Brick-a-Brack

I got another package in the mail yesterday from my friend who I shall call Henry (because that's his name) that included a Frank Zappa DVD Documentary, various live concerts of the Jerry Garcia Band, Mike Bloomfield, Son Seals and Johnny Winter, John Hammond, Bob Dylan, Phil Oches, studio sessions of The Traveling Wilburys and many, many more as they say on TV. All in all, it's 3 DVDs of MP3s. That's a shit load of music. Most all of it is hard to find to say the least. Many of you probably don't know many of the artists I mentioned but they're my kind of music, much of it is live and from the 1970s.

On another note, Grif and I went swimming yesterday after I got home from work. We had a few inches of rain that helped refill the pool which it needed. Living with well water can be a drag. So we're playing volleyball and just hanging out in the pool when he goes to me "I'm going to miss you when you die, who's going to be my swimming buddy?" This seemed to come out of left field. He's somewhat aware of my situation but it certainly isn't over yet by any means. He was speaking in general terms because I mentioned this to Dana and he's said similar things to her (about her). I replied with "Well Jack, you can go swimming with your son." That seemed to answer his question.
He's great, so is Dylan but Grif is a little more open with his affection.

Now, let's talk about getting old(er). I went to jump into the pool while twisting. Don't even ask why because I have no idea. I should have left the ground BEFORE I twisted because my leg was on the ground while my knee twisted. I seem to have messed it up. I guess I'll have to enjoy my 1/2 day Friday (summer hours) and go home and swim it off.

quote for today from a Hendrix song:
I'm so broke I can't even pay attention....

There is a God after All

Spice Girls reuniting for world tour
As Frank Zappa might of said "Who gives a shit anyway..."

Tuesday we had a friend come up to our house that we knew from our NJ days. Dana stays in touch with her. She is now a single Mom and has two boys, 13 and 10, who are totally out of control. I do think that they have some issues but they constantly are at each other trying to piss the other one off. The Mom, who I will call Nancy for JLee's amusement, was constantly yelling at them and giving them time outs, then I started to yell at them to. Nancy gave me the go ahead. She is in a few 12 step programs, I don't know how she does it. Right after they left, I had a tall rum, cran-grape and OJ which I used to wash down a percocet and an xanax while I floated my troubles away in the pool.

This is not a very exciting post but it's all I've got for today.
No quotes from Dana while under the influence of wine.

JVC Jazz Fest

Sunday evening Dana and I went to the city to see a Jazz concert. It was held in this great venue on the 6th floor in the Time Warner Building at Columbus Circle. We saw Eliane Elias and Kenny Barron. She is an incredible singer,mostly Bossa Nova style who's voice, as Dana put it after two glasses of wine "makes you want to _ _ _ _ her" Both of them are phenominal pianists too.
The also had a great little bistro on the 3rd floor where we grabbed a bit to eat, and some wine, before the show.
It was a great, long awaited evening out.

Don't Hate Me JLee...

Guitars seem to be falling out of the sky in my neck of the woods. I did test drive this First Act guitar that a co-worker got when she bought a VW Jetta a few months ago. She offered it to me, I'm offering her $50 for it. I certainly don't want to take advantage of her (in that way or any other way for that matter) . It's a real fun guitar, it has a built in preamp which also seems to act as a distortion thingy and I can also plug it into my computer and record with it. Right there it's worth $50.

So this makes 7 guitars now, one for every day of the week.

The Strat is still the King though...















Detail of the 12th fret

School's Out For Summer...

I remember when his album came out. I still have the original LP. The bottom folded out like a desk and I believe that the record had a pair of panties around them. Very risque for the time.

So the boys are out of school. Dylan will now be going to the 8th grade and Grif will be in a new school for the 2nd grade. I think Dyl did well again, we had a major incentive program in place. If he got knocked of the A honor roll, he would get knocked off of World of Warcraft (for those of you w/o teenage sons, it's an online game that costs about $16 per month and countless hours of your child's free time). I thought it was a good bargaining tool. We do limit his usage but 'all the kids are playing it' so WTF. He is still involved with drum lessons adn when school starts, he will go back to track. Grif finished his soccer last weekend. The group did not get trophies but the coach had one left over from last season so Grif got one on the sly. He certainly earned it and was (and still is) beaming with pride. He was also invited to play on the travel team in the Fall. He's no Pele but he does have potential to be a good player. He's a little more athletic than Dylan is I feel. The other day he cracked me up. Grif was on top of Dylan on the couch trying to give him a kiss while saying "you're my brother, I'm gonna kiss you". He's a mush who is not afraid to come up and plant one on Dana or myself and give a hug. Any yes, he is most certainly heterosexual, he hates girls now because they have cooties

"The Decider" Does it Again...

I really dislike this guy. Way to go.
I hope you need the research someday.
You could certainly use some brains

The Guitar Stable

OK, I'm obsessed. I thought I'd post a photo of most of my instruments. I forgot to include my banjo and my mandolin. I'll have to take another photo. I also included Dylan's drum set which is a pretty good little kit. He's sounding very good on them too I might add. This is down in the dungeon, I mean basement which has become my hangout. It was supposed to be for the kids but they would rather watch the little TV in Dylan's room than the larger 27" one down here. I have it set up nicely with heat for the winter and it's cooler in the summer too. I can come down here at night and out on headphones and play without disturbing anyone or I can play LOUD during the day and disturb everyone. It's nice to have that option.
On a side note, my scan looked pretty good. It's not totally conclusive but it appears that there may not be anything on the radar so maybe I can stop this treatments in the Fall when I finish the 6 month round (yea!) This is not an exact science so anything can happen but this is the most promising news I've had in 3 1/2 years.

Roll Call: (left to right)

Ibanez Artist (my brother's but it's up here so....)

Fender Stratocaster

Gurian Jumbo (nice handmade guitar. Very rare. James Taylor play them but somehow mine doesn't sound as good as his. I must have gotten a bad batch???)

Ovation Custom Balladeer

Guild Solid body Electric (a nice axe, had it since the 1960's. Needs new frets)

El Cheapo Classical (lying down in front - a fun guitar to play. I put a condenser pickup on it)

Stratocaster

Here's my new toy. So far, I've had a great Father's Day. I got some great cards from the boys and a neat hat for keeping the sun off me in the yard. a book about Dads and Sons, a picture of Grif and the best gift of all was two great sons from Dana. This is a tense weekend of sorts because I'm waiting on results from Friday's scan which was a biggie. I'll find out Monday what the deal is. We went out for a great breakfast, IHOP was on the agneda but it was also on the agenda for 100 other people who were waiting outside so we went to a diner and had a great breakfast.

Now this guitar really has nothing to do with Father's Day, it was a present for myself from myself. I feel I'm playing well enough to have earned a Strat. It's not an American made one (which is probably made by Mexicans) it's a Mexican made one which is where most of them are made now. It still set me back about $450 but it's so woth it. I always wanted to get one but I never did it. So I feel I've earned it now. I can't believe how sweet the sound and the playability of it is. I can understand what all of the fuss is about these guitars. I was looking at some other colors but I always liked the sunburst color so I went for it. I hope to post some video or audio of some songs in the near future.

To any of you Dads who may read here (I think I have more Mom visitors) Happy Father's Day. I think Dogga is my only regular male reader.

Jammin' With The Boys

So last night I got together with Lee and Paul and this other guy Bruce who I haven't seen in 25 years to jam. We had a blast. One thing about Bruce though is that his amp must go up to 11 or something. He plays WAY TOO LOUD and with a lot of DiStORtIoN. He also feels that the first one to the end of the song wins or something. One thing that came to me as a name for our little group is this. Since I have my cancer stuff, Lee had a triple bypass surgery plus a hip replacement and Bruce is not the picture of good health, we should call ourselves "The Grateful We're Not Dead". I think it's kind of catchy. We jammed for 4 hours straight. Well, not straight since there were at least 4 joints going around too. I only do it for medicinal purposes since it helps with naueasa. I was pretty good with calling out songs to jam to like "Hey Joe" (they just don't write love songs like that anymore) Funk #49 (James Gang) Rock and Roll Hootichie Coo (Rick Derringer/Johnny Winter) and some others. I don't exactly know where I was pulling them from other than the old vault. We did our fair share of Dead songs and Hot Tuna. Since I had my archtop Jazz guitar with me, I did One Note Samba which everyone enjoyed. It was just me and Paul on bass for that. I do have to bring a tape recorder next time since we all had some great moments. I'm just learning how to solo on guitar after playing one for 36 years (Christ I'm old) and I'm getting better which is why I'm treating myself to a Stratocaster this week. I'm getting the el cheapo $400 Mexican made one but they are really nice instruments and I can't really tell much of difference from the $1200+ American made ones (which are probably made by Mexican workers anyway). My cube mate bought a VW Passat last November and it came with a guitar. She asked me if I wanted it. I'm certainly interested. A friend has one that came with his car and he said it's a great little axe. I've seen them on EBay and they go for up to $400. She said she wants nothing but I'd give her $50 or something. It could be a banner month for instruments after not buying anything new since 1975.
So that's it, all of you how do play or sing, like the budding Boo, Sarah and of course JLee know what I'm taking about with a good jam session. It's the best, I got lost in the experience and I felt like all is well in the world. It was....

Mist You

Overheard in the Office

"There are worse things than NOT being married...
like BEING married"

certainly not always true but sometimes it's right on the money

This Just In

It seems to be an Eastern Garter snake after all. He was very aggressive but that's probably because I had him in a bucket (ya think so?) One thing I learned was that most poisonous snakes have a triangular shaped head, like this one which is not poisonous so go figure. anyway, I love living with the little creatures of the woods even if the deer poop all over our yard

Anyone know what kind of snake this is?

I found it on the side of our house which is in lower NY State. I don't think it's a garder snake, they are more yellow. It did have a nasty attitude possibly because I put it in a Home Depot bucket. I let it go in the woods after Grif and everyone saw it.
It was about a foot long and as thick as my thumb

I've Officially Bottomed Out...

WASHINGTON - Why did the chicken cross the ocean? To get to America before Columbus and from the other direction according to a new report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Many scholars had thought chickens arrived in the New World with the early Spanish or Portuguese explorers around the year 1500.

When Juan Pizarro arrived at the Inca empire in 1532, however, he found chickens already being used there, raising the possibility they had been around for some time.

And now, researchers led by Alice Storey at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, report finding evidence that may ruffle some scholarly feathers. They found chicken bones of Polynesian origin at a site in what is now Chile.

Radiocarbon dating of chicken bones at the site on the Arauco Peninsula in south central Chile indicated a range of A.D. 1321 to 1407, well before the Spanish arrival in the Americas.
The researchers were able to obtain DNA from some of the bones of these early birds, and found they were identical to ancient chicken bones previously found in Tonga and Samoa.

Chicken had been used in the Pacific for at least 3,000 years, spreading eastward across the region as Polynesians gradually populated the islands.

The DNA from these chickens also shared some unique sequences with modern Araucana chickens from South America and some current chicken types in Hawaii and Southeast Asia, the researchers found.

My Blue Heron

I made it out again this morning in the kayak. It was rather cloudy but I got out at around 6:30 am so there was no fantastic sunrise. I did spot one of the herons that come back to this lake every summer. I got pretty close to him before he took off, circled around and landed in a tree. I turned around after that because I didn't mean to scare him off but I did get too close for his comfort.

This week was nice and warm. We opened the pool last Friday and the water temp was about 65 degrees. After a nice sunny week with the solar cover and heater, the water is now up to 80. The only problem is that the weather has turned to rainy and the air is barely 70. Not swimming weather. The water peaked at 82 yesterday and Dana had told Grif and myself that if it got to that temp, she would go in. I will say that she is good to her word, it took her forver to get her butt in the pool but she did go in and stayed for about 30 min.

So that's about it, I don't have a lot to say on the blog, I'm back to work and that's great. I take things a day at a time