Our WOW 2022 - Hot Night

Last night we had our 2022 Parkside Wine on Wednesday. It was our first WOW hosting since 2019. The party was very successful with 34 people showing up despite the heat of the day at 88 degrees and the threat of rain which thankfully held off. The temperatures dropped as the evening went on. 

We signed up to host this WOW several months ago and in hindsight it probably wasn't a good idea to do it so soon after getting back from vacation in the Adirondacks with our family. Our vacation was set up a year ago. Well, we had four days to get ready but that time also included recovery time from our week in Long Lake with those four grandchildren. We were exhausted. I got sick with a cold too when we returned to Buffalo. 

There is always a lot of prep work for hosting one of these events that included lots of shopping and getting the backyard ready. It took a couple of days to get things ready. Becky made some cookies and some salsa along with some other snacks which were very appreciated. 

People arrived right at 7 pm and everyone was gone by 9:30. That was perfect. We cleaned up and were all done by 10. There was plenty of wine and food. And chairs too. Often at these WOWs there are never enough chairs and many people have no option but to stand around all evening. We had over 30 chairs available. It was also nice that we had the shelter of the backyard sunroom for the food table. I bug bombed the yard the previous day and we also had plenty of bug candles scattered around. It really wasn't too bad with the bugs and it had become breezy later in the evening which helped with keeping them away. It was also nice to have the lights on in the yard including the sunroom party lights.

I used our portable bluetooth speaker for the music on a flash drive. The sound was OK for this crowd but not great. I really need to upgrade the backyard speakers. It's been fine for me sitting in the sunroom with the little stereo but I really do need something better for large crowds not that we entertain these days like we used to do. 

I played some mixes on the speaker that were all live cuts that were blended together on individual mix files. The music sounded like a concert with the crowd sounds blended together to create the illusion of one long show with different bands. I got a lot of nice comments about the music. A lot of WOWs have no music at all although next week Greg and Karima will have some very nice jazz playing.

I had lots of conversations last night and although I wasn't coughing as much anymore I still had problems with my voice which everyone seemed to notice. I was glad to be able to tell them I had a negative covid test that morning.