Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- 21Nov2009

It's getting colder, but this time I was clever enough to put the heater directly behind me so I was at least evenly warm on the back, though colder on the front. But it kept my fingers from getting too bad, both hands.

I had a pretty bad cold coming on, with a pretty scratchy throat -- and we were all out of cough medicine. I went for it anyway (of course), and only really crashed a song once with a coughing fit.

Just before my Halloween gig, I bought some of those little Mini Tootsie Rolls, in the little individual wax paper, twisted-on-the-ends, wrappers. I gave away some of them, but had lots left, so I've been trying to use them as "bait" to get people to come up to the Scary Table to get a song list. So I keep a half dozen scattered on the table next to me.

Late in the evening, a little family was listening off to the side: mom, dad, and little baby. After a while, the mom kinda snuck up (in plain sight) and put a small handful of twisted-end candies *on* the table. I thought that was a bit strange but sweet, until, an hour later (and after they were gone), I looked closer to find that they were actually throat lozenges. More sweet of her than I'd realized! And once I'd found them, they really did save my skin for the last hour or so.

Lots of kids were out, and kept asking for "Hey There Delilah" (as they do), but since that song is one of the three or four that inexplicably trash my throat even when I'm in good condition, I had to refuse. After the third of fourth group requested it, I finally said, "Sure I'll play it, if one of you will sing it". One of the girls turned out to be an OCHSA vocal music student, and her friends immediately forced her come up and do it -- and pretty well too, though not exactly her key. A big thrill for the group of them, and a nice breather for me.