December 3, 2018

Yesteryear
One year ago today: December 3, 2017, gambling & afternoon drinking.
Five years ago today: December 3, 2013, but so is electricity.
Nine years ago today: December 3, 2009, his lack of imagination.
Random years ago today: December 3, 2002, chess bores me.

           In about an hour, I’ll be biking around Winter Haven. The car is in for repairs. It’s getting another $400 sunk into it. That’s $1160 in repairs to a $1700 car, but I need transportation now more than ever. What costs so much. Actually, around half the tab was a general checkup and tune up, which I budget for. The check motor light came on and the readout said a spark plug was acting up. The concern was that I had replace the plug wires when I got the car, so a misfire could mean bad compression. My last Taurus had that but I drove it to Texas and back plus another two years. Bad mileage, true, but she ran.

           The real motivator was the A/C. It was not keeping a charge and I could not be sure it wasn’t my poor application of the nozzle. The point is, A/C is what makes Florida inhabitable, so I had a complete pressure test diagnostic run for $114. Thus, $168 of the tab was getting things checked out. Whew, the compression was fine and the A/C just needed recharging. The A/C tab took the total up to $400. Mind you, I go to the best shop in town. The bad news is the odometer quit at 65,000 and that is an expensive rebuild. No, you can’t replace it with a used unit, unless you can find another 1997 with such low mileage. It ain’t gonna happen.

           This time, I was prepared to leave the car all day. Here’s the $7 bicycle with $35 worth of lock, basket, and bell. Outside the cheese room. As my luck would have it, the place is closed on Mondays. But there is a new coffee shop bakery five doors down, my kind of place. All the shops near my house are chains. And friends don’t let friends shop at chain stores.
           Next favorite activity is the used book store. My list today is $16.05 of mostly artsy-craftsy material. Two books on woodworking and another on shop tips. I enjoy reading such books as much as building anything, it’s my nature. Another book on wooden toys, a big book of the evolution of eyes, it’s a non-medical story of how animals have adapted to color and vision. Not for everyone. And a curious book about natural insect repellents and pet food. Again, not for everybody, but I now have a recipe for dog biscuits. I did not know dogs like soy sauce, in moderation of course.
           However, I’m not sure of making flea powder. It ways mix two ounces of pennyroyal, 1 ounce of wormwood, 1 ounce of rosemary, and a dash of cayenne pepper. May I borrow a cup of pennyroyal?

Picture of the day.
It's a DJ mixer.
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           The new guitarist, so far no problems. That is not significant enough to make any decisions, but we have first rehearsal slated for the 6th, that’s this upcoming Thursday. I’ve thoroughly learned all material he sent me, though once again, it is clear he is choosing material entirely for its guitar content. I sent him a list of 12 tunes I would like to do and he fired back a quick note saying he “plays them all”. I would be very surprised if that were the case. What’s more likely is he knows the chords and that is rarely adequate to match my bass playing.

           That’s not braggadocious. I’ve scared off many a guitarist who had the fundamentally wrong idea that bass is a backup instrument. And this new guy has not called or e-mailed any questions that certainly arise when you look at my song list. How on earth do we play ‘Spiders & Snakes’ with two instruments? By relearning the guitar part to play a part that isn’t there. Like I said, he has not asked.

           What little he has said centers on playing out and making money. I’ve sent back words of caution on that, to no avail. There are currently 61 bands in Polk that I know of, vying for 18 paying venues. Being Mr. Nice Guy doesn’t work on those odds. It’s musical mercantilism in Florida, every gain is somebody else’s loss and you cannot sugar-coat it. There are no talent scouts or booking agencies of any caliber in Polk County. Let me write down how I think it will go and compare later.
           He’s going to be shocked when I play, no doubt about it. My bass playing is exact and it exposes any sloppy guitar work thereby. He’s going to bring up gigs and money despite the number of times I’ve written to him that I do not have anything “booked” and neither does anyone else around here. It does not work that way. We’ll breeze through his song list but will discover he only thought he knew any of my 12. He will not appreciate the 30 hours I put in learning his material because, you got it, bass is easy and in any case, that’s my job.

           Thus, one of the first things I normally do is have him learn a new song while I’m watching. This is simply because most guitar players either can’t or won’t (same thing). Which one should I choose? Something he’s not played before. A chick song. Let’s go for ‘These Boots’. Three chords. Boom-chick, boom-chicka. That’s it. No lead breaks, no picking. What’s with the picture of the Ritz in Winter Haven. The connection is Jim Stafford. I believe I already told you this. He wrote ‘Spiders & Snakes’ and was heavily involved in trying to revive this theater. It sits there, vacant.

ADDENDUM
           The critter book has this recipe for doggie biscuits. Thinking it to be only a book of natural insect control, it is a gold-mine of other information, the more so if you have, as I don’t, a green thumb. Except potatoes. I can grow potatoes. Oh, can I grow potatoes. Here is the recipe.

                      1 cup of chicken
                      1`cup of whole wheat flour
                      2 cups standard oats
                      2 large eggs
                      1-1/4 tbsp (yes, tablespoons) garlic powder
                      1 tablespoon parsley
                      2 tablespoons soy sauce
                      1/4 cup powdered milk

           Cook the chicken in its own fat 15 minutes, then simmer in water for 35 minutes. Let cool, slice small and place all ingredients in a blender. Chop but don’t liquefy. (Yes, that is the correct spelling of liquefy.) Spoon the right size for your dog on a sheet and cook at 250°F for 40-50 minutes. This is a cool setting, the biscuits stay moist, so set them out in the sun for a few hours until they dehydrate. Let cool another 12 hours before feeding.

           And remind me to find out what the heck pennyroyal is.

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