Wayne, City Oyster, The Back Room and Boston's on the Beach: Day 3 of a South Florida Vacay!

Did you ever have one of those days that's just a blur? That was yesterday for me.

It went off the rails around 3 pm.

I'm in Florida -- Delray Beach, Florida to be precise. I am staying with friends along with a gal pal from Greenville.

We all had a bit too much fun on Friday night, so we simply lazed around their pool until heading out to hear some music around 3:00.

There is a music venue in Delray called The Back Room. It has opened and closed several times in different locations. The major partner in the joint lives next door to the friends I am visiting.

Yesterday was the grand opening for the fifth iteration of The Back Room. A different band was scheduled to play every hour on the hour from mid afternoon until the wee hours of Sunday morning.

We went to hear some music, but specifically to see the band scheduled to play at 7 pm.

Not only was this event being managed like Fried Chicken Night in Dixie, there was no air conditioning. It was actually two degrees cooler (we measured it) outside in the blazing FL sun that it was inside.

We lasted for about an hour. We were there long enough to realize the bands were already behind schedule. The band we wanted to see now wasn't going to appear before 8 pm.

We left to have dinner in a little joint in Boca that was also having air conditioning issues. I sweated into my pizza for an hour before we headed back to The Back Room. We arrived around 7:00 to learn that the band we wanted to see now wasn't expected on stage until 9 pm. Who's running this circus?

We left and headed to

Atlantic Avenue

. Another band my friends wanted to hear was scheduled to play at Pineapple Groove, formally called City Limits. We had an hour or so to kill before they were supposed to take the stage at 9 pm.

We wandered into City Oyster where I got to say, hi, to my bartender buddy Wayne and have a drink. A couple of seats at the bar cleared and the ladies were able to sit down. The air conditioner was working -- I suspect -- but it was having a hard time keeping up with the press of bodies and humidity. It was at least as hot inside as out.

We finished our drinks and walked the two blocks to Pineapple Groove about 9 pm. We found the doors locked. The band was scheduled to begin at 9:00, but the drummer didn't show up until a couple of minutes earlier and the management refused to open the doors until the band was set up and had performed their sound check. A door man finally appeared and told the few of us waiting outside that it would be 9:30 before the doors opened. Another bit of planning done the gone hole.

Last night was the final night at Boston's on the Beach before it shuts down for an estimated 3-month total renovation. We have friends who play in the band scheduled to entertain, so we headed there.

Two of Boston's three air conditioning units had broken down that day and it was probably close to 100 degrees in there. We did manage to find seating in the area of the one functioning air conditioner, but it was only marginally cooler. The guys in the band looked as though someone had doused them with a garden hose.

The bright spot, however, was that the general manager picked up our tab. It was not insignificant.

We arrived back home around midnight probably several pounds lighter. Air conditioning never felt so good.