DAY
Good morning. I just spent that morning getting a few tests and reading ancient history, in the form of magazines in my doctor’s office. I’ll guess you do not want to hear about wine-tasting and horse-racing, so let’s see what other tidbits this nothing Thursday brings us. JZ didn’t show up, but as usual, he didn’t show up exactly on time. Punctual, that boy. As things played out, he owes me a small sum of cash and he’s driving himself bananas over it. Like me, he doesn’t have a lot of experience being in debt.
See the model in the picture? She’s acting like a liberal in public. And did you see that clip of the drawbridge that crunched the yacht? They are blaming it on the wind, not the booth operator. Gee, I never knew that job was filled by political appointees. Or how about that college that hired seductive strippers as recruiters? Hey, that’s the only way some guys get any. Besides, who knows, such lads may well graduate and form panels of judges.
Or the “massive” one-hour crime wave of Tuesday, the guy the police let go on a $2,500 “routine convenience bond” just a day earlier? Remember how I told I disliked the way the health insurer Molina does business? Now we hear a pack of their ex-employees have been rounded up in a medical insurance scam. Told ya they were dicks. And Mr. Brainiac Stephen Hawkings finally figured out what this blog did twenty years ago—that artificial intelligence is bad for humanity. I agree, but mostly bad for the jocks, the uneducated, the lazy, and the unimaginative. Come to think of it, every round of technology is hard on that bunch. Even the bulldozer put them out of work by the busload.
Here’s good news. I was going to invest in Amgen, the company that makes the cholesterol treatment that worked wonders for me. Until I found out their shares were $105 each (meaning you need $10,500 for a board lot). They just went up to $158 a pop. For me, this translated into a raise. Yes, they pay me for this study; it was recommended by a very trusted family doctor. This year’s check arrived y’day and it looks like the club is finally getting that scroll saw. With the extra blades, the foot pedal, and the dust vacuum.
I’m quite aware we [the club] already have plenty of tools we don’t know how to use yet. But we are talking free money here. I have no objections to blood tests for free money. Hell, that’s what I was doing in the clinic this morning anyway. (All joking aside, these are follow-up tests after discovering a clash in my heart meds. I take the standard blood thinner, beta blocker, and pressure regimen, and it has been over ten years now. Again, this are customary prescriptions for boomers like me.)
But if I had some extra cash, I would plow it into Amgen now, before they announce the results of this testing program. I’ve just completed the first of five years on the program. This is that “star trek” injection every two weeks. My cholesterol rapidly dropped to normal and stayed there. I know that it works and compared to other methods, you get used to the shot real fast. Note, the injections have to remain refrigerated, which is a hassle when you travel. (I was later to discover I had signed a document whose fine print says I cannot invest in Amgen. Not directly said it, but I'm not about to offend a company that did so much for me.)
What's this? The University of Texas found 100 missing brains? They will be shipped back to Canada in the morning. What? Well, dammit guys, nobody reported them missing.
NIGHT
Where were we? Ah, the property in West Palm. JZ wants to head up there on Saturday. He has complete faith in my ability to hold a project together and is talking like if I don’t want it, could we flip it. Yes, of course, depending on what is wrong. New roof? We can do that in an afternoon. Plumbing, he’s on his own, but I’ll hand him the tools. He’s still driving that beater of a truck I promised to junk last year, but we’ve made it to Naples in that thing. And most of the way back.
I could go up there on my own, but I’m skittish about any business deals that are not completely in my control. Ownership, tools, titles, occupancy, materials, the whole shebang. I have the down payment and monthly payments, but not the total cost of projected materials for the job, if it comes to that. You’d like West Palm. It’s a nice community, with bookstores and a campus or two. My kind of digs. (The property turned out to be on a pathline between downtown and a bad neighborhood. Automatic reject.)
The remaining daylight was blustery, so I took apart “Come A Little Bit Closer” and adapted it by removing the instrumental break and replacing it with a clip from “La Bamba”. No matter what I say in the addendum today, I caution newcomers that bands are a business venture. The equipment is too expensive for most people to keep it as a hobby. I know some who try but they have day jobs.
And as for the business end of it, the closest thing in real life would be the single proprietorship. That’s where the business depends largely on the personality and influence of the band leader. And that skill is not transferable, most bands fold when the leader is gone. This is your incentive to be super picky about who you team up with. Too many guitarists horrendously over-estimate their ability to front a band and their skills at small business management.
I cannot name even one jazz tune. That’s it, that’s everything that happened today. Except I stopped at American Thrift. The Goodwill on the corner folded and now everything at the Thrift has tripled in price. They’ll soon have competition, that is a big, big mall out there.
Last, the “new” potato recipe making the rounds is an old idea. The baked potato with the thing slices half way through, the stuffed with goodies before baking? Had those more than thirty years back. The idea was to get the spices and such into every part of the spud. I think they were called “Mandolin” bakes or similar. No link, look them up if you want.
ADDENDUM
Totally concerned with music.
Feeling what? Energetic? I connected the entire PA system from the club into the Florida room and to the possible dismay of the neighbors until 8:00PM, test the setup. No, I’ve never played an acoustic guitar set through my PA. That’s the 600 Watt Gigrac, and what a crystal clear sound with the Ibanez. We certainly won’t need to skimp on quality there, although I’m not ardent about moving that amount of road gear. I want a Fishman Solo.
Familiarity with your equipment counts, I can think of a few Karaoke DJs who could take that to heart. My setup is one of the smallest 8-channel setups of any quality and I admit to a little wishful thinking that it can handle a room up to around 100 people. And it is in pristine condition. The only annoyance is the off-on switch is around back and hard to find.
By pressing every resource, I’ve scrounged up 16 songs. This entails a lot of shortcuts like sticking only with tunes I already know. Now nobody go sayin’ that’s guitar-think, I’ve learned over 150 new songs in the past two years. Songs I never played before and in many cases never heard before. I mean, who are the Buckinghams? Anyhow, I chorded through all the tunes and all I should predict is that people who like this brand of music will, mercifully, not be too keen on a clone presentation.
Nor is it all ancient material, as long as 1980s is not the musical stone ages. Ha, ha, stoned ages. My lack of qualms about playing “chick music” means I’ll sing hits of that era. M.C. Carpenter’s “Passionate Kisses” and Patty Loveless “Blame It On Your Heart”. I think these are releases from the 90s, although Carpenter’s is a cover. Mary Chapin Carpenter, the “spokes-singer for the thirty-something single woman”. She does remind me of a cross-section of the women I dated in their 30s. You know, I’ve never really dated a woman over 40. Gone out with a few once or twice, it was like babysitting adults is the best I can describe it.
Yeah, but keep up with this country music and I might find me that rich widow. Without trying, I’ve included another 8 tunes of “listenin’” music in case. In case we get booked at the old folk’s home. No, I mean dinner music. Hank Williams is way better a deal for one’s digestion than wailing jazz. These will be the oldest items on the list. “Heartaches By The Number” and “Singin’ The Blues”. All three chords.
But I conclude that people chawing their anniversary pork chop don’t want to hear any long-hair music. This is music for my era and I don’t pretend otherwise. And as you know, I’m not a great fan of recorded music. Nobody pirates a live show. Point: limited to what I can do means also limited by what I can’t do. I cannot sing “Margaritaville” or “Wasted Days And Wasted Nights” because I am loathe to change the keys on those classics.
Looking back, this is around the same number of songs I learned to sing and play bass to back in early 2013, although not at all the same song list. Prior to that, I would have had to rely on a guitarist who could sing ten or so of his own songs, but found in general, that is the total number of songs most guitarists can play. You’d recognize every tune on this new list, but that still leaves me to find and learn another ten. And yes, my fingers are sore and getting calloused. (Why do I even keep trying with guitar?)
[/\][\/][/\][\/][/\][\/][/\][\/][/\][\/][/\][\/][/\][\/][/\][\/][/\][\/][/\][\/][/\][\/]
Today’s Togla Treat
Come on in, it’s lady’s night.
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
