One year ago today: July 11, 2019, I’m certain of it.
Five years ago today: July 11, 2015, as a great leader.
Nine years ago today: July 11, 2011, neat vanishing point photo.
Random years ago today: July 11, 2013, guitar player jokes.
Time for a profound statement. Every writer, methinks, has a duty to contribute something to the future, a famous something or other that influences at least the course of his reader’s destiny. There I was this morning and the answer was staring me right in the face. Literally. Here’s the quasi-eternal passage I leave to the world and its fortunes: “Oatmeal is like toast, it tastes better when somebody else makes it.”
Here’s a photo that gives an accurate impression of the roof going up with some of the tarpaper in progress. It is as sturdy as it looks, I will be putting brace blocks along the enter length around halfway between the beams shown here. Easy to see on the left is my 5” x 3” laminate beam, that sucker took two tubes of glue and 3/4 lb of screws. For all my metric readers, that’s lb for pound, the weight not the currency. Time to practice up your standard measurement skills, you know, to catch up to the system that made the modern planet and won two world wars.
Boss Hogg, the best stuff is in the mornings these days, had a Hendrix festival. That’s music I never did quite latch on to. To me, he was the starting point of the fuzz-box indistinct riffing blues acid trip rock. Was the guy even capable of playing fast music? Oh, I noticed all the people around glomming onto his albums, I just was not one of them. I try listening to a tune like, “The Wind Cries Mary”, which to me sounded like what it was. That would be filler music for some blank album space left over from a session. It was also the b-side of “Purple Haze”, another dragged-out blues number I cannot identify with, either musically or lyrically. If you want to play blues, call it blues, not rock, I used to say.
I was influenced also that it was not stage music, but studio material. The lead player I had at the time, Tim Campbell, of course wanted to play it, if the band would buy him all these pedals and switches, which was an emphatic “no”. I’ve always had an aversion to music that cannot be played live without a rack of gizmos. I’m okay with a fuzz-box but that is out of sheer necessity from the day and age. I still see them from time to time but then again, I don’t see many big bands unless they are already there when I show up.
Trivia. You cannot win the Le Mans auto race unless you are photographed winning. It’s in the rules. Even if you are ten car lengths ahead, no photo, no win. There seem to be a number of explanations for this. They all sound good to me, even though you’d never catch me at a car race.
Soil quality chart.
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It was one of those afternoons, but I got the tarpaper done. Sounds easy, but all the prep work had to be done including cutting cross-braces and if you think ready cut tarpaper gets up on the roof by itself, guess again. I’ve got lots of shade unless we get a real windstorm. I took up all my remaining tarpaper. I even got the camo tarp across the entranceway (proposed). Daylight only, as there is no lighting in there until the roof is waterproof. Now I can take tomorrow off. Just for ambience, I stood in the middle of the big open work space, 12 x 12 foot, and relished in the situation. First time in my life, my own “big” work space soon to be enclosed and comfortable. Woe to anyone who bothers me in there after that.
I don’t know if this is a repeat photo, but that is the expanse now covered by tarpaper. This means I can take tomorrow off, mostly. I got some counter space built for the tools; wouldn’t you know it is in the last spot where I ran out of tarpaper. Let me check the budget for this month. Ooh, slight accounting error, I’ve spend $320 on the shed so far, so it is heading for the $500 mark soon. In the end, all those rafters cost just under $150, the other major expense is hardware, in this project, mostly hurricane straps.
Ouch, $500 for shade and shelter. So let me check the household budget, since like a third of Americans reportedly, the virus is saving me money. Um, a lot of that third still have credit card bills, so it’s not all roses. I’m up nearly $350 this month and there is talk of another incentive check. Bring it on, I estimate within a weed of finishing this shed, I’ll finally be tackling the kitchen area. The entire floor there needs straightening and I want to install new plumbing on the other side of the room. That includes a heavy duty garburator and a dishwasher. It’s not that direct a job, to move the fridge away from the doorway, I have to install a new water heater outside this time. Nothing is easy with this reno.
ADDENDUM
Once more, I reviewed the videos from the last gig. Nice for a VFW or clubhouse, but not good enough for me or the circuit I want to play. It’s nice when the levels are spot on, the most difficult thing I would have to do on stage, just my luck. If I had to define the biggest change in music in the past twenty years, it would be the Guitar Center factor. Men over 40 with minimal stage experience advertising for the perfect band. Their song lists are 50-60 year old Eagles and Allman Brothers yet they consider themselves the cutting edge of guitarism. They call my music old when the newest tune they play is Petty’s “Free Fallin’.
My prediction is Trump has the election in the bag. Same as last time, the other side is trying to pretend things are in doubt for a variety of twisted reasons. And how about that latest lash at white people, “This is not your country. You’re a colonizer.” The reason a non-Political type like me thinks Trump will win? Because last time the vote was largely swayed by people who had just had enough. This time, the left has probably driven many more down that path. I know I express opinions, but I point out they are opinions aimed at politics, not a result of any persuasions.
