Working and the Texas heat

I’m at the office today…working hard, can’t you tell? Mister Man is working for me this weekend, two days with them which got me thinking how I was going to handle ACL in September. I usually only go on site twice a year, ACL Festival and SXSW the rest of the time I have crews to do the shows. But ACL and my Columbia Records and Spin Magazine showcases during south by are my babies.

Shouldn’t be a big deal but this is the first year I’ll be doing ACL since my diagnoses and I haven’t mentioned the ‘D’ word to anyone with the festival. (And I’m not planning on mentioning it) I wouldn’t be concerned except I just read this article about diabetics not handling heat well and I remembered that last year (when I’m fairly certain I was an undiagnosed diabetic) I got sick from heat stroke in the 100 plus temperature and actually fell out and had to go into the production trailer and lay down.

I know this is still two months away but I’m trying to get all my little ducks in a row so I can stop worrying about it. And yes I’m worried about it. There’s no way to limit my heat exposure for those three days….I’ll be riding around on my golf cart between stages from 7am to 11pm making sure all our gear is working and all the bands are happy. No way out of it….and frankly I wouldn’t want to get out of it, like I said it’s my baby. But I also would prefer not to fall flat on my face from heat stroke again if at all possible.

Lots of water drinking will be going on….last year I lived on Gatorade but that has the carb count from hell so I won’t be drinking it this year. The festival caters three meals a day, the food court is always open and they always have really healthy choices so eating on time isn’t a problem or a worry….just the damn heat….