Goodbye. Hello.

Tuesday, I said goodbye to an old friend of mine. I affectionately called her "Chocolate Lucy" since the time we met in 1998. I walked out of Willie's American Guitars in St Paul, MN with a 1975 Fender Stratocaster, mocha in color, maple of neck. We made beautiful music together for the past 12 years. I've spent some of the finest musical moments of my life with her, starting with the heavy jam-band "The Phat Sells" and ending with "Green Light Night" here in 2010. She is beautiful, and I know she'll make another player extremely happy. Here we are on our last official gig together.

As you can see, she was not without blemish, but I loved her just the same. But for the last 12 years I've been keeping a secret from her...


When we met I was in love with another, but just couldn't make it work. I walked into Rock Town Music on Monday and found her again, but where she was out of my league and reach in '98, this time she was available. Tuesday, we made the deal and I brought her home:

From the first caress of her oval neck and Pau Ferro fingerboard, I knew this was it. I'd wanted her 12 years ago, and have been waiting all this time for the right moment.

And now she's my #1 axe. She screams. She sobs. She wails. She's smooth as silk and edgy as could be - all within the same solo. She inspires me to play again.

So goodbye, Chocolate Lucy. You've been a great friend and I'm forever grateful for having you. But our time is up, and now it's on to the future.

NoBelly Rolling is back, ladies and gentlemen. Watch for new music here.

Getting Things Done

I've been struggling to stay organized. That is affecting my stress level and my productivity. It seems I just can't keep together all the things I need to do/remember/think/call/email/buy/ignore on a daily basis, and it's becoming more burdensome as I get older and my family gets more involved with activities.

I have subscribed to Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" method of "Quadrant II organizing" for many years. I know that it's important to get the important stuff in the calendar before anything else, and that clear identification of priorities help make decisions in the moment on what to do or not do. The problem I have with this is the sheer number of incoming requests for my time and attention that slip through the cracks of my mind and how to process them. From a philosophical perspective, Q2 organizing is where it's at. I've been looking for methods and means to handle the daily work.

Enter David Allen's "Getting Things Done."

Here is a process for managing tasks, with the focus being on managing activities. The essence is that you have a single system of your choice where you keep all your "stuff" and from where you make decisions on what the next action on each is. You are managing lists of things to do in the context in which they are done. For instance, you have a list for "home" and "work" and any other logical grouping of items.

I'm in the process of identifying and setting up my GTD system. I want to use products that I'm already using to manage my tasks, calendar and reference info. My requirements are that I need to be able to sync task lists with my Windows Mobile phone and have them available offline (I can't justify buying a data plan yet), it needs to be technology-agnostic (at work I use Windows and at home I use Linux), and it has to be easy to get information in and out.

This morning I couldn't get back to sleep after being rousted from sleep by the sound of my work on-call phone going off, so I reviewed Evernote, Remember the Milk, Google and SimpleGTD.

I like the storage of information at Evernote and the simplicity of keeping reference material in one place. Setting up GTD appears to be a bit complex, requiring tags for contexts and searching data. For simplicity, I like SimpleGTD. There are no bells and whistles, just a good online app for keeping your lists. There is no mobile app, though, and no way to sync tasks with my phone. I guess I can't use that.

I have come to rest on Remember the Milk for task management due to the flexibility of their task lists, smart lists (more on this later) and their Windows Mobile sync application that allows me to sync via WiFi and not require a constant data connection. I'm also planning to use Google calendar and most likely Google Docs for reference material, although Evernote is strong in the running for information archival and storage. I'm leaning toward Google Docs at the moment because I already use it and the interface is simple and elegant. Besides, I like what I know, I don't always know what I like.

The beauty of GTD is that the tools are not specific to the process, and you can use anything you are already using. I'm planning to blog as I set up my system and hopefully it will clarify my thoughts as well as assist future users of GTD. I'm planning to be dedicated over the next 90 days to implementing GTD in full and making it my habit, at which point we'll see if it makes a difference.

Summer arrives

Glad to see the sun
Warmth surrounds my attitude
Relieves the weary

Just a quick update, really.

Sandra is on her way to Ohio with a van-full of baby items for Amber. Amber and Nick are doing well and expecting my grandson's arrival mid- to late-July. We'll be taking the whole gang out there to greet the new family member, and I can't wait to see them all.

Spring skating lessons are finished. Grace tested into level two of the skating club and was very pleased. Jeremiah "just didn't feel like testing" this year.

Gracie is showing some real talent on the piano. The most amazing thing to me is the way she associates sounds with emotions or other visual items. For instance, she plays a C major chord and says "Daddy, doesn't that sound like happy sunshine?" Then a C minor chord and says "And doesn't that sound like rain?" I don't recall her teacher having that conversation before she made the comments, and based on his enthusiasm and interest when she brought it up to him I'd say it is an association she's made on her own. I'm waiting for her to say "This is a piece in D minor, which is the saddest of all keys..."

Jeremiah is thrilled that his violin teacher promised to teach him the Star Wars theme once he progresses past exercise #64. He's on #56 and this would just be too much. To combine his two favorite things would just be too much. He is constantly playing with Star Wars Legos Wii, Star Wars Legos (which, in reality, are his two favorite things) and when he can play that theme song it could send him into hysterics. I should record his laughter and post it for you all, because I'm certain it would make your day as much as it makes mine.

Jadyn is picking up some games that I think are a bit amazing. She likes to play "Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock" with us and can make all the symbols except Spock. She's picking up on the "20 Questions" game, and could sit and go back and forth with me counting each others' fingers for hours. She is a joy.

Adrian is heading to Ohio with Sandra and doing well. I'm hoping to post pictures of his new hobby this year - Musky fishing. Based on his track record, we'll be seeing some monsters soon.

Sandra is doing well, president of Home Educated Youth and on the board of UPLIFT. She is immersed in and such an advocate for home education, it's inspiring. We serve HEY together, and I'm finding myself blessed by it in many ways I never expected.

I finally finished my first two electronic projects. A Fuzz Face clone and a Dallas-Arbiter Rangemaster clone. I've decided once again that *playing* the guitar is my real gift and passion, more so than building them or gadgets for them. I plan to do much more playing and much less tinkering over the summer months, hoping to start recording what will become my first self-released album of original music. You can listen to previews on my MySpace Music site if you would like.

Other than that, we're glad to see the warmth and sunshine. Drop me a note and let me know what you're up to this summer.

Oh...almost forgot the telescope! More on that later...

Ready for the sun

Well, it seems that we've run across a string of relatively expensive bad luck.

It started with the news that my car needed a water pump, and that pump would require the front end of the car to be removed and the engine torn apart to replace. $1200, plus the bleeder valve assembly which you can only get from a dealer is another $100 + labor if I don't do it myself.

On to the house. Now, I would suppose that this expensive string of difficulty could have started with the oven fire that brought us to replace the carpets and clean everything...however, I'll start new.

This week on Monday, Sandra informed me that the clothes washer had stopped working. It would only fill half way and then it wouldn't agitate because the water was too low. My response was "have the repairman take a look at this when he comes out to fix the dishwasher." I retired to guitar playing to forget about yet another broken appliance in my house.

An hour or so later, Sandra asks if I knew why the toilet upstairs wouldn't fill after flushing. I did not, but after looking at it I thought that the float assembly had a corroded switch and valve which caused it to stop working. She asked if those two could be related, to which I replied that I didn't see how they could be related, but anything was possible. I retired to the downstairs bathroom to get rid of a little water before bed.

Once down there, it looked like there was coffee grounds in the toilet bowl. "That's odd," I thought as I flushed them down. Lo and behold, the brown grounds were pouring into the bowl from the fresh water supply on the toilet. Now I was a little freaked out. I looked closely at it, and there were fine brown and yellow granules flowing into the toilet bowl. I went around the house, and sure enough, now every faucet in the house had sand coming through it. I had no idea what that could be, so we shut the water off and I went to buy some bottled water for the next day when we could get a plumber over.

The next day I called the city and asked if anyone else had an issue. The extremely helpful and super cool people at the city asked if we had a water softener, and if we could bypass it. I called Sandra and she bypassed the softener. She then ran the water clean. Booya! It wasn't a leaking main like I was now expecting. At any rate, the estimate for the softener, installed is $1100. To get one sized correctly for our family we will need one that is roughly $600 I figure, and then I'll have to sweat the pipes in myself. At this point, that just may be worth $500 to me.

Also, when turning off the water at the main I realized I could no longer put off replacing the main valve. The city was once again awesome to work with, they came out adn turned off the water and gave me a new meter that reports for itself wirelessly for the plumber. Plumber comes out and replaces the valve adn repairs my failed attempt at using compression fittings to replace the washer valve that was completely sealed by the softener garbage. $250.

I am coming to terms with the fact that I do not have a house. I have a large pit into which I have thrown my money for the past 8 years.

Update

Well, it has been a while since my last post. Things got away from us around here and blogging has had to take a back seat for a while. Commence the blogging...

I noticed that my last post was 12/23/2009. That was three days before our oven caught fire and our house was filled with dry-chem from my attempts to extinguish the flame. To make a long, boring story less long and boring, the element in the bottom of the oven arced and was burning like a fuse. I emptied a 5-pound extinguisher on it to no avail, followed by a partial 10-pounder. The white flame would dim a little when it got hit with the dry-chem, but then kick right back in at full speed a moment later. In case this ever happens to you, don't try an extinguisher on it. Pull your stove out from the wall and unplug it - because that killed the charge to the element and the flame went out. Funny thing about shooting a fire extinguisher into a small enclosed area...it comes right back out at you. So, into my face and the air came the majority of the dust, and once in the air into the air exchanger and HVAC ductwork of my house. Now we had dry-chem EVERYwhere!

(This is the point where I cuss long and loud.)

Again, to make the long boring story only slightly less long and boring, the insurance company was great and covered most everything. The downside was that my daughter and her husband and two boys were here with us for the holiday and we had a destroyed home and nothing on which to cook. To top it off, my daughter is pukey due to her pregnancy.

So - to save time and effort, a rundown:

1. Oven fire December 26th
2. Amber and Nick are expecting a boy (more about that later) whome they intend to name Taber Gregory
3. Replaced carpet in upstairs with wood laminate using money from insurance company
4. Replaced stove with insurance money
5. Replaced dishwasher due to unfortunate "wrecking crew" accident with old dishwasher
6. Spent an entire day clicking "refresh" but finally got the MN appliance rebate
7. Cut tip of my left-hand index finger with the table saw immediately after thinking "I should not reach so close to that moving blade"
8. Still employed and loving it at Marco in the Managed IT group
9. Marco is financially doing well and has weathered the storm nicely
10. Building guitar effects pedals in my spare time
11. Jeremiah's hockey season is over
12. Grace's first season of figure skating is over
13. Grace is continuing with the Stroia Ballet Company through the summer
14. Grace taking piano lessons, Jeremiah self-studying her lessons to play piano also
15. Jeremiah is taking violin lessons, Grace self-studying as well
16. Adrian is awarded "Tech of the Year" at Royal Tire where he is doing OTR tires and doing well
17. Sandra is getting heavily involved in HEY (ask me about it if you don't already know)
18. Sandra is, as always, awesome and my favorite part of every day
19. Jadyn insists on doing all things by herself
20. We're still alive and well, thanks to God for keeping us safe and sound through several trials
21. My Dodge needs a water pump, which means the whole front end needs to be removed
22. Decided to start my summer bike commuting to work a couple months early and not charge any car repairs
23. Playing in a little group with guys from Marco, which we are calling "Green Light Night"
24. Glad to be alive

So anyhow, that's everything I can think of in 10 minutes or less. I'm off to work on composing a drum track for a song Adrian is writing. We'll post to my MySpace music site when complete if Adrian deems it satisfactorily recorded.

Can't wait to hear from you all. I'm hoping to post more in the coming months, as long as I can keep my fingers out of saws...

The morning commute

Note to self:

An appropriate amount of clothing for morning commute at 40 degrees F:

2 short-sleeved t-shirts

1 long-sleeved t-shirt

1 light wind-breaker jacket

Long-john underwear

Cut-off Dickie's

Low-top Chuck Taylor tennis shoes

Stocking cap under the helmet

Biking gloves covered by brown cotton gloves

I was pretty comfortable and got a little warm toward the end of the ride. I think I prefer the headband-type ear warmer under my helmet over the stocking cap, too, since my head got very warm at times. But it was sure nice having the wind-breaker on those streets where the wind whipped through like a tunnel!

Not to mention when you are riding a fixed-gear bike you can actually hear birds singing in the morning.

Waiting for Vizzini

When things look bleak and you don't know what to do, you go back to the beginning.

I've been feeling a strong longing to play more guitar. I think about it while I'm at work. I think about it when I wake up. I have dreams that I'm performing again. Then, when I have opportunity, I pick up my Strat and...blah...

I started thinking that the problem is that, in my mind's ear I hear myself playing like I did when I played hours every day. I'd go to all-night jam sessions and when I left I'd feel great. Now, I play for 15 minutes and my hands hurt and are tired. I can't seem to get the sounds out of my head into my hands. I drop the guitar in frustration and the cycle starts again.

So, I go back to the beginning. In 1988 I graduated from what was then "The Professional Guitar School (A Division of The Guitar Center)." It was not the retail giant, but a small music school in Minneapolis that eventually became "Music Tech" and now I see that the originators are McNally Smith College of Music. Awesome. Anyway, in 1988 there were about 20 of us in the second graduating class. We spent a year playing major scales, learning music theory, how to read music, the difference between harmonic minor and jazz harmonic minor scales. I played every day, and played a lot.

So, as I was thinking about that time in life, it just so happened that I stumbled across the green photo-copied text "Fingerboard/Theory and Improvisation" written by Jeff Wressell. I opened it up and started running my major scales through the circle of 4ths using a metronome. Wow. I used to be able to do these at a pretty high tempo, and my fingers don't quite do what I'm asking them to do as cleanly as they used to. But like I did in the beginning, I practice them daily now. I write down the tempo I start at and the tempo I end at to measure my progress. I'm improving again...

It's not exactly a weekend performing at Carnegie Hall, but it's greatly therapeutic and I'm having fun. Thanks Jeff Wressell - your influence spans 20 years and your legacy lives on.