Tag: Guitar

Lunch Break

I have nothing to say right now. It’s felt like a long day, but it really hasn’t been. It’s one of those days.

I just had 2.9 ounces of tuna fish for lunch. Isn’t that special? I’m up to 59 grams of protein for the day. The goal is 60 grams and I still have dinner to go. Sweet. I am feeling like I am on top of things today.

I want to play my guitar. I want the mental boost that I used to get from junk food to come from music, but there is so little time in the day. I want to play but I want to spend time with my family more. The band will help, but I don’t think I can try to get the band happening again until my parents are settled. I hope that will be soon, but who knows.

I’ve been having this thought go through my head about maybe starting a second band. I absolutely want Lizardfish to go on with the same four guys for the rest of time. I absolutely love playing in that band. It’s absurd how much fun it is. I was thinking of a second band that would play only original music, like we did back in the 90’s. I think I would like to do that, but I don’t think I would like to do the work to put it together, and I also don’t think I would like to be the only person contributing songs. So I doubt it will ever happen.

I thought that maybe I might want to start pretending to be a photographer again. I thought about sunrise pictures at the ocean. Could it happen this weekend? Probably not. The 10 day forecast calls for clouds for the next 10 days. There goes that idea. Maybe we could take a stroll through the Methuen Bird Sanctuary one of these weekends and see if we could catch a pic or two of some eagles. I don’t know.

Okay. Lunch break is over. Back to it, red head.

Morning Madness

I slept a little late this morning but I was still able to get all 30 minutes of my daily exercise goal in, and I finished Breaking Bad. Finally. I know I still have the movie and the whole run of Better Call Saul to go, but the main show is done and all is well.

Last night I got all excited about the third period of game one of the Stanley Cup Final, only to see Tampa lose in overtime. As I wrote last night, I think I am on the Tampa Bay wagon, but if Colorado wins the cup I will be pretty much equally as happy. I have to admit that I sided with Detroit in the Great Avalanche vs Red Wings blood bath back in… whenever that was. Then Ray Bourque was traded to the Avs and I obviously switched sides. I’ve been a casual Avalanche fan ever since.

Still… threepeat. We haven’t had one of those since the Islanders won their fourth in a row in 1983. The Oilers then won four of the next five and five of the next seven, but the last actual threepeat was a fourpeat in 1983. It would be cool to have another one. I guess I am rooting for the streak more than I am rooting for the team. Whatever. It should be a fun series.

Did you see episode four of Obi-Wan Kenobi? Did you have your mind absolutely blown the way we did last night? Holy shit, I could not love this series more. I have been listening to a lot of Star Wars podcasts during this series’ run and a lot of them are down on the show. I think those people need lobotomies because this show is amazing. It’s bordering on perfect. I can’t overstate how much I am loving this show.

I read yesterday (or was it the day before) that they are going to show the entire series in theaters, and Obi-Wan Kenobi will sort of become the next official Star Wars movie. I am all for it. I told Harry last night and he was so excited he almost exploded. I don’t know how I am going to feel about it Covid-wise, but we’re already thinking of trying to go to a matinee of Thor: Love and Thunder as a possible first trip back to the theater. We’ll have to see.

What else… I was thinking of doing some car music today but I slept too late. Maybe tomorrow. Definitely over the weekend. I don’t have any songs ready for guitars yet, other than one that is ready for leads, so I want to finish the bass/drums bed for a couple more songs too. I have my big amp, the one I used at the last gig, in the music nook now and I want to use it. Things to do, things to do.

Lifting Heavy Stuff

Look at me, lifting heavy stuff like a boss.

I celebrated my sixth weekaversary by weighing myself. I was down 4.4 pounds and happy about it. I then (finally) changed the cat’s litter box. It was beyond time. Patches, sorry about that buddy. Enjoy shitting in your clean box, my furry friend.

After the litter box I took a big box that had been sitting at the top of our driveway for at least five of the six weeks. It’s just a folding card table, but it weighed a little more than 25 pounds so it sat under the overhang next to our porch and waited. Now it’s in the cellar. I haven’t actually unboxed it yet, but it’s finally inside.

I had one more lifting item on my agenda but I pushed that off until lunch. I did my 30 minutes of walking in place and then it was about 8:50 and time for work. Jen did ask me to do one lifting thing for her. She asked me to move a monitor off of her desk and replace it with another one. I don’t think they were above the 25 pound threshold, but one of them might have been in the ball park.

Come lunch time I took a few minutes to make a phone call and then finished my heavy stuff agenda for the day. I moved the Vox AC15 amplifier from my cellar music nook to the storage closet (for now) and replaced it with the gigantic Fender Bassbreaker 18/30. That big sucker is probably 50 pounds or so (Google tells me its exactly 50 pounds) and it was far and away the heaviest chore of the morning. It’s also the loudest. Is there a cause and effect thing there?

No. No there isn’t.

Okay, lunch break is over. Time to get back to work. I might sneak in some loud guitar playing tonight, but there is a new episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the Stanley Cup Finals start tonight. So… maybe not. We’ll see.

Sleepy Monday

It’s Monday. Back to work today. I’ll punch in about 30 minutes from now. How will the new work week feel? Last week was weird. It simultaneously felt like I never left and like I was completely out of touch and clueless.

Will I feel more like myself and less like an imposter this week? I don’t know. I assume whatever weirdness was happening last week will cease eventually, but when?

I don’t know.

What I do know is that I am trying to have a little chicken for breakfast and I think I went too fast or didn’t chew a bite thoroughly enough because my stomach is acting unhappily. It feels like a little pressure in my digestive track. Almost like there’s a bite of food sitting outside of the stomach, waiting for the bouncer to let him in. I may have used that analogy before. Have I? I can’t recall for sure. I think I’ll wait five minutes or so before the next bite. How exciting is this?

Speaking of post-op recovery. One of the restrictions they put on me was not lifting anything heavy for six weeks. 25 pounds was the limit. I’ve been wanting to swap the amp out of my music nook, but both amps are over 40 pounds. Fortunately my six weeks are up on Wednesday. Vox out/Fender in, the day after tomorrow.

Last night was the first night since before the surgery that I failed to get six hours of sleep. Five hours and 40 minutes. I’m feeling sleepy right now. My sleeping hart rate dip was 21%, and my restful sleep time was four hours and five minutes. Those numbers are pretty good. The total though… early to bed tonight?

Okay. I think I will punch in now.

Remix

You know how each of the last two nights I wrote a post about how I mixed a song? Neither of the audio embeds will work anymore. I deleted the uploads and replaced them with remixed versions of the songs. I changed the reverbs on all tracks on both songs from plates to rooms. I feel a tiny bit better about the universe now.

ADDENDUM: Scratch that. I went back and fixed the two previous posts. I linked to the remixed versions of both songs. That’s better.

Volume Seven Lives!

Quarantine Tunes was going to end at volume six, but here we are with the first song from volume seven! It’s like when Kiss goes on a farewell tour and then a year later goes on a comeback tour! WOOHOO

This is my favorite song from February’s RPM Challenge. It’s a little faster, has a couple of new sections, some really awful lead guitar playing, and everything is tuned down a half step.

Volume seven lives!

Better but Still Bad

I worked on guitars for two songs tonight. Rhythm on one and lead on the other. Just like last night the rhythm went okay but the leads sucked. My sense of timing is all out of whack. I’m just not feeling it. Practice! I need to practice!

I swapped out the Keeley D&M drive for the Wampler Plexi Drive Mini. That pedal wasn’t doing it for me before but I tweaked the settings and finally got it to play nicely with the Klon KTR in front of it. It might stay on the board for a while.

Pedal board Tetris Fail

Last night I mentioned that I was going to add another overdrive pedal to my big pedal board. Well, not today.

I took it out of the case and looked it over to see if I could fit that extra pedal. It’s a mini pedal, so yay? I can’t fit it into the spot it will go in the signal chain. If I am going to use it I will have to put it somewhere else and then wire it in the proper order with some longer patch cables.

There is a spot where it should fit easily. Unfortunately, the only cables I have that will reach from where it should be to where it is and back are not right angle connections and with those plugged in on each side it won’t fit. Not even close.

So the moral of the story is, don’t forget the importance of having the right kind of cables. Now I want to rewire the whole kit and caboodle (did I spell that right?) with the thinnest pancake connections I can get my mitts on. Oh well.

Quick Musical Thoughts

Just jotting down a couple of quick music thoughts.

Car music tomorrow? I have three songs ready for vocals so why not? It’s the last day of my sick leave too so again, why not?

The day after tomorrow is the day I go back to work. I think it’s also the day I reach out to the guys in the band and tell them I’m feeling ready to get together. I mean that from both a recovery stand point and a Covid standpoint. I just think it’s time.

If a practice is in our future, I think I’ve changed my mind on what gear to bring. I was going to bring the new pedal board but now I think I’m going to bring the old one. I might add an extra dirt pedal or two as well. We shall see.

Okay, it’s time for bed. I need to get some sleep if I want to car music in the morning. G’night, folks.