It’s just crazy. Nearly every time I sit down to write a post these days, I end up writing three before I have something I’m happy with. And that’s pretty much the case again, with 
this post.
I started a post last week. Trying to tell about the jam and the interesting experiences I had. One was the relief it gave me from the crazy few weeks I’ve been having and the other had to do with playing with someone of a caliber and skill level that I strive for. I thought it might be a nice thing to talk about since I haven’t really had much in the way of jam experiences to discuss recently. And then I got stuck.
Earlier in the day, before I sat down to write, my nice quiet relaxed world went just a little sideways. I thought I’d been staying on top of the stuff I have to take care of for the part of my Grandfather’s business that falls to my sister and I. Apparently not, or something else came up. One phone call sent me chasing my tail and a few other things for the better part of the week, ultimately. So when I sat down to write, I had a little trouble getting my thoughts to come together in a manner that would be interesting, not ramble, and not sound too weird. At that point I walked away with the intention of finishing it the next night.
That approach has worked in the past. It didn’t work this time. I never got back to what I had written. Things just kept sliding right on by. All making it not just difficult to focus on writing the post, also making it difficult to retrieve the feeling and experience I had wanted to write about.
And then there was the hurricane. First and foremost. I am extremely fortunate and grateful to live where I do. The weather event, while tedious in it’s duration and lack of drama for me, it was only tedious and lacking in drama. Fortunately. I did not sustain any damage, flooding, or prolonged power loss. Yep. I got to watch the weather coverage all weekend. Not healthy. However, it was just about all I could do for a good bit of the time. The anticipation is killer. And I find it to be especially debilitating when it comes to hurricanes. I have a more than healthy respect for Mother Nature and after living in Central Florida in 2004, I have an extreme dislike of wind events. As I imagine many who were there for that time do.
So. As a result of all that. And still studying for my test. It’s this week by the way. My week was not nearly as musical as I prefer. It was not particularly calm. And for me, it wasn’t conducive to writing. With last week in the history books, and more information now at hand, my biggest concern and worry for this week is my test. I really want to pass. I’m really not sure how it’s going to go. I will continue to study and then go in and just do the best I can.
As you might surmise, how I do on the test will likely impact my plans for the rest of the week as well as how I approach next week’s post. Here’s hoping it goes well and I can return to obsessing over guitar strings, pick up heights, guitar setups, and the need to dig into my recording software.
For now, here are a few pictures from the jam. It was a lot of fun and I think I did pretty good. I took some leads and while they could have been better, I took the leads without hesitation so it’s progress. There is video and as soon as feel like I can spare the time editing it, I’ll get it posted.
I had planned on taking one of my pet birds to the vet because she has been having a lot of trouble getting around. I suspected she is dealing with arthritis but wanted to make sure it wasn’t something else that was being neglected. It’s arthritis. There isn’t much I can do for her other than more comfortable perches and pain medication. Comfortable perches works for her. Pain medication not so much. She was cooperative about taking it the first two or three doses and from there she got increasingly less cooperative. She got really good at hiding from the dropper. She figured out how to bury her beak into my hand and leg and jacket so good that I had no chance of getting to it.
All the effort and struggle to give the bird her medicine was just more than I thought she could take and I didn’t want her mad at me so being the soft touch that I am when it comes to animals, after her dosing, she got proper head scratching. A process that could go on for forty-five minutes to an hour easily. I got tired before she did. Yep she’s definitely got me trained.
My family is fairly small and there aren’t a lot of our little nucleus left. And now there is one less. A week before I went on break I received a call that my Grandfather was in the hospital. His wife called to let me know and was really good about keeping me, and thus the rest of my family, up to date on how he was doing. After a little over a week they moved him to hospice. This was the first week while I was on break. Saturday morning after that I received the call that he had passed. So a trip back to Oklahoma was now in play. I have a sister and she and I are next in line there. My father passed five years ago and he was an only child. My Grandmother passed 15 years ago. Both his brother and sister passed a few years ago as well. He was 94. He lived a good long life and he out lived most of his family and friends. I went back for the funeral and to help with cleaning up what little bit of stuff I could. It’s not a trip you ever want to make and no matter how much we might intellectually accept something like a death is coming, I’m not sure you are ever totally prepared for it when it finally happens.
There are lots of experiences and feelings and events that can occur as a result of someone’s passing. The hospitality of a stranger was not one I was expecting. As you can imagine, staying at what had been my Grandfather’s house was going to be tight since there was other family coming in. So I was anticipating grabbing a hotel for the couple of nights I was going to be there. Except, a neighbor lady, who I had never met and had only met my Grandfather’s wife a few months ago, offered the use of her spare room with an en suite bathroom and shower. I am in admiration and appreciation of her hospitality. She was a very welcoming hostess. And quite an exceptional person with some great stories of really amazing adventures that have been her life. I am very happy to have had the chance to meet and converse with her, and again appreciative and grateful for her hospitality.
nights, so I traveled as light as I could. I expected that I might be coming back with a few more items than I went with and I really wanted to make the return trip as easy as I could. So I did not pack a computer. A kindle yes, but not the laptop. So studying while I was there was out. Not that I would have had the time really. That meant that upon my return I was going to be spending much more of my time left studying just to make up for the time away. And I did. I have a little more to read, just one chapter, and some quizzing to work through. I’m far enough, and what’s left is more peripheral information so while I’ll still be studying this next week, I have at least made it through the bulk of the information and am a little less stressed 
about getting through the material in time for taking the test. The next step there is to schedule it. I’ve already purchased my voucher so it’s paid for, now I need to commit to a day, time, and location.
gear. And played. I got to play with him in that first set. It was pretty cool. Playing with a harp player, at least in my experience so far, brings a certain energy and dynamic to the experience that I like. I really have a great time seconding a good harp player.
So for this last jam I took both my Gretsch and my Les Paul. I chose to play the Les Paul. I left the pedals as they were. I didn’t disengage anything so I ended up with at least a bit of overdrive with some bite. This time I had the opposite problem. I had lots of room to turn the guitar up and no room to turn it down, and it was plenty loud. Now you can hear me.
hard work though, I will be kicking things off with a Blues Jam. One that I won’t have to get up early the next day.
Like I usually do, I have a few things that I really need or want to get done while I’m off. Some of it is stuff that is just easier to do while off from work and some of it is stuff that I’m just having trouble getting to during a regular week. There’s so many things that I started making a list. Not a ‘To Do’ list though. That’s what I usually do and then I’m really disappointed when I only get one or two things done. This time I’m calling it a “Things I Could Do While On Vacation” list. This way it takes some pressure off so that I don’t feel that I have to get it all done. Which is good because the list is pretty long. As I was making the list, I got half way down the page and realized there wasn’t anything on there that would really be considered fun. So I added a few of those types of things. I might go see a movie or two.
regular week, is study and play guitar. That sounds pretty simple and no stress. It’s probably not at all how it’s going to go. I have a few other things to do besides that. I will still be trying to get as much stuff done as I can. I’m just going to try to focus on the study for that test I told you about a few weeks ago. I’m also planning on spending a lot of time in the music room with a guitar or two. I have a few things I want to really focus on there and I’m looking forward to some bigger chunks of time to really dig into them.