Two Days, Not Three

Today is Sunday. I went into this weekend expecting to have a three day weekend. My beloved bride had a medical thing scheduled for tomorrow (Monday) and it was my job to get her there and back so I took the day off from work.

Well… she’s not feeling well today and it was recommended that she reschedule the appointment. I could keep the day off but my staff at work is going to be super short handed tomorrow so I have decided to cancel the time off request and go to work.

That sucks.

Change of subject…

The Patrick Stewart Memorial Star Trek the Next Generation Rewatch is nearing the end of season one. I have watched this show all the way through multiple times, but it’s been a really long time since I’ve seen this stuff. I remember the first two seasons being rough. It often took Star Trek series’ a few seasons to figure themselves out and Next Generation was the template for that. There are only a couple of major plot points from season one that affect the overall course of the series. They meet Q in the pilot episode. That’s one. Another is in episode 22 and I watched that one today. Spoiler alert for a nearly 40 year old show but Security Chief Tasha Yar gets wacked in episode 22.

Back in 1987 when this episode aired it was unusual for a TV show to off a main character. These days, in the post-Game of Thrones and Walking Dead world, main character deaths are common. I found it pretty funny that Star Trek actually followed one of the character death tropes. In the first scene of the episode Tasha has a really nice character moment. She’s talking to Worf, the guy who by episodes end takes over her job, and he says something nice about her and she lights up like she’s the happiest she’s ever been in her life. If you see that in an episode today it is GUARANTEED that the character’s death is imminent.

As I approach the end of the first season how has the show lived up to my memories of it? I remember thinking Denise Crosby (Tasha) and Marina Sirtis (Councellor Troi) were… lets just say they weren’t the best actors. Now? Maybe I’m just more forgiving than I was 30 years ago or so but I thought they were both fine. I didn’t have a problem with either of them. I remember thinking that Brent Spiner (Commander Data) needed some time to figure out his character and I think now that was probably accurate. I remember everyone on Earth hating Wesley Crusher but I didn’t have a problem with him. Now? Same. I don’t really get what all the fuss was about. He was a kid. He acted like a kid. He was normal. I thought he was fine. The thing I did not remember was Lavar Burton (Geordi Laforge) is absolutely killing it in season one.

I think I have 3–4 episodes left in season one. After that, obviously, we move on to season two… also known as the dark ages… the black hole… the Doctor Pulaski year. Yikes!

Change of subject again…

I have been playing guitar since the mid-1980s. When I first started playing, Star Trek the Next Generation had not premired yet. That’s how long I’ve been playing. I like to think that I have developed a certain level of skill. I’m not saying I’m good or anything, I just feel that I can play well enough that I can get stuff done. Why then does all of my skill vanish down the crapper every time I put down an electric guitar and pick up an acoustic guitar. I just suck. I suck so bad.

I’m working on this National Solo Album Month thing. I have 10 songs in progress. I am putting acoustic guitars on all of them. Not necessarily playing all the way through each song, but at some point there is an acoustic guitar part in every song. I’ve finished those parts on eight of the 10 songs and my playing is just awful. Terrible. I have worked all of the parts out in MIDI before I even looked at a real guitar and on a few ocassions I’ve actually had to dumb down the part so that I could get through it. Damn, do I suck.

And that, friends and neighbors, is the state of my Sunday night. Here’s hoping that work is quiet tomorrow and I don’t regret not keeping my day off. Fingers crossed.

Oh, the Pain

You know, I do these internet music challenges all the time and I keep making these plans in my head for how to make each one unique and I somehow forget that if you don’t practice all the time these little plans can result in physical pain.

I’m doing an album-in-a-month thing this month. National Solo Album Month. Write and record an album all by yourself within the month of November. No problem. I have three mini personal challenges going on to make it a little more interesting. First, no songs will be in 4/4 time. That’s crazy. Second, saxophone parts on every song. Maybe a little melody here and an improvised solo there. I don’t have to play sax all the way through every song, but my alto does need to make an appearance on every song. That is going to be brutal because my muscles are so out of practice (from not playing sax in years) that I will get maybe five minutes of playing before my jaw stops working correctly and I have to rest up for an hour or so to recover. The third mini-challenge is acoustic guitar on every song.

That’s the surprisingly tough one. I know I am out of shape guitar playing wise. I played a lot through the end of September but then I didn’t play at all in October and lost whatever gains I had made in the stamina and finger tip calluses departments. So I am going to struggle. What I forgot was, acoustic guitar is WAY harder to play than electric guitar. The strings are a lot heavier and its generally less forgiving and just takes more strength in your hands, particularly your fret hand.

I spent about an hour playing this morning before work. I worked on three of the new songs. One has acoustic guitar all the way through. Another has acoustic guitar on the break in the middle, and the third has acoustic guitar on the outro. By the time I was done with the third song my hands were KILLING me. For cryin’ out loud, Robert… would it kill you to just practice now and then? Is staying in shape really that tough? What a jerk!

Anyway, the good news is music is being made. The bad news is, ouch. We’ll see how things look come the end of the month.

Here’s my cheap little Yamaha acoustic guitar. I loaned it to the singer in my last band years ago and I only recently got it back. It has nice new strings that take a massive amount of effort for lazy old me to play. I think its an FG-401, if you’re into info like that. Ebay and Reverb tell me that I could sell it for about $150. I think that’s about what I paid for it back in the mid-90’s.

Nothing

I have nothing to write about today. I wish I had a topic to opine upon but I don’t. I got nothing. I’m sitting on the couch watching Star Trek the Next Generation (RIP Patrick Stewart) and just stalling a little before going to bed.

Tomorrow is Friday. Then the weekend. I’m ready for it right now. So close, yet so far away. How’s that for being overdramatic? Go to bed, red head.

G’night, internet.

Tsunami

I’ve been spinning my mental wheels all day just waiting for the other shoe to drop. The results of the mid-term elections were… I was cautiously optimistic that the Democrats would do well but I didn’t see this coming. We took the House, we took the Senate, we took a slew of governors. All of the Massachusetts ballot questions went exactly as I had hoped. It was just an amazing night watching the results come in. It was so much better than I had hoped.

Now… the day after… I fully expected the orange shitgibbon squating in the white house to make dementia addled misinformation statements left and right all day long. I expected him to start gearing up for another January 6th… but it hasn’t happened. He was quiet. I wouldn’t say he was respectful because he is not physically capable of that, but he didn’t rule out the evil the way I thought he would…

…and that is weirding me out like crazy.

Some of the party leaders have already made statements saying they are willing to work with the fascist regime. FUCK THAT. Those mother fucking fascists have to be held accountable. I you don’t work with them, you punish them for their crimes. You put the fucking pedophiles and rapists in jail. You put the war criminals and those who commit treason against the nation and the constitution away for the rest of their miserable, fascist, evil lives. I don’t want cooperation between parties. We tried that bullshit in 2020 and look where it got us. It is so much worse now than it was in his first term and its because none of them were held accountable.

I want justice and I want it now.

In other, unrelated news…

Today marks 4.5 years since I had my gastric bypass surgery. It is one of three days each year when I weigh myself to see how things are going. I was nervous about it. My weight has been trending up over the last couple of years and I nervous that the scale would show a number that was surprisingly higher than it was six months ago when last I weighed in.

My weight was up since May 4th. It was up 0.8 pounds. Sigh of relief. That’s a weight gain I am okay with. Less than one pound in six months? I think we can call that “maintaining” and be happy.

The next weigh in is January 19th on the anniversary of the first appointment at the weight loss clinic. Here’s hoping for good results then as well.

Election Day Stress

The US mid-term elections are happening today. How are we doing, America? Are we hanging in there? We’ve all voted, right? Polls in Massachusetts are open for another 4.5 hours, but we all voted early or went before work today, right? No one in their right mind is putting it off this time, right? We need to vote the fascists out of office with gusto. Send those nazi scumbags back to whatever hole they slithered out of.

Having said that… anyone else stressing out about the outcome? I fully expect my Massachusetts to come off without a hitch, but the rest of the country? The orange nazi shitgibbon and his billionaire fuckboi Musk all but admitted that they rigged the election in 2024. We’re all assuming that they are doing it again, right? The only way to beat their bullshit is to vote in ridiculously overwhelming numbers so that whatever strings they are pulling won’t be enough to change the outcome. Still… we are all nervous, right?

At this point, any race that ends in anything other than a huge landslide victory for the Democratic candidate is going to look suspicious. I’m really hoping that after tonight when all is said and done, nothing seems suspicious and we can get on with the business of blocking the nazis from doing further damage, up to and including impeaching every single one of those fucking evil shit bags.

I’m cautiously optimistic that the end of all of this begins today, but I am also scared shitless that it will never, ever end. At least not without another civil war.

Bill

I spent my day off today on two endeavors. First, November is National Solo Album Month and I have been working on some new songs even though I might be the only person on the internet taking part this year. My social media searches have come up empty. Oh well. One song in 3/4, one in 7/8, and one in 5/8. Can I write a whole album worth of music without using 4/4 time?

My second endeavor has been honoring the memory of Sir Patrick Stewart by rewatching all of Star Trek The Next Generation. I’m only on season one episode 11 and season one (and two) are a pretty tough go. Eventually though it will start firing on all cylinders and that will be groovy. I’m thinking seven seasons of Next Gen followed by four movies (I think) and then three seasons of Star Trek Picard.

I have watched all of these episodes before, multiple times, so why then do I have absolutely no memory of Counsellor Troi calling Commander Riker “Bill”? She’s done it twice. Why don’t I remember that? Everyone in the show calls him Will, but she’s calling him Bill? Crazy!

Rush-Free

The Rush concert we were supposed to go to tonight was scheduled to start about nine minutes ago. If they went on on-time then they are mid-way through Xanadu right now. Geddy and Alex are both playing their double neck guitars.

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Rush at Madison Square Garden back in June

Obviously I am sad to not be there, but its okay. We saw two shows this tour. They were both great. That’s all kinds of win. I hope everyone there has a great time tonight. I hope the band slays, as they always do, and I hope Anika’s gag at the end of the show is epic.

In other, more personal, less interesting, musical news, I am supposed to start another internet based songwriting/recording project this month. I haven’t done any writing or recording yet today but I did put new strings on two guitars. I also cleaned and conditioned the holy hell out of both necks. I’ve never done that before. Let’s see if I made things worse or not.

The goal for this project is to use my acoustic guitar a lot and play a shit load of saxophone, if I can.

Dig how shiny those bronze strings are

Still on the fence about going into Boston to play photographer tomorrow. I haven’t checked the weather yet and if I do go I need to wait until after the morning rush. We’ll see.

For now, I am just hanging out with my beloved bride, my wife, the love of my life. She made dinner and it was fantastic. Now we’re just hoping the phone doesn’t ring with work to do. Fingers crossed.

That’s all for now. In closing, another Xanadu pic. This time from Cleveland.

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Happy Halloween

Today is Halloween. Happy Halloween, everyone. It is our cat Lily’s big day!

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It has been an interesting Halloween in our house. Lily has been hiding in Jen’s closet so I had to hunt her down to take some holiday snaps. Before that she and her mother, Robin the cat, had the house to themselves because Jen and I weren’t home.

Why were we not home?

Oh nothing… just buying a new car, that’s all.

Happy Halloween/New Car Day, everyone!

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Weekend: Imminent

Less than two hours from now the work week will come to a merciful end and the weekend will finally begin. Oh, happy day.

There is a huge, gargantuan, bummer this weekend. We had Rush tickets for the Mohegan Sun arena show on Sunday. Note I used past tense. We sold the tickets. We didn’t want to, but something came up for work and we couldn’t be at risk of being on the road, two hours from home, and work saying they desperately needed something done right now now now. This is the downside of having a job that occasionally requires you to be on call. It happens to all of us now and then. It used to happen to me all the time, but not so much anymore. Now when it comes up it’s always due to something major and that’s the case this weekend.

I am very sad to miss Rush but I’ve seen them twice on this tour and those two shows followed 11 whole years where I was convinced I would never see them live again. I’m good. I am Rush-Musically satisfied with the state of the world right now. The two shows we saw were amazing and I am so happy that we were a part of them. A small part, of course. In the Cleveland case we were a small part way off in the distance, but a part nonetheless. I am sad about Sunday night, but in the wider scope I am overjoyed with what 2026 has given us.

What else is going on? Tomorrow is Halloween. I have a great big pumpkin sitting on the sideboard in the dining room just waiting to be carved into a jack-o-lantern. We also have a great big bag of candy that is patiently waiting for trick or treaters to come by and claim it all. I’m not one of those grown ups who likes getting dressed up and partying on Halloween, but I do like working the door for the trick or treaters and I do miss when our kids were little enough to take part. I always enjoyed hitting the streets with them trying to maximize their candy haul. Those were good days with little people. Now that our kids are adults it is my job to help a new batch of kids get the most candy they can get. I take that responsibility very seriously and do my job with a smile.

After spending the months of July, August, and September writing as many shitty songs as I possibly could (60 songs in 90 days) I took October off. Fortunately, October ends this weekend and I can start working on the next forgotten internet based song writing/recording challenge. National Solo Album Month. Write and record an album within the month of November all by yourself without any help from anyone else. I’m thinking I want to incorporate the saxophone this time around. I’m not sure how. I think we’ll have a bunch of songs in the key of Eb minor with melodies trading off between vocals and alto sax. Something like that at least. I might want to use acoustic guitars more often as well. I don’t know. We’ll see.

Daylight savings ends this weekend. Sunrise at the ocean on Saturday is something like 7:17am and sunrise at the ocean on Sunday is something like 6:17am. I might take the camera out somewhere on one of those days. If I wait until Sunday I can work on the Frugal Film Project rolls for November. Maybe I’ll go into Boston. I’m off work on Monday too. It was supposed to be because we were going to be driving home from the Rush show in Connecticut. Now it’s just a random day off. If the weather is nice, photos might be taken. I have to get this sort of thing in before the weather goes to hell and that’s going to happen any minute now.

I saw something on social media today about the anniversary of the release of R.E.M.’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi record. It occurred to me that I haven’t listened to that album in… in… in a really freakin’ long time. Maybe not since the 90’s. It came out in 1996 and I played the crap out of it upon its initial release but I don’t think I have spent much time spinning it since then. I listened to it today and I think it is better than I remembered it. Binky the Doormat is still my favorite cut. After it was finished I started moving backward through time through their catalog. I’m back to Green now. I remember California. What a ridiculously great band R.E.M. was. We need more bands like that in today’s shitty world.

Okay. That’s all the self reflection I’ve got in me today. If you’re going to one of the Rush shows at Mohegan Sun (tonight/Friday and Sunday) say hello to the gang for me. We’ll get them next time… assuming next time is the rumored residency at The Sphere in Las Vegas sometime next year because if that happens we are absolutely making the trip out west to see at least one but preferably more than one show. Bank on it, Rush fans.