Feast or Famine

I haven't mentioned it before, but I play guitar in a band. We started as a bunch of guys from work who got together to make some music in our "spare time" and are still doing it after over 10 years. The name: Mile Marker Zero, kinda laid-back-Jimmy-Buffet-ish-Motown-danceable-rock-and-roll music, with a few country tunes thrown in for those lovers of that genre. We don't get paid, generally, mostly because we do a lot of charity stuff. But it's a lot easier to do volunteer work when you're having fun and doing what you want to do, despite that when you were younger your mom said such "talent" would never put food on the table! Any funds from paying gigs goes into a kitty, and used for buying shared equipment, such as PA's, monitors, etc.
Anyway, this weekend is loaded! Friday night from 10 to midnight we play at the Mauldin, SC, Golden Strip Relay for Life (for free), then play Saturday from 12:30 to 3:30 pm (for free) for the Hands on Greenville (SC) appreciation luncheon (we have played this venue for the last 4 years, and it draws some 1200 volunteers!), then Saturday evening from 7 to 10 pm at the Greenville Drive baseball game (for a whopping $225!). That's 3 gigs in the space of 24 hours! My fingers will have blisters!
Jack Nicklaus once said for every hour on the golf course, you should have 8 hours of practice. Well, we have far exceeded that ratio, plus if you divide our income by the numbers of hours practicing, travel, setting up, and tearing down, it works out to about 33 cents per hour! Ya gotta love doing it!
Some people ask about groupies. Well, I could see that as a fringe benefit, but give me a couple of good roadies anytime! Now that would be great! Someone else to set up and tear down, all I gotta do is step up and play! POOF! Back to reality, Steve-O.
But such is the life of a rock and roll star...