Coordinator for San Angelo. And once it's all said and done, for the next 300 days I will be thinking about how I can't wait until next year's concert comes around so I can do it all over again. San Angelo was lucky enough to have a good man, Mr. Doug Clark, bring TubaChristmas to us in 2005... and it's become a tradition I intend to continue for as long as I can.

So, I scored some 'new'... OK - really well-preserved, lightly-used living room furniture for Mom yesterday. To the tune of $300 for a couch and love seat in the colors she's always said she loves (burgundy, with embroidered baroque patten in lighter reds and even some darker pinks), and a Victorian-style wing-back chair in the same base color - with what I believe was a purchase value somewhere in the range of $2,000.00 (or maybe slightly more). Ummm - SCORE!

She seemed less than enthusiastic about the love seat and chair when we took it over to her apartment. The couch wouldn't fit because of all her crap in the living room she still hasn't unpacked after being in the place for over a year already, so it's basically shrink-wrapped in my garage now. My wife was actually more excited about the set than Mom was. Mom said, "Cool." That's it... that's all I got from her. I mean... WTF?!

Yes - I told Mom to get rid of the old 'goldenrod-colored, textured velour, Brady Bunch-style' stuff... she said she had grown tired of it and has made no effort to get it re-upholstered or anything, despite helping her find and pay half-sies on some fabric she loves. It was over 40 years old and actually kinda sucked, despite being in fairly good shape for its age. Not to mention it was too big for her apartment anyway. She keeps insisting that I had promised to buy her all new furniture. Yeah, right - I'm really gonna do that while you've got a b!tch of a cat that pees on everything you own - keep dreamin'. I told her I'd get her something nice... which I truly believe I hit this one out of the park. (the cat's gone now - she had health issues and had to be put to sleep... sad, but kind of a mixed blessing in a way)

Yesterday, I tried to get Mom over to the house to see the furniture before I bought it, but she was too busy (she was on her way to a hair appointment). She acted like it would be a big deal to cancel her appointment. Again: WTF?!

Honestly, I'm feeling a little unappreciated here... and kinda pissed. Had I known this was the reception that would've been waiting for me, I would've just saved the money and bought an intake manifold for the Rustang or something. I mean, really Mom - acting all the Diva when you've really never had much of anything all your life? Really? Where'd that come from?

Thanks for making me feel special, Mom. Merry Christmas.