Jeff Culmer

Sometimes you have an idea, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but most of the time when it comes to production ideas you have to listen to someones idea and then figure out how to do it, especially on a budget, because you know all parties involved now’a days are trying to skimp where they can to keep costs low and that’s the part that has you take a step back and go “well hmmm? How are we going to do this?” Some tours or shows have ideas and they just do it, because they’re budget is way more, or U2’s budget (unlimited), and some people want what U2 has but with .03% of U2’s budget.  But you know sometimes that’s what makes my job fun, it’s coming up with ways to make things work, it’s not always the best way, but it works.

I’m doing this next week with this show, it’s a good habit to get into, getting the gear setup in the shop making sure things are always running smoothly, especially when you’ve had something built, like in this case, we had some carts built for our LED, that were a bit of a nail biter, here’s the deal, we’re so close to starting this tour, that at this point it’s not like we can say “hey…just build one we’ll play with it, and let you know what we want to change”, so there was a  couple of us working on this, we went round and round on what to do, and then in the end, I don’t think any of us really knew what we actually agreed on, so we waited to see what the fabricator came up with out of all the talking.  We received the carts yesterday at quitting time , I spent most of the night last night putting all the LED in the carts, I wanted to make sure everything fit right, there’s moving parts on these carts to protect the LED, we also had tabs that the LED was going to hang from welded on, those had to be pretty exact, so that the LED could lock together,  we were all (me) a little nervous that these things weren’t going to play well once we put the LED in them,  so I spent my evening last night installing the LED into these carts because everybody including the fabricator was even a little nervous they were going to need a bunch of a tweaking, but lets be honest, who doesn’t like living a little dangerously.

Patti and I started painting the guest room today, I thought I would share with you all that I suck at painting, today we applied the … you know… that first layer of paint that you put on before you put the real paint on, it’s a lot of work painting, it doesn’t take that long to do, it took us about an hour and half to paint the room, it felt like we were in there for hours but, it went surprisingly quick.

The family that had the house before us painted most of the rooms in the house, we  really like the colors actually that they’ve already put on the walls, but one of the rooms, the one we’re planning on being the guest room, was a plum lavender looking color, just awful, well to me it was, it was on the list of things to do in the future but with a guest showing up shortly in the near future, it’s moved up on the list of things to do.  Which isn’t a bad thing,  with both Patti and I busy with work it’s a nice break from us being on the computers or working on “homework” projects that we bring home, doing something together that’s not watching tv is awesome!

The other thing taking up all of my home time, is the deleting of one of my iphoto’s, I hate being out of space on the eternal hard drives, but I will have to admit it was good timing because it’s that time of year when I start backing up some pic’s that are older, and then deleting them, what’s hard is, I take a lot of pictures for work for reference, I always try and take a picture of ever show I’ve done in some form or fashion, and it’s saved me a couple times having record of the show I’ve done, I’m always going back and checking what we did at a particular show or festival from the last time I did it.  Some times when you do as many shows I do, you forget what you may have done the year before, so I just take a look at the pictures, then I remember how far cable runs were etc. that and their my pictures from moments in my life, so I hate to get rid of them, so there’s the tiring task of making sure I have the picture backed up then deleting it  Now you wish you wouldn’t have read this whole post because it was pointless and you want the 4 minutes it took to read this back, I don’t blame you.

This is what my week has looked liked, it’s Friday, and it seems like just yesterday I was getting on a bus to do some one offs a week ago tonight.  I honestly don’t remember what I’ve done this week, I feel like all I’ve done is work, watch the Olympics and sleep, well sleeping wasn’t a huge part of my week, I wish it would have been.  It’s a good busy though, it’s like… I’ve gotten things accomplished, but it’s been for sure a check things off the list and keep moving type of week, I like that, when you have a long list and things get checked off, it makes you feel good, like your earning your pay check.

This weekend I was out with the Mercyme boys.  We played this place in Virginia, that had a lot of 8×10’s and posters of the shows they’ve brought through hanging on the walls, the place reminded me a lot of a mini Carpenters Home Church from back in the day, well, the boys have played there a few times from what I hear, and on the wall in the back room where the PO was, was this picture that the guys signed way back in the day.  It’s pretty stinking awesome.

A tour bus bunk is a roadies best friend, at the end of the day it’s your one solitude, you have to understand, all day for the most part we’re dealing with stupidness, other roadies that are green, (or just plane stupid) the local crew, wheather being union/paid or vollenteer, it drains you trying to get people modivated to work, or in some cases un-motivated, or being nice all day, and then there’s the musicians, Don’t get me started, (haha) there’s noise all day, the venues being different bring challenges, so at the end of the day you know one things always going to be the same, getting in your bunk. Or even in the middle of the day sometimes it can be that safe place to go to recharge.

It’s where some can yell at others to shut up, or at the bus driver, and there’s no hard feelings, (unless your the bus driver) it’s where Limbs go numb from only haveing 35 inches of width space to sleep in, I constantly wake up and my arm is above head, my foot is crammed in the corner over the air vent both are numb. And if you sleep with your curtain open or an arm or leg outside your curtain something is gonna happen to them.

All the unwriten rules about the bunk area are just as important. Its just part of the the beautiful part about being on the road. You know “living the dream”.

I enjoy reading and watching WWII books and movies, well, most military books for that matter, what I find most interesting about military books (currently reading) is the men and women that are making life and death decisions and their either my age or younger,  and some are responsible for hundreds of lives, for example I recently just finished Maj. Dick Winters (Commander of 506th PIR. “Band of Brothers”) book, he was my age at the time and responsible for a battalion of men, that’s hundreds of lives, granted it’s circumstances that I’ll probably never truly understand or experience, but non the less it’s leadership lessons at a level that you can’t learn from some dude’s book that got a degree in being the boss, it’s reading how these individuals handle extreme pressure.

I always knew that my grandpa was in WWII, but never really knew what all he did, I’m still trying to discover what exactly he did during the war, I’ve even seen his dress uniform jacket, still in great shape, but tonight I’m even a little closer, my Aunt sent me this picture of his military graduation class, it’s just awesome seeing what I read about, watch movies about and see history channel shows about, my grandfather in the middle of it in uniform getting ready to head to Europe… or maybe the Pacific?  That’s the best part, I’m still learning, he past away when I was a kid, before I became really interested in WWII history, so I never got the opportunity to ask him what he did, or to see if he was willing to talk about it.  I’ve heard stories from my father, but nothing really giving me what unit he was in or regiment.  I’m am excited though, my same Aunt that sent this picture is sending me some more pictures of him in the military, I can’t wait to see them.

Recently I learned that a buddy from the road, his grandfather was in the WWII pacific theater, he wrote a book about his time in the pacific, (he’s also going to be one of the characters in the new “Band of Brothers” type HBO series called “Pacific“) the stories that I’ve heard about this guy from his grandson, he’s a pretty amazing person, I can’t wait till his book comes out.

I’m jealous that he has, one his grandfather still around, and two that his grandfather is willing to tell his story about his time in WWII, that generation is so intriguing.

If you get a chance check out the link for his book, it comes out at the beginning of March.

I love when Patti bakes things, she always makes to much, and it’s always awesome, tonight she got in the hankering to make some fudge, and these cookie things (below) that I have yet to try, but she swears by them, or swears when she eats them because their so good, or something like that.

And now I’m fatter, this weekend I have spent a lot of time sitting at home working on some things, watching the Olympics, it seems that when your just sitting around on the computer you snack a lot, I can honestly say that I feel like I’m getting fatter, sitting here posting this.

Patti and I recently had the chance to join some friends in Colorado for a little vacation.  It’s been much needed for some time, we try to get away on trips as much as we can, with me being gone a lot, and when I’m home it seems that the both of us are always working.  This trip was special to us, because neither of us had ever been to the town we went to, which is rare, we’ve both been to a lot of places in the country, and so when we get to go some where neither of us have been it’s awesome, a new adventure that we both get to experience.   The picture above is the mountain we were about to get ski lessons on, that’s right we both have never been skiing, and it was awesome, a lot of work, it looks so easy watching other people ski, and now with the Winter Olympics on I watch these people skiing and I still think it looks so easy, but it’s a lot of work.

I love this picture, Patti and I got the opportunity to go snowmobiling, (we both had our own snowmobile) Patti had never been snowmobiling, and I’ve only been once as a kid, I’ve been pulled plenty of times behind one on a slid or tube of some sort, but driving one through the mountains of Colorado is completely different, fresh powder, it was awesome, to me snowmobiling was one of the best parts of the trip, as well for Patti, she’s been talking about it ever since, just a lot of fun!

I’m visualizing the run, getting psyched up!

The continental divide.  Like I said it was amazing,

Another amazing view from the weekend, we had a lot of fun, we came home feeling refreshed, (Sorta) I was little sore from snowmobiling, I’m like a kid on a toy, when I get the chance, but my body was telling me that your not a little kid any more, I find a little weird that I wasn’t sore after skiing but after snowmobiling I was hurtin’.

So I’m a little late posting about the snow compared to the better bloggers, it’s been nice. We’re “snowed in”, well as Patti put it today we’re iced in, our little street that goes up hill is pretty much just ice.  The best part about being stuck in the house is that the much needed cleaning that needs to be done gets done, for a bit then cleaning the house becomes nap time, then nap time becomes turn on the tv and watch mindless things.  Which I’m hoping becomes play xbox time, but we’ll see.

Things have been busy lately, the one thing that we’ve been noticing around the house is that we’re finally in the need for another car, or rather an old truck for me, I’ve tried to purchase one on Craigs list, which turned out pointless, the guy who was going to sell me the old truck was a jerk, rude on the phone and then wouldn’t return my phone calls, and hopes crushed!  So if any of you hear of an old anything that somebody wants to get rid of to help out the Culmer’s give me a halla!

Sometimes you have to make a mess to make things a little neater, I’ve posted several times on here that I’m the worst of the tech’s we have as far as making a mess in the shop, there’s no denying it, but the last couple weeks I’ve been trying to clean up things, organize the LED area better, the company I’m working for has grown a lot since I started working with them a little over 3 years now (I think), when I first started working we had a half a shop, so things just sorta went where ever, I had spots for things then, but it wasn’t to be organized but rather lazy, some things you just left up front so because it’s heavy and I didn’t feel like rolling it all the way in the back, (lazy I know) and the some stuff was in the back, because we never used it, now we’re getting to the point where if I don’t start creating a spot for things I’m going to spend more time looking for things than I am doing whatever it is that I do when I go in.  When I come in now, I do spend more time looking for something that got “put away”, the problem is where one person thinks something should go another (me) doesn’t think it should go there, but that’s just preference, so instead I’m labeling, moving things here and there finding the best places, course I’ve had to stop because I’m doing a load out.  Now it’s the battle of finishing something that’s been interrupted.