Two Random Things

Here we have a post sharing two random things on this quiet Sunday evening that have nothing to do with anything anyone other than I would ever care about.

First, I watched an episode of The Trogly’s Guitar Show on YouTube today and accidentally learned something about my first Gibson guitar. It was a Les Paul Deluxe but I never learned what year it was made. Deluxes date from the late 60’s to the mid 80’s (I think). I bought mine in 1987 and always assumed it was from the late 70’s, but I had not learned how to get the manufacture date for a Gibson guitar until after my Deluxe was stolen in 1990.

Thanks to Trogly’s I can narrow the date down a little. The guitar had a Gibson chainsaw case. From a description on the episode I watched it was a version two chainsaw case. Trogly told us that Gibson introduced the version two chainsaw case in 1978. Therefore my guitar (assuming the case I had was the original case) could not have been built prior to 1978. That knocks about 10 years off of the possible dates. Thanks, Trogly!

The second item of note: The anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is coming this week. That means Jen and I are in now entering our annual 9/11 remembrance period where we binge a shit load of documentaries. We’re watching the first of the season right now. Things have already been super heavy around here due to my father’s passing. Now it’s going to get heavier still.

I just felt the need to share all of that with the wider universe. You’re welcome.

Shaun

We watched Shaun of the Dead with Bellana today.

It is still as perfect a movie as it always was.

I just felt the need to share that with the universe.

Now Jen and Bellana are playing another round of Dominion while we listen to the entire Beatles catalog on shuffle.

How’s your Saturday going? Yup, mine is better.

Home Again

We are back at home after the wake. It was a nice gathering. Lots of family and friends paying respect to my father.

I almost made it through the whole four hours without losing my shit, but just as we were getting ready to leave I had a moment.

I miss my dad.

The funeral is tomorrow morning.

Busy Day Ahead

My father’s wake is tonight. His funeral is tomorrow. It’s going to be a tough couple of days, but we’ll get through it. My step daughter is home. My step son expects to be home later tonight. My wife has been my rock. I love my family. If I hadn’t made it clear 10000 times before, I love my family and I am honored that they have accepted me into their lives the way they have. I couldn’t be happier.

I don’t know what I want to do with my time before the wake starts this afternoon. I think I am going to see about getting a hair cut. I have to iron a couple of shirts even though we don’t have an ironing board anymore. I already played some guitar this morning. I recorded leads for three songs and now I don’t have any songs that are ready for guitars. Gotta get on that and add some new ideas.

I’m sure I’ll add some nervous posts between now and the end of the wake. For now though, enjoy today’s photo a day pic. 5/365 (and also a bonus pic). Guitar, of course.

5/365
DSC_2834

More Playing Time

I was able to sneak in my full day’s worth of exercise after work tonight. It was borderline miraculous and my legs are killing me.

I also snuck in more guitar. I put rhythm tracks onto one song and leads onto two.

Bonus. Now I am going to hang out and wait for my step daughter to come home. She’s on her way.

Bonus indeed!

DSC_2831
4/365

Oh yeah, and I also uploaded those photos I forgot to upload this morning before I left for work. That second one is 4/365 for the photo a day thing. Let’s just call it a complete day and pat ourselves on the back a little.

Which Me is Real?

My sister in law started a shared Google Photo Album where we can all add pictures of my father. One of my brother’s friends is going to make a slide show out of them that we will have running at the wake on Thursday.

I was looking through the album and I had a weird moment where my memory and reality sort of broke apart from each other. There was a picture of me from a couple of years before I had my weight loss surgery. I wasn’t even close to the 450 pounds I weighed when I finally decided to go under the knife, but I was probably 380 pounds or so. I was huge, though not quite as huge as I would eventually get.

Seeing that picture didn’t phase me in the least. I kept scrolling through the album and I eventually got to a photo from earlier this year. Father’s Day, to be precise. There was a picture of my father with my brother, my sister, and some other guy. I did a double take. The other guy was me. I didn’t recognize myself. It was the same me that I see in the morning now. It was post-surgery, 215-220 pound me. The current me. The new normal, real me. I didn’t recognize me.

I did recognize the dangerously overweight me as if it were the “real” me.

That didn’t bother me quite as much as being asked about my mother while talking about my father’s funeral did (as mentioned in a post from earlier today), but it disturbed me a bit.

Like… who am I? Who is the “real” me? Do I even know? Will I ever know?