new music business in Davidson

The Birdsnest opened this week on Main Street in Davidson. The main business is teaching guitar, bass, and voice lessons. The owner, Billy Jones, a local musician, is creating a space for musicians to bring their instuments and hang out and play. I visited (with my Martin D-15) on Monday for a couple of hours. Then again today (Yamaha LL26) and volenteered to help out in anyway I can. Billy does a lot of charity work and a portion of of every show goes to different local charities. We jammed both days and Billy is showing me how to add leads and alternate chords to my playing. We are going to trade work for lessons. I am so excited about finding folks to play with, and the opportunity to become a better musician.

Time for a puppy picture.  Skye

a rainy Sunday

I'm enjoying the first rain in 4 weeks and much cooler temperatures. This afternoon, a little guitar playing and then off to have dinner with my brother. A new music business has started in Davidson, the Birdsnest. The will be giving guitar, bass and voice lessons. I spoke with the owner and shall head there tomorrow with a guitar to discuss how they might help me improve my playing and singing. They even intend to have a place where people can just come and play. I'm excited about a place to just hang out and play. So the question is, which guitar to take first? Probably the Yairi DYC-40 as it has new strings.

Giving up on Georgia football for the season, 4 losses out of 4 games.

kidney stone ...again

So Saturday evening back to the ER as the pain is too great to manage at home. The staff was better than my trip there eight days previous. It took on both trips, 1 1/2 hours to give me something for the pain. This latest stone is making itself at home and not moving at this time. So, I've been taking it easy and playing guitar.

Yesterday, I get an email and then a phone call from my bank. Fraud detection alerted when someone used my debit card to pay their slip rent at a marina at Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emerates. While I'm on hold (repeatedly) I review my checking account. Seems that $2,302.54 was sent to Nordstom to pay a bill. Naturally I don't shop there. Further investigation shows that my ex-wife, who does shop there, paid her bill out of my account. The bank admits while they took her off my account years ago, that she can still use my account to pay her bills. They gave me her phone numbers and after a couple of hours she returns my call and agrees to return the money. It was so weird hearing her voice after all this time. I did not tailspin into an emotional abyss. Surprised I did not.

Couple of shows this weekend, Keith and Marcus of The Mantras on Friday and Saturday and Amelia's Mechanics on Saturday. UGA football Saturday. Looking forward to my first trip in Athens, Ga. in 3 years next weekend. Also, to passing this damn stone.

Life

I am still so elated over the news that my cancer remains in remission. Every doctor I see says that it is miraculous that I am still free of the disease. I continue to find difficult to comprehend that I have, so far, avoided a certain and untimely death. I can look at statistics and hear the voices of the doctors who deal with this everyday and still it just fails to sink in. I can best explain it as one who staggers away from a car accident, with injuries but little actual pain, in some kind of denial or shock. Then turns back to see the car totally destroyed.

What I do know is that every single moment, even those rife with kidney stone pain, must be savored. I once thought, many years ago, that there was no purpose or meaning to life (my existential period) and the only reasonable response was to feel as good as possible at all times. Then, I thought meaning could be derived from selfless service to others (my counseling period). Next I tried just earning a living and taking life as it comes (my computer period). I find myself now coming around to seeing life as something to enjoy, all the moments; happy, sad, pain, pleasure, it's all the same thing. Just the simple experience of life, each moment, every sensation, every thought. The simple pleasures of petting a dog, the feel of guitar strings under my fingers, the moment of opening the shutter of a camera, listening to music, is the point of life.

Be Here Now. Experience this moment. Not that there may be no other, there is no other.

Don't worry, be happy.

And the Good News Is ....

No cancer! 2 years in remission. My Oncologist told me today, once again, that I was a miracle and a statistic outlier. Beating the odds so far. Couldn't be happier or more relieved.

Seems I am passing yet another stone. Hope this goes easier than last week's. Changed diet and hope it works. When this one passes, it'll be number 15 since the year 2000.

Been busy downloading lots of music from this site:

http://sbdh2.blogspot.com/p/grateful-dead-tours.html

signed up for one month of high speed downloads and making the most of it. DL'd over 50 cd's or shows, from '60's and '70's jazz fusion to Umphrey's McGee. Ordered a second 2GB network drive to back all this up.

low energy state

Since the stone passed (Friday) and then the CT and MRI (where they pump me full of chemicals for the scans) on Monday, I've been in a low energy state. Just hanging around the house and downloading music.

Two new show reviews published:

http://www.honesttune.com/content/view/2596/29/

http://www.honesttune.com/content/view/2580/30/

I think they are pretty good.

I'll get the results of the cancer screening tests tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks for reading.

oh Happy Day!

I couldn't control the pain and went to the emergency room this morning, soon after the last post. Took forever from Admittance to Morphine and the pain was significant. Finally the med kicks in, 2 hours and multiple needle sticks (wasn't her day, I guess) later. Got home and passed the stone within a few minutes. Only 5mm, which the Dr. says is near the limit of those that will pass on their own. I've passed larger one's than that. Easy Peasy. Happy! Resting now.

just catching up

I think (and I'm rarely wrong) that I have another kidney stone. Seems that it is starting lower than the last one but unfortunately location doesn't predict when it will come out. I certainly hope it is soon. Last one (July) took about 8 days and I wasn't sure whether or not it was at first, the discomfort was different than the usual early signs. A physician determined it was just from my description, I wasn't sure, and he was correct. It popped out 6 days later. That was number 13 since my first one, in 2001.

I trapped a second mouse this week and set a third trap last night. This morning the peanut butter was gone but the trap was still set. I'll set two tonight.

Try as I might to control this feeling, I'm lonely. I have been in one romantic relationship or another for about 32 of the past 35 years. The longest period without one was 2006-8 after Harriet left. Other than that I have not "flown solo" for more than a few months at a time. I know I need to learn to just be alone without feeling lonely. I think it is exacerbated by a lack of a close friendship. Exporing my feelings now, it is not so much the romantic type of relationship I am missing, just the closeness with another person, a best friend.

MySpace and Facebook afford us all, friendships can transend geography, but we lose the closeness.

Ouch, discomfort is being replaced by pain.

I had to take a life this morning

Around 4:00am I was awakened to a snap in the kitchen and I knew what had happened. I'd politely asked my unwelcome guest to leave earlier in the evening, but got no response. A little peanut butter to bait the trap and the cutest little mouse was caught. I think he would have made a nice pet. He was a soft gray with big eyes. I felt terrible. It was a merciful death, quick and painless. I'll have to bait another trap tonight.  I hope the little mouse finds a happy afterlife full of bagels.

Broke out the Yairi DYC-40 yesterday and after playing it for a few minutes I remembered the sound that captured my ears and my heart that morning at Fine's Musical Instruments in Statesville. Brighter than my other guitars, yet not too much and still a complex tone. This Yairi is Spruce top and Mahogony back and sides with an Alvarez Mark II system 600 preamp.

Gibson Dove Performer

Just got home from Sam Ash. I went to get more guitar stands (on sale). As I walked in right at opening I had the guitar room and the salesman all to myself. Best service I've had there. I went in to compare the Songwriter and the Hummingbird. They only had the Songwriter Studio so it wasn't the comparison I'd hoped for. Being me, I wasn't planning on buying new anyway. Played both, then a J-200  (mine is better probably due to 17 years of opening up) a J-45, and then the salesman handed me the new (made for Sam Ash) Dove Performer (see photo). Scallaped bracing as Gibson used in the 1930's models and AAA Sitka Spruce top and to both of our surprise, Maple back and sides (which is the typical Dove tonewoods). I was more than impressed with the playability, the neck and the tone. A little higher than the J-200 and the J-45. I kept out the J-45 for comparisons sake. The salesman said they would match a competitor's 15% off coupon bring the price to $1,869 with hardshell case and lifetime warrenty. I barely got out of the store without it. I figure I have 29 hours left to get that deal.  I need a program to treat my GAS.

Watching ECU play Tulsa and nearing the end of the first half, ECU up 17 - 13. Lovely weather today, sunny and lower 80's with low humidity. Dogs free play time in a few minutes, at halftime.

Programmed the Zoom for the Martin D-15. Amazing sound, using a D-28 model it sounded just like a D-28. Scary good. The Gibson is in the process of getting a patch (that is what Zoom calls a saved collection of settings.) As there are 40 editable patches, I may program more than one patch per guitar. 

Lazy Labor Day Sunday.

Necessity is the mother of invention

Having the quacking problem and needing to increase the gain of the guitars that do not have preamps built-in, I decided it was time to learn to use the Zoom A2 acoustic guitar pedal i purchased several weeks ago. My first hint on how to get past the awful sound was a posting advising the user to first set the unit into high gain, only available on starting the unit. Once I tried that the Zoom offered a reasonable tone, not the brash sound I'd encounter every time I had tried it before. After a quick reading of the manual, I was able to figure out how to configure the device. There are 47 separate effects that can be dialed in. I'll be spending the next few days testing out various sounds and creating patches that suit my various guitars. Once I become a Zoom Master, I'll write up a comprehensive set of instructions. But for now ...lunch.

Piezo Quacks

Gave the Gibson J-200's new Fishman Infinity piezo pickup a tryout yesterday and found it quacks like a big duck.  Looked up solutions and finally called Sweetwater Music to get advice on preamps that might help. Quacking is the informal term for overdriving the pickups with hard strumming. The J-200 just begs to be played hard. So, advised to consider the Fishman Aura DI ($329) and the ToneBone PZ pu ($299) I reviewed the specs and decided to try lowering the volume on the pick up itself and raising the gain and volume on the amp. It worked. So now I don't need a preamp, but a bigger amp, lol. Might add a small booster for the signal, but nothing that would affect the tone.

It is always something.

Played the Gibby standing today, so I could make adjustments on the amp while playing, and found that I had no strain or pain in my left arm and wrist. Interesting.

Submitted my Music on the Mountaintop review and pictures this evening. Tomorrow the TLG review to complete and the Martin D-15's K & K Western pickup to test.

Watching the hurricane progression. Worried that Vicki won't be able to fly home on Friday. In fact, I think it's likely she will be stuck in Charlotte. Might be driving to the airport Friday afternoon.