Empty Nest… Again

We became empty nesters in 2021 when my step son left for college. My step daughter is two years older and she left for college in 2019. She finished her undergrad in 2023 and went to work at the same University in a research lab. My step son finished his under grad in 2025 and started grad school the next semester.

Also in 2025 my step daughter’s contract with the research lab finished. It was time for her to move on. Grad school was next, but she did not yet have anything lined up. She was going to need some time to work everything out so she moved back home temporarily and for a while we were no longer empty nesters.

Like I said though, it was temporary and today is the day that it ends. Next weekend we are flying out to California to help her move into her new University housing. About an hour ago she left the house so she can spend the rest of this week at her dad’s. He isn’t going out to CA right away so she’s going to spend some time with him while she can. 

So technically speaking, she hasn’t actually moved out yet. That will happen, strictly speaking, on Saturday. Still… she won’t be back here until Saturday morning and that will just be to meet up with me and her mother for the drive to the airport.

So now we’re back to being empty nesters again. We also have to deal with the mixed feelings that come with it. On the one hand, she’s moving to southern California to start a PHD program. How awesome is that? She’s about to go through an amazing experience. I can’t wait to see what she does next, and I can’t wait to see what life has in store for her. She is incredible and she is going to do incredible things. At the same time, I don’t want her to go. My wife and I are really sad right now. We miss her already.

I am going to focus on the positives and try to just be excited for her. I don’t know if I can cheat myself that way, but I am going to try.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 64/90

I had a good day on day 64. Not as productive as I had hoped, but I got through the things I needed to get through.

I worked on four songs. The songs with the working titles of numbers 51, 52, and 53 all got rhythm guitar tracks. Four tracks in total. Two takes through two amps each. One pair of amps panned hard left and the other panned hard right. That’s how I always do it.

When I finished the third song I still had some time on my hands and wanted to keep playing guitar but I didn’t have anything else that was ready for a guitar part. So I did the only thing I could. I started a new song. I wrote song number 54 in its entirety. I usually start with MIDI tracks. Bass and drums and maybe something to use as a place holder for real guitars. This time I just set up a drum loop and started playing the guitar. I worked out the song form at the same time I was working out the riffs and chord changes. When I had the guitar worked out for the entire song I added a MIDI bass and replaced the drum loop with MIDI drums. Then I added a melody, played on a MIDI electric piano, then I wrote lyrics that fit the melody. Boom. Song 54 now exists.

45 songs complete. Nine more in progress. All of them have rhythm guitars and all but one have lyrics and are ready for vocals. 26 days left before it all ends.

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day Weekend has arrived. Today is the first day of a three day weekend.

I had to take one of the cats to the Vet. She was just getting a vaccine booster shot, that’s all. The appointment was at 11:00. I was at the Vet’s office for almost two hours. Two. Hours. 

Now that I have started writing this literary tome I have come to realize that I have nothing to write about.

I played guitar today. Just for a little while. I played poorly. Very poorly. I was mad but being mad playing guitar is better than most other things in life.

I wife and step daughter played a trivia game tonight. They mopped the floor with me. It was fun despite my terrible performance. My step daughter is going to stay at her dad’s for the next week. The week after that she moves to California. As it works out, it means today is the last full day that we have her here before she moves away. The trivia game was part of that. So is movie night. 

It’s a good night.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 63/90

Day 63’s update was exactly the same as day 62. I added one new song. It is all MIDI at this point but all of the parts have been written including the melody and the lyrics. I just have to replace the MIDI guitar with real guitars and replace the MIDI electric piano with vocals and then improv some lead guitar and we’re set.

Spoiler alert, day 64 has been fun. It would have been more fun if I didn’t suck at guitar so badly. I’ll probably bitch and moan about that tomorrow. Or not. We’ll find out tomorrow.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 62/90

Day 62 (yesterday) was another day that felt pretty light on progress. Similar to day 61, I started a new song (number 52) and wrote the whole thing, lyrics and all. I didn’t record any real instruments yet. The whole thing is just MIDI “software instruments” (as GarageBand likes to call them), but everything is there just waiting for me to replace the fake guitars with real guitars and all of that fun stuff.

That’s all. I was hoping for more, but I am really just trying to set myself up for a big weekend. That’s the plan at least.

One More Day

This work week has been nuts. Certifiably nuts.

Fortunately there is a long weekend on the horizon. Labor Day sucks because it means that summer is over, but it’s still a three day weekend and those are glorious by definition.

We just have to get through one more work day. One long, painful work day.

This weekend’s plans include a vet appointment, a visit to the in-laws, and hopefully lots of music and maybe some sunrise photography.

Just hang in there, folks. We’re almost there. Three Day Weekend, here we come!

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 61/90

In yesterdays recap post I started thinking about redefining the 50 songs in 90 days challenge into a slightly different project. I’m thinking maybe 60 songs in 90 days? The most I’ve ever done in one of these things was 57 songs in 2024. I should at least try to top that.

My musical noodlings on day 61 started me down that path. I started the day with 50 songs in the project. 45 were complete, three were ready for vocal tracking, and two were waiting for lyrics and a melody. I wrote the lyrics and melody for one of those two songs and I should have worked on the second song as well. I did not though. Instead I added song number 51. It’s completely written with MIDI bass and drums finished, a MIDI guitar track that will act as a guide for when I record the actual guitars, the melody was recorded with a MIDI piano to act as a guide for when I record the vocals, and the lyrics are all written. Everything is done besides recording the real human stuff. One step beyond the 50 songs goal and one step closer to the new 60 song goal.

That’s all I managed yesterday. I hope to get more than that done tonight (day 62), but there is a new episode of Star Trek Strange New Worlds out today and it might get in the way. We’ll see.

That Would Be Nice

Wanna know what would be nice?

Getting more than five hours of sleep a night. That would be sweet.

Wanna know what else would be nice? If the traffic during the morning rush didn’t go from bad to epically awful the minute the calendar switches to September. That would be great. I wasn’t late to work today but it was close.

Wanna know what else would be nice? Going on a week long trip to California. That would be awesome. I think I’ll do exactly that. Maybe the week after next. Sounds like a plan to this red head.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 60/90

Welcome to September. Day 60. We are 2/3 of the way through the 50 songs in 90 days challenge. In the home stretch, sort of. In the endgame, kind of.

45 songs finished, five still in progress. I looked back through my playlists on alonetone.com and I have finished this challenge four times. In 2014 I had exactly 50 songs. In 2020 I had 52. In 2021 I had 53. In 2024 I had a whopping 57.

I guess its time to redefine this year’s goal. First and foremost I want to finish the five remaining songs and hit 50. That’s the primary goal, of course. Beyond that… the RPM Challenge rules define an album as 10 songs… can I do a September album in a month? 10 songs started and finished within the month of September on top of the 45 + 5 I already have for 50/90… is 60 songs in 90 days possible?

Yes.

Will I actually do it?

I don’t know.

As for day number 60 itself, I wrote a melody and lyrics for two songs. That’s it. Of the five remaining songs, three have lyrics and are ready for vocal tracking. The other two are still waiting on lyrics and the recordings only consist of the rhythm section.

I’m hoping to record the vocals for all five of these puppies over the weekend. I guess I should also start coming up with some more riffs if I want to make 60 songs a thing.