Rainy day blues

Yep, a rainy day today, but we sure needed the moisture... felt like I should have stayed in bed for an extra couple of hours... no energy today. The redbud tree is about one day away from bursting into full bloom... that's always a sure sign of Spring!

Did manage to get lots of pics taken for guitars and tuners to list on eBay... now have to edit all the pics and write descriptions. Descriptions are easy, but the pics are a pain... tedium.

Did manage to fix an electric guitar today -- it had been dropped while the plug was in the jack, so it shattered the finish and wood around the jack on the side of the guitar. So, installed a coverplate over the area, and it covered all but about 1/16" of one crack. Plus made the jack a lot more stable... I might just install a plate on my own guitar to avoid the possiblity of an accident... next time I do a Stew Mac order...

Major breakage on a guitar today... cut a new saddle and after shaping & installing it, upon tightening the strings the front half of the bridge from the saddle slot forward broke off... The bridge was walnut, and was (obviously) very dried out... So, I'll make a new bridge and get it glued on on Wed. The new one will be either coco bolo or ebony, probably ebony... will be much more stable than the old walnut one!

Eye Dr. appt. on Wed., so might be able to eliminate one of my eye drops if the pressure has stabilized in the right eye... this is from laser surgery (PRK) that enabled me to throw away my glasses after some 52 yrs.

Got some video clips today of Dubya's nominee for UN Ambassador, John Bolton... a very scary fellow... having him represent the US in the UN would be like having no representation at all! His goal seems to be dismantling the UN if the US can't run it... somehow not in keeping with the spirit of the UN! And definitely not in the best interests of making peace with the rest of the world, most of whom don't trust us at all after Iraq.

To much bad ju ju in Washington these days! Need an exorcist post haste!!

NOT a good day!

Well, being a retired computer support person, you think that I'd know better... I finally DID get my laptop to connect to the internet via my wireless router, but it took me several tries, and over 2 hrs. of messing around with settings. Grrr... I never liked networks or the like when I was doing it for a living, and nothing has changed!

I was able to get the Remote Administrator program configured to be able to look at one computer from the other, but it appears that I can't transfer files back and forth between them with that program... it's too late now to go hunting for a program that does that, but later today, I'll surely be looking for one.

Today was a "hurry up and wait" kind of day... have several calls into various agencies concerning the mechanical rights for the songs on the CD, and with any luck, tomorrow will bring answers to all the questions that happened today.

Hoping that the rain comes tonight as they predict... we need it... I dug all the dandelions from the yard today... ok, so I probably missed one or two... it's a small yard, they'll stand out. I see the neighbor across the alley has mowed their lawn already... groan... it's too early for this... I'm holding out for another few days.

Took many pictures of tuners that I'll be listing on eBay tomorrow... odd-ball sets of 3 & 4 tuners (would work well for dulcimers or tenor guitars) and a couple of stray 3-on-a-plate that match nothing that I have... way too new!

Playing the Gibson a lot as well... what a guitar! It continues to amaze me... and delight me at the same time... looking at the construction of it, I'm re-thinking my design for my own guitars a bit... will be more work, but worth it if it works as I think it will... Cut more pearl today using the diamond saw and jigs... had to add a board on the front of the dust collector, and now the dust is 90% taken up by the Shop Vac instead of heading for my lungs... a major improvement... still, I think that it will be a nice outdoor, windy day job... no need for dust masks if the wind is blowing...

Music at the bar in Sandwich tomorrow nite... haven't been there for 2 weeks... they probably think we died :-) They'll say that, no doubt, when we show up... Should have 2 new songs ready by then... and good ones they are... Gus Canon and Blue Highway, altho' you wouldn't recognize the Blue Highway one as I changed it a wee bit to make it fit the OTCBR mold... The Folk Process lives!!

The end of a relaxed day

Well, yessir, it was great to sit outside in the 70 degree weather and hook up the new mics to Pete's PA system... and, as we suspected, they worked just fine... meaning that the gig that we tried to use them at had something funky going on with their PA system... incredible mics!! AT4040's... put them both on a single stand, and since Pete & I sit close together for all our gigs, the setup works perfectly... seems like a 14-16" working distance is about right... and clean!! Yes, crisp and clean... of course, outside usage brings hazards unique... the sparrows in the background were coming thru the speakers just fine, as was the conversation of the people around the corner in the yard next door! And, as the pattern is wide enough, the wind noise is very minimal... unlike a "regular" mic that has a tube of audio for the wind to blow across...

So, we're set for the Thurs. nite 4 hr. gig... should provide us with ample opportunity to learn the mics well...

Now, back to things mundane... see that there are a couple of new May Bell instruments on eBay, but don't know (yet) what the woods are... might be something unique... did receive an e-mail from a person that has a "different" Style 7, in that the Slingerland name is not burned inside... I have 6 of them, and all have the name inside... so, yet another "different" one to throw into the mix.

The trip into Chicago to the Historical Society for the Slingerland research will likely be next month now... They're closed for a week this month, and our Thurs. nite gigs make it hard to go in and stay from Wed. through Sat.!! Don't want to deal with the traffic unless I really have to!!

Relaxed day

Well, I've recovered from my trip to Canada and am back into the "routine", such as it is... Busily fixing guitars, and getting ready to send one off to Texas on approval... old Slingerland Songster... had to set it up with light gauge strings, and that was a trip... I'm so used to Mediums for everything, and putting lights on changes lots of things... ended up having to dress a few frets and re-crown & polish them, having already re-crowned and polished when the strings were off! Now it's been sitting for a day to settle in, and I'll work on it tonight if it needs tweaking.

Yep, it's Spring here in N. IL -- in the high 60's, hazy, and very nice. Trees are budding out, peonies are up, flowers likewise...

I'm getting ready to head over to Pete's to attempt to figure out the why's and wherefore's of our new mics... We bought a couple of AT4040's after seeing my buddy Jay Ungar and Molly Mason using similar mikes... Jay said that they were wonderful, and we've been fighting the 4 mic set-up that we use for some time... too damn much clutter... we have short stands, with telescoping arms, but still there's 4 of them, and it's just a pain... if we could travel with one stand and a suitcase (already have everything fitted into a suitcase that my neighbor put out for the garbage!) life would be a lot simpler.

Now to try to figure out how to make my wireless router let me connect my laptop to the web without a cable... Just doesn't seem to want to do anything. I think a detailed e-mail to Linksys is in order a bit later today!