One year ago today: July 10, 2013, Ass-Clown Award!
Five years ago today: July 10, 2009, sounds busy.
Ten years ago today: July 10, 2004, Missoula Crater.
MORNING
It started as just a trip to the bank but wound up at guitar center for an impromptu jam session that might just have changed Agt. M’s mind about music. In the guitar room there was an Argentine lady who could barely play a G chord. I asked if she would help me demonstrate. Ker-pow, within ten seconds she is suddenly playing in a band. M was stunned because I pointed out she was only playing the single shaky beat she knew. I was quick to assure him that doesn’t happen by accident, that I’ve spent half my life “making guitar players sound better than they really are”. He’s agreed to at least take a look.
The guitar shop wanted $75 for the conversion. So I simply reversed the nut (I had to reshape it a bit on the grinder) and reversed the strings. It sounds fine, no difference just because the bridge is now angled “backward”. I also reglued the body, it is now being clamped together by the solid weight of six motorcycle batteries.
This music situation has one of two outcomes. Agt. M will either give up easy, or get smitten and angry that I didn’t chain him to a post and force them to learn this years ago. The second question I ever asked him was if he played guitar. On the side, I had that Argentine lady for the asking and just then her boyfriend walked into the room. He’d heard the music emanating from where he’d left her and came racing to see what was going on. Drat, she was okay looking.
Agt. M also experienced music time lag. This phenomenon is best expressed by the sentence, “Time spent playing music is not deducted from your lifespan.” He thought we’d been in Guitar Center for an hour. It was 7:00 PM. Three and a half hours. He’s showing the right symptoms. But, in the end, never did pick it up.
In addition, there is the possibility of minority income from music. If you are not familiar with that term, that might be because I coined it. Its meaning is subtle so I’ll be nice and explain. Many people who don’t listen closely what I’m saying would think I advocate quitting your day job because no amount of slogging away there will ever make you so much money you can retire without worry. That’s what people want to hear, but not what I said.
What I said is you are going to run short of money no matter what you do, therefore putting in the last ten years of your life to get a few extra pension dollars is probably not worth it. If you can get 85% or more of your pension now, it would be wiser to spend the remaining ten years learning to do new things that will do a far better job of supplying short-range cash when you need it. For example, because of music, I have never gone hungry and never will.
I’m suggesting a more efficient use of your time would be to find skills that others cannot easily duplicate. Remember, there are already droves of people trying all the standard fixes. The bicycle repair shop, the government programs, and the other wastes of time. They don’t work because the majority of people in the same sinking boat will try the same things. Hence you should plan to derive income from activities where only a minority of people can compete for the same dollar. There you go, minority income.
Don’t worry, I won’t leave you hanging with just that dry advice. You may be like me, born so poor you never stood a chance. Nor was I tall, or good-looking, and I certainly never had a lick of talent. How did I work around these? I chose things that took time to accomplish. This is my tenth year of retirement, you know. Thus, I’ve had ten years to develop retirement skills while others my age plugged the same ten years away in a cubicle. Now which of us do you suppose is better equipped for what lies ahead? Not only is their learning curve ten years behind, it would be another ten years after that before they would be ready. In reality, they will never get over that twenty-year obstacle.
Some may say I’m wrong, that retirement is for relaxing, not starting another career. They are talking through their hats. The middle class is on the decline and it will disappear altogether when they find instead of seemingly unlimited credit cards, they have to start spending their own pension dollars. Suddenly their big fancy house becomes an albatross. Drive through a retirement community. Amenities, my eye. Empty streets, empty gazebos, empty walking paths. Empty lives, if you ask me.
NOON
I didn’t tell of the storm y’day because I’ve used up all the adjectives. It was bad and I’m still drying out. I got caught three miles from home. It was comparable to last November. My place is a mess as the cPod work is being done indoors for now . If it comes to that, I’ll paint in here, too. That’s how important that camper pod is. The sidewalls are ready for their first coat. I’ve decided on one large hatch that swings upward. Open, it will be 44” off the ground, high enough to crawl under in the rain or sun if need be. The “roof” will still be removable, albeit in two sections.
NPR (National Public Radio) was on another “save the world” kick. That’s where I heard the statistic that for the whole world to live like Americans, we would need four Earth planets. They are missing the root of the problem which is that people want to live like Americans but they don’t want to adopt American values. They want the glitter but not the system that sustains it. They want a plastic cup but then they throw it in the Pacific Ocean. That is the crux consistently ignored by NPR, that progress means Americanization. It is not some huge definition of a problem to be addressed by government programs.
Political action will solve nothing. Every government will make the same mistake parents make: they will refuse to allow for different levels of involvement. Parents don’t understand why your kid brother didn't stop whining when they got him his own bicycle. Because parents will pathologically refuse to admit their own kid could be so greedy that he never really wanted his own bicycle. He wanted yours.
EVENING
Crews has personally sworn to operate "a safe, secure, humane and efficient corrections system". And all he can do is visit the prison heads? Sounds bloody British to me. Let the dismal bastard spend a week in any jail cell of his choice. What a moron, going on a Potemkin tour and saying, "What a good boy am I."
By methods unavailable to the general public, Crews has caused all close-up photos of himself to be deleted from the Internet.
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