The Sunday Thread for January 16, 2022

[OldStrummer]

The middle of January is bringing in the heart of winter for many of us in the northern hemisphere. As I type this at 7:30 in the morning, the outside temperature is 13° F (10.5° C). That's pretty darn chilly for these parts. In fact, the outside temperature is cooling down my guitar room, making the humidifier less effective, so I plan to put a space heater in there to help keep the place suitable for stringed instruments.

Other than that, it's a three-day weekend for me, and if the predicted storm does what they forecast, I'll probably just spend the time inside, playing guitar. I maintain that if there's an upside to COVID, it's that staying at home means much more time with a guitar in hand! I've noticed that my calluses have calluses!

Last week and next week are training weeks, so this week I get a little down time. I intend to take it! I hope everyone out there is OK. What's new with you?

[Laker]

Yesterday was a day where we had “lake effect” snow for most of the day here on the western shore of Lake Michigan. It was that light, fluffy stuff that I cleared from the sidewalks and driveway with the leaf blower without even breaking a sweat. That is a rare occurrence here behind the cheddar curtain. The snow that’s expected tonight will be a whole different ballgame so it will be back to business as usual piloting the Ariens snow blower.

Hope all have a great Sunday and new week!

[S. Cane]

Just had breakfast with the missus and our dog.

Taking my last day of ‘vacation’ to get some rest. Will watch the latest version of Dune on HBO Max and later I’ll enjoy my usual Sunday Evening Budweisers and pick up my studies on soloing over Althea

[ch willie]

I'm still just amazed at how good my $200 Fender acoustic sounds. It's got the sweetness of the best of those old Ovations and the jangle of a Gibson. I've been hearing the song All of Me in my head, so I sat down with the Fender and worked out a version of it. Triads rule.

[DanTheBluesMan]

Sergio - love Althea, it's one of my favorite Dead tunes that I actually play

we have had a couple of brutishly cold days, yesterday's high just managed to hit double digits and the wind just kept getting stronger as the day wore on. I was going to go to the gym to walk but I knew the game would be on and I had no intentions of watching it, I knew it wasn't going to be good.

I've been playing more and more lately, as I go out less and less. Hmm, wonder if there's a correlation there? Getting my calluses built up again. Been working on Day Tripper lately, trying to find a solo guitar arrangement that works for me.

One more cold day then we get the tail end of a storm that's going to lash the East coast. Supposed to start off as snow then turn to heavy rain. Eek. Oh, well, it's a holiday so hopefully fewer people out on the roads.

Barring any cancelled flights, my brother is taking off for a week in FL next Saturday. I think I'll use his absence to do all the noisy things in the basement and clean it up i.e. bleach the crap out of it.

[blackonblack]

More unpacking today. Hooking up the washer and dryer. Had to rewire the dryer from 3 to 4 prong. Checked out a couple churches online as I’m new here. The quality of musicianship was pretty different between them.

[phantomman]

Clear, cold, and very crisp here this morning. We're expecting a visit from an old family friend on Tuesday and I'm prepping for a Chinese dinner (wontons, poke egg rolls, flied lice, and egg-drop soup). I have to step out and make a trip to our local oriental market to pick up some hot mustard. I won't need mittens or a scarf but I'm definitely wearing my GI flight jacket.

[gibsonjunkie]

It’s been a while since I stuck my head in to say howdy. Happy Sunday! I have a three-day weekend – catching up after a very busy season. Took down Christmas lights, got the generator started by hand – the electric starter is on the fritz. I put a new battery in it, but I think the charger I used on it bit the dust. New one arriving Tuesday. At least I now know it will start by hand – a 16 HP motor doesn’t easily start with a pull cord, particularly when it runs on Natural Gas, but spraying engine starter fluid into the carb helped a lot.

Programmed a bunch of other stuff to work off of Alexa and then I hit a lazy streak – which will probably continue into much of tomorrow.

Been busy training school boards after the November election - several nights a week plus a bunch of Saturdays as well. This year a different breed of volunteer has been showing up on boards – some with some peculiar ideas on what is important. Ultimately it’s about doing what is statutorily required… most of which no one really understands at first. It’s fun and rewarding work, although meeting several new groups of people each week with COVID so prevalent is a bit concerning.

My grandson stayed over with us last night so we got a nice Prime Rib – three ribs – 7+ pounds. I almost had a coronary when I saw how much that sucker cost us. My stepson and his family were going to come over, too, but he bailed at the last minute. Lots of leftovers for us! Cooked it in a fancy new oven (Alexa can run that, as well) that we had to buy just after Christmas when our holiday ham cooked for 4 hours and was still not cooked thoroughly.

Back in July a liver specialist said I had a fatty liver and it could turn cirrhotic if I didn’t lose 20 pounds. Ultrasounds ruled out anything scarier. So, I got a calorie counting app for my phone and cut out all extra sugar, salt and crap from my diet and set a goal of thirty pounds. Cutting out Coke and Pepsi, along with any other extra sugar and fast food; plus sticking to 1600 calories a day or less, got me to that goal pretty quickly so I aimed for an additional ten. Hit that goal around Christmas. Now I’m trying to get BMI to a reasonable level, so I’m targeting 45 pounds total which should be in range in a few weeks. I’ve gone from a 36 waist to a 33 waist (and they are pretty loose), blood pressure is way lower and blood sugar went from pre-diabetic to normal.

Progress on my amputated fingertip has been slow. The wound healed, but nerve and tendon damage keeps me from doing much with that finger. Haven’t even been able to hold a guitar pick. I just found some sticky things that stick on a pick to make it easier to grasp – that is helping a lot, but my playing has suffered. I just haven’t been motivated.

Got a couple new microphones to test out – a NEAT King Bee II and a Worker Bee II. The King Bee is slightly improved over the original, not so much for the Worker Bee (Review here: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/customer...1ZG5H7EDG1S5U/ ).

Going to head down to the Nashville area in a couple weeks. My birth mother, her husband and my sister moved to Hendersonville from California last summer and we’re going to visit. I only met my mother for a couple hours a couple years ago and have never met my sister, so we’re all excited about the journey (metaphorically and physically). Just a few days, but it should be pretty good.

Well, enough catch-up. Snow expected to join the cold and wind tonight and tomorrow, (which is why I wanted to make sure the generator would start).

See you around!

[OldStrummer]

Good to see you back, GJ. Don't be a stranger!

[S. Cane]

Good to see you in the house again, GJ!

Hopefully we’ll be complete with all the TFF merry pranksters back together