Click images for desktop size: "Faust And Marguerite In The Garden" by Unknown It was a good weekend.
The weather was the first spring I've actually experienced. Like a sweet autumn day only in reverse.
Warm enough to feel the sun but cool enough to wear a flannel shirt and feel comfortable. I like it like that.
We did a lot.
Started by trucking all the bags of killer leaves (that the garbage men wouldn't take!) down to the dump. That promised to be interesting but was mostly dull, except the rules were that the leaves had to come out of the bags, which meant, of course, that even through my glasses I got a right eyeful of debris.
It was alright though. I managed to blink and tear it out. (That's tear as in crying not tear as in paper.) It was fine after that. A good omen, I think, one that bore out.
We stopped and had a breakfast. I like restaurant breakfasts. I had an Ultimate Omelet, rye toast and coffee. It wasn't very good but I liked eating something named ULTIMATE! The coffee was typical greasy spoon style. There has to be a secret to making coffee bitter, strong and watery all at the same time!
We went to the hardware store and got the bolts and washers needed to fix the gate. It was fun pretending to be all manly and fingering bits of sharp and shiny metal.
Then, on impulse we stopped at a guitar shop!
The only discouraging thing saw this weekend was that the shop had 4 "Guitar Hero" axes prominently displayed. The prices shocked me.
I must still look like a guitar player because the kid started apologizing for having the things in his shop. He also pointed out that he always tried to tell the kids that they could buy a real guitar for less than the fancy "Guitar Hero" things.
It wasn't a good shop. Mostly Mexican and Japanese Fenders, a couple of Jackson's and Ibanez's. Pretty -eh- stuff. No great effects racks and just a couple of peavy amps. A decent enough starting out shop.
We ploughed through to the Acoustic Room. Nothing special there either. I still hate Fender Acoustics, which they had plenty of.
There were a couple of mediocre Guilds and some Hagstrom's which I also think are pretty toneless and unplayable. I was surprised there weren't any used guitars hanging up there.
The big deal is that I actually played over a dozen of them!
I was terrible. I tried some easy 3/4 time fingerpicking routines, a few scales and a few Randy Rhodes riffs. Every thing at about 20% of the correct time.
My hands hurt like hell. I just kept flexing them and noodling about. Without thinking I tuned a couple of the guitars so my worthless noodling would sound . . . less worthless.
All the guitars were strung with 8's so I could still do 4 fret bends and a wicked butterfly vibrato.
Click images for desktop size: "Boat" by Anonymous The only downside to that was deadly pain in my left hand and killer cramps in my right. I just flexed them and kept embarrassing myself. I was having fun and didn't care.
The crazy part was the guitar I liked the best was this creepy plastic Gretsch. It was strung with 6's!! It was a funny looking thing. Lots of plastic and the entire thing was coated with a layer of flat black plastic and had this bizarre Cowboy style mural painted on the face with the slogan "Go West" emblazoned on it.
The box . . . that's right it came in a card board box had the legend, "Make REAL Guitar Noises!" I have to admit, this increased its appeal. It was $150, which I think is about twice what it should cost. Sick thing was it had better tone than anything except the 700 buck flaming maple Guild! It was dead playable, no fret burr. The tuning gears looked wonky but it didn't lose tune while I was bashing it . . .
I wouldn't buy any of those but it gets me back to wanting to have a guitar to bash around. I'll need to find something in a pawn shop or yard sale. Guitars have gotten to expensive to just have lying around. They need to be money makers or they're too close to masturbation for me to feel comfortable.
After we, regretfully, left the guitar shop we did some light grocery shopping. Having a good friend with you makes even the mundane seem fun and exciting.
We went to the Bulk Store and got peanuts. Looked into a Baskin Robbins and got freaked by the prices. The went to Salvation Army store where I nearly found a air pump. Good pump but no attachments or any easy way to make the attachments to make it work on car or bike tires. No wonder it was donated.
My friend has a few hundred books to get rid of. Now we have a place to donate them. I figure they'll sell them quickly. Too bad no dog charities have used book stores.
That evening we fixed the gate. The dogs will be incredibly sad about not being able to make any more mass escapes! My friend did most of the power tool work. She was good at it. I wanted to do all the power tool stuff but got the feeling I wasn't trusted with my hands and health and eyes.
I got to use my wrenches which is almost as good. The bolt was a half inch too long. I couldn't find the locking lockers I wanted so I get to turn the repair into a major project. I always like that!
Sunday I continued cleaning up the yard.
Click images for desktop size: "Fill 'er Up" by Uncle Grumpy Its going to be a massive job, but plenty fun when you have dogs helping you and good tunes on the iPod. Dance a little, pick up a little. Its alright.
Then we took the dogs to the dog park. Its a pretty nice location even if the dog park itself is a bit barren. I threw the ball for this lab mix puppy. My guys had no interest in chasing balls.
They behaved well. Its been a long time since I'm seen my little blind dog smiling and so happy. He had to stay on lead but still managed to smell a couple of doggie butts, which pleased him.
My puppy was alright. She still frets and isn't fond of people being around me. But even she went off by herself a little bit.
The big surprise was that my manic cowardly giant dog was well behaved. Talked to a couple of strange dogs all by himself and actually came when he was called!
It was the only time this weekend that I lost my sight.
I spoke a bit to my new neighbors. I wasn't impressed but they seem to be making a effort to be neighborly. At least they asked if it was okay to give my guys treats. I explained that my little blind dog has too many allergies. They were surprised he was blind until they looked a bit more closely.
We have some other new neighbors on the other side. They've got three little Scottie mixes. Those three and mine were mixing it up all day. Having a great time yelling at each other and urinating on the fence at each other. Their owner decided to come out late in the day and reached over the fence to try and pet my puppy. She reacted with a fury I wasn't expecting. If the boob had persisted I think she would have harmed him. She's a girl who protects her yard!
The good part is that the second I called for her she gave up her attack and trotted calmly up the hill to me, all smiles and happy.
I trust her judgment about people.
So I think with gas circling five bucks a gallon we had more fun than any right thinking man could expect this weekend. Even if we didn't find any live dinosaurs or dig up any buried treasures.