ZMAN
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- North of the Equator: I am a Southerner, Southern
That sounds more like it! See, the mojo is working already!
The weekend Thread
- Thread starter Brian Krashpad
- Start date
Brian Krashpad
Well-known member
I really do feel much better this week. If I could get rid of this weird chicken-neck wattle-looking thing I got (I think the medical term is "lymphedema"), and the constant dry-mouth/throat tickle I still have, I'd be close to 100%, albeit a bony, under-nourished looking 100%.
Bloozcat
Leggo of my HoHo!
Well, my weekend was more like two with a full week in between...
We went out to LA to visit an old college friend of my wife's, then we all went up to Paso Robles to check out the Central Coast wines. My wife's old friend has a second home in Paso Robles where we stayed.
What a pleasant surprise that was! Most of the Central Coast wines we've tried here in Florida were just so-so to good. But out there we had some reserve wines (reds) at wineries we'd never heard of and they were as good or better even, than what we've had in the Napa and Sonoma valleys...and superior on a comparative cost basis.
For anyone who's into wine and has an opportunity to travel to this region, I'd heartily encourage you to go. Great wine, great restaurants, and warm, friendly people. A nice relaxing vacation, for sure!
We went out to LA to visit an old college friend of my wife's, then we all went up to Paso Robles to check out the Central Coast wines. My wife's old friend has a second home in Paso Robles where we stayed.
What a pleasant surprise that was! Most of the Central Coast wines we've tried here in Florida were just so-so to good. But out there we had some reserve wines (reds) at wineries we'd never heard of and they were as good or better even, than what we've had in the Napa and Sonoma valleys...and superior on a comparative cost basis.
For anyone who's into wine and has an opportunity to travel to this region, I'd heartily encourage you to go. Great wine, great restaurants, and warm, friendly people. A nice relaxing vacation, for sure!
Last edited:
Brian Krashpad
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That sounds great blooz, except for whatever reason I could never get into wine myself. Tried though, haha! For a wine lover like you, perfecto.
Duffy
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Triple billed show
We went to a show in a renovated grand old theater that a local college bought and repaired. We saw a three band show.
The first two bands were not as entertaining as the average local band but seemed to me to be hanging deceptively onto old band names, touring as such, and having only one member from the actual historical band. These two bands were not highly professional in my opinion as evidenced by unintunnedness, absence of key instruments, unharmonious harmonies, and mostly amateurish players and singers - with the exception of maybe one member from the original band that could be labeled with any of the typical designations that you hear about these guys, that may still own the right to claim the name of the band in some way. Normally I wouldn't pay to go see a band like this, but might watch a free concert for old time's sake.
I was well into thinking that I had wasted none the less good money on the inexpensive tickets.
The first band was Firefall. It was made up of one original member, the lead guitar and singer, and two other guitar players. There was no drummer. There was nothing remarkable about this band that hadn't taken place a long time ago.
The second band was Pure Prairie League. This band had one original member - the bass player. In my opinion they also did not demonstrate a high level of professionalism and probably sounded a little worse to me than Firefall. They had a drummer, but he again did not show a high level of professionalism or even skill. One guitar player was about as good as some of the best local players. It was a disappointment, to me anyway, to witness such a mess, so ineffectively conveying the Pure Prairie League vibe that I remember. Evidently PPL has had at least 20 different line ups through time.
I was expecting more of the same when the third act came on stage. A couple friends of mine were playing in their band in the Theater's lounge and they sounded way better to me than the first two bands. Anyway, I went back to the show and caught the third band.
Wow!
That's all I can say. From my point of view these guys were true professionals and were expert master muscians that played and harmonized beautifully.
It was Poco.
There was only one original member: Rusty Young, who played a beautiful Godin LP type electric thru a small black Fender amp like a Hot Rod Deluxe or Blues Jr., mike'd and it sounded great. He also played a lap steel, a resonator, an electric mandolin, a pedal steel, and an acoustic thru the same amp and sounded beautiful.
The drummer was very musical and totally with the band. The other two guys were true professionals in their own right and had independent projects.
One guy was the bass player that also played acoustic and sang some beautiful leads and harmonies.
He sang a song from his independent project, can't remember the name of it, but the song was called, "Hard Land". He was from a farm in Minnesota and the song was a folk song about the difficulties of farming the rich Minnesota soil and so forth. He started out solo, singing and playing acoustic beautifully. Then the drummer came in on a single conga and the keyboardist came in with his B3 and Rusty Young on his Godin LP style; the drummer switched to the full kit, the singer songwriter stopped and gazed at them as they took over the song and transformed it into a full rocker. He put on his bass and they rocked the house with that folk song. It was beautiful.
The Poco songs were great and I thought they captured the vibe of the Poco from the old days.
The keyboardist was a Nashville artist and played the B3, a Motiv keyboard, and an electric accordian - of which he was a master of all and a great singer. He performed one of his own songs with the band as well and his overall playing and singing was totally with the band.
They played a couple Cajun songs and some transient Texans from the local oil fields were hooting and hollerin' so much that Rusty Young told them they must have been to a nearby bar. I don't think he knew we have a substantial population of Texans around here working the recently developed huge oil field.
Anyway, everything Poco did was beautiful, with great togetherness, with the band coming across to me as a whole much greater than the sum of the parts. You know what I mean? When that happens it's mystifying. What really made them special, aside from being such a good "band", was that they, at least to me, captured the vibe of the old time Poco. Rusty Young was an awesome band leader and surrounded himself with some of the right people.
Just that act alone made it worth going to the show.
The rest of the weekend was very peaceful and enjoyable.
I played my Agile AL3100 into my Peavey 6505+ combo straight up and was grooving on the tone. I need to rig up my recording gear.
We went to a show in a renovated grand old theater that a local college bought and repaired. We saw a three band show.
The first two bands were not as entertaining as the average local band but seemed to me to be hanging deceptively onto old band names, touring as such, and having only one member from the actual historical band. These two bands were not highly professional in my opinion as evidenced by unintunnedness, absence of key instruments, unharmonious harmonies, and mostly amateurish players and singers - with the exception of maybe one member from the original band that could be labeled with any of the typical designations that you hear about these guys, that may still own the right to claim the name of the band in some way. Normally I wouldn't pay to go see a band like this, but might watch a free concert for old time's sake.
I was well into thinking that I had wasted none the less good money on the inexpensive tickets.
The first band was Firefall. It was made up of one original member, the lead guitar and singer, and two other guitar players. There was no drummer. There was nothing remarkable about this band that hadn't taken place a long time ago.
The second band was Pure Prairie League. This band had one original member - the bass player. In my opinion they also did not demonstrate a high level of professionalism and probably sounded a little worse to me than Firefall. They had a drummer, but he again did not show a high level of professionalism or even skill. One guitar player was about as good as some of the best local players. It was a disappointment, to me anyway, to witness such a mess, so ineffectively conveying the Pure Prairie League vibe that I remember. Evidently PPL has had at least 20 different line ups through time.
I was expecting more of the same when the third act came on stage. A couple friends of mine were playing in their band in the Theater's lounge and they sounded way better to me than the first two bands. Anyway, I went back to the show and caught the third band.
Wow!
That's all I can say. From my point of view these guys were true professionals and were expert master muscians that played and harmonized beautifully.
It was Poco.
There was only one original member: Rusty Young, who played a beautiful Godin LP type electric thru a small black Fender amp like a Hot Rod Deluxe or Blues Jr., mike'd and it sounded great. He also played a lap steel, a resonator, an electric mandolin, a pedal steel, and an acoustic thru the same amp and sounded beautiful.
The drummer was very musical and totally with the band. The other two guys were true professionals in their own right and had independent projects.
One guy was the bass player that also played acoustic and sang some beautiful leads and harmonies.
He sang a song from his independent project, can't remember the name of it, but the song was called, "Hard Land". He was from a farm in Minnesota and the song was a folk song about the difficulties of farming the rich Minnesota soil and so forth. He started out solo, singing and playing acoustic beautifully. Then the drummer came in on a single conga and the keyboardist came in with his B3 and Rusty Young on his Godin LP style; the drummer switched to the full kit, the singer songwriter stopped and gazed at them as they took over the song and transformed it into a full rocker. He put on his bass and they rocked the house with that folk song. It was beautiful.
The Poco songs were great and I thought they captured the vibe of the Poco from the old days.
The keyboardist was a Nashville artist and played the B3, a Motiv keyboard, and an electric accordian - of which he was a master of all and a great singer. He performed one of his own songs with the band as well and his overall playing and singing was totally with the band.
They played a couple Cajun songs and some transient Texans from the local oil fields were hooting and hollerin' so much that Rusty Young told them they must have been to a nearby bar. I don't think he knew we have a substantial population of Texans around here working the recently developed huge oil field.
Anyway, everything Poco did was beautiful, with great togetherness, with the band coming across to me as a whole much greater than the sum of the parts. You know what I mean? When that happens it's mystifying. What really made them special, aside from being such a good "band", was that they, at least to me, captured the vibe of the old time Poco. Rusty Young was an awesome band leader and surrounded himself with some of the right people.
Just that act alone made it worth going to the show.
The rest of the weekend was very peaceful and enjoyable.
I played my Agile AL3100 into my Peavey 6505+ combo straight up and was grooving on the tone. I need to rig up my recording gear.
Brian Krashpad
Well-known member
Glad Poco rescued it for you, Duffy!
I had a bit of music-playing this weekend, about average.
Saturday morning I finished up my magazine column and uploaded it and some photos for it to the magazine's website. At 2 pm I did a practice with the church band, First Things First, at the church in town. We are doing an ecumenical (multi-denominational, for you non-church types) concert next Saturday with 5 other church's praise teams, on the Downtown Plaza here in Gainesville. So, rather than practice for the service (the 3 songs were ones we'd done before, including one in the set for the concert, which is called "Praise In The Field"), we worked on the concert set. It went pretty well.
Though I usually leave my amp at church overnight for the next day, I had a Cinnamon Hill practice at 6 pm and didn't know if I might need the amp for that, so I broke my rig back down and carted it all out to the car. It's just a little Super Champ XD, but going up and down those steps with a 24-pound amp is tiring for me, as I tire easily after finishing up the whole chemo/radiation treatment a couple months back.
At any rate, I had some time to kill so I stopped off at Goodwill to buy some "skinny clothes" that might fit a bit better now that I've lost 45 pounds or so. Found one cool black t-shirt with outlines of guitars in various colors on it, it's a medium but a bit snugger than most. It fits for now, but since it was a whopping $2.50, even if I outgrow it (I'm under doctor's orders to regain some weight, though I'm not sure I really need to), no big whup. Got another 2 collared short-sleeved shirts, one that's a sort of tan/black paisley that's silk or synthetic that will go well with jeans or khakis, or khaki cargoes, for church or being slightly dressy. The other is a cotton plaid that's more casual. Both are sorta "camp shirt"/"bowling shirt"/Havana style shirts, flat-lying collars and square-cut hems meant to be left untucked. The collared shirts were $4 each. Woo-hoo, fashion bonanza!
Stopped out west of town at Casa Krashpad because I'd forgotten to load up my acoustics earlier in the afternoon, and then immediately turned around and went back into town for the CHill practice at our keyboardist's house at 6 pm. Our usual singer is bailing on us for our upcoming gig (or possibly permanently, it's not really clear), a benefit tonight (Monday) for a local preschool that our keyboardist's kids go/have gone to. We did this last year too. Basically we play a set, they feed us and have an auction to benefit the school, then we play a closing set.
Practice went fine, our other guitarist is going to sing lead for this gig. Our bassist showed for this one, so it was the keys player, the other guitarist, me (acoustic 6 and 12-string and mandolin for this show), and our bassist. Our percussionist didn't show but reportedly will be there tonight. One of the songs we're covering (we added a ton of material given the switch in singers) is Michael Franti's "Say Hey" which is very rhythmic and almost a fast reggae, which was a little tough without drums so I used my 12-string as a drum and just beat the rhythm on the guitar with my hands, which worked surprisingly well. Practiced for a little while, then they fed us (I think of CHill practices there as more like dinner parties, as other non-band people come, we sorta sing for our supper, haha), then practiced some more. Got home tennish.
Sunday I went in for the late service as usual. The lady who wrote 2 originals we're doing at Praise In The Field was visiting town (she's going to the concert on this coming Saturday too), so we played one of hers for pre-service. Got lost momentarily during an unimportant part but quickly covered, and hopefully erased any memory of that by the solo, which was one of my better goes (they're different every time for that song), if I do say so myself. Did 3 songs in service, first on mandolin and the others on electric, though no solos on those. Did a massive pick slide on the start of each chorus of one of them though, and actually sang a bit (there's a melody counter-melody part that our grrl backing vocalist's voice isn't loud enough to cope with alone when the lead singer goes to the counter-melody) on the last one.
Back at Casa Krashpad did some minor cleanup, put away three guitars that'd been sitting out (albeit cased) in the family room for the longest time, took out the garbage for today's pickup, and replaced some vinyl siding on the back of the garage that'd come down in a storm (the siding sorta snaps together like Legos or something, no tools involved, but it did require a ladder and some effort to get it back on the house). After recovering a bit in the A/C inside (it was in the high 80's F), played ball with my son for awhile, he's become interested in lacrosse so he got his stick out and we played catch. He wants me to get stick too but I'm not too sure about that.
Made some "sausage burgers" on our fire pit/grill on the patio for dinner, and had some of the best sweet potatoes evah (cooked in the oven and with just butter, salt, and pepper) and some salad. A nice meal to end a good low-key weekend, even if my daughter and her friend got to the ice cream and finished it off before I got any.
Such is life with teens.
I had a bit of music-playing this weekend, about average.
Saturday morning I finished up my magazine column and uploaded it and some photos for it to the magazine's website. At 2 pm I did a practice with the church band, First Things First, at the church in town. We are doing an ecumenical (multi-denominational, for you non-church types) concert next Saturday with 5 other church's praise teams, on the Downtown Plaza here in Gainesville. So, rather than practice for the service (the 3 songs were ones we'd done before, including one in the set for the concert, which is called "Praise In The Field"), we worked on the concert set. It went pretty well.
Though I usually leave my amp at church overnight for the next day, I had a Cinnamon Hill practice at 6 pm and didn't know if I might need the amp for that, so I broke my rig back down and carted it all out to the car. It's just a little Super Champ XD, but going up and down those steps with a 24-pound amp is tiring for me, as I tire easily after finishing up the whole chemo/radiation treatment a couple months back.
At any rate, I had some time to kill so I stopped off at Goodwill to buy some "skinny clothes" that might fit a bit better now that I've lost 45 pounds or so. Found one cool black t-shirt with outlines of guitars in various colors on it, it's a medium but a bit snugger than most. It fits for now, but since it was a whopping $2.50, even if I outgrow it (I'm under doctor's orders to regain some weight, though I'm not sure I really need to), no big whup. Got another 2 collared short-sleeved shirts, one that's a sort of tan/black paisley that's silk or synthetic that will go well with jeans or khakis, or khaki cargoes, for church or being slightly dressy. The other is a cotton plaid that's more casual. Both are sorta "camp shirt"/"bowling shirt"/Havana style shirts, flat-lying collars and square-cut hems meant to be left untucked. The collared shirts were $4 each. Woo-hoo, fashion bonanza!
Stopped out west of town at Casa Krashpad because I'd forgotten to load up my acoustics earlier in the afternoon, and then immediately turned around and went back into town for the CHill practice at our keyboardist's house at 6 pm. Our usual singer is bailing on us for our upcoming gig (or possibly permanently, it's not really clear), a benefit tonight (Monday) for a local preschool that our keyboardist's kids go/have gone to. We did this last year too. Basically we play a set, they feed us and have an auction to benefit the school, then we play a closing set.
Practice went fine, our other guitarist is going to sing lead for this gig. Our bassist showed for this one, so it was the keys player, the other guitarist, me (acoustic 6 and 12-string and mandolin for this show), and our bassist. Our percussionist didn't show but reportedly will be there tonight. One of the songs we're covering (we added a ton of material given the switch in singers) is Michael Franti's "Say Hey" which is very rhythmic and almost a fast reggae, which was a little tough without drums so I used my 12-string as a drum and just beat the rhythm on the guitar with my hands, which worked surprisingly well. Practiced for a little while, then they fed us (I think of CHill practices there as more like dinner parties, as other non-band people come, we sorta sing for our supper, haha), then practiced some more. Got home tennish.
Sunday I went in for the late service as usual. The lady who wrote 2 originals we're doing at Praise In The Field was visiting town (she's going to the concert on this coming Saturday too), so we played one of hers for pre-service. Got lost momentarily during an unimportant part but quickly covered, and hopefully erased any memory of that by the solo, which was one of my better goes (they're different every time for that song), if I do say so myself. Did 3 songs in service, first on mandolin and the others on electric, though no solos on those. Did a massive pick slide on the start of each chorus of one of them though, and actually sang a bit (there's a melody counter-melody part that our grrl backing vocalist's voice isn't loud enough to cope with alone when the lead singer goes to the counter-melody) on the last one.
Back at Casa Krashpad did some minor cleanup, put away three guitars that'd been sitting out (albeit cased) in the family room for the longest time, took out the garbage for today's pickup, and replaced some vinyl siding on the back of the garage that'd come down in a storm (the siding sorta snaps together like Legos or something, no tools involved, but it did require a ladder and some effort to get it back on the house). After recovering a bit in the A/C inside (it was in the high 80's F), played ball with my son for awhile, he's become interested in lacrosse so he got his stick out and we played catch. He wants me to get stick too but I'm not too sure about that.
Made some "sausage burgers" on our fire pit/grill on the patio for dinner, and had some of the best sweet potatoes evah (cooked in the oven and with just butter, salt, and pepper) and some salad. A nice meal to end a good low-key weekend, even if my daughter and her friend got to the ice cream and finished it off before I got any.
Such is life with teens.
deeaa
Well-known member
AMAZING how the snow's melting, at a pace of like 4 feet a week or so. Now it's up to +10 C already and sun is shining.
I shot one of my handlebar cam shots today; it's my way from work to home (well to within 500 yards of it till the vid stops=
I shot one of my handlebar cam shots today; it's my way from work to home (well to within 500 yards of it till the vid stops=
Tig
Valar Morghulis
Nice to see you riding up the hills that others were pushing their bikes on. Yes!
Brian Krashpad
Well-known member
Still looks like a lot of snow to this Florida boy!
Friday: Six p.m. "dress rehearsal" in church Fellowship Hall (to be able to use acoustic drums) with actual stage rigs for "Praise In the Field Ecumenical Concert" we were scheduled to open on Saturday. I tied my all-time record, went through 3 guitars in a single-set practice. First, broke a string on the Les Paul, then managed to pull out a strap pin on the Jet Star (which I managed to catch before she hit the floor), ended up on the WildKat.
Came home to a PO'd Mrs. Krashpad, as I mis-estimated the rehearsal's total time by about an hour. Sigh. At least we sounded good in practice.
Saturday: woke up and checked e-mail and such, ate a bit, replaced string on Les Paul and repaired Jet Star strap pin. Got to load-in downtown at about 10:30 a.m. for the noon show. Went on on schedule; except for windy conditions onstage (which blew over our music stands until we duct-taped them down, but at least kept us comfortable) we had a great set. I was a little nervous about doing backing vocals in a non-bar-band context, but Mrs. K said the mix was good so I wasn't too loud. Also, my two "big solos" were on some originals we do on songs written by a family friend of our lead singer, and the composer came all the way from Alabama to visit them for the week and see us play, so I didn't want to do a lousy job with her watching, but luckily both came off pretty much without a hitch. Some pics:
L-R: BK (elec. gtr., backing vox), Garrett (acoustic gtr., lead vox), Jarah (backing vox), Travis (in back, drums), Logan (seated in front, ukelele), Julie (bass), Martin (keys)
After our set me and Mrs. K. and a friend from church and his high-school age daughter went to lunch at a nice downtown place; when we got back the band after us that I lent my music stand with had left, apparently taking it with them. Will track that down this week. Mrs. K went home but I stayed to hear several more of the bands, got back to Casa Krashpad about 5:30. Mrs. K went to dinner/movie at a friends with several of her teaching buddies, I stayed home and leaned on the middle-schooler to do his homework, and unstopped the upstairs bathroom sink (finally!).
Sunday: played hooky from church and did laundry washing/folding all day, with some more homework oversight/whip cracking of the middle schooler.
Friday: Six p.m. "dress rehearsal" in church Fellowship Hall (to be able to use acoustic drums) with actual stage rigs for "Praise In the Field Ecumenical Concert" we were scheduled to open on Saturday. I tied my all-time record, went through 3 guitars in a single-set practice. First, broke a string on the Les Paul, then managed to pull out a strap pin on the Jet Star (which I managed to catch before she hit the floor), ended up on the WildKat.
Came home to a PO'd Mrs. Krashpad, as I mis-estimated the rehearsal's total time by about an hour. Sigh. At least we sounded good in practice.
Saturday: woke up and checked e-mail and such, ate a bit, replaced string on Les Paul and repaired Jet Star strap pin. Got to load-in downtown at about 10:30 a.m. for the noon show. Went on on schedule; except for windy conditions onstage (which blew over our music stands until we duct-taped them down, but at least kept us comfortable) we had a great set. I was a little nervous about doing backing vocals in a non-bar-band context, but Mrs. K said the mix was good so I wasn't too loud. Also, my two "big solos" were on some originals we do on songs written by a family friend of our lead singer, and the composer came all the way from Alabama to visit them for the week and see us play, so I didn't want to do a lousy job with her watching, but luckily both came off pretty much without a hitch. Some pics:
L-R: BK (elec. gtr., backing vox), Garrett (acoustic gtr., lead vox), Jarah (backing vox), Travis (in back, drums), Logan (seated in front, ukelele), Julie (bass), Martin (keys)
After our set me and Mrs. K. and a friend from church and his high-school age daughter went to lunch at a nice downtown place; when we got back the band after us that I lent my music stand with had left, apparently taking it with them. Will track that down this week. Mrs. K went home but I stayed to hear several more of the bands, got back to Casa Krashpad about 5:30. Mrs. K went to dinner/movie at a friends with several of her teaching buddies, I stayed home and leaned on the middle-schooler to do his homework, and unstopped the upstairs bathroom sink (finally!).
Sunday: played hooky from church and did laundry washing/folding all day, with some more homework oversight/whip cracking of the middle schooler.
Eric
Well-known member
Friday: Had a couple of my former church-bandmates over for some pizza we made and to hang out and watch The Big Lebowski with my wife and me. After the movie, we ended up playing Halo for a while -- they were both much better than my wife at it.
Saturday: Went into work for about 5 hours (blech). After that I met a guy I know to sell him my old Crate SS amp and Boss ME-50 -- I've been trying to clear out some items that I don't use much. Came home and did the responsible things like folding laundry, washing dishes, etc. My wife had been doing some work in the bathroom, so I helped her clean up from that. Went to an egg-dying party that night, where we also watched The Sound of Music.
Sunday: I had to work again, so went in until about 1:00, then home. Helped my wife finish up some painting on the porch, mowed the lawn for the first time this year, and did some other household chores. Went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant for dinner.
I now need a good nap after that weekend. It's good to be done with so many projects and to have seen a lot of people, but man...I feel drained.
Saturday: Went into work for about 5 hours (blech). After that I met a guy I know to sell him my old Crate SS amp and Boss ME-50 -- I've been trying to clear out some items that I don't use much. Came home and did the responsible things like folding laundry, washing dishes, etc. My wife had been doing some work in the bathroom, so I helped her clean up from that. Went to an egg-dying party that night, where we also watched The Sound of Music.
Sunday: I had to work again, so went in until about 1:00, then home. Helped my wife finish up some painting on the porch, mowed the lawn for the first time this year, and did some other household chores. Went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant for dinner.
I now need a good nap after that weekend. It's good to be done with so many projects and to have seen a lot of people, but man...I feel drained.
Brian Krashpad
Well-known member
Haha. Eric, the juxtaposition of having friends from church band over for The Big Lebowski, which may've set a record for f-bombs in a single film, cracks me up. By weird coincidence, I watched it myself on netflix on Sunday doing laundry!
Here's a couple pics that just popped up on facebook, taken by my friend Bruce. This first one is really good of my guitars and rig. On the left is my little Fender Super Champ XD, which is lined out to my '60's Sunn 200S cab and DIY Celestion 2x12 cab (can be seen partially, to the right behind me), with the Sunn rig mic'd:
Chugging along, really "good" pic of the lymphedema on my neck-- that's what happens when you lose 20 lymph nodes on one side of your neck.
Here's a couple pics that just popped up on facebook, taken by my friend Bruce. This first one is really good of my guitars and rig. On the left is my little Fender Super Champ XD, which is lined out to my '60's Sunn 200S cab and DIY Celestion 2x12 cab (can be seen partially, to the right behind me), with the Sunn rig mic'd:
Chugging along, really "good" pic of the lymphedema on my neck-- that's what happens when you lose 20 lymph nodes on one side of your neck.
street music
Well-known member
Brian , love the shirt you have on, that is one of my favorites. Good to see you out enjoying the ability to play with your band. I just sat at home for awhile on Saturday and played with my guitars on a few songs then worked some on man cave, getting it ready for that next GUITAR , took the wife out eat on Sunday and had a nice drive while listening to a cd my best friend just recorded last week, came back and played my Takamine for about an hour
Brian Krashpad
Well-known member
Thanks man! I picked it up at Goodwill for $2.50!
Win-win.
Win-win.
deeaa
Well-known member
Here's my condensed Easter weekend in video form.
I had about an hour of family vids from the weekend, I just picked the 'scenery' parts only for this ~4 minute video.
If anything, it shows how the snow is going FAST now. At first we drive to our cottage but can't get to the yard with the car & there's some snowbanks still. Then we drive to Ostrobothnia to see granny, and her yard is devoid of snow already.
Then we drive around Ostrobothia for a while; sceneries from the very countryside heart of Finland; that's what it looks like everywhere. Except more hills usually
My wife's from there. It's very flat country, old sea bottom area from 10,000 years back or so, but there was mininal flooding. Then back to the cottage and in two nights the driveway had melted completely and even the ice from the lake was nearly gone. Temps were already up to +20 in the sun too!
BTW also at our cottage there used to be over 100 yards deep a lake some 20k years back.
It's rendered to 720x so turn the HD mode on!
I had about an hour of family vids from the weekend, I just picked the 'scenery' parts only for this ~4 minute video.
If anything, it shows how the snow is going FAST now. At first we drive to our cottage but can't get to the yard with the car & there's some snowbanks still. Then we drive to Ostrobothnia to see granny, and her yard is devoid of snow already.
Then we drive around Ostrobothia for a while; sceneries from the very countryside heart of Finland; that's what it looks like everywhere. Except more hills usually
My wife's from there. It's very flat country, old sea bottom area from 10,000 years back or so, but there was mininal flooding. Then back to the cottage and in two nights the driveway had melted completely and even the ice from the lake was nearly gone. Temps were already up to +20 in the sun too!BTW also at our cottage there used to be over 100 yards deep a lake some 20k years back.
It's rendered to 720x so turn the HD mode on!
sunvalleylaw
Contributing Member
You are looking around the same as us, except we are a couple weeks ahead in terms of snow. More almost like at your grannys. Just 12 miles north and up a few hundred feet, there is plenty of snow on Baldy though. We had Easter festivities, and then skied the last day of the year. Sun, snow, and craziness!
deeaa
Well-known member
Oh yeah! When I used to ski much more - in highschool that is - a few times we went to Lapland to ski @ easter...superb time, scorching sun so you could almost ski in a T-shirt, yet plenty of good snow still. And man, they have crazy parties in those after-ski restaurants around Easter
Eric
Well-known member
Friday: Came home early, got some indian take-out, and moved some stuff for the carpet cleaners the next day.
Saturday: Carpet cleaners came and did their thing mid-morning. Went for a run -- the final training run before the Broad Street Run next week -- and surprisingly didn't die, even though my wife and I are woefully undertrained. Futzed around at home and eventually went out to eat with a friend that night.
Sunday: Went to church at my old church and saw some friends there. Trucked down to Delaware for Easter with some of my in-laws' family friends. Left there, came home, sold a couple of items via CL, recorded an acoustic rhythm track for a song I'm working on. Discovered that one of our cats might have the crystals in his bladder, which can be super-bad news. He's easily the best cat I've ever had, so this could be dire news. I'm going to schedule a vet appt as soon as they open today, so I hope it can be corrected. It sounds like it's usually controlled with diet.
So that's that. I could have used another day or so of weekend.
Saturday: Carpet cleaners came and did their thing mid-morning. Went for a run -- the final training run before the Broad Street Run next week -- and surprisingly didn't die, even though my wife and I are woefully undertrained. Futzed around at home and eventually went out to eat with a friend that night.
Sunday: Went to church at my old church and saw some friends there. Trucked down to Delaware for Easter with some of my in-laws' family friends. Left there, came home, sold a couple of items via CL, recorded an acoustic rhythm track for a song I'm working on. Discovered that one of our cats might have the crystals in his bladder, which can be super-bad news. He's easily the best cat I've ever had, so this could be dire news. I'm going to schedule a vet appt as soon as they open today, so I hope it can be corrected. It sounds like it's usually controlled with diet.
So that's that. I could have used another day or so of weekend.
Brian Krashpad
Well-known member
Kinda a rough weekend. Last week, out of the blue my wife found out that, no doubt as a result of "budget" pressure from our right-controlled legislature (I won't say any more, I promise), her teaching position and the Adult Ed. ESL (English as a Second Language) program it's a part of was gone and that she'd been "reassigned" to some high school. Both as to the program and her assignment, absolutely zero input was sought from any of the stakeholder students or teachers. Totally top-down axe with no warning.
The sad part of it is, Adult Ed. ESL actually paid for itself and brought in a profit for the school board (there is no school bus transport, or books, or building maintenance cost for the program, which is taught in borrowed UF meeting rooms to students who buy their own books, by teachers who do all of their grading and administrative paperwork from home). So eliminating the program was economically unnecessary, and even counterproductive from a purely monetary standpoint.
My wife has taught in that position for 21 years. As you might expect, she's devastated, and despite all the crowing we hear about "requiring" people in the USA to learn our "official language" of English, doing so for people without a lot of money just got next to impossible in our county.
We're working on what Kim's options are now. She's 6 or 7 years from earliest retirement, and cannot afford to quit. From what I've seen so far, her purported unilateral "reassignment" was probably illegal (in violation of the teacher's labor agreement), but that doesn't bring her old job back.
Saturday-- For me was mainly centered on son's lacrosse activities. Played one game with his team in the early afternoon, they got in a big hole 4-0 and played back to a 3-4 loss. I really wanted them to win as some of the parents on the opposing side were obnoxiously of the "jock" mentality-- dads who were not coaches yelling at players (not their sons) what to do on the field, etc. Ugh. Since this was the first time our Jack had set foot on a lacrosse field, he didn't get much playing time.
It was announced that players could come back later to form a pickup team so that one late-scheduling team would have someone to play against. So we went home for an hour or so between games and cooled off, and he went back and played almost all of the last game, as there were very few subs for the pickup team.
In return for doing the other team (which had 3 or 4 times as many subs) the favor of giving them a game, the other team responded by pouring on points, which in itself is fine, kids can't be asked to not score, but also by a good deal of showboating and grandstanding. Wtf is WRONG with people nowadays? No good deed goes unpunished, I suppose. Fortunately our Jack is thick-skinned when it comes to boorish and unsportsmanlike behavior, and was just glad to get a lot of playing time in. He also got his first red badge of courage, stepped in front of a shot on goal that hit him near his right knee, and he had to be subbed out for a spell. He's a pretty tough kid.
Sunday: skipped playing the "sunrise" service at my church and went to the 9 a.m. service at a closer church on our side of town, as we had plans for the day that going to our church's service would've made difficult. They have an all-contemporary service which Kim (and I) really enjoy. Afterward, we drove over to St. Augustine and had Easter lunch at 1:30 or so in a rather expensive Spanish/Cuban themed restaurant on St. George Street (the blocked-off pedestrian-only street in the old town with many historic buildings on it). Food was good but a smidge disappointing for what we paid (about double what we spend to eat in our favorite family-owned Mexican restaurant at home).
After that we went to our favorite beach at Anastasia. Water temp was a chilly 68F, so we just sat in the sun and enjoyed the cool sea breeze while Jack did some boogie boarding. Got home 7:30 or so, I went and got some pizza, and crashed early. It was a good mini-vacation to let Kim chill out, although by Sunday night she was back to being in tears again. So it goes.
The sad part of it is, Adult Ed. ESL actually paid for itself and brought in a profit for the school board (there is no school bus transport, or books, or building maintenance cost for the program, which is taught in borrowed UF meeting rooms to students who buy their own books, by teachers who do all of their grading and administrative paperwork from home). So eliminating the program was economically unnecessary, and even counterproductive from a purely monetary standpoint.
My wife has taught in that position for 21 years. As you might expect, she's devastated, and despite all the crowing we hear about "requiring" people in the USA to learn our "official language" of English, doing so for people without a lot of money just got next to impossible in our county.
We're working on what Kim's options are now. She's 6 or 7 years from earliest retirement, and cannot afford to quit. From what I've seen so far, her purported unilateral "reassignment" was probably illegal (in violation of the teacher's labor agreement), but that doesn't bring her old job back.
Saturday-- For me was mainly centered on son's lacrosse activities. Played one game with his team in the early afternoon, they got in a big hole 4-0 and played back to a 3-4 loss. I really wanted them to win as some of the parents on the opposing side were obnoxiously of the "jock" mentality-- dads who were not coaches yelling at players (not their sons) what to do on the field, etc. Ugh. Since this was the first time our Jack had set foot on a lacrosse field, he didn't get much playing time.
It was announced that players could come back later to form a pickup team so that one late-scheduling team would have someone to play against. So we went home for an hour or so between games and cooled off, and he went back and played almost all of the last game, as there were very few subs for the pickup team.
In return for doing the other team (which had 3 or 4 times as many subs) the favor of giving them a game, the other team responded by pouring on points, which in itself is fine, kids can't be asked to not score, but also by a good deal of showboating and grandstanding. Wtf is WRONG with people nowadays? No good deed goes unpunished, I suppose. Fortunately our Jack is thick-skinned when it comes to boorish and unsportsmanlike behavior, and was just glad to get a lot of playing time in. He also got his first red badge of courage, stepped in front of a shot on goal that hit him near his right knee, and he had to be subbed out for a spell. He's a pretty tough kid.
Sunday: skipped playing the "sunrise" service at my church and went to the 9 a.m. service at a closer church on our side of town, as we had plans for the day that going to our church's service would've made difficult. They have an all-contemporary service which Kim (and I) really enjoy. Afterward, we drove over to St. Augustine and had Easter lunch at 1:30 or so in a rather expensive Spanish/Cuban themed restaurant on St. George Street (the blocked-off pedestrian-only street in the old town with many historic buildings on it). Food was good but a smidge disappointing for what we paid (about double what we spend to eat in our favorite family-owned Mexican restaurant at home).
After that we went to our favorite beach at Anastasia. Water temp was a chilly 68F, so we just sat in the sun and enjoyed the cool sea breeze while Jack did some boogie boarding. Got home 7:30 or so, I went and got some pizza, and crashed early. It was a good mini-vacation to let Kim chill out, although by Sunday night she was back to being in tears again. So it goes.
sunvalleylaw
Contributing Member
Friday, meant to get out for a work break and ski, but stuck in the office all day. Mellow night at home. A little guitar, a little forum time, then bed.
Saturday, drive to Boise for soccer league play for my two boys. 2.25 hour drive each way. Spring, snow melting, willows starting to look bright as they get ready to bud. Good games. Younger son tied one, won one, and cinched the title for U11. Other son's team fought hard but lost two. He is U13, and the play has gotten a lot rougher at that age group, plus most of those Boise kids keep playing most of the year, whilst ours go skiing and such. Still a good effort though. Drive home was also beautiful with many deer, elk and antelope. (feeding time). Drove carefully so as not to hit one. Wife and I got Easter ready, and talked about our aging/ailing parents til midnight. Then to bed.
Easter Sunday, baskets, candy, egg hunt. Then off to ski SV's final day of ops for the year. The whole family can ski together now with not too big a speed split, at least if we are on the groomers or not too gnarly runs. Sun, warmth, spring corn snow, and lots of crazies to look at. Favorite costume, snowboarder dressed like a green plastic army man with his green snowboard serving as the plastic base. LOL!! Toy Story 4 I guess.
EDIT: BK, sorry for your wife's work stuff. I hope it shakes out ok.
Saturday, drive to Boise for soccer league play for my two boys. 2.25 hour drive each way. Spring, snow melting, willows starting to look bright as they get ready to bud. Good games. Younger son tied one, won one, and cinched the title for U11. Other son's team fought hard but lost two. He is U13, and the play has gotten a lot rougher at that age group, plus most of those Boise kids keep playing most of the year, whilst ours go skiing and such. Still a good effort though. Drive home was also beautiful with many deer, elk and antelope. (feeding time). Drove carefully so as not to hit one. Wife and I got Easter ready, and talked about our aging/ailing parents til midnight. Then to bed.
Easter Sunday, baskets, candy, egg hunt. Then off to ski SV's final day of ops for the year. The whole family can ski together now with not too big a speed split, at least if we are on the groomers or not too gnarly runs. Sun, warmth, spring corn snow, and lots of crazies to look at. Favorite costume, snowboarder dressed like a green plastic army man with his green snowboard serving as the plastic base. LOL!! Toy Story 4 I guess.
EDIT: BK, sorry for your wife's work stuff. I hope it shakes out ok.
Eric
Well-known member
Yikes. Sorry to hear the bad news, B. Hopefully she takes a liking to her new position after she gets over the sting of the loss. At least she's not without any job -- that's not exactly a gimme these days.
deeaa
Well-known member
Aww, Brian, that really sucks about your wife's job. As you might remember, I'm an English teacher as well...I once worked at the same school for over 3 years and by law they should have just made it a tenure at that point; instead they kicked out ALL the teachers w/out tenure...and just hired new people, most of them straight to tenures. It was illegal, I would have probably gotten something out of it, but the bastards stretched it out for so long it was holidays for all officials when I learned of it - so I could get no union guys on the line and had to decide by myself whether to start some action. I didn't, they are the biggest employer of that kind round here and they made it pretty clear I might run into big trouble getting a job from them if I raised hell. Off the record, of course and not in so many words.
Well since I didn't raise hell I worked for them for another 2 years in the next building/area before that dwindled...so maybe it was best anyway. Took me years to land a proper job that I now have and that I can pretty much rely on 99% that it'll be the one I retire from too, unless something VERY extreme happens, I dunno, war or something of that magnitude.
Anyway...so I know a little how it feels, despite I only worked there for a few years...it really sucked so bad, it felt like such a low blow I had trouble thinking straight for many days after that and felt like I had trouble simply breathing normally for weeks; it sure came as a terrible shock out of the blue as I had had great student response, was putting together a book to use in teaching, and all that, plus I was just becoming a father and my wife had no job and we'd just bought a house...so yeah, I had all kinds of horror images of what could happen if I didn't get a job soon.
So, I really feel for her, yeah indeed...I hope there's a little solace in that it wasn't personal or local politics or any 'evil' idea of any bosses, but came from way up high.
Well since I didn't raise hell I worked for them for another 2 years in the next building/area before that dwindled...so maybe it was best anyway. Took me years to land a proper job that I now have and that I can pretty much rely on 99% that it'll be the one I retire from too, unless something VERY extreme happens, I dunno, war or something of that magnitude.
Anyway...so I know a little how it feels, despite I only worked there for a few years...it really sucked so bad, it felt like such a low blow I had trouble thinking straight for many days after that and felt like I had trouble simply breathing normally for weeks; it sure came as a terrible shock out of the blue as I had had great student response, was putting together a book to use in teaching, and all that, plus I was just becoming a father and my wife had no job and we'd just bought a house...so yeah, I had all kinds of horror images of what could happen if I didn't get a job soon.
So, I really feel for her, yeah indeed...I hope there's a little solace in that it wasn't personal or local politics or any 'evil' idea of any bosses, but came from way up high.
Brian Krashpad
Well-known member
Thanks guys. As Eric points out, at least she has A job. Of some sort. She will talk to the union and unless we're both totally misreading the collective bargaining agreement, a grievance will be filed. Her "reassignment" should be according to a "reduction in force" provision whereby she should have the right to stay in Adult Ed. and be first in line for any such openings (including her old job should the program be reinstated), not simply unilaterally reassigned as if the county had merely thought she'd be better somewhere else. A high school English classroom is the last place she wants to be, for many reasons.
Duffy
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Dee, I'm a teacher as well, but retired now.
You really told it like it is and it is the same way here. You have a great way of connecting with people. I could completely understand what you went thru and I also wish Krash and especially his wife the best during this definitely very difficult time. I know the feeling. It is almost like your bubble was popped and there you are suddenly naked and powerless in the face of a system that seems like it took its lessons from some crime family. I'm sure she finds some solace in knowing she "has" a job, as shocking as it has been.
You really told it like it is and it is the same way here. You have a great way of connecting with people. I could completely understand what you went thru and I also wish Krash and especially his wife the best during this definitely very difficult time. I know the feeling. It is almost like your bubble was popped and there you are suddenly naked and powerless in the face of a system that seems like it took its lessons from some crime family. I'm sure she finds some solace in knowing she "has" a job, as shocking as it has been.
Katastrophe
Well-known member
Dude, that well and truly sucks. Best wishes for Mrs. Krashpad, and I hope the county settles the issue equitably. That's the thing about a collective bargaining agreement... They're kinda hard to ignore... but, folks sometime will still try to do an end run around them.
I also didn't know Mrs. K was a teacher. Now I'm gonna be worried that she'll start grading our grammar to get out the frustration over the job change. :facepalm
My weekend ended this morning after getting in from work. School and work are starting to take their toll. Don't get me wrong, I still love my job, but miss doing family stuff on the weekends. Mrs. Kat is getting tired, too.
Time to build up some vacation time, take the weekend off, ship Baby Kat to her aunt's for the weekend, and take a break!
Tig
Valar Morghulis
I guess "A half of a loaf is better than no loaf at all" applies here. I hope things settle down and she gets back to teaching her specialty.
Our district is allowing the usual Summer attrition to thin out the budget, as well as some re-assignments. Layoffs should be at a minimum. We'll see.
Our district is allowing the usual Summer attrition to thin out the budget, as well as some re-assignments. Layoffs should be at a minimum. We'll see.
Tig
Valar Morghulis
Got to work from home Saturday evening/Sunday morning vai VPN.
Easter was nice, having the grand kids over to hunt eggs (after I removed the doggy brown "eggs" with a shovel).
The twins
The granddaughter
Easter was nice, having the grand kids over to hunt eggs (after I removed the doggy brown "eggs" with a shovel).
The twins
The granddaughter
Childbride
Well-known member
Brian, I am sorry to hear about your wife's job. That stinks.
Spent weekend w byproxy; got fitted for new masks in h-town
Went to Rockin' Robin. Thanks, Tig, that was cool. I behaved myself. I need not acquire another axe yet. I have to be good.
Spent weekend w byproxy; got fitted for new masks in h-town
Went to Rockin' Robin. Thanks, Tig, that was cool. I behaved myself. I need not acquire another axe yet. I have to be good.
Brian Krashpad
Well-known member
Thanks folks.
Tig those kids are too cute!
Cb, I have no idea what your second sentence means?
Tig those kids are too cute!
Cb, I have no idea what your second sentence means?
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