Wednesday

I should post every day, the rule says. So here is a picture. Goodbye for now.

Miscellany

A question; If someone posts to a blog, and no one else sees it, is it really there? Does it really count? Things are mundane today - no real direction. The President Select, G.W. Bush, decided today that he would admit the economy was in "tough times" -what a revelation! He has no answers, of course, other than to open up oil exploration in Anwar Wildlife Refuge, in Alaska. As Sen. Schumer points out, it would be at least 10 years before a drop of oil was produced from that area, if there is indeed any there. Typical of G.W. to fall back on an old neo-conservative pet peeve. Oh well. (or Oil well). Enough agonizing. Life is great, if you choose to see it that way.

Piano

For years, I had a piano just like this one. Around 1972, we found it for sale in Appalaichan, New York, just accross the river from my town, Endicott. Some older people had it in their trailer, and said it came from a church. It was made in the early part of the 20th century. Not always in tune, it had a great, thunderous sound, especially with the top opened up. Tiger oak finish (cut accross the grain). Quite a job moving that thing to our apartment in Endicott. Later, we moved to an old house in South Binghamton, and another move involved. We then decided to take off for California, but didn't last long there. Came back, and got the house back. The piano was still there, a little worse for wear, but still sounded great, pounding out my boogie woogie and old Stones songs. Later, we decided to move to Arizona (Tucson), around 1977, so I could go to grad school at U of A. It broke my heart to leave the piano that time. We came back after grad school, but the house was rented out to some other people. However, I pursuaded them to let me have the piano back, and dragged it out to Chenango Forks, to the second story walk-up apartment we were in. About a year later, we moved to Florida, for a job. We had the piano moved to our apartment, then a year later, moved it to the house we bought. We had a new house built 1987, and moved it there. After a few years, my wife decided that old musty, ugly thing (a thing of beauty to me), no longer belonged in that house. Also, I had come into possession of an old Fender Rhodes piano, so figured that would do for awhile. We later bought a used console piano, which is O.K., but doesn't have that roadhouse, honky tonk sound.

Monday

It's Monday morning again. Stuck at the salt mine, not really into it. Can't get my head to clear enough to do any real work yet, but I'll get going after awhile. Nice weekend, with some yardwork done. Otherwise, not much going on. Things are a bit boring lately. Here are some random pictures that may entertain.....

Various Stuff

I was trying to post some cool pics for you folks, but for some reason, Blogspot keeps giving me an error message today. Hopefully, it will clear up later. I didn't really have anything profound to say at this time. The weather here in west coast Florida has been beautiful lately. Yesterday, I took a walk at Red Bug Slough, an urban park close to my workplace. It has some trails through woods, some open meadow, and a medium sized lake and canal. The sky was blue, wispy clouds, cranes, crows and smaller birds sailing over the water with the updrafts. It was a breezy day, pretty warm (about 80), but a nice cool seabreeze in evidence. Life is hell is semi-paradise.

Politics

I usually don't like to say anything about current politics. I'm a life-long Democrat, although not always thrilled with the leadership. On the other hand, I don't trust the Republicans, and their mega-corporate backers, and would be happy with Hillary, or Obama. I have backed Hillary so far this year, not knowing much about Obama. I wish they hadn't started the campaigns so early this time - it give the media too much time to chew on every little issue, and we get bored with all of them. I respect McCain, but think his approach would be too much of the same old thing. Also, don't like his war-like stance - we need to back out our occupation of the middle east. No western power has ever lasted long in the middle east - this is nothing new. Thats about enough political nonsense, for now. I would rather comment on real life issues, such as how long the Stones can last, and whether Neil Young will tour Florida again. By ;the way, I think about Johnny Cash every day. There won't be any more like him.

Cool Guitars

I have a thing for guitars, especially cool old guitars. Personally, I have a 1962 Fender Custom Esquire, which is a deluxe telecaster. I also have a 1960's vintage Harmony semi-acoustic, the "Roy Smeck" model. Roy was an old time guitar and banjo player, popular in the 1920's to 50's. It is fire engine red, with white fingerboard, and looks like an old Gibson semi-acoustic. Plays really well, I also have a 1960's era Gibson acoustic, folk model popular with college students at that time, and a 1970's era Ibanez acoustic, that is just a nice old guitar. Full size, with great sound. I am always on the lookout at yard sales for similar treasures. Here are a few pictures of good old guitars, none of them mine:

Mars Expedition

The first Mars expidition left Earth on January 23, 2082, after several decades of delay, due to the distractions of war and famine on earth. Through a joint effort of the U.S., Russia, and China, Mars Mission 1, as it was generically dubbed, included a crew of 25, destined to remain on the planet until the next scheduled mission, 5 years hence. As such, they took with them exquisitely engineered recycling systems, and genetically engineered space gardens designed to produce all the nutrients they would need for the duration. Equipment designed to extract water from the Martian permafrost was also included, although would not be relied upon, given the continuing uncertainty of accessible ice layers on Mars, or their potability. The ship left earth at 3AM from the old Kennedy Space Center, in a re-tooled russian rocket, with jointly designed space capsul. The capsule was a large affair, with ample living quarters for the estimated 3-month voyage, designed to spin when in space, to similute 1/2 earth gravity. The crew was a carefully selected group of 12 men, 13 women, pretty much equally balanced between the three nationalities, although most of the women were Chinese. All were selected for their intellectual and psychological qualifications, of course, although speculation was rampant that most of the Chinese women were selected for their beauty, and submissive demeanor. Things hadn't really changed that much in terms of who calls the shots in a joint military/civilian mission such as this one. It was clearly accepted that on such a lengthy excursion, with the possibility of no return existing, that romantic liasons would surely develop onboard, and particularly on the 5-year stint on the Martian surface. In the latter regard, the plan was to excavate a honycomb of living quarters in the Martian crust, with a small, thick plexiglas dome topping it off, and providing access, via airlocks, to the martian surface. Several mars rovers were carried along for this purpose. Kaitlin Chan was excited about her opportunity to be one of the first human women to visit the planet. An experienced astronaut, she had been lucky enough to onboard the original Mars "flyby" mission, ten years prior. She was reluctant to leave her life partner, Sanyu, back on earth, but the draw to the red planet was irresistable.

(Stay Tuned....)

The Great Otis Spann

For those of you who don't know, Otis Spann was a great keyboard player with Chess Records, in the 50's and 60's - had his own solo career, often performing with his wife, Lucille, great old-time blues singer. He also often backed Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and others on the Chess Sessions. Great stuff!

Daneel rolled out of his netting, and landed on all sixes on the terraformed surface of his cell. His cellmate, Janellen, was still snoring, after a late night (he supposed) of hanging out with those quadrapeds on E-deck again. Daneel resented this, for reasons he wasn't quite clear, since he and Janellen were chosen as roomates for their supposed romantic incompatibility. Sometimes the tests by the psych squad were not quite predicitive, in terms of affairs of the senses. Daneel had duty on Q-deck again, getting the random flyers ready for another patrol of the C-sector ort clouds. As usual, he stopped at the nourishment center for a quick infusion of whatever ghastly reconstituted extract of algae they were serving that day, although the erzatz coffee subsitute was usually good, infused with enough caffiene to get him up to a reasonable level of function.

ck..s..d..d....s.......wait..............................O.K., sorry about that, I must have tapped into an alternate universe for a brief moment. I am at work in the salt mine again today, churning out meaningless reports for another faceless entity. Bored, but thank god for the net. I get more done if I have this crutch, is my theory. Later

More

As soon as I figure out how to do it, I will post some tunes, or links to tunes, of sounds that I dig. I don't rightly care if you dig them, but enjoy. I like all kinds of sounds, but especially good old rock and roll, with lots of grungy guitars. Hope you like it too.

This is My First Post!

I'm just trying this out....got stuck in the basement, door slammed behind me. My wife won't let me back up the stairs. Oh well, good think I have a stash of.....Wait, she's letting me back up. See you later.