I'm generally a pretty upbeat guy, even when I see the world around me going to h___ in a handbasket. During this time of lockdown, I've actually done some things that make me feel pretty good. For starters, I re-financed my mortgage, getting a 3.125% rate, saving me almost $400 a month! Then, after I heard everyone talking about Zoom meetings, and having been on one with a group of friends, one of whom is a financial advisor who spoke of the company, I went and placed a buy order for some shares. In one day, the stock rose $10!
But perhaps the most pleasing thing I've done is spend even more time playing guitar, and working on songs that I enjoyed in my youth. When I starting teaching myself guitar there was no Internet, no YouTube, no free-lessons-everywhere. I had to learn by spinning vinyl over and over, trying to pick out the chords and notes, or going to the store and buying songbooks. I still have pretty much every songbook I ever bought!
So, with the aid of the new-era tools, I've gotten to revisit some of my favorite songs, and have quickly incorporated them into my repertoire. I mentioned recently that I was listening to songs and albums by the 60s group "Love," and while I've always been a fan, I now have a better appreciation of the complexity of some of their work (the album Forever Changes is listed as #40 on Rolling Stone's Top 500 Best Albums of All Time). I play, I practice, I sing, and I get better. And that's filling me with a lot of satisfaction and joy.
Turning lemons into lemonade, that's what it's all about.
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