It’s that time of year.  That time when I apologize for going a couple weeks without posting something to the Bear Feed.  And by “that time”, it becomes more and more like a monthly occurrence.  So consider this your almost monthly opportunity for me to explain why I don’ t keep up with things as I should.

Usually it comes down to one of two reasons:

1. Events in my life aren’t blog worthy.  Either because they are too mundane or they are things I choose not to share with my adoring public.
2. I’m really busy, and by busy I mean lazy.

It’s actually a time with a series of false starts and under developed things.  September and October are annually my time to do fall marching band judging.  This is probably the best example of how non-blog worthy this last couple of weeks have been.  I started the season looking like I had 7 judging gigs scheduled – which is as many as I ever had in a season.  Well, that was quickly changed to 5 shows, when two were cancelled due to lack of bands participating.  Then 1 got added back, so I was up to 6.  Then I went to my first one a few weeks back, and it was canceled by rain.  Then this past weekend happened.

I was scheduled to do a full day show in Louisville.  Originally, it was planned for a morning start, a long day, a break, and finals competition in the evening.  The finals were cancelled earlier that week for reasons that aren’t important to this story.  Recently, I’ve had a run of bad luck with travel – so I booked a direct flight from LAX to Indianapolis arriving early enough to still make the 2 hour drive to Louisville in daylight.  I got to the airport, made it through check-in easily, and at 10AM found my seat on the plane.  Then they said there was a mechanical issue.  An hour later they said we could get off if we wanted.  An hour after that, they said we had to get off.  The mechanical issue took nearly 2-1/2 hours to address, and by that time the crew timed out so that they couldn’t fly to Indy and back.  Another crew had to be found.  By 1PM, they had announced a new departure time for 1:30PM – but we were already upset because it was the sixth new departure time received.  Then 1:30 became 2:00.  2:00 became 2:30. And 2:30 became …wait for it … 5:00PM.  By 5:30, I was beginning to realize that there was little chance I could get to Indy in time to get a rental car before the agency closed – and they wouldn’t open in time to get me to the show.  Worse, the flight actually departed at nearly 7:00PM with an arrival shortly after 3:00AM.  By that time I canceled out of my show … and for the first time in my band judging career, I wasn’t able to do what I was hired to do.

So I have 4 gigs left, as long as things don’t go wrong with them that is.

But there is other things in the works.  Some of which I am not ready to blog about, some I am waiting for the story to play out.  Not life changing things or stuff like that, just things that are blog worthy.

So Bear With Me.