Leafs Win, 3-2
Well, not the hockey team, the actual LEAVES… For the second time, I tackles trying to wrangle them all up, did a fairly thorough job in the front yard and partial in the back, and 2 days later you’d never know I even tried… I mean after almost 30 bags when will it end?
I wisely invested in a leaf blower before I started the project, which, in hindsight, was one of those rare moments where I had good foresight! (ha) but its still a bugger of a job to do… oh well.. there are worst things I spose…
While my 4 to 7 regular readers may have noticed a lack of content on this site, its some very godo reasons… 1) I’ve tried to keep this stuff “mostly” about things related to music, (2) I’ve not been overly active in music since the spring.. what with the new job, and the new house, and all the great distractions they both have presented.. and (3) We’ll, we’ve just been busy!!!
In summary though, while were still not completely unpacked and no where nears getting the house done to the way we want it, I think we’ve crossed that line where we can say we’ve “put our mark” on it.. or “made it our own” I wont inventory all of it, and my wife would argue we’ve not done much at all, but I think when you add up the man-hours spent on everything done so far I get tired and my back starts to ache.. I think the problem is that for some of the tasks, as trivial as mundane as they may be, they take an insane amount of time…
Take yesterday for example.. Our bedrooms have no ceiling lights… the light switch controls a plug in… Which presents some problems, depending on how you like to set up your room.. So we buy a ceiling fan for my daughters room and physically installed it I think the day after we took possession.. And I, in my infinite wisdom, ascend to the attic to wire it up to the switch… I’m no electrician, but I do know some of the basics that my dad taught me… So I’m up there.. and I’m trying to find the main power lead… and there isn’t one.. being I’m on the top floor, the main power lead comes from the basement and goes direct to the plug in the wall… its split, to the switch, (which I was able to access in the attic) to complete the circuit… So the problem, is while it may be possible to work with that, its not possible with my limited knowledge of electrical…. I need the source…. So we abandon the job, and result to get a pro…
Anyway… its now 4plus months later. The only day my electrician friend had free, I wasn’t but I had a eureka moment.. I’d learned about a month ago, that there is a direct “Path” from the attic to basement (and vice versa) via the chimney. Not “inside” but the exterior… I can look down from the attic to the basement when I stick my head next to the chimney… theres about a 3-4 inch clearance that goes straight down… I’d used it to fish my TV wires up…. And, in another rare moment of foresight, left a string tied on both ends in cased I ever needed to repeat the process…
Luckily (in some ways) our basement is not finished, So I was able to find a good source of unswitched power, tapped into it, ran it all way up to the attic, tacked the wires down safely, drilled holes, cut drywall, made all the connections, and some 6 hours later, the jobs done.. I installed a brand new switch for my daughters ceiling fan… But that’s jut the point… a small “blip” on the to-do list, and 6 hours of time! It was about the same when I connected the highspeed net up to my wife’s PC and mine… One trivial little detail, One Insane amount of effort…. But, on the Brightside, I got great inlaws.. and truth be told, if you survey Most of the work done to the place (that you can see at least, Paint, Floor, etc) it is my father in law who deserves most of the credit.. Dude’s spend countless hours laying hardwood, painting walls and ceilings… stuff that we could do, and have (albeit to a lesser extent) and actually says he enjoys it! Which is great, because we enjoy having it done!!! HA!!!
Anyway… back to the leaves.. , ah screw it… enough about the leaves…. Lets talk music..
I’m getting excited again.. I had been playing bass with Full Circle for a little over a year… and While great people and a lot of fun, my stint with them came to an end about 3 weeks ago…. For my few “long” time readers you may recall that its been my goal to start a band (informally known as the “Bongwater” Project) where we’d play tunes that we always wanted to, but couldn’t because it was either
-too long
-too hard to dance to
-too hard to play and/or bizare
-too many instruments
-too hard to sing or not in that singers range…
So instead of the staples like Brown Eyed Girl and Sweet Home Alabama, we’d play “Into the Mystic” and “I know a little” along with tunes like Pink Floyds Time, Shine on Crazy Diamon, Gig in the sky…. Deep Purple’s Lazy or Maybe I’m a Leo, Bostons _Foreplay/Longtime, etc….
But the difficulty in doing those tunes is 3 fold…. 1) all the reasons mentioned above 2) Not every musicians feels the same and 3) most bars don’t want to hear it… they want whatever makes drunk people drink more…
So its been challenging… We’ve had two attempts so far… both kind of fizzled... but just after my departure from Full Circle, the guitarist asked me about that project, and if I needed a drummer… He had a friend that he thought was “In tune” (pardon the pun) with what I wanted to do…
One of biggest challenges has been time… I’ve had no problem finding gigs… Hell, more then I can handle, but then that’s just the point. I can’t handle it.. Anymore then 2 gigs a month, and it’s a distraction… work/family have to come first… I mean I’d love nothing more then to play Full Time with the likes of Jon Matheson, or Bernie Doucette and just see where I takes you.. But the reality is I just can’t make that kind of commitment, so it leaves me to the “weekend warrior” pool…. Where its not as easy to find the right fit…
But after 2 previous tries (Click here , Here and HERE for info about the 2nd) I think we’ve found it this time, at least on paper. The band’s a little top heavy, insofar as we have more people in it then the average, but that’s the key.. its about having fun, playing music we like… and if a song doesn’t have a part in it for everyone.. then ya stand there, shake a maraca or something, and sing harmony….
So far we’ve Got
-Me: Keyboards, Bass, some guitar/mandolin/harmonica and a tolerable harmony, basic Saxophone
-Wayne Smart: Vocals, Guitar, Bass, & Some keys
-Steve Furey: Monster Steve Vai Style Guitar)
-Steve Ashton: Guitar, Vocals, & Sax
-Steve MacDonald: Guitar, Vocals maybe bass
-___TBA___: Bass, Vocals, Keys
-Pete Jeffery: Drums/Percussion
And maybe (maybe) a 2nd drummer/percussionist (not unlike the Alman Bros) so we can have all the bells and whistles (congos, etc) too…
And I really have to thank Steve Matheson, the Guitarist from Full Circle, for jump-starting this again via his introduction of Pete! Otherwise, this might still be on the “long term plan” as opposed to “Work in Progress” Status…
Anyway. We’ve our first jam this weekend, I hope… pending scheduling coordination, and we’ll see where it takes us from there.. Should be fun, which is the primary goal.. and we’ll just see where it takes us from there…
I wisely invested in a leaf blower before I started the project, which, in hindsight, was one of those rare moments where I had good foresight! (ha) but its still a bugger of a job to do… oh well.. there are worst things I spose…
While my 4 to 7 regular readers may have noticed a lack of content on this site, its some very godo reasons… 1) I’ve tried to keep this stuff “mostly” about things related to music, (2) I’ve not been overly active in music since the spring.. what with the new job, and the new house, and all the great distractions they both have presented.. and (3) We’ll, we’ve just been busy!!!
In summary though, while were still not completely unpacked and no where nears getting the house done to the way we want it, I think we’ve crossed that line where we can say we’ve “put our mark” on it.. or “made it our own” I wont inventory all of it, and my wife would argue we’ve not done much at all, but I think when you add up the man-hours spent on everything done so far I get tired and my back starts to ache.. I think the problem is that for some of the tasks, as trivial as mundane as they may be, they take an insane amount of time…
Take yesterday for example.. Our bedrooms have no ceiling lights… the light switch controls a plug in… Which presents some problems, depending on how you like to set up your room.. So we buy a ceiling fan for my daughters room and physically installed it I think the day after we took possession.. And I, in my infinite wisdom, ascend to the attic to wire it up to the switch… I’m no electrician, but I do know some of the basics that my dad taught me… So I’m up there.. and I’m trying to find the main power lead… and there isn’t one.. being I’m on the top floor, the main power lead comes from the basement and goes direct to the plug in the wall… its split, to the switch, (which I was able to access in the attic) to complete the circuit… So the problem, is while it may be possible to work with that, its not possible with my limited knowledge of electrical…. I need the source…. So we abandon the job, and result to get a pro…
Anyway… its now 4plus months later. The only day my electrician friend had free, I wasn’t but I had a eureka moment.. I’d learned about a month ago, that there is a direct “Path” from the attic to basement (and vice versa) via the chimney. Not “inside” but the exterior… I can look down from the attic to the basement when I stick my head next to the chimney… theres about a 3-4 inch clearance that goes straight down… I’d used it to fish my TV wires up…. And, in another rare moment of foresight, left a string tied on both ends in cased I ever needed to repeat the process…
Luckily (in some ways) our basement is not finished, So I was able to find a good source of unswitched power, tapped into it, ran it all way up to the attic, tacked the wires down safely, drilled holes, cut drywall, made all the connections, and some 6 hours later, the jobs done.. I installed a brand new switch for my daughters ceiling fan… But that’s jut the point… a small “blip” on the to-do list, and 6 hours of time! It was about the same when I connected the highspeed net up to my wife’s PC and mine… One trivial little detail, One Insane amount of effort…. But, on the Brightside, I got great inlaws.. and truth be told, if you survey Most of the work done to the place (that you can see at least, Paint, Floor, etc) it is my father in law who deserves most of the credit.. Dude’s spend countless hours laying hardwood, painting walls and ceilings… stuff that we could do, and have (albeit to a lesser extent) and actually says he enjoys it! Which is great, because we enjoy having it done!!! HA!!!
Anyway… back to the leaves.. , ah screw it… enough about the leaves…. Lets talk music..
I’m getting excited again.. I had been playing bass with Full Circle for a little over a year… and While great people and a lot of fun, my stint with them came to an end about 3 weeks ago…. For my few “long” time readers you may recall that its been my goal to start a band (informally known as the “Bongwater” Project) where we’d play tunes that we always wanted to, but couldn’t because it was either
-too long
-too hard to dance to
-too hard to play and/or bizare
-too many instruments
-too hard to sing or not in that singers range…
So instead of the staples like Brown Eyed Girl and Sweet Home Alabama, we’d play “Into the Mystic” and “I know a little” along with tunes like Pink Floyds Time, Shine on Crazy Diamon, Gig in the sky…. Deep Purple’s Lazy or Maybe I’m a Leo, Bostons _Foreplay/Longtime, etc….
But the difficulty in doing those tunes is 3 fold…. 1) all the reasons mentioned above 2) Not every musicians feels the same and 3) most bars don’t want to hear it… they want whatever makes drunk people drink more…
So its been challenging… We’ve had two attempts so far… both kind of fizzled... but just after my departure from Full Circle, the guitarist asked me about that project, and if I needed a drummer… He had a friend that he thought was “In tune” (pardon the pun) with what I wanted to do…
One of biggest challenges has been time… I’ve had no problem finding gigs… Hell, more then I can handle, but then that’s just the point. I can’t handle it.. Anymore then 2 gigs a month, and it’s a distraction… work/family have to come first… I mean I’d love nothing more then to play Full Time with the likes of Jon Matheson, or Bernie Doucette and just see where I takes you.. But the reality is I just can’t make that kind of commitment, so it leaves me to the “weekend warrior” pool…. Where its not as easy to find the right fit…
But after 2 previous tries (Click here , Here and HERE for info about the 2nd) I think we’ve found it this time, at least on paper. The band’s a little top heavy, insofar as we have more people in it then the average, but that’s the key.. its about having fun, playing music we like… and if a song doesn’t have a part in it for everyone.. then ya stand there, shake a maraca or something, and sing harmony….
So far we’ve Got
-Me: Keyboards, Bass, some guitar/mandolin/harmonica and a tolerable harmony, basic Saxophone
-Wayne Smart: Vocals, Guitar, Bass, & Some keys
-Steve Furey: Monster Steve Vai Style Guitar)
-Steve Ashton: Guitar, Vocals, & Sax
-Steve MacDonald: Guitar, Vocals maybe bass
-___TBA___: Bass, Vocals, Keys
-Pete Jeffery: Drums/Percussion
And maybe (maybe) a 2nd drummer/percussionist (not unlike the Alman Bros) so we can have all the bells and whistles (congos, etc) too…
And I really have to thank Steve Matheson, the Guitarist from Full Circle, for jump-starting this again via his introduction of Pete! Otherwise, this might still be on the “long term plan” as opposed to “Work in Progress” Status…
Anyway. We’ve our first jam this weekend, I hope… pending scheduling coordination, and we’ll see where it takes us from there.. Should be fun, which is the primary goal.. and we’ll just see where it takes us from there…
posted by Rob @ 2:36 PM
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home