Mon, 15 May 2006
It’s been a busy couple of weeks. My wife is down in San Diego (inSane Diego? It feels like it sometimes) and has been since mid April. I flew down 2 Thursdays ago to see her and flew back on Sunday. Then I taught guitar and mandolin Monday through Wednesday and flew back down this past Thursday. We were suppose to drive back up yesterday but she had 2 business meetings that got moved from Friday to Monday so I flew back up yesterday and she’ll drive up tomorrow. I got into Sacramento airport and as soon as I stepped outside I knew that Summer had arrived. It was just over a month ago that I was running the wood stove day and night to keep the house warm. Yesterday it was in the 90’s. Yep, summer is here. I should say that in addition to wanting to see my lovely wife I also flew down to San Diego to go to my nephew’s wedding. Chris is the guitarist in the band Hollowshell and he also works for Boss (The guitar pedal branch of Roland). Rachael has been his girlfriend since they were both 15 years old and as of yesterday they’re husband and wife. Here’s a picture of the lovely couple:
The Shop
Today I should be installing the insulation in the new shop and then buying and hanging the drywall. That should get me to the point where I can unpack all the boxes and start building instruments again. I can’t wait!
Lessons
I’ll be at the mandolin symposium the last week of June. So I’ll be setting up alternative lesson dates for all my students.
Also, I’ve been talking to Mike at Music and More about framing in two additional teaching studios. If we do so then I’m claiming one of those as my own. Right now we’re running out of teaching space and I’ve had to teach my Wednesday night lessons on the picnic benches outside of the theater. It’s a nice atmosphere, but I’d love to have my own music room with my books, CD player, amp, and so on. Having just 2 more studios will really help the situation.
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Tue, 09 May 2006
The workshop is coming right along.
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I almost forgot. The Slow Jam is tonight at 7:00pm at Music And More I hope to see you there.
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Tue, 02 May 2006
The Friday recital was serious fun. The main purpose of the recital was for the beginning voice students to give a recital and for their parents to see the results. But Kay thought it would be nice if I played a song as a way to introduce myself as their new guitar teacher. I played Al Pettiway’s “Sligo Creek”. After that tune there were a few more students and then Sean and I closed the show with a mandolin duet. As planned, we played “Minor Swing” and it rocked the house. Kay asked for an encore so we started to improvise in A. We threw in “Red Haired Boy”, “Room 222” (a song Sean and I wrote), “Bile them Cabbage Down”, and then basically just jammed in A for a while. Two amazing things happened. First, we were playing really fast! (It ended up being too fast for our own good). But we also were listening to each other like never before. I started playing an ascending chord line and Sean picked it up immediately. Sean started playing Room 222 and I picked up on it immediately. We were “in sync” for sure. After quite a bit of applause and a few words about the Slow Jam (which is next Tuesday evening on May 9th) we said good-bye and left the stage. The student who was doing the emcee work for the recital (also named Sean) came back stage and his first words were “Oh My Gosh!” Everyone was really impressed and I have to admit, our egos were very flattered. It looks like I may even have a new student because of that recital. New Shop News We’ve framed in the new wall with a door and window so we’re well on our way to converting the garage to my new shop. I’ll be on the road for the next 2 weekends so I’ll have to try to get as much work done as I can in the next couple of days. I’ve already installed 6 new florescent light fixtures so I have pretty good light in the shop already. Today I primed the outside of the new wall and insulated and drywalled the inside. I’m going to start framing the new interior wall tomorrow. My goal is to finish a mandolin before The Mandolin Symposium which is the last week of June. I also have a client who wants a dulcimer and I really want to get a guitar or 2 built in the next few months. So I have a lot of incentive to finish up the shop and start that part of my new life as well. Speak of “my new life”: I was writing a letter to my friend Terry the other day (yep, not an email, but an actual letter. Remember those?) I use to work with Terry over at UBOC. I was telling him how much I was enjoying living here. I mentioned that I missed the people I worked with, but I realized that I don’t miss a single aspect of that job. That actually surprised me a bit. I worked so long putting myself through school to get my degrees and then spent 12 years in the software business. A month ago today I walked away from it have haven’t looked back. This life seems so much more real. I can’t believe I spent so long in a career that gave me no satisfaction other than the paycheck. Sure, the money was good (real good) but I was forcing myself to go into the office every morning and every evening I felt like I’ve just wasted another day of my life. As a friend of mine once told me: “That’s no way to go through life”. Poker News I just had to brag that I played a 45 seat tournament on Poker Stars and was in first place when I lost almost everything to a higher flush. I was down to $190. The next lowest stack was about $2000. I fought back and had the greatest comeback of my life. I eventually won the tournament. Yeah, I’m bragging a bit. But Geez-Oh-Petes, from $190 to first place? I think that deserves a bit of bragging. OK, keep playing and we’ll see you Tuesday at the Slow Jam. What I’m listening to today The Ditty BopsThis story is from the
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