October 22, 2023

Yesteryear
One year ago today: October 22, 2022, don’t waste peanut butter!
Five years ago today: October 22, 2018, water bill $400.
Nine years ago today: October 22, 2014, hot pants were better . . . .
Random years ago today: October 22, 2007, Wal*Mart MoneyCard fine print.

           BWAAA-ha-ha-ha, did you see that joke of a Mike Pence rally? Eight old people and one of them was asleep. Good morning, three cups of coffee later. Here’s some Mainstream Media. Last evening I was twenty minutes late getting out of the Karaoke show and my ATM refused to give me my standard withdrawal. It said the amount was “not approved”. Keep that in mind you proponents of a cashless society. If it had been an emergency, I could be dead. I called the bank and they swear they had nothing to do with that. Did I not hear somewhere some ATMs won’t give out more than $40 after dark?

           So I drove over to the next town (still last night) and got the money—but that is not the point. The next town is 15 miles away. Who pays me for that”? Here’s trivia, you are allowed to carry as much cash as you want, but anything over $500 can be confiscated and insurance will not cover more than $200. For me it was a great mid-day in the shed, working on boxes and thinking. You decide which is better. I measured out the boards for my bass, I barely possess the confidence to try building something as complicated as an instrument case, even a rectangular one. That’s 43”x13” rectangular and 4” deep.

           But, my bass means more to me than lumber, so here is the carefully selected best of the boards. The plan is to keep the new case light by making the top and bottom from quarter-inch plywood. I will make some concessions toward appearances and do some finishing work, but this is not intended to be fine furniture. I will hide the 1-5/8ths inch structural screws, here is another view of the doll trunk where you can better see the screw heads buried in counter-sink bores. These are very accurate pilot holes cut with the drill press. Upon testing, this type of butt joint turned out to be remarkable tough, but I will miter the ends of the instrument case and use splines.

           Next, an early morning e-mail meeting reveals that the Prez is not averse to playing locations such as the Woodall Club. So you get a little more detail. I said there was no stage, but there is. I meant the Karaoke is not on the stage, which is off to the left, and there was a PA system along with some microphones set up in an arrangement that looked more like a speakers platform.
           The club will hold around 80 people comfortably, so I will compose a quick e-mail for Peggy on Monday morning saying we’d be interested in performing there. The location is bad, it is in that northwest corner of Lakeland where there are no through roads. The GPS led me down two dead ends, by the way. Both recently (as in five years judging my the kudzu) sealed off old railway crossings. Peggy proved useless for directions because she presumes you are driving there from downtown. “It’s the second left after Wabash”, but I’m driving from the south and I’m already on Wabash.

Picture of the day.
On the Gaspé Peninsula.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Here is the blooms on the agave cactus, how appearing to complete the cycle on the lower “flowers”. It’s healthy looking, you can see the clusters in the top panel. They mature from the bottom up, the buds at the top are still just forming. JZ, who has not checked in for weeks, says this is sign of great natural habitat, but why won’t other things grow? Tell me that. I got over to rehearsal a few minutes late. The session was planned out, we are aiming at that Wednesday slot. I have many reservations about that, so let’s quickly run over the scenario.

           While my research shows a demand for a small duo such as I’ve created, this is a niche market. Those expecting a “full sound” like two guitar players may come away disappointed. To appreciate the show, you should listen a bit more carefully than usual. This is not something one can count on in these woods. We don’t know what to expect, so I arranged that if the host gets us on stage, we will plow through three songs right away. I don’t know if there is a limit, so three back-to-back gives us at least some decent exposure.

           We are prepared to play the full two hours if it is allowed. It’s a straight-forward arrangement, I sing two, he sings one, for as long as they leave us up there. Are we ever glad we practiced music, not songs. This was one of the worst rehearsals yet. Plenty of flubs, dropped chords, and forgotten lyrics. But we were easily able to compensate every error and make it sound right. Learning this accounted for a good third of the time we’ve been rehearsing and thank goodness. It is paying off in strong recoveries, a facet of entertaining many so foolishly ignore.

           I may have fried the bass channel on my PA, channel 6. It has to do for this show. Just one gig per month there will pay for everything, an important aspect in a band. If it costs instead of produces, somebody will eventually call in sick. My management experience is in the forefront in these situations. Music may be mostly luck yet there’s a reason fortune favors the brave. I have it planned that if there is no PA, we will use mine, but make it look like it was thrown together at the last moment.

           The last photo today shows the largest surviving avocado plant. The green bottle is for scale, it is used to water the plants a measured amount as I walk past most days. We have only two trees that escaped the raccoon and as you see, they are covered with weighted wire mesh. If you experience surround sound walking through the back yard and sheds, it really is. All the radios are tuned to the same station. You are listening to “80s, 90s & beyond”, a rather snappy meaningless phrase. Let’s check the news on-line. The radio news sucks.
           An ammunition plant in Nebraska has mysteriously exploded. Biden announces he was born in Israel. A meme-poster gets 7 years for slighing Hillary in 2016. And around 100 “Republicans” voted differently when they were behind closed doors.

Last Laugh