No promises!: There's always SOMETHING

Saturday, December 02, 2006

There's always SOMETHING

I called TJ from the bus as we left the mall in Gainesville and were heading to the stadium. The conversation went something like, "Well, this has been pleasantly uneventful. No disasters to speak of...I hardly know what to do with myself!" Well. Then we got to the game. It was a little high school in thousands of acres of pastureland. Both sides of the stadium had aluminum bleachers...I spent most of the night picking up bits of band kid debris from under the bleachers all night long. The first part of the evening was by far the most interesting.

We arrived and got the buses parked and unloaded. There was another bus pulling in and they decided that the equipment truck needed to move so something else could park inside the gate, so they told them to back up, and they very helpfully stood there waving him back. Before I go any further, let's review some geometry:

Right triangle:

Suppose that the vertical line is a power pole. Suppose that the horizontal line is the ground. Suppose that the diagonal line is a set of guide wires for power lines powerful enough to run 4 enormous stadium lights, various floodlights, 2 concession stands, and 2 restrooms.

Rectangle:

Now imagine a tall rectangle that can just fit inside the right triangle. Imagine that it looks like a rental truck that was just emptied of, oh, say a marching band's equipment.

So...the equipment truck is being waved back through the right triangle booby trap by some very helpful guy. He makes sure they have LOTS of room between the truck and the power pole...I mean, who would want to run into the power pole, right? As it's pitch black outside, nobody pays attention to the guide wires. At this point I'm going to switch to my personal experience.

I headed to the stands with a chaperon to clear out a spot for the band. We made it about halfway to the bleachers and I was making a snide remark about the canned music they were playing when suddenly all the lights go out, and I hear fireworks. "What? That's a little much, don't you think?" Mrs. McCorvey and I turn around to see the fireworks as the crowd oooohs and aaaahs. We both realize at the same time that these fireworks are mighty low to the ground, and are precisely where we left the band kids with the director. As my eyes adjust to the dark I see them scattering in all directions away from the green and blue sparks. Mrs. McCorvey and I sprint back to the kids and make sure everyone is OK - the whole time I'm thinking, "Turn the friggin LIGHTS back on!!" Once I get there I have finally processed the whole situation and have realized that the transformer blew - I remember the blue and green sparks from Ivan.

The band kids were split in half - one half was with Mr. K and the other half was herded back into the buses on the other side of the sparking and smoking transformer. I had to go all the way around the stadium and THROUGH the enemy camp's - er, the opposing team's bleachers to get to them. By the time I got them all off the buses and lined up the power company had OK'd the lines so we just strolled under to the rest of the band. The power truck arrived to a standing ovation and at least two TV cameras (no such thing as bad publicity, right?), and the lights were back on within 40 minutes.

The football teams had to warm up for 45 minutes, though, so we couldn't start the game until 8:20. That set us back at LEAST an hour getting home. We still hadn't made it into the stands to clear out a spot for the band, and when I went over at this point I was cussed up one side and down the other at least 4 times. By Pine Forest fans, just so you know. Everyone from North Marion was pleasant as punch...our home crowd was a bunch of jackass mofos. It was a very unpleasant experience in the stands. At that point I decided that if we had to come in and tear up their stadium and have a crappy night, we had better win. It would be far too embarrassing if we didn't.

Oh, and then there was the temperature...we had a front move through P'cola yesterday - it was hot in the morning, drizzly all day, and progressively got cooler as the day wore on. We left P'cola at 8 AM and it was about 40 degrees. We got to Gainesville and it was 75. We actually had one kid overheat before halftime...it was nuts! We got on the buses after the game and the further west we drove, the more the temperature dropped. We pulled back into the PFHS parking lot around 5:45 AM and there was ice on my car.

Anyway, the ride back was relatively uneventful - I'll blog more on that later. I've been up for 24 hours and my eyes are going to dry up and fall out of my skull if I don't go lay down and rest them. Here's a link to the PNJ - they have a few articles up about the game and one actually mentions that it was the Pine Forest band truck that caused the delay. Thanks, guys.

posted by Jen @ 6:34 AM

2 Comments:

At 9:28 AM, Anonymous said…

You do realize that's it's far too early in the morning for this geometry bullshit, right? LOL
At 10:40 AM, Anonymous said…

Too funny! You know you jinxed yourself from the get-go, right?

Gotta go judge All-Region now. Maybe there's a funny blog it that later tonight.

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