MontanaMatt Offline

MontanaMatt: Typically middle Tennessee sees 9 tornadoes every year. Last year broke an all time record with 46 tornadoes in this area. And we get to do it all again tomorrow! And today isn't looking all that great! Looking at winds about 70 mph...and gross amounts of rain. And they're saying the chances of a tornado are "quite likely" 🤷‍♂️
But it's well over 70°.... so I took this opportunity to fix my water leak once and for all! Fuck that took a long time! I pipe taped the shit out of every joint.... added a couple of washers.... even in places that already had washers.... and cranked the holy hell out of everything! Success! Well....sort of. It's dripping one drop of water about every 15 seconds. And I'm thrilled to live with that! It's the connection from city water to the camper.... and there's just nothing else I can do. I could add more pipe tape to everything but at some point that will reach diminishing results. Good enough! And just for grins.... I took apart my air fryer to see if there was an obvious short I could fix....before I chuck it into woods! Jk It actually made it to the dumpster! Nothing obvious.... and since I only paid $29 for it....it got flying lessons! Unfortunately the one I have my eye on is $249! Umm....maybe I'll keep looking? And as cool as that new one would be with its nine different cooking modes.... it's also going to take up way more counter space than I can allow. I need a bigger house! Now!
Honestly not looking at spending $50,000 on a new camper just for the added counter space. My wish list is way longer than that! Unfortunately if I buy the camper that I know will suit my needs for many many years.... even if I were to stumble onto a woman that wants to spend some of those years with me.... I also have to drop about $60,000 on a 3/4 ton pickup. Mine just won't handle that much weight. Not safely anyway. I'm trying to convince myself that I could just pay somebody to put it where I want it and leave it there. But there's really no point in having a camper if you're not going to drag it somewhere once in awhile? Take 6 weeks off after the concert season? Drag it to a beach in Florida? That's a plan I can get behind!
Anyway.... can you tell my chores are all done for the day and I'm bored out of my skull? 🤷‍♂️

MontanaMatt: Well I've been a bit of a slug for a few days. 🤷‍♂️
Just needed some down time with NOTHING to do. Mission accomplished!
And I got back on the responsible horse today! I'm still losing weight quickly.... and really needed to punch a couple new holes in my new belt. So I ran out to my storage unit and grabbed my drill and bits.... and made that happen. Thank God I don't have to walk around with one hand constantly holding up my pants....anymore. 🙄
Grabbed a couple of empty totes from my storage unit. Tonight's project is to pack up most of the extreme weather gear. I'll keep a couple of heavy duty items.... mostly because we are looking at tornado warnings again Friday.... and if I pack it all away I will damn sure need it. If the worst happens and my camper falls victim to Mr Twisty.... I'll probably need a couple of things while I'm sleeping under a bridge waiting for insurance?
Then I ran out and did my laundry.... and then went grocery shopping for my neighbor. It's weird! He's a good dude and I really don't mind helping at all. But he writes me a big ol list.... and I'll be damned if it doesn't come out to within $2 or $3 of $160. Every time! I don't know how he does that! Maybe it's just grocery shopping discipline that I don't have? I seem to walk into the store intending to spend $50.... and fill a cart that costs $135...every week! I should probably learn to go shopping with a list myself...instead of shopping with my eyeballs. ☹️
Still haven't bought a TV.... and I'm going to put that off for a while. I really don't need it.... and not having a TV forces me to listen to more music! Nothing wrong with that!
Speaking of music.... I discovered something a few days ago that you all really need to hear. Davina Michelle....covering the Pink song....what about us. She's from Denmark.... and this cover is ridiculous! Even Pink said..... well now I know what it's supposed to sound like! It really is spectacular! I'm on my phone.... so maybe one of you kind folks could look it up and post it here? There is several versions online.... but I think the best full song version is her doing it at one of these Voice type TV shows in Denmark.
I know you will love it....and thank you! ❤
.

MontanaMatt: Great trip back from Boston....but I'm really happy to be home! I was in Boston several times in a truck...and that's never fun. 😢
But it's so much worse in a bus with a trailer!
Literally 🤏 that far from disaster at all times. All of the big cities east of St Louis were built with the horse and buggy in mind....and we have to navigate them in a 45 ft bus dragging an 18 ft trailer. Of course the club they played was in Cambridge.... just a couple blocks from Harvard University.... pretty much a residential neighborhood. Gross!
And I made an executive decision at about 2:00 this morning. Obviously several routes to pick from.... but at that time of the night I chose to skirt New York City instead of taking the much longer way around. And it wasn't bad at all.
All in all a great trip! Ingrid is a wonderful young lady and her band and crew are all top-notch people. I'd be more than happy to haul them down the road again! 😃

MontanaMatt: Well I got a pretty great email today!
From the tour manager of Megadeth.... welcoming me to the team! 😳
Looks like we're starting the tour the last week in April just north of Seattle.... and then hopping the border into Canada and continuing all the way to the east coast of Canada and through most of May! That's really exciting! Thrash metal really isn't my bag.... but Megadeth still has a huge devoted following so it should be a really fun tour! And I'll get to see parts of Canada I've never visited....NOT IN THE WINTER.... well at least not full-blown winter. I'll happily take it! 😃 Giddy up! It's starting to get real!

MontanaMatt: Well that was a special morning driving into Washington DC! Not many politicians I'm happy with right now...but it's still very cool to drive thru the heart of our countries birthplace. And see where the sausage is made! Also drove right by the Watergate complex. And the Federal Archives building...and the Thomas Jefferson Monument...in addition to the pics I posted. And so much more! The Capital Mall....where so many iconic protects have happened is spectacular! And dropped the gang off at NPR!
And now I'm toast. Been trying to put off the very long nap so I won't be awake at 3 a.m.
But I might be done now. It's gonna be full on dark in less than 30 minutes...and I won't win the battle then. 👋

MontanaMatt: Very cool! I just got to drive a bus with a trailer right down Constitution Avenue in Washington DC! Exciting af! 😲 And I didn't hit any of the 70,000 cars I could have hit! 🤣

MontanaMatt: Well it was a quick trip to Austin Texas and back. But successful nonetheless.
Next up is a 7:30 p.m. Monday evening departure with Ingrid and crew headed for Washington DC. And I've got an 11:30 a.m. flight tomorrow morning back to Nashville. Then I've got a day off on Wednesday! 😯
And then flying up to Boston on Thursday to escort Ingrid and crew back to Nashville.
Zoom zoom!

MontanaMatt: So.... I was making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. (Yes I am a type 2 diabetic... but I found some very low carb bread that's actually really good) ...and I hurt myself. Not a typo! I hurt myself making a fckn sandwich! And I wasn't even aggressively making a sandwich... if that's even a thing.
There have been many signs over the last few years....but fck. Making a sandwich? I'm officially old...and frail. smfh

MontanaMatt: I'm trying to learn! I really am!
So the manufacturer of my deceased TV tells me their warranty doesn't cover damages caused by a weather-related event. That's bullshit....because how would they know it didn't just die.... and it's death isn't related at all to the power outage? Nothing else died...so I
believe that is a distinct possibility. Personally I think it could just be bad timing. It's a shit TV that was destined to die.... and it just happened to die during a power outage? Anyway.... they suck but that's not my problem. They suggested I check with my homeowners policy. I have filed a claim with them.... but it looks like I have a $500 deductible for physical damage under the comprehensive portion of my policy. Obviously it doesn't make sense to spend $500 to save $300. I do know that's really bad math!
So I put in a call to my older brother. He was my insurance agent for the last 35 years...or more. So this is going to turn out pretty much how I expected. Tough shit Matt! Give somebody more money and enjoy your new TV? 😉
Everybody wants my money! Evidently that's the meaning of life these days? 🤣

MontanaMatt: Well when it happens it happens fast! Pretty much booked for the next full week starting Saturday. Flying to Austin Texas Saturday morning and coming back to Nashville with Toby Mac and his crew on Sunday. Then taking off Monday morning with Ingrid Andress and headed to Washington DC and then flying back to Nashville on Tuesday. Then flying up to Boston on Thursday to catch up with Ingrid and crew again.... and get them back to Nashville. 😀 All of that means I get to return this Uber rental car tomorrow morning....and get my pickup back! Yay! I miss driving it!
And with just that much luck...🤏... I'll be done with the Uber experience! I've met a lot of wonderful people getting them from A to B.... but that's the only part of this experience I'll miss at all. 👏

MontanaMatt: Well that pisses me off to no end!
So when I rented this car to drive Uber.... I left my pickup at the rental agency. They had no problem with that.... and I expected to be back in a day or two with my next door neighbor to get my truck out of there and back home. But that's exactly when my neighbor started having heart and blood pressure issues. He just didn't feel well enough to drive. So I've been doing his grocery shopping and what not for over a month. He's a good dude and I know he would do it for me if needed.
So I returned the rental car this morning and jumped in my truck. Of course the battery was dead.... but there was a tow truck parked directly in front of my pickup and that guy was more than happy to jump it for me. Yay!
But when it started.... it was immediately evident that some ass wipe had stolen the catalytic converter. 🤬 So I drove it down the road to a muffler shop.... sounding like a Harley-Davidson with straight pipes. LOUD!!!
Luckily that guy can fix it today.... and we are going without the catalytic converter. It's old enough that it doesn't have to pass any emission tests... and the muffler is still there so it won't sound any different than it did.
After $450! 🤬
I'm not a violent person.... and I absolutely believe the death penalty should be canceled everywhere.... but God damn it I would love to catch somebody stealing from me! I would end that low life fckr in a moment. No hesitation! I work hard for my money and the things I have... and by God if you get caught taking it....it's game over. 😡

MontanaMatt: Well that's a pretty rough start to a day driveing Uber. 6 rides so far....and I've made $30. 😢
So I came home to have a nap. Hopefully it'll pick up in a couple of hours. And again...not a single dollar in tips.....so far. 🥺
And even if I was making big money.... that 5:00 a.m. alarm clock is catching up to me. But I'll be a brand new man after a 2-hour nap! 🙂

MontanaMatt: Early morning change of plans of course.... but still only drove 74 miles and was home by 10:00 a.m. A robust $5.90 per mile! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
And it's the same bunch of guys I'm flying to Austin Texas with next weekend.... to drive Tobi Mac and his crew back to Nashville! Great bunch of guys so that will be fun! 😎

MontanaMatt: I knew this day was coming... but that doesn't mean it hurts any less. Gary Rossington...71... passed away today. Gary was the last original member of Lynyrd Skynyrd still with us. 😭

MontanaMatt: Well that was a pretty shit day doing the Uber. 😥 My first ride of the day paid almost $30. Of course that made me optimistic. But the next 5 hours paid about $8 an hour. 😭 And not a single dollar as a tip today. 😳 Uber picked a bad day to ask me to rate my experience as a driver for Uber. I'm sure my response will make the rounds in the break room. 😃
But.... I get to make up for that tomorrow. I have to be at the company bus yard at 6:30 a.m..... to drive about 25 miles.... jump in a bus and finish that trip. I'll drive a total of about 35 minutes... and get paid for a full day. And that bus is towing a trailer.... so it's a $500 day! 🤣
My employer strongly suggests that these artists be very careful planning their tour to avoid tomorrow's situation. But the only other option is for them to park the buses 25 miles from home base and take a 10-hour break. There isn't an artist on the planet that would do that. It's the end of a tour segment and they are looking at two weeks off and they want to get that time started as fast as possible. So with four buses.... those 25 miles will cost them $2000! 😲 But they know it up front. And they've made that decision. 🤷‍♂️ And if I financially benefit from that....well....cool! 😎

MontanaMatt: Ended up being about 30 hours without power. Could have been much worse. And I learned that the girls across the street are safe. When the winds hit the predicted 70 mph... everybody in the building agreed to lock the doors and go home. So the building was empty.
Unfortunately when the roof came off and landed in the middle of Dickerson Pike it landed on a car. It sounds like the woman driving that car got pretty beat up.... but she's going to be okay.
And when I got home I learned that for some as of yet unknown reason my TV didn't survive. It worked fine the evening before the big weather.... but now it's completely dead. I checked the gfci and the breakers and all were in order. There is a reset button on the back of the TV... and of course I pushed that with no positive results. I guess it's possible that my TV had just reached the end of its life.... but it was less than 10 months old.... and even though it's hard to buy anything of quality these days I can't imagine it dying that soon. And it's hard to believe timing like that anyway. 🤷‍♂️

MontanaMatt: Morgan Wallen had a free concert at the Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville Friday night. Very cool! 👏 But.... I was downtown Thursday afternoon... a full 30 hours before show time.... and there was several hundred people already in line! During active tornado warnings! 🌪 And some of the most fierce rain I have seen in my almost 10 months living here. Gully washer rain!
I really do understand being a die-hard fan. But that's bringing so many unnecessary issues down on your head. First of all you're sleeping on a sidewalk. Yeah....no! Secondly.... nobody makes rain gear that will keep you dry in that kind of rain. Nobody! And then what do you eat? Ordinarily there would be food trucks and food vendors that would take advantage of that crowd and be set up on site.... but Nashville just drastically changed regulations regarding food vendors downtown.... so I'm not sure that would even be possible anymore. And there wasn't a porta potty in sight! Then what? What do you do with all your gear when it's time to enter the building? You absolutely will not be allowed to carry any of that stuff into the building.
I'm sure they had a great time and I'm sure it was a fantastic concert. But it makes me wonder if I've ever been a big enough fan of anybody to go through that kind of mess for a free show? How about you?

MontanaMatt: Well that wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. I threw my "if I ever really need this fleece blanket It's pretty serious" blanket on the bed.... and as long as I kept the cocoon intact...
It was possible to sleep pretty well. 😍 And I stayed in bed long enough for the sun to be on the camper for about 90 minutes. Depending on how you look at it.... living in a metal box can be a really good thing... like this morning.... or a rugged experience if the wind chill is really brutal. The sun will heat this thing up pretty quickly... but a brutal wind chill will take it the other direction pretty fast. 🤷‍♂️
But now I don't know if it's safe enough out there to go Uber around for the day. I guess I need to get out of this neighborhood and see if stop lights are working elsewhere. There's always a certain segment of society that believes they are too important to wait 10 minutes to get through a four-way stop. So they race up the left hand turn lane and then slow down just a little and then race through the intersection ahead of everybody that's been waiting in line. I've been constantly thinking about a way to stop that.... but I don't think a bumper-mounted cannon would be appropriate? Fun... but probably not politically correct. 🤣

MontanaMatt: Ugh! This having no power thing is old already. I had to run to a Walmart that actually had power and was open...12 miles away... to buy a portable battery pack so I could keep a charge on my phone. Of course no street lights for 11 miles of that trip. So it took about an hour to get there and back. And when I get back I walk into my camper and it's freaking cold in here! No power means no heat! Maybe it's just me but I'm wondering why since the hot water heater is propane powered there isn't a propane option for the heat? Flip a switch to go from one to the other? 🤷‍♂️ And the low temp tonight is 40. Not gonna kill me.... but it makes for an uncomfortable night. At least my hot water heater is propane powered so I can jump out of bed in the morning and get a hot shower to warm up.
The local authorities are saying there's about 150,000 people in the area without power.... probably for most of the weekend. It's just an uncomfortable inconvenience for me.... and I'm very sure it's a hell of a lot worse for a lot of people. 😢

MontanaMatt: Well dammit! I'm exhausted and I really need some sleep in a bad way! And I don't think it's actually a tornado.... but me and my little camper are getting the shit beat out of us!
There are tornado watches in the immediate vicinity for the next 3 hours. (Within 10 miles or so) Also severe thunderstorm warnings. It's going to be really difficult to ignore this weather mess and get some sleep. 😢
Did I mention that we aren't even in tornado season yet? And this shit is already old! ☹️

MontanaMatt: Well I'm not sure it was a tornado. But whatever it was ripped the shit out of my neighborhood! There's a building just across the street that houses a chiropractor...a dentist...a drug screening Clinic... and maybe a hair salon or two. The building is no more. 😢 The roof is in the middle of Dickerson Pike. The whole roof. And it looks like three out of four outside walls have gone down. I've done four or five drug screenings in that clinic and I sure hope those girls are okay. They are a pleasure to do business with.
So I was out doing the Uber thing for a couple of hours and had to quit. The wind is gusting to at least 70.... and it appears the vast majority of stop lights are not working. And of course nobody knows what to do when the street lights go out. Fckn hillbillies! How do people not know that you treat that intersection like a four-way stop? Really not that complicated.... but it's way too dangerous on the roads right now so I am at home with no power. Well my lights run off the batteries....but that's all I have. And it could be a while. The roof that came off that building took out a row of power poles and power lines.
Evidently the weather Gods want me to take a nice long nap this afternoon? Alright...I'm in! 🙂

MontanaMatt: Well a reasonably successful trip to Cincinnati and back to Nashville. Pretty much exactly 24 hours.... with 10 of that on a break and sleeping for most of it. But it included two pre-trip inspections.... and two post-trip inspections. I drove one bus to Cincinnati and drove another bus back to Nashville..... so you have to do a pre-trip and a post trip inspection for each bus. That part of it is actually way more work than the driving! Way more! Made a bunch of money.... which always puts a smile on my face!
And I've got another quick trip on the 6th. Not sure where or who.... but I was told I'll get a full day's pay and I'll be driving about an hour. 😯
That works for me! 😀 And then another two day trip on the 11th and 12th. Again not sure where or who yet. And hopefully we're getting closer to me on the road full time. It's going to take a week or so to get zeroed in on full time.... but me and my bank account are ready!

MontanaMatt: I was close! Actually Elle King's bus is the bus I'm driving to Cincinnati tonight. Evidently it had to come back to Nashville for a couple of repairs. Those are now done and she will be back in her bus by about 2:00 tomorrow afternoon....courtesy of ME! 🙂
And the company already has me lined up on a bunch of co drives between now and the middle of March. Yay! Doing what I'm supposed to be doing for a livin.... instead of this Uber stuff. 🙄
It turns out all I had to do was say something. They thought I was driving a truck. 🤷‍♂️ Now that everybody is on the same page they will keep me pretty busy until my bus is leased for a tour. Cool!

MontanaMatt: Pretty cool parking spot in Cincinnati! Right next door to the Bengals football stadium!

MontanaMatt: I missed a couple private messages asking if I was OK. I'm fine. Really wish I was driving a bus instead of driving an Uber around Nashville....but my time will come. It's all good!
I did have a very weird morning. I woke up about 6:00 a.m. (every damn day whether I need to be out of bed or not) and I was seriously nauseous.... and my head was spinning like a really spinny thing. For no readily apparent reason. I checked my blood sugar (94...a tick low but not alarming at all) and took my meds and did my morning insulin injection. And I couldn't make it stop. I finally texted my doctor and told him what was going on. I suspected it might be the mounjaro.... as nausea is one of the noted side effects. But he said almost no chance. He asked about my renewal physical and if there was anything of note that day. I told him the doctor noted that my ears were very plugged up and asked if I had allergies. Uh yeah! And she attributed the ear issue to the allergies. So my doctor put two and two together and decided it was Vertigo....due to the mess in my ears. I ran to the pharmacy when they opened and bought a motion sickness pill.... took that and went back to bed. And woke up at about 4:00 feeling just fine. 🤷‍♂️
Ran out the door and made some money driving around. Feeling pretty good the whole time. So I'm confident my doctor nailed the diagnosis. That sure is weird though! I hate that feeling of the entire world spinning around me and I can't catch up. It's very disconcerting!
And spring is trying to get here! Over 70 again tomorrow.... although that monster storm that has decimated everything west of here is due soon. So we've got big wind forecast for tomorrow and Tuesday..... and the seems like ever-present chance of tornadoes. But at least I can wear shorts again! 🙂