Another response from the drum machine guy, and he is not interested. He’s emphatic about not being a team worker. His English is a little rough on the small words so it isn’t his first language. I sent yet another drawn out email to see if I could appeal to his sense of musicianship, that there are hundreds if not thousands of performers who suffer for lack of a decent drum box. If he still says no, I’m beginning to run out of cards over here. We need that uncompiled [source] code.Theresa checks in from Camp Wilmie to report a few cracks in the plaster. Maybe she needs a breather, maybe head for South Florida. The job situation here is probably worse and the North Carolina weather better. But it sounds like there is nobody to hang out with up there and that situation is entirely possible in these smaller localities. I find I need a population of at least 150,000 before I can find a few good friends. I grew up in a small town where nobody could believe I didn’t know the names of the Brady Bunch, how could I be so dumb? Let’s just say I was as far from memorizing the names of politicians and actors as most people are from intellectual pursuits. Still am, thank god.
Being it was another day at work, don’t expect too much by way of novelty today. Heat or not, I biked ten miles for exercise and to test the bicycle repairs. That’s a new double-reinforced front tire and repositioned brake cables. It’s a good question if you ask how can I get those cables twisted without noticing right away? Answer: I repeatedly take the bicycle in and out of the back of the station wagon, often in the dark. The handlebars have to be twisted around backwards to fit and it is quite easy to spin them the wrong way. Try it and you’ll immediately get my drift.
Looking again at the bicycle tours mentioned recently, I find it is difficult to get any maps of the routes unless you are already a member. What’s available is more like schematics and they don’t show where the daily stops take place. This looms important after talking to many German tourists who were on bus excursions through South America. These year-long trips cost around $9,000 per person including meals and accommodations. Had I not been working full time, I would have taken one since that was cheaper than my rent alone.
The problem reported by the bus tourists (who, by the way, were some of the craziest sumbitches I’ve ever met) was that the drivers and tour guides had a hidden agenda. If anything, even a flat tire, caused a delay, there was a big rush to “catch up”. Where the riders had expected to spend a day touring some of the grander sites, the staff would hustle them back on board after twenty minutes and drive breakneck all night past other scheduled stops. I usually met the ones who had never got back on the bus and struck out on their own. My favorites were two Nordic blonde babes traveling together. Funny you should ask, but yes, as a matter of fact I do have plenty of pictures. All rated G. Maybe some time in the distant future, if you’re lucky. (By 2015, you still ain't lucky . . .)
Meanwhile, I’m gathering information about the northernmost tour. In my trips east-west, the scenery I think about most is in southern Wyoming. In the stretch west of Laramie/Cheyenne it is lightly rolling prairie with an incredible view of the mountain ranges in Colorado on the southern horizon. I was there smack in the middle of beautiful summer days, cruising 85 in the Caddy with the A/C, listening to Dwight Yoakum. The Interstate parallels a railroad with strange little houses every few miles, something I’m reminded to find out more about. They are very sturdily built making me suspect they are some type of emergency measure. But I’m way smarter than to go through the prairies in the middle of winter.
I’m giving a hard listen to another Faith Hill tune, “This Kiss”. It seems ideal for a custom bass line but the original was evidently produced in some spastic studio session. At several points the music changes in a disjointed fashion, like the sound tech patched the final cut to get it over with, or something similar. The verses don’t make a lot of sense but the chorus is so catchy who cares? Also, the lyrics are gender neutral.
It turns out later that "This Kiss" is one of those tunes I can play, but nobody else can. Likely reason? The chord patterns change constantly.
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