Cold enough for you?
This weekend was the coldest weather in a very long time across much of the upper Midwest. This kind of brutal weather can really make loading in and out a real difficult task.
This last weekend (Jan. 18th & 19th 2008) I had two corporate events to perform, one on Friday night and one on Saturday night. Normally this wouldn’t be any big deal, but the temperatures fell to the coldest it has been in a long time and that made the load in and out one heck of a miserable time.
The air temperature was in the negative numbers with a wind chill that made it feel like it was negative 35 degrees below zero. The weather man said that if you are outside for anything that you have less then twelve minutes before frost bite would set in.
Taking this to heart I made sure I was well protected with two pairs of socks, thick warm pants, shirt, sweat shirt, warm gloves, hat, ear muffs and plenty of warm cocoa. Even with all that, I was still chilled to the bone.
I planned to arrive extra early to the location sites just so my equipment would have adequate time to warm up to room temperature before starting them up. The extreme temps made what should have been just another easy load in/out a complete pain in the neck.
It’s times like this when I ask myself, why do some DJs lower their rates during the winter months when they have to battle weather like this?
Jeff Richards: Party Time Productions