Monday, March 31, 2008

Day ninety ... So close.

License Number: S2398****

You are hereby notified that effective 03/25/08 you are eligible to have your passenger license to operate motor vehicles in Massachusetts reinstated. To complete the reinstatement process, you will need to appear at any full service office of the Registry of Motor vehicles with this notice and four pieces of identification (not to mention shelling out the equivalent of one month's rent with a sheepish grin on your face). At that time, your license will be reinstated and issued to you.



Not to jinx myself, but I thought I'd share this tidbit of info that came from the RMV. It's an important letter and I almost didn't get it.

Last week I spent two hours on hold with the RMV waiting to speak to a person. I finally did. He told me that their records indicated that my license wasn't up for reinstatement until January 2010, and that I also still had the "fourth offense" on the books as well.

This is when I am glad I paid good money for a lawyer.

He told me he'd take care of it. Turns out he had to go down to the courthouse and raise some hell. He said he had to make them listen to the recording of the sentencing so they would see they were indeed in error. They did. And a few short days later, I got that letter in the mail.

I have an appointment to have my ignition interlock device put in tomorrow. It's going to cost $125 to install plus the first month's lease payment. Every month, for two years, I will have to bring my car over the Coolidge bridge and pay $85 or risk losing my license for a long, long, time.

If you're doing the math at home, then you know that comes to a total of $2,165 over two years to have the pleasure of blowing into a little box to start my car.

Hmm ... that'll surely drive all the girls wild!

"What's that, Alex?"

"Oh, it's part of the hybrid system of my car. It saves me money on gas while saving the planet at the same time. I call it my green machine."

"Wow, that's so altruistic. Kiss me now, you fool."

"Um ... didn't you just have a beer?"

"Yeah ... why?"

"It's a long story. I'll kiss you when we get to my place ... after your body's metabolized the beer ... in the meantime we can listen to the Big Book on tape as read by Jim Daly."

"You're kind of weird, Alex, but I like it. Hey, your hybrid breath converter is beeping again."

"Oh, yeah. Excuse me. It's time, once again, to save the planet."



Or, something along those lines.

I'll know more soon and I'll be sure to detail all the fun I have at the registry after I go there, via Peter Pan bus, on Wednesday. Keep your fingers crossed.


Just as important as all that is that my fantastic band, Drunk Stuntmen, performed at our CD release party at the Roadhouse in Millers Falls.

Besides the fact that it was tangible proof that indeed we did have a new offering of original material, it was a gig I almost didn't get to play. In fact, all of the gigs we have from now on will be gigs I almost didn't get to play.

You see, almost three months to the day of last week's Roadhouse show was our New Year's Eve party at the same club.

Winter had started nine days prior. I had gotten into my trouble with the law and all bets were off. All I knew at that point was that I had a court date at the end of the January and I had three gigs to complete before a hiatus that couldn't have been better timed.

Those were three of the most nervous gigs I have ever played. I was de-toxing. I was without a license and car and, for all intents and purposes those could have been my very last week of shows with my unfortunately named group.

The recording of the New Year's show (which I will put a link to at the bottom of this page) reveals a serious band at a joyous event. The tension was thick enough to cut and the stakes were very high. I hadn't started this blog yet and, quite frankly, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to quit everything and live like I've only read about. Never has there been so much pressure on me to perform at my best, not only from the 4 others involved in the making of the music, but from me as well.

I left the club that night after a round of big hugs from everyone in the band. Hugs that said, "Good luck, kid! You're gonna' need it!"

Flash forward to a few short but ever lengthening days after the start of spring. I have just celebrated ninety days clean and sober. My personal and professional affairs are in order. I have great new musical gear. I've been working out on an almost daily basis and my diet is in check. I'm going to LA to play on two nationally broadcast TV shows. I've been welcomed back into my band on condition of abstinence from booze and drugs.

And the registry is sending me letters saying they want to give things one more try --try and patch things up and see if we were really made for one another.


I think the break did us a lot of good.




Thanks for reading.

F.A.J.


If you want to hear any or all of the New Year's show I refer to, go to:

http://www.archive.org/details/ds2007-12-31.flac16

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I do believe the Blowalizer is a great idea and should be probably standard equipment in some form for all cars. However i have observed that the current technology is a bit crude,a bit blind and stupid (like many technolgic devices) and then the thing doesnt like to be frozen either . While perhaps a kind of prolonged fine or penalty, a sort of albatross to bear, i think having no licence would be a far worse fate for a couple years.