One year ago today: June 23, 2017, the Kit-Kat map.
Five years ago today: June 23, 2013, two hours late . . .
Nine years ago today: June 23, 2009, get it? Sticks paper . . .
Random years ago today: June 23, 2007, bicyclist scofflaws.
Brand new multimeters, still in the packages. These are robot grade, usually the free promos from Harbor Freight. These replace used units, which are often hard-wired into other circuits. In this instance, that would be the solar panels, which should be monitored for DC volts and amperage. I’ll build a custom display case for the meters and wire them in to give constant real-time readings of the battery condition. The battery has not yet made the grade, it is the deep cycle unit I bought in 2013 at a Wal*Mart somewhere out west. The big motorcycle trip via Denver & Yakima.
This still leaves the six pylons in the front, 8” off the ground. But nearly two feet under that, so I’m not digging anything up unless I have no choice. The idea of putting planters around them would work, since I suddenly have 14 extra pieces of treated 2x 6”. Does anyone know if I need a license for that, too? Since I’d already done coffee, there was only one option left. Haul out the bass and learn something new. Ah, Hungarian Dance #5. The sheet music is clipped off the left edge, so remind me what minor key has the three sharps. Don’t know? That’s okay, neither do most guitarists, either. They never learned to read and write so well.
These classical pieces can really liven up a show, especially the 2/4 timing. But the challenge is to find a guitar player who can play a real polka beat, which you’d think is a piece of cake. Windows 10 doesn’t help any by making it tricky to download any music, like it is any business of some damn OpSys company what you download. Usually you can put a screen shot through the old Paint program, a forgotten gem that I’ve put to incredible use over the years for this purpose. As for movie stills, the quickest way to get one is still VLC media player. If the camera icon won’t work, drop the Video menu and click on snapshot. They don’t both work the same for reasons unknown.
Here’s the passage I want. Notice how simple the left hand is, this should be something a beginning guitar player could play in their sleep. Some would consider it beneath their station, but they are often the same types who will say moronic things like, “the bass is easy”. You know who you are. I’m going to transpose this up a half-step to Gmin , see if it can be fretted comfortably. All too often, the problem is the patterns are piano based and I’ve never met a guitarist in person who’s bothered to learn to play that way.
What’s this, a war movie based on actual events? Not likely, but as far as depicting the confusion that reigns, this production, “Saints and Soldiers” is remarkably good. I liked the twist on the massacre at Malmedy, showing an alternative explanation to why the Germans opened fired. It’s not common knowledge that during WWII the largest minority in America were Germans, eleven million of them, I think. Many of the German soldiers on the other side could see no reason they should be fighting each other, but Hollywood has completely downplayed this aspect. Many felt the Americans should join them to beat the Communists.
That Chinese super computer . . .
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I’ve mean-mouthed that oscillating tool for not cutting anything, but I finally went out and bought a blade that cost half as much as the tool. That seems to solve the problem at an unacceptable price. I had to trim 20 small pieces of soft lumber and by then the decline in performance was already noticeable. I suppose if the task were important enough, the cost is justifiable. Here, I found a picture of part of the plumbing I reconnected on the hotdog cart.
[Photo delayed] The hoses hang loose, which makes the cart appear more rustic than it is. You may also see what I mean about the paint peeling. I’m going to run over as much as I can with soft grit to see if I can get away with repainting only the sections that look weathered. But that finish is definitely interior latex. I may do something about those exposed hoses, it just looks unworkmanlike and fragilistic.
If your Saturday was more exciting, good for you. If there was a decent woman who was exciting within 50 miles of here, I’d have found her by now. There is a chance this cart might help, but I would not know as I’ve never been to a fair except as a customer. But when I was young, I always used to admire the way the carnie people moved around, always seeing new things. That’s about all I admired, I also saw the pecking order, the low pay, the way it attracted the uneducated, and worst, the job had a bad reputation when I was young. Kind of on a par with being a bar rag.
That also got me thinking about all the guys I knew that quit school, or took time off after high school to go work for the big money on the oil rigs and the pipelines. I wonder what happened to any of them because not one ever became rich and famous from what I know. That’s a bit harsh, since I never became anything either, at least not by that definition. Except maybe this blog will immortalize me somewhere. What I mean is I knew a lot of these people, probably close to 2,000 over the many places we moved around and the number of places when I was on my own. If any one of them had written a book, or composed a song, or had a unique adventure, I would have heard about it by now.
It’s a contrast in the sense that the ones I know who didn’t got work “in the bush” did become some thing. A psychiatrist, a chief justice, two accountants, a doctor, a lawyer, and that’s the inner circle.
Before I let you go, I’ve been trying to get a response out of Twood. No dice, so I may just drive up there on Sunday afternoon. He’s the sole survivor of this batch and his phone is out of service. He wasn’t that great, but he was catching on to the system without the usual guitar-player resistance. It’s a boost whenever you meet someone who realizes this is the easiest way to get out there that’s come along in years. The bands I’ve heard on weekends over the past few months can’t touch what we are doing. They’d have to unlearn years of ossified technique. Most of them power chord every song, the stops are weak, and everybody is playing too loud. And I like it loud, but let’s be reasonable.
By comparison, my arrangements are sparse. They suggest what you are hearing, and that is the correct way to behave for a small band. Our stops are right smack on. And they don’t sound like everybody is raring to jump back in. The heaviest arranged tune, from the point of complication, remains Miranda Lambert’s “Mama’s Broken Heart”. As for playing lead on bass, the most advances is Haggart’s “Momma Tried”.
ADDENDUM
I was going to go out, but decided a quiet evening at home was the order. It’s not like I’m missing anything, trust me. That’s why the band is a priority. To me, playing out is not work. There is nothing else to do socially in Florida if you have the misfortune to be over 30 and look it. Lakeland has no intellectual groups or societies, there are no academic circles, no hobby meetups unless you are into drones or toy combat. The big event of this week was getting the trailer hitch installed. See photo.
Yet, guitar-wise, it was somebody’s dream band. If only those people would listen they’d know what superior taste in music the lead player had. Then, by god, they’d knock it off with all those stupid dart games and silly conversations and sit transfixed in awe like they had not heard “Stairway to Heaven” every weekend since 1975.
Now at day 206 of my diet, I’ve begun a definite pattern of wide daily weight swings, as much as 8 pounds, but averaging half that. It’s not supposed to work that way, but you can go double-check if you want. I’ve hit this phase before, twelve days ago I was averaging seven pounds less. And it is physically impossible for me to have eaten or drank enough in that time to gain such weight, that’s the equivalent of over 40 Big Macs. I’d remember that, even if it happened my sleep.
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