Mouse Hunt 2023

Remember last week when I wrote all of those posts about the cats hunting mice? Remember how I saw a mouse in the cellar and said the cats weren’t allowed in the cellar, thus implying that it was up to me to take them out with extreme prejudice?

We are a household with two expert mousers. I was hoping to join their ranks and make it three. I put out a bunch of traps but I failed to catch anything. Worse, rather than just ignoring the traps, when I checked them yesterday the bait had been picked clean. The cellar mouse was just messing with me.

That changed this morning. I checked the traps a few minutes ago. I guess the bait wasn’t quite gone on the trap I put between the two desks.

Maniacal laugh.

I guess we are a three mouser house after all.

New Song for June

The Record Every Month Challenge: June Edition is a success! May was an epic fail, but June is a win.

Here’s the first of what will hopefully be a whole big bunch of new songs this month. Just in case you were wondering what my Les Paul Standard into an Analog Man King of Tone pedal into a Vox MV50 Nutube amp’s direct output with cabinet simulation sounds like. It sounds half decent to me, I guess. Not as good as it would sound through an actual speaker, or through my Fender Deluxe Reverb at about 100 decibels. This works though.

Sleepy

Despite the possible influence of a mild migraine headache overnight last night, I thought I got a decent night’s sleep. Apparently I was wrong. I have felt seriously exhausted all day today, and it’s especially bad (as it often is) after I finished lunch. I just feel really tired and I wish I didn’t.

I didn’t use my CPAP machine last night. For some reason I thought it would be a mistake to wire myself up while dealing with a migraine. I didn’t want any extra noise or distractions. I just wanted to pass out and stay that way until the alarm went off. I think it worked, but now I expect if I had put the machine on I would feel better tonight. Hindsight, and all that crap.

Change of subject, all of the guitar playing I’ve done over the last few days is really making me want to get the work I need done to my two 1970’s Gibsons. I have two shops I want to bring them to and get an estimate from. One is in Rockport, MA, which is an hour away from here. The upside of that shop is that it’s open on Saturdays. The other shop is in Malden… or Medford… same difference. They are not open on weekends though, but they are open until 7:00pm on weekdays. I should be able to get there before they close. I am thinking of making an appointment for 6:30 or so next Monday. I have no clue how much they will charge for frets and wiring. I just hope it’s low enough that I can pay for work on both guitars without needing to sell anything else. If I do need to raise a little more money I will probably sell my Fender Bassbreaker 18/30 amp, but I don’t think I will be able to get very much for it.

I might sell the 18/30 anyway, even if the money I raised is enough to pay for the three things I need. Maybe I could raise a little more fundage and pay for new pickups for the Les Paul Custom. I don’t know. That’s a pie in the sky kinda thing.

I am really tired and I still have 2.5 hours to go in my work day. Blah. I hope to get some better sleep tomorrow. I might mix a song before bed though. I have three songs ready to go. Huzzah, right? Rock and Roll.

The Streak is Alive

I should go back through the blog and figure out how many days in a row I have played guitar now. I think it’s five. Maybe four. Probably five. I don’t know.

I put lead guitar parts onto two songs this morning. Both are pretty bad, but not too bad… if you know what I mean.

Fear the Walking Migraine

Last night at about quarter to 11:00 I decided it was time to go to bed. At that very moment, I noticed my eyes were off. I was just starting to have the first symptom of a migraine. It wasn’t bad, but it was there. I turned off the lights, buried my head in the pillow, squeezed my eyes shut, and within five minutes was asleep.

When I woke up I had a mild headache, but nothing too bad. I got up (after hitting snooze six times) and got dressed and started my day. I added some Extra Strength Tylenol to my morning vitamins for what remained of the headache and went down cellar to do my day’s exercise.

That’s when things went bad. What happened, you ask? I put on last night’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead. What else could cause such a disaster?

Spoilers ahead, but it’s probably okay because you’re not dumb enough to watch this idiotic show, are you? I’m the only one left watching, I am positive of that.

Anyway, you’ve been warned… spoilers for what passes as a plot for season nine episode five… I think.

I always bitch about how the plot for this show is constantly driven by people talking on magic walkie talkies that have unlimited range, unlimited battery life, and there is only one channel available so everyone in the former United States of America can hear every word, yet they still constantly give away all of their plans and positions while knowing the baddies are listening in. It’s the dumbest plot device imaginable.

Anyway, this episode kicked it up a very large notch. I have to believe that the writers and show runners wrote this episode to troll us. You see, the entire episode was people sitting around talking on walkie talkies. Seriously, pretty much the entire episode was just people talking on walkie talkies. There was one other plot device in play. Yeah, it was the seven year old kid making all of the decisions. The seven year old kid traveled all over Georgia with a dying adult who was going to turn into a zombie at any moment and everyone was okay with that. The seven year old kid performed radiation therapy on a patient. The seven year old kid was able to run a railroad hand cart without help. As if those things do not require any strength at all to operate. The seven year old kid decided where to go and what to do. All of which was done over a walkie talkie, of course.

Fuck this show

The worst part is that much of Reddit is on blackout today to protest the company charging enormous fees to access their API, thus putting a number of third party apps out of business, and r/fearthewalkingdead is down so I can’t bitch to like minded masochists.

This sucks.

Perfect Week

Oh yeah!

More Television

I finished my bing re-watch of Star Wars: The Clone Wars today. Finally. Most of it was really good. Some of it… not good at all. Friggin’ Jar Jar. I’m not sure where to go next. The Bad Batch? Tales of the Jedi? Both at the same time? Go back to The X-Files and Deep Space 9?

Jen and I are watching Platonic on Apple TV. It’s really good. The Secret Skills scene though… do things like that happen in bars? I generally don’t go to bars because I don’t drink so I don’t know.

I also started watching Severance and Party Down a couple of weeks ago. I was in an Adam Scott mood for some reason and watched the first episode of both shows. I want to get back to them as well.

Television… it’s like the golden age and shit. There’s a new episode of Fear the Walking Dead that is going to air in about 20 minutes. That’s the opposite of the golden age. That’s garbage, but I am still going to watch it because I am a friggin’ idiot.

Ahsoka and Secret Invasion are both imminent. I needs me some new Star Wars and some new Marvel. Bring it on.

The Musical Weekend Continues

I stuck to my guns and played some guitar today. Again. That is like four days in a row or something like that. My playing isn’t improving, but that’s okay, right? I put lead guitars onto one song and rhythm guitars onto another. That means I have one song completely tracked. There will be a song submitted for Record Every Month this month. Pat yourself on the back, Robert.