Here is a picture of a bush party out on the prairies. There’s Alf and Janet, and between them in the background is Bill Tronnes (say “Troh’-nezz”). I can’t at the moment recall the other guy. That’s Bill’s guitar in the foreground. As you see, the river valleys out west do have lots of trees. It makes them a favorite spot for this kind of get-together. It must have been early Spring as the trees are bare and the guys are wearing quilted jackets. In Florida, you’d be hard pressed to find four people who wouldn’t steal the picnic table.

It also narrows down the suspects to that hefty woman that can’t pay her bill till next week, but seems to have hundreds of dollars to download iTunes all day long. I’m considering locking Apple iTunes completely off my system because of how it operates. Whatever the cause, Apple is at the root of it all. I also found out that Netgear routers can cause headaches if you have two of them transmitting on the same channel with the same SSID. It confuses the antennas on the remotes.
In case you are wondering why all the thrilling tech material these past few days, blame the weather. Some hurricane that was supposed to stay in Mexico came back up this way and dumped water everywhere. The Taurus also has a nasty habit of the power steering cutting out if you hit a puddle just the wrong way. That’s why I could not let Wallace drive around. Rain keeps me indoors taking care of logistics and drinking much more coffee than I should. It’s decaf.
This also means new music. I did not know “Kokomo” was the Beach Boys, and I’ve rejected a few songs by Melanie because they are just too harsh from what I remember them to be. Her real name was Melanie Safka, which explains why she went by Melanie. However, I may consider her version of “Look What They’ve Done To My Song” as break music. May too the theme from Andy Griffith, although there are parts of that I’ll have to cut out, like that horrible saxophone riff. I’m also doing “Hold On Tight To Your Dreams”.
No high-hat yet. Don’t worry, I’ll break down soon. I’ve been using the tambourine and can now reliably play most of my previous list on the backbeat. Yes, there is a trick to it and I’m not saying. I have not tried any of this in front of a live audience. But that is what Jimbo’s is for, see?
Yes, folks, I have developed a version of Tennis Elbow called Bass-player’s Shoulder. Upper arm, actually. It took a while to figure out, since I assumed any injury would be my wrists. Okay, I have weak wrists. That’s weak, not limp. The cause is I use a pick and [therefore] hold my arm more in front of the instrument, like a flat-top guitar player’s stance.
Hmmm, looking around I see there are hardly any photos of me playing bass. That won’t do. It makes sense, I usually play inside where my self-timing camera won’t work. I was examining how I held the bass because of the pain in my upper arm. I never did get into finger-picking as I find it makes for over-playing. Why play four notes when thirty-two will fit? I know that isn’t true, any more than considering that kind of playing a desperate attempt by an ex-guitar player to look cool, but that is the way I see it.
Upon reading over the instructions I wrote about burning a CD, I’m tempted to publish my own. (It is over half completed already.) Even if I just make a few copies for sale in the shop, you know how it goes once you’ve printed the first one. I followed my rule of non-technical wording and after the lesson this morning it may be a good idea to get something together. It would be a short saddle booklet (means folded and stapled at the crease) that explains how to clone and rip CDs. I even have the subtitle which goes “What About The Rest Of Us?”

Of course, a lot of people might ask why I don’t just put my booklet on CD. Ahem, I’m dumb. But I ain’t THAT dumb.