Pain

I don’t know what I did to earn it, but oh my goodness the pain.

Yesterday, out of the blue, I got a massive pain in my left side. It included my left arm, particularly the elbow. What the hell? All the left here made me think heart attack at first, but it’s really nowhere near my heart. I think I must have pulled a muscle or something. Any time I reach out or up with my left arm it sets it off and BOOM, huge pain. What the hell, bro? I didn’t do anything to hurt myself. I must have zigged when I should have zagged, but it wasn’t enough for me to actually notice that something was going wrong.

Ouch town, population… me.

So I plan to try to force myself to not extend my left arm very much for a day or two and see if it gets better. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to not extend your left arm? I keep doing it and it keeps hurting. What a jerk. What a doofus.

Fortunately though, it did not stop me from doing my morning exercise and, more importantly, it did not stop me from playing the guitar, babie! I had enough time to work on three songs today. As I mentioned in a recent post, I swapped out my ES-335 for my SG. The SG has been neglected of late. I bought a new strap for each guitar months and months ago and I never even opened the SG’s case to put it on. Even after playing for about an hour this morning I still haven’t used the new strap. Soon though. You’ll see.

My playing was garbage, of course, but I don’t care. Happy Friday, folks!

You Turkeys

That’s a joke that never gets old.

Good(?) Morning

I woke up in a mood today. I don’t know what is bothering me. I feel a sense of doom and gloom. Am I suddenly psychic (Robert pauses the narrative to let anyone reading along finish laughing hysterically) and something is on the horizon?

Nope. Just in another bitchy mood. I didn’t get enough sleep last night and it shows. I have a small project at work that is hanging over me like a dark cloud. It’s not a big deal, I just don’t have the energy to deal with it. Crud, right?

The traffic was crappy this morning, but it was the normal level of crappy, not some extra thick level of crappy or anything. I don’t know.

Hey, did you watch the season finale of The Acolyte last night? It was good. I liked it. I liked the whole season though I will quickly admit that the action heavy episodes were by far the best of the bunch. No spoilers, but that scene last night where you actually see the light saber do that thing that light sabers are supposed to be able to do? You know, the thing that we never saw Anakin or Dooku or Maul or Palpatine actually do even though we all saw the end result? Hint Hint Sithy Hint? Awesome.

That should be putting me in a good mood, right? Star Wars is like my own personal dopamine fix. Nope. I was all smiles watching it last night, but today? Grumpy gus. Or should I call myself Darth Grumpy Gus? Does that work better?

No guitar playing today. Maybe before work tomorrow. I did use a guitar for today’s photo a day picture. I think the next time I play I am going to use a different guitar. I haven’t played my Gibson SG in ages and it’s kind of calling to me. My wife thinks that guitar looks cool so that alone should be incentive to play it more often, don’t you think?

Okay. Cheer up, everyone. It’s hump day or some shit. For my personal work week, once I get through the day in the office today, I am working from home for the rest of the week. That should cheer me up, right? Ugh.

Routine: Interrupted

I overslept a little this morning. Instead of being down cellar doing my daily exercise at about 5:20am, I kicked things off at about 6:30. Not the end of the world by any stretch of the imagination, but still… not what I wanted. I have become a creature of routine in a kind of negative way since my weight loss surgery. When I get off of the normal workflow I get bitchy. Sorry about that.

I started my silly running in place thing (pronounced “yogging” with a soft “j”, thank you Ron Burgundy) which should last about 48 minutes. I had to pause the proceedings three times. Two of them were not a big deal and I could easily get over them, but one was just dumb. At the risk of too much information, I had to use the bathroom. Oh come on, Robert. You couldn’t have taken care of that before you started? You couldn’t have held it until after? Ugh. Dumb ass. Instant bitchy.

I was able to get everything I needed to do before work done. I also snuck in some guitar playing. I put rhythm guitars onto the two song ideas I started yesterday. I wanted to add a lead track to a song or two as well, but that was where the time cut needed to happen. Next time. I hope.

Why do I let little scheduling hiccups like having to use the bathroom at a random time get under my skin this way. Grrrrr. I don’t know.

Here’s a couple of guitar pictures, just because. I snapped them while listening to playbacks of the new tracks. Multitasking, as it were.

Today’s Daily Photo

Today’s photo a day challenge pic is of the thing that likely won’t be a part of today’s 50 songs in 90 days challenge.

Funny how that works out, right? So many silly internet based personal creative challenges that have no actual meaning to anyone on the planet including me, even though I am the bozo working on them.

But what does it all mean?

Another Day, Another Car Music

For the second day in a row I packed my laptop, a microphone, some headphones, and a little USB audio interface into the car, drove off to a mostly empty parking lot in a not-yet-opened-for-the-day movie theater and sang my brains out.

Now… if only I didn’t suck so badly as a singer. Oh well.

I had five songs ready for vocals tracking and I picked them all off. I now have 10 songs with vocals complete. Only 40 more to go. Thanks to the 50 songs in 90 days challenge, of course. What a mess.

Here is the view from my state of the art recording studio. Fascinating.

And here is the almost but not quite obligatory photo of the clock downtown.

Again, fascinating.

20 Years

20 years ago today I started a new job. I am still with that company. I have a different position now thanks to a promotion, but I’m still with the company.

How did I spend my 20th hire-aversary?

Well, so far I have played my guitar. I am also thinking about getting a haircut and maybe getting one of the cars inspected. A super fun day!

A Good Start

I had another crummy night’s sleep last night, but today is looking okay so far.

Eight Hours to Go

The title of the post says eight hours but it is really eight hours and 13 minutes, give or take a few seconds.

Long weekend approaching. Prepare for the arrival of a long weekend.

I am so tired today. I slept for six hours last night. I was hoping I would feel better than I feel right now. I’m exhausted and I haven’t done anything yet. I’m sitting at my desk in the office fantasizing about going home and taking a nap. It is going to be a long day, I can feel it.

The weather forecast says the sun might come out mid-morning tomorrow. Could that be enough to get me out of the house and into the city for a little photo-walk? Probably not, but maybe. Just maybe. I want to take some photos and I want at least some of them to be on film. We’ll see.

Apart from that, and needing to get a car inspected, I am hoping my long weekend will be a musical one. I am hoping for lots of recording and guitar playing. All I have to do is get through the work day today. Eight hours and eight minutes to go.