Memorial Day Weekend has begun.

The band makes a ton of money on Memorial Day Weekend.

We have an annual gig with a company that owns several mortuaries and cemeteries (not sure what the difference is). They pay the band beaucoup bucks to have solo pipers playing practically all day long at three of their cemeteries. Then on Sunday and Monday morning the band has a full performance at all three cemeteries.

Last year I signed up for two hours of piping; one on Sunday and the other on Monday morning. This year - in the spirit of being a good band member, I signed up for six hours; three today (exhausting), one on Sunday and two on Monday morning (I'll miss one of the full band performances).

My wife is in Texas and so it's just me and my son at home. We have been moving him from one room to another and worked on that all morning - it was kinda like moving a whole house full of stuff; man he's got a lot of junk. Anyway, I worked on that all morning and we hauled a truck load of items off to the thrift store. We did some more work and then I headed off to put in my three hours piping.

The first hour was great. I have eleven tunes that I am playing. I timed each out last night and if I play them all through twice I'll have about forty minutes of piping.

After a break, I was back at it again. I could feel the burn towards the end of that set and wasn't anxious to get back out after my last break. But I did.

Whilst playing the last set, I had a young lady come up to me and request that I play Scotland the Brave. She said that she had just returned from a visit to Scotland and missed it. I obliged - twice through! She was very grateful and had a guy take her photo with me. I had several people thank me for playing and it seemed worth the effort. I'm pretty tired and glad I only signed up for one hour tomorrow.