---

    More computer fun.
    Before going in to work I finally gave up on my stupid useless Creative Sound Blaster Platinum Live 5.1 (with Live IR!...oo..aah). I removed it and reinstalled my old Turtle Beach Montego that had come with my Dell. The whole reason I'd bought the Creative sound card was for digital sound, and since that wasn't working there seemed little need to continue letting it crash my computer. I stopped at McDonalds, during my commute. I thought the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire contest was supposed to end on the 17th, but all the restaurants around here ended it on their their own, having run out of game cards.

---

    I was very surprised to find mama duck was gone. No duck, no ducklings, no nest. The only thing that remained were some broken egg shells.


I was surprised I hadn't seen any of the ducklings hatch, but then again I hadn't checked on her that much over the weekend. I had noticed she'd moved a bit farther under the rhododendron, so maybe that's when her babies had hatched.
    I finally got my oil change today, in preparation for my U2 road trip tomorrow. I got the Superman DVD in the evening. Even though I had a long drive ahead of me, I stayed up way too late checking the movie out.

---

    I had a lot to do in the morning since I hadn't even packed. The good thing about it being a short trip (and traveling with another guy) was that I was able to pack everything into one gym bag. I made sure to set up my VCR so I wouldn't miss any of my shows. I got to my friend Phil's right at noon, as planned. I stopped along the way for Subway subs as well as for batteries and some disposable cameras. We waited around at Phil's house until Steve and Steve's wife Patty showed up. They'd be following us to Cleveland on a motorcycle.
    By the time we got to the Ohio turnpike Patty had had enough, so she rode the rest of the way with Phil and me in my car. We made it to Cleveland pretty early, at around four. We found some decent parking right near Gund Arena. We paid ten bucks to park while right next to us, in the Gund's own lot, it cost $20. The man running the lot was leery of taking Steve's bike in, so Steve gave him an extra ten. We stood around, engaging in a small tailgate with our subs and some cans of MGD.

A mounted policeman came by and suggested Steve move his bike. The cop assumed the parking lot attendant would leave as soon as the lot was full, no matter what kind of tip Steve had given him. Steve, impressed by the policeman's thoughtfulness, moved his bike to a parking structure. (He got ten bucks back, but still had to pay for the couple hours he'd been here.)
    Steve came back and he, his wife, and I went across the street a place called Jo Jo's Tavern for dinner. When we came back, a policewoman broke up our tailgate, saying we should know better. It was nice of her to wait till we were almost done. At around seven we finally went over to the Gund and find our seats.

Steve and Patty had gotten their tickets late, so they sat high up; Phil and I sat in the lower section, but far back from the stage. We were practically in the corner, since the section next to our left was blocked off by a cement wall (where the arena began to curve) and right behind us was a corporate suite. For the duration of the U2 concert all I could smell was sterno from the chafing dishes behind us. Maybe it was psychosomatic, but I soon began to feel ill. I'd waited for this concert for months, if not years (since the last tour was four years ago), but now it was hard to enjoy because I had horrible migraine.
    I was too far back to use my camera but I was able to record the show. I was puzzled why my audio levels were so low, but after a while it dawned on me that the battery in my bass roll-off filter must be dying. I switched my Sony D100 DAT recorder from Line In to Mic In about midway through the show and was able to get better levels. However, listening to the tape in the parking lot afterward, I could hear distortion during the louder portions which the bass roll-off filter would've helped prevent.

---

    Phil drove my car southwest through Ohio while I nursed my headache. I haven't the faintest idea where we stopped for the night. It was some Travelodge off I-71. I put the room on my credit card; even though it was around two in the morning, there was some other guy ahead of me checking in. Phil picked the bed near the door, but as soon as I turned on the air conditioner he chose the bed farther away. Despite being very tired, I did not sleep all that well. Phil woke first. He was sitting around watching TV after I showered, so he was able to tell me who won Survivor 2 last night. I hadn't seen any of it but had still been interested in seeing the last episode (the same as last year) -- that is until I found out our first U2 show was that night.

    There was a Denny's built on the motel's grounds, so we walked over to breakfast there. We were a couple hours from our second stop, Lexington KY, so I'd assumed we could take our time. But I forgot we had General Admission tickets, so we needed to get there early to get in line. I think we left at eight:thirty and got to Lexington around one. I started the drive but Phil finished it. A line outside of Rupp Arena had already started. I believe were around eighty-fifth, so we were pretty much assured to be the first 300 to get a place inside the Heart. We sat out in line for five hours, so my face and arms and legs got pretty red.

The best thing about Rupp Arena is it's adjacent to a small shopping mall and hotel. We were able to take turns going over there to use the men's room or to buy food and drink. Phil and I ended up having Subway for dinner again.
    There was a bit of commotion when people spotted some large cars pulling into the garage at the end of a sloping driveway. A few minutes later Bono came walking up. He walked slowly and held his left side as if in pain. Looking back it reminds me of the scene depicting Willy Wonka's first appearance (sans somersault). Bono did not stay long; he thanked us for coming and then explained he had to go back in because of a sore throat.

    Wristbands were passed out at around four. I happened to be back at the car changing my shirt, but I heard Phil yelling for me. I ran back to the line just in time to get my wristband.

We were let in at six. There'd been no security searches in Cleveland, but there were now, presumably since we'd be so close to the stage. I was glad I'd decided not to try taping the show.
    Once inside the Heart, we were given a second wristband.

I admit I had been quite skeptical of the whole general admission policy when the band first announced it. I'd expected main floor would be a zoo and had also expected, being so short, I'd be forced to stare at the people's shoulders all night long. But once the concert started, I was an instant convert. There was plenty of room to spread out, no pushing, and a great view of the band -- especially when they walked out onto the ramps and into the crowd.
  
Phil had a sign with him, which he tried to show off to the band. One side had a message for Bono and the other side was a request to Edge for a guitar pick. We had stationed ourselves near the tip of the Heart, but although the Bono and Edge walked by us frequently they seemed to take great pains in not noticing Phil's sign. Midway through the show, Phil felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to find Paul McGuinness, the band's manager, standing there with a big smile on his face and a guitar pick in his hand! After the show, Dallas Schoo, Edge's guitar tech (who is also from Lexington apparently), came out onto the ramp and passed out some guitar picks. I got one too. Mine turned out to be one of Bono's.
    All this added up for one exceptional show and one memorable night.
  

---

    I drove back. I did not intend to, but I ended up driving the whole way. I kept planning on stopping someplace for the night, but then kept deciding to go on for another hour. Finally, I dropped Phil off at his house at five and then got to my house at five:thirty. I slept till around eleven. I almost immediately started digitizing my Cleveland recording, so I could make CDRs and MP3s of it. I also, once I got dressed, headed out to Rite Aid to get my Lexington photos developed. I pretty much spent the rest of the day in audio work. I soon found out I was running out of room for such large WAV files, so I was forced to clear off a lot of old MP3 albums, burning them to CDR (finally). In the evening, I watched most of my tape of the shows from Thursday and Friday.

---

    I got up late Sunday too. I heard someone at the door but, since I wasn't dressed, I pretended to not be home. This person was persistent though; not only did he ring the doorbell he actually called me up on his cell phone. It turned out he was my brother Mark, who'd bicycled down here.
    By night time I'd finished my U2 CDs and had ripped MP3s of the tracks. I uploaded them to my web space, created a HTML page for them, and then announced their availability to the Wire mailing list.

---

    I took two days off last week, and now it was my coworker Reid's turn. He was taking the week off to go hiking and camping in Canada. I would be working the morning shift this week. It was tough for me getting up early enough, but it was a definite treat to get out at three:thirty and have most of the day still ahead of me. There was more to do during the morning shift, too, so it passed by a lot faster. The traffic was terrible though, a lot worse than I'd expected.

---

    There was talk of me working the afternoon shift for Jeremy, but I worked the morning again. Once again it passed quickly. Dave came in for a couple hours too. Afterward I stopped at Borders and picked up a couple books. I also got The Official X-Files Magazine -- only to discover I'd already bought it a while back. I also found a Mother's Day present for the weekend. I got a lot of feedback about my U2 MP3s too.

---

    I got a bit of a shock this morning. My U2 page was down. I'd exceeded my available bandwidth so my U2 page had been taken offline. I hadn't known my web host had a bandwidth, and I was even more agog when I found out that limit was 20GB. And that had all been downloaded in two and a half days!
    Dave came back in for a couple hours. While he was here we had some substantial hardware trouble. A major circuit board went out and we lost half our channels. Luckily it faulted to the spare so we were able to operate, but we needed to get a replacement quickly from our San Diego supplier.
    Back home, I definitely needed to cut the grass. I parked in the driveway so as to get the lawn mower out, and I entered the house from the front door. I mention this detail since we don't use the front door much, so this would explain why my key for the house alarm got stuck in the lock. Luckily I had been able to deactivate the alarm, but the key appeared to be permanently unmoveable. After I finished mowing the lawn I grabbed some pliers and tried to force my alarm key out. It was so firmly wedged in place that the key only bent and twisted, until it completely snapped in two. And to make matters worse, the alarm suddenly became activated -- the red light was on. Oddly, the alarm did not sound. The front door was open, the red light was on, but the alarm was quiet. I closed the front door and the alarm still did not make a sound. I went in through the kitchen door, which opens to the garage, but I was afraid to close this door since it was possible the alarm would go off when I opened it again. This made it seem that the only way to secure the house was to close the garage door. I drove over to my brother's house, closing the garage door behind me, to borrow his alarm key. I used it in the alarm lock by the kitchen door, in the garage. I was not too surprised to see it had no effect, probably because of the broken key in the plate by the front door. The light stayed red and the alarm was still presumably armed. It felt very strange to have to leave the kitchen door open and untouched all night. I almost felt like I should be tip-toeing.

---

    I had to get in touch with my parent company in Atlanta, since I'd been double paid during January. During the long and protracted changeover between being a temp and becoming full-time I'd been paid by both the company and the placement office. And now the placement office wanted the money back. My company was going to pay it and I had to pay my company. The total threatened to come to twelve hundred dollars for two weeks. This was a bit of a shock since I frankly hadn't known I made that much.
    We got our replacement board today. Dave wanted to install it but he did not come in today. He told me he'd install it Saturday. Back home, I bravely tested the kitchen door, closing it and then opening it. I figured it was best to test this in the middle of the afternoon. Once again our alarm, although seemingly activated, remained quiet. Maybe the red light was a just an error light. At least I was able to lock the house up properly tonight and tomorrow.

---

    After being so careful about the alarm, I can't believe I was so stupid. I saw that the newspaper was on the porch, I blissfully went out to get -- opening the front door and setting off the alarm. Its rattling bell was so loud I was dumbstruck; I rushed about from garage to porch, trying to figure out how to shut it off. Finally I remembered to check in the basement for the alarm's box. I was half tempted to start yanking wires and connections, but I saw that there were some buttons and levers I could try. I flicked or pressed them until the alarm shut off. Outside, no one had seemed to take notice. One benefit of using those buttons was that the alarm had gone back to green. This was definitely nicer to look at.
    Jeremy wanted to work the morning shift today, so he could leave afterward for a trip to Disney World. So I came in at my old time. Things got busy late in the afternoon when the techs in Mexico contacted me, describing some problems with their signal quality. Dave also called up to say he'd come in tonight rather than tomorrow to swap our new board.

---

    Had to come in a couple hours to monitor a broadcast. Everything looked the same, as if Dave had not come in last night. I was tempted to swap the board myself, for him. Luckily I reached him at his house. He explained he'd tried to swap the board but it did not correct our problem. He'd left the new board in the chassis and put the old board in the box. This was good to know, since I'd almost been about to unknowingly put the old board back in.
    Back home, I spent some of the afternoon toying with putting a poll up on my homepage. I downloaded a CGI script I could personalize, but I was a bit too intimidated to implement it. Instead, I stuck with create-a-poll.com which would host and maintain my surveys for free. Unfortunately the pop-up window which displays the poll results also contains ads. But it wasn't bad enough to be unacceptable.
    I went out around dinner time to do some more shopping for Mother's Day. I also picked up some stuff for the next road trip. This would be to Chicago, and this would start tomorrow.

---

    I got up early to be ready for Phil's call. He contacted me at 10:30, from St Louis. He was running ahead of schedule and would be at Detroit's Metro Airport at around noon. He'd call me again from there. His week-long fishing tournament in Arkansas was done, but his travels were not. I would be picking him up at the airport, but like some crazed taxi driver I would be taking him home by a very circuitous route. We'd be going from Romulus to Redford by way of Chicago Illinois!
    I used the time to do some last minute shopping for provisions and was back home for his call at around one. I hit the road immediately. I needed to get batteries though -- to avoid what had happened to my tape in Cleveland -- and my way was complicated by the fact the connector between I-75 and Telegraph is closed, so I did not show up till around two. I'm not used to driving around the airport and I realized I'd missed my chance to meet Phil outside the terminal. I decided to loop around and give it another try, but Phil happened to have camped out at the corner, beyond the terminal. He spotted me before I saw him. I swerved over, picked him up, and we followed the road right onto I-94 which we took west across Michigan and onward to Chicago.
    During the drive, I told Phil about the mama duck and about how I never saw any ducklings. He said the eggs probably got raided by some cat. This would be a horrible ending for the story, but i guess it might possibly be true. It was a shame though to think I'd built up the hatching with my webcam only to have it possibly end like that, as well as that this might've happened right outside our front door without our knowledge.
    I can recall a few U2 road trips to Chicago where the downtown driving was horrible. I thought it might be better since it was a Sunday, but then again it was Mother's Day so a lot of families were out on the road. The venue, United Center, was in the city and was easy to find.

Luckily we gained an hour, crossing into a new time zone, so we actually arrived early. We killed time by walking around the venue, by checking out the GA line and buying some souvenirs at a nearby stand, and by dining on our Subway subs in the parking lot.
   
    Our seats were in the second level, on Adam's side, about halfway back. I swear the usher at that level deliberately pointed me in the wrong direction. It turned out my section was close by, but I walked clear around the concourse before I found out. The show was pleasingly different. It was U2's second of four shows here so the band had decided to change things around. This happened to benefit us too, since tonight's setlist was different than the last two.




We happened to be sitting right next to the exit. This proved particularly unnerving when a security cop stood nearby. Even though U2 has stated they don't mind tape recorders and cameras being brought to their shows, I couldn't help feeling quite self-conscious. It only got worse some other cops and security people assembled nearby, but, thankfully, they seemed more interesting in taking a peek at the show.
    There was no hope of a leisurely drive back since both Phil and I had to go back to work tomorrow. Phil had it worse since he started work earlier and also hadn't been home in a week. He started the drive back and I finished it.

---

    We gained that hour back so I don't think I got home till around five. I slept a couple hours and then blearily forced myself to go to work. There was no way I could've taken the day off since Jeremy, our back-up guy, was in Florida this week. It turned out to be a mercifully quiet day -- as far as phone calls went. We still had our share of oddities. For one thing I was having trouble with our scheduling computer. Reid had used it this morning, but now I was unable to connect to the network on it. I finally gave up. We got a call from a guy in another building, wanting us to check some video setting. He walked Reid through it. Later in the evening, I got a call from Mexico saying they had lost video. They still had audio going out but their screens were black. I wasn't sure what to do, especially because the chanel in question was Mexico's own and not the channel we work with; so I finally contacted our support service in California. At least there's a guy there who can speak Spanish.

---

    The problems with our scheduling computer continued. So we tried making calls to our corporate help desk. It was another one of those deals where the computer is supported by one group but the software is supported by another but this particular program is supported by a third. And we had to figure whose was which.
    The Mexico problem got solved though. I was able to dial into Mexico's system and transport their log files over to the support center last night. And eventually, it was discovered that the guy who'd called yesterday, in walking Reid through the video settings, had accidentally "muted" Mexico's video through his own computer!
    Later in the day, I was shocked to discover Douglas Adams had died on Friday.

---

    I had maxed out my webspace and could no longer host my bootlegs, but I made arrangements with two U2 FTP services, Zooropa and Blood Red Sky, to host my Chicago MP3s. Our computer problems continued yet again, but this time we got the names of some people to call. They walked us through changing some network settings, but these did not work. At least they were able to steer us in the right direction and before the day was done we finally got an IT person to our room to fix our computer. (His solution? He discovered our other computer could map a path to one of the other buildings, so he just copied its network settings and typed them into the other computer. I kicked myself for not thinking of it myself.)
    I uploaded my Chicago MP3s when I got home. I thought The West Wing season finale was excellent.

---

    Today was finally back to normal. Our computers worked fine once again. Dennis showed up after programming to work on some stuff, so I was able to leave a little early. He needed to effect some major changes, and needed to do this quickly before he went on vacation. I was very upset to realize I'd competely forgotten to tape the season finale of The Sopranos, but glad to see I had a final chance this Saturday.

---

    The day was pleasingly uneventful, and at night we had another poker party. This one was close by to me, at Patti's house. Before the cards came out, we discussed going on our Buffett road trip in June, which would be by sixth and final road trip. Patti's house is close to mine, but no longer close to the others' so they ended up quitting at the pathetic hour of midnight.

---

    It was a busy weekend, a lot more busy than I'm used to, since at night I went out to St Clair Shores for another Li'l Stubby & the Disappointments show at the Blue Goose. As usual I wanted to bootleg it, but this time I brought some new mics which I'd bought off eBay. No offense to people selling mics on eBay, but these did not work as well as hoped, and I ended up with three hours of fairly unusable tape.
    I used to work at the cable company with the bass player, Larry Banner; but both he and I have gone on to other jobs. I guess he's trying to replace us cable company fans, since some girls he works with now showed up for the show. By coincidence, they ended up sitting with me, since (go figure) I had empty chairs at my table. So, a shout out (as the kids say) to Julie, Sherry (sp?), Amy, and Jenny & Pete.

---

    It could be said Summer began today, since our screenhouse was put up. I worked on U2 audio some more, watched the last X-Files of the Mulder era <<sniff>>, and spent the evening working on this very Diary page. (I admit, it was today that I worked on the first week of this page. [And June 20 that I'm working on this week.])

---

    Dave was in again today. He contacted the temp agency which had first hired me and had them check their records. In doing so, he found out I owe my parent company a little less than had been quoted. About a hundred bucks. I got an e-mail confirming the changed amount from Human Resources. Dave still thought I should at most only have to pay for one week of "doubled pay" instead of two, since the parent company had not alerted him of my full-time status in time.
    I tried getting an SFG watch created last week. I'd gotten a confirmation letter on Friday and had sent them my information on Saturday. Today they e-mailed to mention I'd forgotten to provide my credit card number. D'oh!

---

    There was some confusion when Jeremy came back. We'd expected him back on Monday but he swore he'd told us he wasn't coming back till today. Ultimately, it didn't matter. The day started quietly enough, but ended with a bang. As Jeremy left, at five, a special broadcast started. This broadcast turned out to be a big corporate announcement, so it was broadcast on six of our thirteen channels. So people who might normally tune in decided to and discovered that their receiver boxes did not work. So the help desk and I were bombarded with calls. The help desk said they had twenty-five calls in their queue, and my three phone lines were full.
    At night, I listened to the broadcast of Jimmy Buffett's opening night show on Radio Margaritaville. It was in Arizona, so it didn't start till eleven.

---

    We'd recently begun dedicating one of our channels to a different company. We found out now that they were "pissed off" with the way I was entering their show descriptions. I was getting them right off our network computer, so I contacted Traffic and found out who was entering the show descriptions for me. The woman I reached was terribly apologetic, not knowing her descriptions were in use already. She'd merely typed out skeleton or "dummy" schedules. She e-mailed me a spreadsheet of a month's worth of programming and I was able to type in the schedules as that company wanted.
    In the afternoon I added a survey to my Buffett page.

---

    It was tough to work today since I knew I had tomorrow off so I could go to Toronto for my fourth U2 show. It felt like a Friday so I kept thinking it was Friday. The second Lord of the Rings trailer was supposed to be released, so I kept thinking I'd be able to download it some time today.
    Phil called me up to discuss plans for tomorrow. I was disappointed to find out he was working, and it was possible he might not be out till two. That meant we might not get to Toronto till seven. We'd still make it in to see U2 at eight, but it meant we'd miss PJ Harvey and would also be rushed and harried.
    In the evening, Dennis came back, along with Dave. Dennis had gotten the okay to put his changes into effect, online, but after programming. I was once again able to leave a little early. I came home to find Steve had e-mailed me. He'd tried to go to Chicago with us but plans had fallen through, but it appeared he'd be able to go tomorrow. I had to break the bad news to him that we might not be able to leave till two.

---

    I had been planning on buying more provisions and getting another oil change this morning, but Phil got out of work early after all. Amazingly, since our first U2 road trip I'd already put three thousand miles on my car and was ready for another oil change. But Phil called me up at around eleven or eleven:thirty, saying he was already on his way home. I changed my plans and went straight up to Redford to meet him. Unfortunately, in my hurry to leave I'd forgotten my passport. I wouldn't necessarily need it to cross over into Canada, but it would've been nice to have just in case. I was tempted to head back to my house, but we decided to go on without it. As planned, Steve came with us. I was thinking he'd ride his motorcycle again, but instead he took over the backseat, stretching out and taking a nap with his daughter's Powerpuff Girls pillow (Buttercup, to be specific).
    Luckily I did not need my passport when we arrived at customs; neither did the others. Phil tried to coach me as I pulled up to the booth. The woman asked "Where are you going?" and, at a loss, I replied "Yes." The guys found this incredibly funny; but for some reason I'd heard the woman say "Are you going?" which hadn't made any sense either. After a couple questions we were able to proceed, taking the Ambassador Bridge over the Detroit River and into Canada. I was afraid I was catching a cold, so I was under the influence of Nyquil; I drove half the way and Phil drove the rest. We switched at around London, stopping at a donut shop where I got a big cup of thick chicken noodle soup. Phil had the worst of it, driving through a rainstorm so heavy his view was whited out. I was completely unaware, since I napped through it. We'd been pretty lucky in driving, as our Ticketmaster and Mapblast maps had served us well. I relied on the Air Canada Centre website's own map this time, and we ended up getting lost. I quote: "Take Hwy 427 South to Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) East (Toronto). QEW turns into Gardiner Expressway." As we headed toward downtown Toronto, the 427 forked into the Gardiner Expressway and the QEW. The instructions specifically said to follow the QEW, so I thought this must ne some kind of shortcut as opposed to just getting onto the Gardiner Expressway. I directed Phil to take the QEW, where we unceremoniously unloaded onto a busy freeway going the opposite direction. We didn't even have a choice of which direction to take. We got off at the next exit, hoping this might be a service drive with which we could take an overpass over to the opposite side. Instead, we were on some residential street, running level with the expressway, blocked by a tall cement soundproofing wall. Eventually we got ourselves turned around and onto the QEW heading east. As we'd been told, the QEW turned into the Gardiner Expressway, right around where we'd been. We followed the Gardiner into downtown, with the wide expanse of Lake Ontario to our right. At least we were able to get to the Air Canada Centre easily enough, since it was right off the expressway.

    The first order of business, besides cracklng open some of Phil's MGDs, was to get Steve a ticket. This turned out to be quite easy. Steve and Phil returned to the car in minutes, having already procured a GA ticket. We hung out in the car, waiting for show time. I went in early. I didn't want to drink too much since I usually screw up my taping in thos situations; and besides, who wants to see a U2 show in an altered state. Our seats were much like the ones in Chicago, but this time we were a little bit higher up and we had row two. For some reason teh second level started with a "3--". I was really hungry so I bought a hot dog and a diet Coke. The total came to about seven bucks Canadian; I handed over a US $10 and got about seven bucks Canadian in change! The show was a mixture of the Cleveland/Lexington and Chicago shows, plus the band even threw in an excellent version of "Out of Control". I started taping early, to catch the start of "Elevation". I forgot to slide the "Hold" level over and my DAT recorder accidentally shut off! Luckily I discovered this some minutes later, but it meant I missed the first song!





    We met up with Steve back at the car. He'd managed to scam his way close to the side of the Heart, he said. He'd kept telling people his wife was up ahead and they'd let him go past. Pretty clever, I thought; although it meant taking his wife's name in vain. Since tomorrow was a Saturday, we felt free to hang out afterward and maybe meet the band. Unfortunately, they'd already left to go to the Much Music studios for a TV appearance. So we headed back. For some reason, Steve started feeling ill. Maybe he was overcome by the night -- maybe there'd been sterno somewhere down on mail floor -- but more likcly it was the fact he'd had lunch this morning at a place which had already made him sick once before. Luckily, he mainly slept through it.

My shift was first and this time we had heavy fog to drive through. We stopped for gas, once again around London (the halfway point). I got some snacks with my Canadian change. Phil took us through customs and got onto I-96 to his house. I then tried to take Southfield home, but it was closed for weekend construction. I was stuck on the service drive, which seemed to last forever. At last gained I-75 south, which finally took me home, at around five in the morning.

---

    I got up around eleven on Saturday. I spent the day digitizing the audio from Toronto. In the evening my little nephew Jake came over. My sister-in-law had some friends over, who had moved away and whom she hadn't seen in a while. She knew Jake would be bored, so he came over here while she played hostess. We watched a tape of Rugrats in Paris and lots of Cartoon Network. I also cleaned out my fish's cube.

---

    My throat felt really raw when I got up. It appeared I officially had a cold. Jake and I watched a tape of The Emperor's New Groove and I had some chicken soup for lunch. In the afternoon my sister-in-law's sister was having a birthday party for her mother-in-law. So we went over there, and Jake finally rejoined his family. My nephew Joe told me his girlfriend, Sarah (?), had won a radio station contest for two tickets to see either U2 at the Palace this coming Wednesday or the Dave Matthews Band at the Tigers' Comerica Park. She chose Dave Matthews.

---

    Memorial Day. I finished up my Toronto audio and began uploading the MP3s to Blood Red Sky. Normally I should have the day off, but to our international customers it was just another Monday. As if to emphasize this there Canadian and Mexican shows scheduled all day, from eight AM to nine PM. Jeremy volunteered to work most of the day, since he would get overtime, and I went in from five to nine. Nothing big had been planned for Memorial Day so I wasn't missing out. I'd had my holiday cookout yesterday, I guess. Southfield was again closed for weekend construction. Next week it would be closed for good, all Summer, so I wanted to use it as much as possible till then. There were no calls and nothing happened during my shift, so, apart from being a warm body in front of a phone, there was no reason for me to show up.

---

    I finished uploading my MP3s to Blood Red Sky, so now I uploaded them to Zooropa. I got a slew of e-mails from my friends Mike and Joe this morning before work, discussing movies they'd seen (Shrek in theaters and Nurse Betty on DVD). It was nice to finally drive normally on Southfield. The work day was fairly uneventful. Once more it felt strange since I had tomorrow off again; it would be an interesting week with a break in the middle. I was delighted to discover my pen pal from Illinois had sent me two letters. She'd missed The West Wing finale but had seen The X-Files's. Toronto audio and began uploading the MP3s to Blood Red Sky. Late in the day I discovered there was some interest in hearing U2 perform "Out of Control", but people were having difficulty logging into the BRS and Zooropa FTP sites, so I decided to make a new MP3 of the song to upload to my Music page. I stayed up till two:thirty, probably too eager to get to sleep since I'd be seeing U2 once again. This time would be different. It was the hometown show, so at last I could see them without the trip being preceded and followed by a five-hour drive.

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    Unlike the past U2 concerts, I didn't have to wake up early. I indulged myself and stayed in bed till eleven. Despite its being our last show of the tour (so far at least), there was sadly little in the way of plans or festivities. Phil was working, and was in fact taking a date to the show, so he'd be going separately. He'd also invited his neice and nephew from Grayling to come down. Oddly, since he had a date, Steve and I would be meeting Phil's family at his house at four or four:thirty. I got an e-mail from Mike, discussing the Jimmy Buffett road trip we had coming up. This was only a couple days away, but it was difficult to concentrate on it with my final U2 show so imminent.
    At about noon or one I went out to finally get my car an oil change. I also treated myself to a lunch at Arby's, ordering my customary chicken cordon bleu sandwich with jalapeño Bites on the side. And I filled up the tank. I went back home for a while, but left at around three. I packed a small cooler of water and diet pop, for after the show; and I also packed plenty of Cold-Eez and Halls lozenges. I was worried my cold would get the better of me, now that it had moved into my chest, and I could just imagine recording two hours of me coughing and hawking tonight. It was a good thing I left early, since Southfield was busy. I think I arrived at quarter to four. Steve was already there, having ridden on his motorcycle, and Steve's wife was just arriving too in their car. Phil's house was open, but he was gone. A note taped to the storm door listed the six people who were to meet here and how we should look for him at the Palace parking lot. It irked me how we had to wait around for Phil's relatives while he was already at the show; but mostly it irked me that it was already so late. It's a horrible drive up to Auburn Hills on a normal evening, but I expected it to be even worse because of the concert and because of Summer construction.
    Four:o'clock came and went. Steve was seriously talking about leaving with Phil's relatives, but I figured my impatience and antsiness was probably wearing off on him. Luckily, Phil's neice Rachel, his nephew Ravi, and their friend Emily rolled up in a big pick-up right at four:thirty. They'd been delayed since Rachel and Emily had had to go to Ann Arbor to pick Ravi up at U of M. I didn't think my car was big enough, but Steve insisted we take my Saturn. He softened it by offering to drive. I rode shotgun, but I felt sorry for the poor people wedged in back. Rachel ended up sitting on her brother's legs and Emily was squashed into the middle. There was a tie-up on Telegraph but I-75 was surprisingly open. We made pretty good time, arriving at the Palace at six. We circled the lot looking for Phil's new pick-up but eventually gave up and parked. Steve was desperate for a beer so he bummed one off the people parked next to us. I found out they'd been at the first Chicago show (the night before I'd seen U2 there). Ravi and the girls went off to find Phil and came back quite quickly. He was irritated we hadn't found him sooner (probably because he'd been sitting alone since he'd been stood up). We'd counted on Phil to have the food, but all he had was his cooler of MGD. He'd had so much running around to do after work he hadn't had a chance to pick up any food. We hung out by his truck, shooting the bull till around eight.
    I went inside the latest yet, missing PJ Harvey's set. I guess I wasn't the only one, since main floor and the lower level looked rather ill attended.

rt It was too late for food, so I ended up going without my dinner. Phil had planned on sitting elsewhere, but ended up using one of my tickets. I'd bought these tickets through a pre-sale event on Ticketmaster, so they were different than our Propaganda seats. We were on the opposite side of the arena from the stage. The view wasn't too good, but the sound was great. Adam's bass vibrated like never before; I could feel it tickling my sleeves and pantlegs. And Edge's guitar sounded a lot more prominent too (since we'd been on Adam's side each time, I wondered if this meant their audio was stereophonic).

The band put on a great show, but I was extremely disappointed in the crowd. I was hoping we'd be great hosts, but instead I saw way too many people sitting down through the show. In fact, a guy behind actually said something to me about blocking his view! I'd stood up through all four of the shows I'd seen, and the hell I'd be sitting down now for the last one! It even seemed Bono could sense there was something lacking in the audience participation. He referred to Detroit and especially "Detroit City" frequently, as if t gauge if we were still with him. What was worse was how many people flooded the exits before the first encore. There'd been talk of U2 returning to the US in the Fall after the European leg of the tour. I saw Detroit's chances of another show going out the exits too. To top it off, Bono actually referred to us as "Detroit, Ohio" at the end.

    We met up at Phil's truck afterward. But Phil and I felt like waiting for the band. It was our last chance, but it seemed like a longshot when I found out they had a show tomorrow in Buffalo. I figured they'd left and were already on their way. We went over to where the buses and trucks were loading, but, as expected, security shooed us away after a while. It was quite cold now, but I didn't feel too bad. I guess all the cough and throat lozenges had done their work. Phil took his relatives home and I drove Steve and Patti back. Once again Steve stretched out across the back seat.

We were still hungry, so we stopped at the Taco Bell at Telegraph and 8 Mile. I wondered if other concert-goers had the same idea, since there was quite a drive-thru line. The guys inside seemed ill-prepared too, since they didn't have rice for the Great Stuft burritos nor nacho fixings -- which were two things we'd wanted to order. I got a Great Stuft burrito anyway -- which I was pleased to find was sturdy enough to be a "car food" -- and Steve ordered a Mexican pizza, burritos, and soft tacos for himself and his wife. The guys inside screwed up our orders; Steve, through the back window, either returned stuff or accepted stuff, and we got our order piecemeal. The people behind us probably hated us.
    Steve had ordered so much, he gave me a taco, which I ate when we got to Phil's. Steve left his motorcycle there, saying it was too late to start it up now. Phil came out to tell me Ravi thought he'd left a sweatshirt in my car. And then that was it. Phil went back inside, Steve and Patty drove off, and our great month of U2 road trips came to a quiet end. At least i got to listen to my DAT on the way home. Phil tried to suggest Bono meant that "Detroit, Ohio" to include people who'd come up from Ohio, but I knew otherwise. There was no pause between "Detroit" and "Ohio", and I've got the tape to prove it. I took Southfield back again, trying to avoid the construction on Telegraph; but once more Southfield was closed off for the night, so I was yet again stuck on the service drive. Tomorrow was another work day so I tried to get some sleep, but I was too restless. Maybe it was the excitement of the day, maybe it was the fact that I knew I needed to sleep, but I didn't drop off til around four -- as if I'd driven five hours and just gotten home.

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    I started work on digitizing my U2 audio as soon as I got up. I even brought my DAT with me so I could listen to the concert some more on the way to work. It felt strange knowing I only had two days left until the weekend. It was a fairly quiet day, but I guess yesterday had been busy. I worked on the U2 audio all night when I got home, finally burning the first CD before I went to bed.

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