MontanaMatt Offline

Well I finally had a doctor visit that turned out to be good news! No skin cancer! But not a very comfortable visit. I've outgrown the days when I was perfectly comfortable parading around naked in front of a stunning 30 year old doctor! One of those things that snuck up on me.... but it's certainly uncomfortable now! 😕 But of course she was very cool about everything. And she was really happy to deliver good news. She told me she's had a pretty rough couple of months. Delivering the cancer news to more than a few people every day. 😥 i can only imagine how difficult that must be.....day after day.
Work is still extremely confusing. I was supposed to leave yesterday on a quick co driver to Key West. Then fly back. But that got canceled 10 days ago..... and evidently nobody thought that was information I needed. I didn't find out until I started calling everybody until I got an answer. It really sucks to work for people that are that inconsiderate. I'm doing everything I can to remedy that situation but it's a bad time of year to be looking for an entertainer coach driving job. Everybody is full up on drivers. 🤷‍♂️ That will change in a few months when the worthless guys weed themselves out.... but even though I'm sitting at home on my ass.... they are still paying me a stupid amount of money. So here I sit. 😐

Well, I should've been cleared to go back to work today. But I have one lingering issue in this hand. The tendon that runs all the way from your elbow and through your wrist and into your hand and up that particular finger is way to swollen. And the swelling is right in the palm of my hand. Worst place it could be. So I need to massage the shit out of that.... damn near all day everyday. It has to go away before he will clear me to work. And that really sucks. I'm bored several miles out of my skull! And I really need to quit running up to the casino on the Kentucky line just for something to do. It would be okay if I could consider that supplemental income..... but I'm not on a winning streak. 😥 And it's way too expensive to just call it entertainment. I'm absolutely entitled to some entertainment.... but I need to find something cheaper. And preferably something that doesn't involve moonshine! 😀 🤷‍♂️

Happy Birthday Keith! ✌️

Well that sucks. I had a big old story for you all about my current issues. And it got deleted before I could post it. Anyway..... Surgeon tells me the hand surgery was a success. I'm restricted to lifting nothing heavier than a fork for a couple of weeks. And I can't wear anything but sweatpants and sweatshirts and sandals. I can't maneuver a belt.... Or tie my shoes. So I wear comfortable, easy clothes for a couple of weeks. No real complaints about that. They did send me home with a bunch of oxy.... So pain isn't really an issue....yet. And yes, I am aware how addictive it can be. So every other day if needed. And some mondo Tylenol for the rest of the time. I will probably be cleared to go back to work the last week of February. And as of right now it looks like I'll be headed out with Al Di Meola. He's a world class jazz/classical guitarist. Truly, one of the best to ever do it. And then.... somebody else.... and somebody else....until November! And hopefully by this time in 2027.... I will have my camper parked near a beach in Charleston South Carolina for the winter months. And taking up residence in the Black Hills of South Dakota for the spring and summer months. I will have a reasonably new GMC Sierra and a camper right around 40 ft long to park wherever I want to park it. I think it's a pretty good plan..... But we all know what happens to well laid plans. So we will see! 😃
Hopefully this finds you all very happy and very healthy! Take care.....and turn it up! 🙉

On and on! Royal Oak Michigan tonight.... Louisville Kentucky tomorrow.... Cleveland Heights Ohio..... Somewhere in upstate New York (a little south of Syracuse I think) And then Baltimore on Sunday before I head to Nashville. On the road with String Cheese Incident! And I continue to get so lucky. Another bus full of spectacular people! They took me with them to see a Detroit Tigers baseball game yesterday. They really don't need to do that.... but it's nice that they include me in the fun stuff.
And this is my first tour as a lead driver! Just one other bus, but the driver is very new. So I'm helping her out as much as I can. I don't get paid anymore for being in charge. 😥 But it looks good find my resume if I decide to bail on this company after this season. Still undecided but it's leaning that way. They just can't get out of their own way.... And I won't let their idiocy cost me money. 😥
As always.... check the schedule and let me know if we are in your neck of the woods. I always enjoy a good hang! 😃

It's been a rat race! And I'm hanging in there.... but the rats are closing in! 😲
Back in June, I requested some paid time off for a family reunion in Minnesota. Gave them ten days to respond.... But they didn't. Screw em! I bought a round trip plane ticket from Nashville to Fargo. So about a week before reunion time..... I get a message from the company. Telling me I'm leaving with The Gin Blossoms the day before my flight leaves for Fargo. For about 3 weeks. Umm....no I'm not. You guys really should read all of your messages. Lol..... Then they told me it's implied that there are no vacations during the busy season. I came back with..... Maybe somebody should have told me that more than six weeks ago and before I bought a plane ticket. And I have over a dozen elderly relatives that will be at this reunion. Elderly as in over 80. Including my parents. If I miss this reunion and the worst happens.... You guys don't have enough money to ever put a smile on my face again. And you have forty buses currently sitting in the yard..... only because you don't have enough drivers. Are you really in a position to lose another driver? So they spent about four days trying to shame me into canceling my trip. I finally told them that one more attempt to shame me would result in me parking the bus I was driving at that moment...wherever the fuck I felt like parking it....and renting a car to get me and my possessions back to Nashville. They finally realized I was serious.... But still ask me to shorten my trip by three days. No! And as it turns out, I didn't even fly. I abandoned my plane tickets. I have a little brother in Tulsa, who has been dealing with a neurological condition for 8 plus years now... He had several family members lined up to travel with him but one by one they dropped out. So the only way he was going to get there is if I drove from Nashville to Tulsa, and then Tulsa to Detroit Lakes Minnesota. So I did. And then five days later, turned around and did it the other way. And honestly it was worth every mile. Got to spend some serious quality time with my little bro! And I would do it again tomorrow if I had to! I know he would have been sitting home while that reunion was happening.... And it would have been killing him every minute to not be there. And I know if our positions were reversed, he would have done it for me.
And it was great fun! A little bit distressing, seeing a few people very few years older than me in wheelchairs? 😳
So now I'm back on the road with the Gin Blossoms! A few miles outside of Philadelphia for a day off today. And then a show in New Jersey and Delaware and Maryland and we finish up this coming saturday night in Vermont! After that show, I'll drop them at a hotel and then I have four days to get back to Nashville.
And lucky me....again! Another bus full of absolutely spectacular people! So much fun! 😄 I hope this finds you all well? I know I keep saying I'll try to show up here more often..... But at this late point in the season, it's driving or sleeping for me. But I promise I will keep trying!

All of a sudden work is fun again! The new owners have proven that they could fuck up a really great wet dream! Screwing around with our pay structure. And they jacked their bus lease rates through the roof. That's why we have forty five buses sitting in the yard.... When ordinarily there would be five or.
And about forty experienced, drivers have already walked away. They actually ask me face to face what my intentions were. And I told them straight up that I was gonna stick it out till the end of this season.... But they could expect me to walk away very shortly thereafter, if some of these pay structure changes aren't reversed. And I don't think they know this yet... But without those changes being reversed, they very well might lose every driver.
So the only thing making work fun again is being on the road this weekend with Hank Williams Jr! Obviously an icon.... And his band and crew are just wonderful people! So we're doing it again next weekend! Columbus Ohio friday night and Poplar Bluff, Missouri on saturday night. After that? I don't know. What happens next will probably be determined at my doctor's appointment tomorrow. I'm down to working with one hand. I had the same hand x rayed in March and was told there's no more Arthritis than would be expected in a man my age. So at that time, they shot the hand full of steroids. Obviously not a fix. Pretty much a band aid. And i'm not doing that again. That was honestly the worst pain i've ever experienced. I just don't have it in me to do that again unless there is a real fix involved. If surgery is the answer it's gonna have to wait until probably mid November. Maybe I can get by until then with an oral dose of steroids. We will see! 🤷‍♂️
I do need to apologize for my absence. It's been a bunch of fun but it's a lot of miles and then throw something down my pie hole.... And then fall into bed until I have to do it again. 😴 I will make a better effort. to show my face once in a while. 😃

💋♥️🌹💋♥️🌹💋♥️🌹

ty nice to be your new friends

Well....it's been fun....but I am exhausted! 40 some days....30 shows....and well over 15,000 miles. 😲
But I'm finally headed home. Dropping off the gang at a hotel here in Monterey California at about three thirty a m tomorrow.... And then hauling an empty bus to Phoenix.... and flying out of Phoenix late monday afternoon for Nashville. 11 days off....and then we do it again. Although the next run is much easier. Half as many miles and more rest days built in. Thank God!
And now it's time to eat something....and get my tired ass back to bed. Lots of great stories to tell.... But that's gonna have to wait for another day. 😴

It's getting interesting!

They pay me a ton of money to be a good bus driver.... And I am. They don't pay me anything to be a shitty mechanic.... And I am! Just go buy a new air compressor and change it out. 😲
Ok.... But I don't want to hear a word about it when it goes south. And right now, this whole operation is several hundred miles south of the border. smh
The old air compressor was hard plumbed. When it had quick disconnect fittings. So instead of doing it right and the easy way..... They sent me on a ninety dollar uber trip to plumb it the wrong way..... again.
Why would you do anything the hard way on purpose??
All that, after driving from albany, new york to solana beach, california. I should be sleeping instead of being a shitty mechanic. Ugh!

Wanted: Someone to hand feed me Doritos so my fingers don't get orange. No weirdos!

What kind of underwear should you wear during an eclipse?






Fruit of the Moon! 🤣🤣🤣

That's the Atlantic Ocean.....80 ft from my bus! At the Tortuga Music Festival! (Fort Lauderdale!) The fans will actually be standing in sand for the show! Very cool!" And then back to reality. Tomorrow we land in Paducah Kentucky....stopping only for the eclipse! 😯

I could live like this! Palm trees everywhere! 🌴🌴🌴

Back on the road! Out with Charles Wesley Godwin for the next 6 weeks. Pretty much all over the country except the Northwest. They gave me a really nice bus for this trip! Only a little over 220,000 miles. It's beautiful and everything works like it should. 🙂
So as always.... go online and check the schedule. And shoot me a message if we're gonna be driving through your backyard and you wanna hang! If it's at all possible, I'll make it happen!

Well, it certainly happens fast!
I got a call at 10:30 Thursday night...... And by noon Friday I was in a rental car with all my gear headed for Nashville Indiana. And I'm now the bus driver for Flogging Molly until the 18th of March. Currently in Green Bay Wisconsin! Check their schedule and if we're gonna be in your backyard.... shoot me a message and maybe we can arrange a hang! ✌️

My grief counselor died yesterday. 😥
Luckily he was very good at his job....so I don't really give a shit! 🤣

Well shit.
Prostate issues are not for the faint of heart! This is a level of misery I'm not familiar with.
😢 I'm down to about 2 1/2 hours of sleep every night. I can't do anything resembling a functional existence. Not even close.
The pain has progressed from being pretty bad when I have to pee....to horrible at every moment. I just left the doctor again.... and another urine sample shows.....her words...."an alarming amount of blood in my urine" Yay me! But.... the standard protocols don't allow them to skip steps. And of course Medicare will not allow them to skip steps unless I'm willing to foot the bill from this point going forward. And I guess I understand that. If we skip a couple of steps.... I'm going to be in the hospital immediately for one of 2 or 3 invasive procedures. I nearly started crying just listening to her describing those options. And she told me she has participated in those procedures..... many times.... and has never left that room without tears in her eyes. Must be pretty bad if a seasoned doctor is crying as she's walking out of the room.
So as much as this sucks..... I have to follow the standard treatment path. At this point that means pills until the 1st of March. But if this first round of meds is working.... I should know that by Monday. These meds won't fix the problem..... but they'll make simply existing very doable. 🤷‍♂️
So....I'm still alive.... although at this point, it feels like I'm hanging on by a thread. And I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I've rarely found myself on the easiest path. Not sure why I would expect that now? 🤔
So now it's back to bed. Hopefully, I can get a little bit of sleep. She did offer me a very effective and well proven sleep aid. But she said with your current issues..... that probably means peeing the bed over and over. No thanks! ☹️

Elephants weigh 200 lbs at birth.
That makes them the largest babies on the planet...... except for those guys that are mad about Taylor Swift getting one minute of camera time in a three hour football game.

I'm not saying Matt has an enlarged prostate..... but if I put a hat on that thing I could drive in the carpool lane!
Gettin old is so much better than not getting old. Most days....I think. I'll know more tomorrow morning after my appointment with the specialist. I talked to him on the phone the other day and asked him..... What are my chances of this being prostate cancer and not just enlarged? And that fckr told me straight up. Pretty much 50/50!
Dude! You need to go back to med school for a refresher course on bedside manner!
Of course I hate when Dr's beat around the bush...but I wouldn't have been offended at all if he had told me we need to wait for test results before I can really say anything.
So yeah. I can't wait to get these tests behind me (pun intended) so I can maybe sleep again. Please? I really try not to worry about these things until there's something to worry about..... but I did bury a little brother in 09 that died from prostate cancer. That family history greatly increases my chances of having to deal with the cancer thing.
And my employer is assigning buses as we speak. And they won't assign me a bus until I have something concrete to tell them. So I need some answers or I 'll end up driving a pc of shit bus...or worse....end up on the road with the WWE! ACK!
So looking for answers in the morning.
Wish me luck! 💚

Other than the occasional tornado.... it's been a pretty mild winter in Nashville. And that's all about to change. Looking at a high on Monday of 8..... and a high on Tuesday of 4. With the nighttime lows well below zero.
Not a great time of year to be living in a metal box. 🥶 But i've added an electric blanket and some beautifully thick flannel sheets to my sleep game....so I should be OK.
And the Hampton Inn is about a mile down the road.... so as a last resort I can always suffer in luxury there.....If needed. 🤷‍♂️

I've got too much time on my hands..... so I joined an amateur autopsy club. Wednesday night is our first meeting. It's open mic night!