General Music Chat

Boy what a time to do it...end of the world, of course I never noticed it but I'm pretty sure it ended on a thursday in 2008 anyway. Storm blew through here while we were packing to move, dropped a tree on the roof of my mother's house, several holes to patch now...I see a roof job coming...another blow brewing as I type, expecting high winds, lots of rain, already have candles and kerosene lamps ready since the power goes out around here every time the weather guy sneezes, and everything I own is in a trailer covered with a tarp except my guitars. The Super Reverb is buried at the bottom, can't get to it yet. And can't do a thing about it until I get the roof on my shed patched, I just had to throw away everything I had already in storage due to roof damage while I was living 5 hours away and couldn't do a thing about it. Did find a couple of things that survived, some drawings I did 30 years ago and so forth so it's not a total loss, the internet connection should shut down this evening, I don't have the bucks to re-up...Depressed to begin with, Christmas does that to me every year, my sister found me standing in the yard crying for no reason one year probably 15 years ago, I've been telling her for years I'm going to go set up a tent as far away from civilization as I can get till it's over.

IN the good news department I did get a roofing job just before leaving Louisiana, made enough on it to replace my camera, got a brand new (returned I guess) Pentax K 30, box was open but not a scratch on it, first picture I took was filename 0001 and I'm liking it. Recently got set up on a Print On Demand (POD) site (in my signature) where maybe one of these days I'll be able to sell a picture or two, also should be able to get something going with guys I was in a band with here years ago, soon as we get everything repaired and I can settle in...

So it might be a few days before I can get online again, I don't know if the local library has a working wi-fi like most do, and will have to go somewhere to find a connection, I haven't looked around here yet. Right now I can walk out to the mailbox and back, get a cup of coffee, go pee and still sit here waiting for a webpage to load...slower than dial up by far, 3-5 minutes for a page to load.

And how is your Christmas?

That's a drag.
Hope things work out better for you.

Billy, where in Texas did you move? I hope things get better! The storm hasn't hit here yet. I am thinking of going for a walk in the next 30 minutes if the weather holds.

Jeff - Hate to make you look dumb, but didn't you look at my avatar? I've already updated my info here. Huntington, which is a few miles from Lufkin. I'm on the bank of Lake Sam Rayburn, one of the best bass lakes in Texas, and don't care a thing about fishing any more. Guess I had my fill of pulling 5 pounders outta here long ago...

It'll get better, it's all just speed bumps on this road we call life. I've survived a half dozen tornadoes, at least that many hurricanes, the navy, lost girlfriends, politicians and 50 years of Christmas depression, I'm pretty sure life will carry on.

Right now my connection is so bad the original text says server connection was reset, so I can't see original comments, I'll check back in later. This account expires later today, I'll have to go to the local library or something, no bucks to pay for another month so I may not be online for a day or 3.

Thanks for the well wishes, I'll make it I'm pretty sure, I didn't get this far just to fall over now...

At least you made it to the promise land of Texas..

Rest easy, it will get better...Amen.

Billy, I didn't look at your avatar. I just assumed with the move you hadn't had time to make the change "yeah that's the ticket" excuse!
Even worse the storm had moved thru I didn't notice as I slept so well last night.
I had a nice 2 mile brisk walk though!

Despite the difficulty I'm glad you made it to heaven safely.


Christmas with family worshiping my Savior . . . despite life's little ( or big ) problems.

It's don't get any better than that.

Well, storm blew through here this morning around 9 am, I stood out under a pavillion with a camera. Yeah that's intelligence for ya...serious storm brewing, 30mph winds, non stop rolling thunder behind me, tornado warning issued, and I'm out with a camera...but I had a nice 4" steel pole to grab onto...

No tornado here, one spotted about 20 miles away, I'm pretty sure one partied out on the lake behind us though, and got a couple of pretty cool pictures of the weather rolling in. Wind finally was blowing rain mist across the pavilion hard enough I couldn't keep my glasses clean, that's 30 feet, (camera was under a poncho except when grabbing a shot) so I went home. Sky pea soup green out behind us over the lake, swear I heard one but too far away to see it, much less get a picture of it. But I tried...

But that's twice in a few days some seriously bad weather through here, I've already been through 2 tornadoes here, one in the yard, the other driving down the road at 10mph (zero visibility). So what's the first thing that happens when I come back? riiiiiiighht....

Thanks for the good wishes, can't wait to get settled in and see about getting together with the guys for some music...first have a mess to clean up. 2 leaky roofs, 5 recently cut dead pines, move my stuff to the shed, it'll be fun...I've had a crick in my neck the past 4 days or so, sliced my finger pretty good packing, we're all dead tired...I keep my knives sharp enough to shave, little finger got in the way while cutting tape for a box...it's about 1/4 inch deep and 3/4 inch long...I'm actually glad it was very sharp, a cut from a dull knife takes longer to heal. It's mending pretty well.

Jeff - Reset info on my account here first time I got online while moving. I guess your excuse will hold water...for a few seconds anyway...

George - Thought about calling on the way through, but with a 16 foot trailer loaded down, 2 vehicles and my monster cat I thought it might not be a great time...

Scotty - it has to get better, not much worse can happen...leaky roofs, storms, worn out...it's gotta get better...thanks man

Billy - it'll get better, eventually! Nice photos - is there any market at all these days for online photography? I sold off all my 35mm stuff last year, been shooting with a little Sony P&S (16M) - sure beats lugging a huge bag of lenses and film around.

Mike - I've had no bites yet, not even a nibble, but it seems some people are selling prints. I get a list of recent;y sold prints every time I log on and it's changing daily.

I'm off to a slow start, but keeping my fingers crossed, it takes time and promoting it.

Anyway, just got moved and got a call from a friend, looks like I'll be playing some guitar new year's eve. Good friend here, very good guitar player too, broke his left middle finger, found out I was back in town and asked me to fill in. So it looks like it's starting already, and I'm not even settled in...this will be fun, I haven't touched a guitar in a couple of months, been in a slump, so my fingers are really going to like this...YIKES...

Went to get strings today and played a bit on a little Champ. guys working in the store had good things to day about my playing so I guess I haven't lost it...first comment I got was man, you were just burning it up over there...and I'm really really rusty...so I guess I'll do ok, that or these guys just never hear anybody who can play decent. I dimed the Champ and played a bit, wanted to see if it might have enough balls to handle a small gig, had a good time. They asked me to turn down, (they knew I was going to, I told them why, they said ok) I didn't mind, I heard what I needed. But the same guy was the one who made the comment above...then after most of the customers cleared out he told me to go do it again if I wanted to...hehe...it was fun...

Howdy Paleo and welcome home. Happy New Year.


Used to play that part of Texas a lot in a country band. I'd bet you could make a decent living playing all the VFW halls around that part of Texas by yourself on an acoustic guitar, if you can handle the honky-tonk standard requests you'd get.


Otherwise, hope there's chicken wire.

Mike - I've had no bites yet, not even a nibble, but it seems some people are selling prints. I get a list of recent;y sold prints every time I log on and it's changing daily.

I'm off to a slow start, but keeping my fingers crossed, it takes time and promoting it.

Anyway, just got moved and got a call from a friend, looks like I'll be playing some guitar new year's eve. Good friend here, very good guitar player too, broke his left middle finger, found out I was back in town and asked me to fill in. So it looks like it's starting already, and I'm not even settled in...this will be fun, I haven't touched a guitar in a couple of months, been in a slump, so my fingers are really going to like this...YIKES...

Went to get strings today and played a bit on a little Champ. guys working in the store had good things to day about my playing so I guess I haven't lost it...first comment I got was man, you were just burning it up over there...and I'm really really rusty...so I guess I'll do ok, that or these guys just never hear anybody who can play decent. I dimed the Champ and played a bit, wanted to see if it might have enough balls to handle a small gig, had a good time. They asked me to turn down, (they knew I was going to, I told them why, they said ok) I didn't mind, I heard what I needed. But the same guy was the one who made the comment above...then after most of the customers cleared out he told me to go do it again if I wanted to...hehe...it was fun...

hope your New Year's Eve went well ..if it materialized..

Yep, it materialized, and went fairly well. A few rough spots here and there, that happens when you're filling in and don't have a clue what's going to happen next. In general it went ok, my favorite Ibanez SD 9 distortion pedal decided to take another vacation so I used a Rocktron I don't like as well, as usual it was hard to get it set right and was basically an annoyance. I think next time I'll use the Boss one instead. It's not great but easy to dial in and not a headache.

Otherwise it was pretty good, the Super Reverb survived the trip here in a trailer and worked perfect all night and of course sounded good, very little trouble with staying in tune except when it got 10 degrees cooler and everything in sight went sharp. A little pencil graphite in the nut slots of the strat did a good job. Voice cracked up a couple of times, I forgot one line of a song but I hadn't played it in 30 years so I guess I didn't do too bad...