Did I mention I hate Mondays?

346

347

348

349

350

I love Mondays, Mondays is the very best day of the week. That is if your still a working man like me. There is so much potential for accomplishment on a Monday, Friday, well on Friday it's over and you stop making money and start spending it for a couple days. I enjoy reminding folks, without Monday (a symbolic day for the beginning of the work week), there's no payday......

351

Agreed Hedgehog, but I do so enjoy NOT working and spending the hard earned fruits of my labor!

352

353

Looks like activity has picked up a bit on this site. Good. I like it here. Everyone have a drink on me!

354, 355, 356

357, 358, 359

360

Thanks for the round, Ant.  *hic*

I have stopped progress for a little while and am simply going back through my catalog.  Anyone else every do that?

362

363

Your secret is safe with me mandolin boy!

TSSN, if you mean going back and covering songs/scales/chords you learned before, then yes, absolutely. I do it all the time. I tend to forget things if I don't use them often so I'm constantly trying to re-hash scales and such.

364

365

367

366

Love getting new instruments!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Keep on Pickin'

370

Ant:  No, like when you stop working on something new, and just go back through your mental (or written?) catalog of songs you know (or used to know).  I am doing scales and chords all the time, though a new song with a funky chord always helps me learn that better.  I try to work on something new all the time.  Lately, I have been revisiting known stuff, largely at the expense of the new....

371

372

I've probably forgotten more fiddle tunes than I know---or I'll start with the A part of one and find myself playing the B part of another. Every so often I go back to my old lists and try and dust them off. Unfortunately I'm not very organized when it comes to that. Song lists with the names,no lyrics, or instrumental pieces without charts or tab. Some are just lost, I have the name but just can't remember the tune. That's too bad in some cases. I had a period of time when Franklin George was my neighbor and we would get together regularly, particularly on a Saturday night when we would go to this place and eat fried chicken and play music. He is an encyclopedia of obscure old tunes, many of which he showed me. Most of those were never written down. I had a girl friend back then that played, we had a little act and a lot of that we had worked into what we did and quite a bit of that got recorded and I will dig that stuff up from time to time. (Back in the 70's it was not an easy task to be able to record something, especially with any kind of sound quality. You had these little cassette recorders that were terrible and anything that could give you a decent quality recording was expensive and pretty rare,especially in the Appalachian mountains.) We had gotten a job working for the Natl' Park Service , they did these night time campfire things and we'd travel to different Parks and play traditional music for those,Nice little gig, crummy pay but they put you up nice and we were kind of kids,so it was way cool!. Someone at some point thought that maybe it was worth while getting that on audio tape and that's why it exists at all. I'll find a good one from time to time that I had forgotten about completely. When I do have that stuff written it's loose pieces of dogeared paper stuffed inside the piano seat or jammed into boxes. A lot of tunes have morphed, tunes that I still play I'll find some old recording of myself or find the original arrangement and realize that what I play now compared to where I started out are quite different. That's not necessarily a bad thing it's just a interesting thing that happens. I went through a heavy improv period and I do tend to not ever play anything exactly the same way anyway. I start out straight and then it goes where it goes and as long I don't make any terribly bad decisions on the way ( and if you do you can always get that little "There" look on your face as if you had totally intentionally planned to hit that clunker) if I arrive at the station at the right time and place I figure I'm good to go. Some
traditionalists can sometimes find objection in that and I try to keep a cap on it if I play with people like that now.

373

374

375

Happy Monday. I Hope everyone had a great weekend.

376

377

378

379

380

quote:

---

Originally posted by mandolin boy

Got me one of them fancy ivory bridge tops for my mando. Wonder how she will sound with that.

381

---

So, how does it sound?

382

I don't have it yet the fella I sent the money to had to wait to ship this sat. But I will let u no.

**************

Yes please do let us know.

Happy Friday Everyone!

384

385

386

387

388

389

390

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Lots of Basketball this time of year. College ball is my Favorite!

391

392

393

394

395

396

397

398

399

400

Hey, is there a way to get your kid off the computer and engaged in the life that's pass her by? I've got a 21 year old that does essentially nothing, but sleep, and play on the computer while she's still in bed. She thinks it's stupid to come to the table and eat with the family and while she had a free ride to college, she's one smart cookie, she has dropped most of her classes this semester and will have to make them up this summer, but she hasn't signed up for summer classes yet.......... discouraged doesn't even cover what I'm feeling right now.

401

It's a plague around here, it's called "marijuana" where I live in Northern California. I don't know what they call it in Arizona. Had(have?) one kid that has gone that route but I'm lucking out it seems. He did stay in college,not glorious marks but pulled it off and is now working and back at home and also doing classes. Good girl friends are a plus I've found. Keeps him away from the old buds that haven't gotten off the couch since high school. He cycles them through pretty quickly and goes for exotic. Last week there was this Indian girl and last night he showed up with this girl from Sweden. I think that as discouraged as you are there are lots of reasons for 20 somethings to be discouraged. So they go to college--what's that get them? Better lunchtime banter while they wait tables or park cars? All that for thousands of dollars --or 10's of thousands of dollars of school debt? My wife who is in the dental business was talking about a young dental student who has been spending time at the office. He'll will have over $300,000 in college debt by the time he's done. Add that to having to buy into a practice and he'll owe close to a million bucks before he gets paid to fill his first tooth--and he's considered one of the lucky ones!
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420 420! Hey. lets go out into the alley and light up a big one!

Hey there Hedgehog.  I'd say charge her rent.  I have a son who is also 21, and he decided last year that college wasn't for him.  I told him he could come back home, but he would pay me rent.  He had to get a job.

He said he would get a job and pay his own rent, thanks.  So he did.  Lives on his own.  But now he is also knee-deep in food service jobs, and some kind of miserable.  College looks really good to him now.  For the moment, he stays enrolled in the proverbial College of Hard Knocks.  It's as fascinating to watch as it is painful.

I wish you luck with your daughter.

421

422

What she needs to figure out is even if you having problems with finding ambition that there is always CREATIVE leisure. Learn an instrument and join a band or conversely join a band then learn the instrument. Crew on a boat and see the South Pacific, go to Mexico on Spring Break and forget to come back. I pretty much spent my 20's doing stuff like that. My eldest son kind of followed in my footsteps as far as that goes. He can't sit still and is always moving and doing something. Fix an ancient motorcycle and take a 2000 mile ride, hooked up with a semi famous girl from movie land for a couple of years and hung out with people that you read about in magazines-- at places like Sundance He ended up the only person that I know ,or know of that never went to college and became a school teacher. Now he's married,to an English girl and has a kid,lives in NY but they have a flat in Amsterdam and Summer in Europe. They're now talking about tossing in the towel and starting again in California. At first I thought. " Are they crazy?" Blowing off good jobs to do they know not what ,but then they've done it before and it worked. You have to figure out how to get the kid off the couch,most important, college not so important. I was having a conversation with a coach,just yesterday in fact. He said something interesting. " Boys need to play well to feel good about themselves--girls need to feel good about themselves to play."

424

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ben Venuti

.....go to Mexico on Spring Break and forget to come back.....

424

---

What!? No.......Mexico is a dangerous place these days. State Department says

"The travel warning includes a state-by-state assessment of 14 states throughout Mexico and provides further information about which areas of those states are most at risk for violence. The new warning expands upon a 10-state advisory released in April 2011.

"Gun battles between rival TCOs or with Mexican authorities have taken place in towns and cities in many parts of Mexico, especially in the border region," the travel warning reads. "Gun battles have occurred in broad daylight on streets and in other public venues, such as restaurants and clubs. During some of these incidents, U.S. citizens have been trapped and temporarily prevented from leaving the area."

anyhoo.....I gots a 22 year old sort of simular, He left on his own, then came back..He's paying rent (which I just save in a account that he can't access...he'll get it when he moves out)  But, yep, I made him get a job. It was either go to work or get out. I'm sure it's tougher when you got a daughter.

On the other hand I got a 17 year old who's doing aces in school and so far looks eager. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Kids...what are you going to do?  remember: We were all kinda' dumb at one point ourselves..so grit your teeth and hang in there.

425...426..