One year ago today: March 27, 2017, sub-link to NA BS generator!
Five years ago today: March 27, 2013, remember the “Cyprus Haircut”?
Nine years ago today: March 27, 2009, the disappearing Arnel.
Random years ago today: March 27, 2010, bingo picks up.
Nothing to report. That’s not writer’s block, either. Blog rules say mention food, and I will in a moment. I spent the day renovating. Everything takes three times as long as it should. You have to move materials out of the way from the last work you did, then do the work, then move the materials again. The nature of the work means you always have something in the way. By comparison, the drywall is the easiest part of finishing the room. Like paint, it covers up all the hard work. Here’s a picture showing the floor raised for the nth time to comply with the code that a room (window) A/C is an appliance and requires a dedicated circuit.
This section of the floor is purposely not fixed, as it allows access to the back of the new bathroom wall. Being able to work on that standing on the ground is an immense improvement over the crawling and bending required by most renovations. The work is dusty enough without having to lie down in it to get at things.
“Pale Horses”. That’s the name of the book I’m reading, set in South Africa. But the task this morning was to chase around to find out how much I actually weigh. The scale I returned for a refund said I weighed 230 pounds. The scale at Publix reads 198 pounds. And the new digital body mass scale I just bought says different each time, but between 192 and 194 pounds. My old bathroom scale comes in at 188 pounds. My guess is the old bathroom scale is closest because it was built so long ago. Sorry, I can’t resist asking the obvious question, “Have we entered an era where scales have become as faithful as our elected representatives?”
Here’s a photo of my big meal of the day. Cottage cheese and lettuce. The dressing? Lime juice. Breakfast consists mainly of oatmeal, you get used to it. People, go on that diet now.
[Author’s note: later, I weight 191.2 pounds. That is, 51.2 pounds overweight.]
I’ve begun two searches for new material, new to the band that is. I’ll make no decisions until the next scheduled rehearsal, which is tomorrow. Even with stage banter, we moved through our song lists too fast. It now appears we will need up to ten tunes for each 40 – 45 minute set. Hence, the two searches. One is to sort through my existing MP3s to find anything suitable, though soon I’ll be scraping the bottom. The other is due to circumstances. We’ve all been to rock gigs where the band played one country song that drove the crowd wild.
The same thing happened in reverse on Sunday. This doesn’t surprise me but it opens another door. I got into country by noticing some rock tunes had that country feel to them, so I happen to know a lot of country tunes that have a definite rock feeling, or maybe ambiance is the better word. If I could coax Lady Nik to sing, I would instantly want to do novelty tunes like “Bang On The Drum” and medleys with snippets of “Under the Boardwalk” and similar. If I’m correct, we will now move from strength to strength for around six months until we have an untouchable advantage in the area.
The gig revealed that some tunes that should work don’t crank up the crowd. Improve them or drop them. Musically, a lot depends on how much attention you pay to these details. The tunes that worked best included some numbers like “Spiders & Snakes”, and that mildly haunting “Mama’s Broken Heart” which are non-country in a strict sense. Another winner was the lighter music, something the super-serious guitar bands around here tend to avoid with the exception of “Keep Your Hands To Yourself”.
A lot will depend on tomorrow, as this gig was necessary to let everybody know how much work still lies ahead along with how much catching up there is to do. I see there is a problem with the instrumental breaks because she is still listening for the lead notes which are not there. We’ll need to double the number of songs, although we have around half that requirement already on our pending list. She didn’t realize how heavily arranged some of the material has to be until put to the test. You cannot slough through Charlie Daniels or Alan Jackson, though some still try it.
Charles Fort, Ireland.
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Mark Zuckerberg says your privacy is very important to Facebook. Looks like all the dumbasses in America are just now finding out the double meaning in that. Zuckerberg is about as lame as they get, trying to pass this one off with excuses. Don’t look at me, I warned people against Facebook on day one, and again years later when I set up a fake experimental account. I strayed into the old club tonight, mainly because I did not want to go downtown. I aced my newest Karaoke hit, “Tequila”. It takes real, er, credentials to pull that one off. How’s that for life? My most famous Karaoke number arises from not singing.
Spending more time in the front of the building again means I’m again able to observe the birds most of the day. The feeder has been progressively modified to allow only the cardinals or smaller birds in to the slot. But it is amazing how adaptable birds are, not to mention how other animals watch each other for signs. In this case, the female bluejay, who can empty the feeder in a day, can’t get at the slot. But she has learned to land on the perch and tilt the whole feeder at an angle that lets some of the sunflower seeds fall into the tray before they stop up the opening. A few seeds is better than nothing, and she can keep at it for hours.
The squirrels hold back watching each time she does this. As she flies away, they scramble fast to get at any that have fallen to the ground. There are three squirrels; they seem to work as a team, though it is probably all instinct. And that woodpecker is around dawn to dusk. It may be two of them and I think they have set up shop in my tree stump around back. Remind me to read up on how to cut them a nesting cavity.
ADDENDUM
This picture almost got filed before I noticed it reveals a lot about renovating. There is rarely a phase when you can to one operation to an entire room at once. Shown here, you can see how each section is taken in stages. Through the door opening, you can see the Faraday shield over the insulation, with the tarpaper just visible. On the big wall, you can see the tarpaper on the far right, with the top half of the wall covered with drywall and a sconce mounting.
That’s a great improvement over the “spider web” wiring previously rotting away. But it is also frightfully costly. That wiring is also done in sections. In this picture, only the big piece of drywall is in place, the rest are leaning on the wall, waiting their turn. The tarpaper is not finished to the right, as wiring is still in progress. There seem to be seven steps to completing a wall before it is ready for final painting. It seems that up to five of these can be work in process at any given time. Disorganized people, don’t try this it home. Get it? At home? Oh, never mind.
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