Beyond The Darkness 14

Hellweek Engage(d)

What’s up, everyone? This is probably going to be a short one. I honestly didn’t think I would have time to write this out today, but I’ve found a little time between house cleaning and our son napping to knock this out.

Man, this week… Between work, life, and our washing machine croaking, I was ready to throw in the towel by Tuesday. Look, I’m not a handyman. I have a toolbox in my basement full of random shit that I can use when the time arises, but there are times I don’t have the tools I need to fix things. My first washing machine I ever bought for myself I got right after I moved home from college and I had that workhorse until maybe two years ago. When that finally died, my in-laws blessed us with a used one they purchased. It worked great for a while, but the machine began to malfunction, and the water inside the drum stopped draining. The door would stay locked and it wouldn’t unlock for hours at a time. On Tuesday, the washer once again wouldn’t drain and was holding my sopping clothes hostage. I dug around YouTube for a while until I found a guy who had the same washer and he guided me on how to open the back and screw open the drain plug to wash the water out. After spending an hour trying to dig for the correct attachments for my drill, I got the back open and spent another thirty minutes draining the water from the drum. After that, I turned the machine back on, and the bastard locked me out again. Then it proceeded to fill with water again. Furious, I drained the water once more, then I turned the machine back on and the pump started burning and rattling. I said fuck this, broke the door open, and pronounced the machine dead. We ended up dropping a wonderful chunk of change at Lowe’s on a new machine, and as I type this on Saturday afternoon, I’m currently waiting for the delivery.

All of this was to basically say I wrote absolutely nothing.

*sigh*

Anyways, my shitty week finally ended on a great note. I’ve had a ticket to see one my favorite bands, Killswitch Engage, who were playing just across the river in Lancaster, PA. I’ve seen KE three times before this, twice with Howard Jones and once now with Jesse Leech, so I knew I was in for a great time. And goddamn, it was great time. They blazed through eighteen songs in an hour and fifteen minutes, and I enjoyed every damn second of it. I’ve been to so many concerts in my thirty-six years. I absolutely love seeing live music. It’s like a drug to me. I don’t love a whole lot about the area I currently live it, but I love that live so close to cities like Baltimore and Philadelphia, where so many of the bands that I love always tour through. I currently have tickets for see my favorite band, Mastodon, next month and Pantera in August (not a Pantera fan, but I’m going mostly to see Lamb of God open and to see my boy Zakk Wylde on guitar in place of the late Dimebag Darrell).

Here are some photos from last night’s show. Please excuse the blurriness, as the camera on my phone isn’t all that great.

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Just a quick reminder that the sale over at my webstore is only happening for one more day and ends on Sunday night (4-16-23). Use code “EASTER” at checkout to get 15% off your entire order. This will probably be the last sale for a bit, so take advantage if there are some signed books of mine you’d like to add to your collection.

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That’s it for this week. Thanks, everyone!