TapWater goes to the Grocery Store

FIELDTRIP to Trader Joes!

We love TJ's. It's the best. Great food, organic choices, good prices. Imagine the entire band heading into the grocery store. We pretty much take the entire place over. The last time we went shopping there we were in Eugene, OR. Anne pushed around the cart with her little grocery list. The band had agreed upon the list prior to the trip, now a customary practice. It's really the easiest, most equal way to shop for the 7 of us: Steve, Wes, Marc, Tim, Ravi, Crystal, and Anne. We all get in there, and spread out like a SWAT team. Crystal goes to grab the bread and tortillas. Steve grabs the cheese and chips and decides to pound down a juice while he's wandering the store. Marc is over looking at the hamburgers and chicken and Wes is buying his carrot juice (not a band purchase -- we are WAY too poor to afford carrot juice). Where is Ravi? Ravi, where are you?! Oh, he's in the beer section, of course, with Tim right next to him.

Anne continues down her list, picking up this and that. She is taking a little while, looking for the best prices on things: pasta, sauce, fresh organic produce, jam, juice. She is taking a while and suddenly she hears a commotion. She looks up to find three or four band members devouring the free samples! "Aye caramba" she mutters and shakes her head with a laugh. "We have to get out of here."

Soon, every so often a band member comes to the cart "I want this", "I want that". "Okay, that's cool" or "No way, it's too expensive. We're on a budget here!" It's pure hilarity to watch. The staff is starting to look at us and chuckle.

Finally, we make it to the check out line. Crystal, Anne, Steve, and Wes load up the conveyor belt with a full cart of stuff. We are all yammering a mile a minute, talking with the checkout clerk. "Yeah, we're a band. We're called TapWater -- check out our web site and listen to our music for free." The young kid is interested and enjoys talking with us. The cashier at the next ailse over, a grayhaired pleasant guy, asks "What kind of music you play?" "American jam rock" answers Anne, "rock, funk, Latin jazz, blues, bluegrass, pop." "We are playing the OregonState Fair at the end of August," chimes in Steve. All the customers are looking at us, unsure of what to think. We continue laughing and talking.

Finally, the bill totals up: $99.01. Anne hands over a stack of ones. The young guy lets out a belly laugh. "ALL ONES!!" The customers start chuckling and Anne says a little sheepishly "Well, we work for tips, you know." He counts the bills and comments "Exactly 100." Anne smiles. "Thanks!" and the raucous band of 7 heads out the door toward iRVin.

Too funny.

Update on iRVin

Hey everyone,
We are currently in Seattle. As it turns out, iRVin has been ill. He fell sick with transmissionitis. Eeeee! We could go into alot of detail but the short of the long of it is that we had it resealed and replaced the pump as well as replaced the torque converter. This is exciting stuff! We actually found an honest mechanic to help us. The whole deal cost $1233.86. Ouch. Then, of course, the smog pump was whining so Wes put on his little jumpsuit and dove in. He found the faulty part, extracted it, chased the part down, and replaced it. The part cost $328.54. And THEN we did an oil change, replaced the wiper blades, and the burnt out headlight: $135.66 total. All in all, Seattle has been an expensive stop over. Lucky for us, we had Dona Laird who opened her home to us, lent us her car, and baked us the best chocolate chip cookies (with walnuts, love the walnuts) in the world!

Pray for iRVin.
love
TapWater