Made A Video And Rode A Kayak.

     It was a good weekend. I made a video, went kayaking, and started the process on something that could end very well. The first two I'll talk about, the last one though. Well, I'm keeping that a secret for now, but trust me, it's going to be good.

     I finally made the video that I've been thinking about for a week now. The thing that was holding me back, was that it didn't really fit in with what I've been doing on the YouTube channel. Then I remembered that the channel is just an extension of this blog, and in those contexts it fits in completely. I'll let the video explain everything rather than bore you with a synopsis of it then letting you watch it. Here it is.



     I hope you enjoyed it. After spending the entire rest of Friday evening editing and uploading that video to YouTube. I woke up early on Saturday to go kayaking. I didn't get the video posted until after midnight, so waking up was something that I really didn't want to do at 5 in the morning. I hit the snooze a few times, and finally got up. Made a quick breakfast and I was on my way.

     Traffic was terrible. It seemed like everyone that I ended up behind had to go 5 to 10 miles per hour under the speed limit. It delayed my by about 15 minutes overall. I was nearly late, when I left at a time that would get me there early. I met up with Elie Wolf ( wait, I thought you said you would never use people's names on here? I did say that, but Elie Wolf is not her real name, so it all works out. ) and we made the long drive to Dunnellon, Florida. That is where Rainbow River is. It is a spring fed river that we were hoping would have a lot of wildlife on it, so that Elie could get some great photos for her blog and Instagram. Well, there was plenty of wildlife on the water, it just wasn't the type we were hoping for. That picture to the right is only a very small example of what the river was like. There were hundreds if not thousands of people. There was no hope of getting any good wildlife photos, but we made the best of it.

     We had originally planned on going to the location that I had gone kayaking before, but when her friend invited more friends, it became an issue of ruining Elie's spot. If there were a bunch of noisy people paddling up the river, it would scare off all the gators and really anything else that we might have seen. Rainbow River was an entirely new location that none of us had ever been to, so we didn't know what to expect. When I found out that it was a cold spring that fed the river, I knew that gators were out of the question. They like warm water, but when we saw all the people, we knew it was going to be hard to find anything. We were lucky enough to see some Cormorants and Anhingas. Those are some widely common birds in Florida, and they stay near the water. We also saw a few turtles hanging around on downed trees. Here are the pictures I took along the river.

   





     It was a real fun thing. I learned a few things about rowing a kayak. The deeper you dig while paddling, the more work you do, and also the more correction you need to make. When you dig deep, you end up turning the kayak, rather than keeping a straight line. That led me to paddling more shallow, it worked out great. I could maintain an extended pace and keep the kayak straight. It did make it difficult when I picked up speed. With speed, turning quickly was not much of an option, so I still have a lot to learn about paddling a kayak. It's not the same as paddling a canoe. It takes more finesse. The more I do it, the better I'll get at it.

     We rented the kayaks from Rainbow River Canoe & Kayak. Everyone there was real helpful, and exceptionally nice. At the end of the day, when we went back in the office, the guy that I believe was the owner, gave us free waters to quench our thirst. He told us all about how that day was one of the busiest of the year, and how if we came back after October, we wouldn't have to contend with all the tube riders. The river only allows tubes to run for 6 months during the year, so it has potential to be a much quieter day on the river. I don't know if we will go back, but it's an option for another time.

     Before we left the area, we decided to stop and grab a bite to eat. We decided on the Blue Gator. It had a great name it claimed that they had vegetarian options. Elie is vegan so I always check those things when I choose a restaurant. She picked this one for the very same reason. We got there just as it began to rain. It had mostly outside seating, which is where we wanted to be anyway, but all the tables had been taken up, that were under a roof, so we ended up at the bar. Not to worry, I felt no pressure what so ever to have a drink. I got a Sprite and was very happy with it. We checked out the menu, and had a bit of a panic attack, well I did anyway. There was no vegetarian option, unless you count the House Salad, which you could add; chicken, shrimp, or grouper to. They did have a bunch of fried appetizers that were vegetable based, but no real option. Elie made do with tater tots and onion rings, which came in giant baskets. There was enough there for 4 people. I got a cheeseburger thinking that it was one of the healthiest things on the menu. I don't think I was wrong. The cheeseburger was good, and it did come with tomatoes, onions, pickles, and lettuce. Everything was fresh, and had a good taste. That was all I was hoping for. I helped Elie the best I could with her onion rings, but they did me in in the end. I was stuffed, and we still had more than half of each basket left. This was a definite day that we both failed our weight loss goals. Not to worry, we changed our entire ways of eating, so one day isn't a death sentence.

     Now for the matter of the video footage of the kayaking adventure. The footage I shot looks fantastic, but the audio is a complete disaster. I had to use a test mount for it, and the mic that is on the GoPro picked up everything directly behind it, which was the drawstring from my hat tapping against the base of the mount for the GoPro. I'm going to take a little time with it, and see what I can do with it. I may just strip all the audio off of it, and make a music type video from it. I will come up with something, and when I do, I'll share it with you, so keep an eye out for it.

     That is really all I have to say tonight. What's that? You want to know about that process I mentioned above? I can't help you with that. I want it to remain a surprise for you, also there a very good reason that I can't talk about it right now, and no I can't tell you the reason either. When I can talk about it, I will tell you everything. Trust me, you will understand then why I can't talk about it now. It will all make sense when you hear the whole story when I can tell it. Peace in and goodnight.

Let's Livin' This Up With A Little Disco.

     I had a half dozen things to talk about tonight, but I'm not sure which direction I want to go in. I know I want to talk about one thing, and that is the choices that the current administration in the White House are making. I know that I said I would try my very best to keep politics off of this blog, but sometimes you have to speak up. I know that a tweet isn't policy, and that the Joint Chiefs of Staff have come out and said that they will not change any policy until they are formally notified of a policy change, but the idea that someone who used bone spurs as a reason to get out of serving in the armed forces would tell someone else that they aren't worthy to serve is ridiculous. The reasons he gave for why he was going to ban transgendered people are the same reasons, that were argued for why; blacks couldn't be in the military, women couldn't be in the military, gays couldn't be in the military. Do you see where I'm going with this?

     The other reason was of course money. According to the DoD the reported cost of trans healthcare adds up to $8.4 million dollars annually. Don't get me wrong, that is a lot of money, but you need to look at the whole picture, for example, the DoD spent $84.24 million on erectile dysfunction prescriptions. That is an even bigger number right? Now an even larger one, and this will give it all a little more perspective. The DoD healthcare budget is around $50 billion dollars. Make sure you read that number right, that is billion with a "B". When you look at the big picture, both of those numbers are slight percentages in the grand scheme of things. That brings me to the final point on this matter, this is simply a blatant attempt to discriminate against a very small number of individuals.

     Don't worry, the boring preachy part isn't quite over yet. I have one more thing to talk about. Earlier this week Orange 45 gave a speech in front of a Boy Scout jamboree. It has been done by many Presidents before and will surely be done by many after. Here is a little history lesson for you that you may not know. When he regaled the story of William Levitt, a real estate tycoon, he left out some interesting facts about him. What he mentioned was how Levitt became very wealthy form his developments of the suburban neighborhoods and sold his company, buying a yacht and then implied that he had yacht sex all over the seven seas. William Levitt did all of that, but the one thing you didn't hear, was how despicable a person he was. He created a suburban neighborhood called Levittown. This neighborhood was for whites only. He had clauses put in the purchase contracts that an owner couldn't even sell their house to non-whites. He wouldn't even sell to jewish people, and he was jewish himself. He tried building other neighborhoods like Levittown, but was pushed back through legal challenges. He fought all the way to the Supreme Court, where the high court refused to even listen to his case. That is when he sold his business. It was going to go under if he didn't. It's said that you can be judged by the company you keep. In this case it's the company you idolize.

     I need to change the mood a bit, so I'm going to leave you with a song tonight. I had an urge to listen to some disco today, and that meant non other than Donna Summer. When I was a kid, I was in love with Donna Summer. She was beautiful with the voice of a goddess, and she had soul. This isn't my favorite song, but it's a good one. In fact, my ukulele teacher asked if I wanted to learn anything in particular tonight on the guitar, and I happened to mention this song. Get this, he actually recorded with Donna Summer way back in the day. I was floored. Anyway, I chose this song, because it has the quintessential  disco guitar sound. I want to learn how to get that sound. I plan on making that sound part of a song that I will eventually use on the YouTube channel. That means I got to learn something very new to me today. It is the art of dampening the strings between strums. It's going to take some work, but I have the idea down. Enough of this, let's just get to the song. Here is Donna Summer with "Bad Girls".



     My favorite part of this song is the whistle blowing and the background singers line of "toot toot, yeah, beep beep". That is just fantastic. I'll try not to make the next post boring and preachy like tonight. I should be telling you all about the kayaking adventure. I say "should" because the plans are being altered as I type this, and I have no idea of the final plan yet. Either way, I do expect to make a video this weekend. it will either be that or it will be a motovlog. I'll let you know on Sunday night. Don't forget, it will be live by 7 PM New York time. Peace in and goodnight.

Orange May Be The New Black, But It's Also My Amp.

     I didn't get to tell you about Thursday night. Upon my ukulele teacher's request, I took my amp in so that he could check it out. I have a little Orange Crush 20 watt amp. I've had it since I bought my Pono electric ukulele. I never really used it all that much though. I figured I would have to get all kinds of pedals and what nots to get some aggressive sounds out of it. I was wrong. My teacher showed my exactly how to use it, and what did what. We plugged Penelope into it, and he made it come to life. It was able to get a really cool crunchy distortion and loud sound with a few tweaks and a tiny bit of volume on the knob. When I say a tiny bit, I mean a tiny bit. We only had it at 1 on the dial. It goes up to 10. I was impressed.

      Now to get any kind of echo effect or anything along those lines, I will need to get pedals, but for the time being, I got exactly what I want. He also started teaching me how to properly bend notes. It seems easy, and it is in theory, but to do it right, there is a definite skill to it. One the I don't have right now, but with practice it will come. I learned quite a lot that night, and I'm putting it to use in my practice sessions now. He gave me a couple of riffs to work on that had those bended notes in them. I'm not there yet, but I'm approaching the area. I'd have to say that I'm in the time zone now. When he showed it to me on Thursday, I was on the entire other side of the world from it. It really is a great feeling to learn something, take what you learned and apply it, and then keep applying it as you get better and better at it. This is exactly why I always say to learn something new every day.

     I finally broke down and bought an Echo Dot from Amazon. I'm sure you know what that is, but if not, it's the thing that you say,"Alexa" and then ask it a question. It's kind of like Siri for your house. The Echo Dot is the smaller of the units. The original Echo is about 10 inches tall I believe. where as the Echo Dot is only about an inch and a half. I got it in the mail today, so this evening is my entire play time with it. It works really well. Once it is connected, it has the capability to turn your lights on (provided that you have the right "smart appliances"), it will answer just about any question you have, it can order things for you from Amazon, it will tell you the weather, time, date, sports scores, any number of things. Form reading some of the stuff in the title booklet and in the app (yes, you have to download an app on your phone to connected it to your wifi source) you can even get it to tell you jokes. It plays music for you, if you are a Prime member. It can read audio books from your Audible account, and yes it listened in to whatever you are saying like a good little spy. Although I think there is a way to shut that full time feature off.

     I'll keep playing around with it, and let you know how things progress in the next few weeks or so. I've always like Siri on my phone, so I'm sure that I'm going to like Alexa as well.

     It's that time again. Favorite Song of the Week. I've been sitting on this one since it came out two weeks ago. I had already committed to finishing the Baby Driver edition of FSOTW, so I had to wait to post this one. This one comes from one of my favorite bands. This artist is one of those ones that I put in the genius category. He created a sound that was strictly his own, and people have tried to copy it since his first album. They have had limited success with doing that, but he has stood the test of time, and I go back and listen to that first album quite frequently. I'm talking about none other than Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails. He took the Industrial sound into the stratosphere, Until that time, it had been relegated to dirty clubs and kids wearing a lot of black clothing. I was one of those kids, in those dirty clubs, dancing to that strange techno beat, heavy guitar, darkly emotional songs. I loved it and still do, but Trent Reznor and NIN took it into the light, which is were none of us wanted to go, but we went, and it turns out, the light wasn't all that bad. This is a new song by NIN and it harkens back to that first album. This could easily have played on Pretty Hate Machine and you wouldn't know it was thirty years still in the future. I had no idea that Trent was working on new NIN stuff. He has been doing scores for movies lately, and he's been doing a rather good job at it, winning a couple of Oscars in the process. This was a pleasant surprise when I heard it for the first time on the day of it's release. Her is Nine Inch Nails with "Less Than".


     I've been listening to this song just as much as the Baby Driver soundtrack, maybe even more. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I do.

     I've narrowed down the next ATS ride to two weekends right now. I haven't chosen the exact date yet, but I do know the location now. This is going to be a good one, and one, like the song above, that will take me back in time. This is the first time I will be going to a place, that I visited as a child, and it's going to be real fun. I'm going to try to get more video at the location as opposed to the ride itself, so that you can see what I see while I'm there. I think you are really going to enjoy this one. Until then, peace in and goodnight.

Another Weekend, Another Loss

     It's been an odd weekend. It started with a rainy Friday night with nothing to do, so I decided to build the new toolbox. It came out great. My only problem now, is that I have room for more tools. Here it is from start to finish.

     Saki's Lounge is beginning to look more like I want it to. I need to start clearly unnecessary things out of the Lounge and throw out all the things that I no longer need at all. On the other side of Saki are two very large shelves, that I will be eliminating. It will give me about two feet of room on that side of the lounge. Also, I will be getting rid of things that are behind the workbench and new toolbox. That of course will open up the center more. More floor space means more possibilities.

       With that project completed, it was time to sit back and finish watching a new Netflix series that I started, GLOW. I remember the original GLOW TV show, so seeing this was a flashback to some earlier days. I don't know how much of it is based on reality, but it is a behind the scenes type of look at how the show was created, and it's fantastic. The two creators are known for Orange is the New Black, and Homeland. Two acclaimed series. If you are ever bored and looking for something to watch, give it a try.

     Saturday I received some bad new, and it took place as I was going through the final thing that was a connection between Lily and I. Because I have psoriasis, I need to get sunlight on a regular basis. it helps my skin at some sort of cellular level. When I would lay outside, Lily would go out there with me and lie under my chair, so that I could pet her. While I was sitting there alone, I got a text from the friend that was with me when I found out about Lily passing. She had bad news. Her wonderful Malamute named Anakin had taken a turn for the worse. She was worried and so was I. When I got to her house after the ride last week, Ani was the first one I went to to give the love that I could no longer give to Lily. He always had a smile for me, and although he was older now, and couldn't walk well, he would try to get to me so that I could pet him. I didn't want him to work for it that day, so I went into his room and pet him and told him how much I loved him. Then I did the same with her other dog Gandalf, I call him the teacup polar bear. He is a Great Pyrenees. A few hours later, I got the news that I hoped wasn't coming. Ani had swirled into the ether. Please send any good thoughts and love to Elie and Gandi, they need it more now than ever. I know that Gandi is feeling the loss, despite their contention relationship. Elie mentioned something, and I witnessed a part of it. Gandi had began sleeping in a bathroom that was right outside of Ani's room recently. I got to witness that first hadn't. The other thing was, that one day they were laying side by side. It wasn't something that they ever did. They were both alphas and alphas don't hangout with each other. This is just an opinion, but I believe that Gandi knew that Ani's time was near, and he wanted to make peace with him, and in the end they did. Ani will be missed greatly.

      The day went on, despite me feeling another loss. I wasn't hanging with friends, and it was just an unusual experience for me. For a change, I was the youngest person in the room, and the one in the best shape. I'm generally the oldest person in my group of friends, and although, I'm not always the one in the worst shape, I'm never the one in the best shape. It was just strange. We met up for lunch, and then headed over to a friends house to play a boardgame. I haven't played boardgames in decades. The game in question, was Axis & Allies. It is all about World War II. You are a country in either the Axis or Allied alliance, and then you strategize your way to victory. It's not an easy game, especially when the two people who had never played are the Axis powers. I was Japan, and I apparently did a much better job than Germany, because he was wiped off the board in what I was told was, "abnormally early". It was fun. I don't think I will make a regular practice of it, I'm just not a boardgame kind of guy, but if the opportunity ever arises again, I will go for it.

     After the game was over, I hung out for a little while longer talking with my friend. He has recently stopped drinking as well, and he seems to be struggling with the newest of not known what to do with his time. He still wants to hang out in his old haunts, but realizes how bad an idea that really is, so he is torn with wanting to do that, and wanting to find something else to do. I have an idea for him, but I don't know how to broach the subject with him just yet. He is quite a bit overweight, and I got a little worried about him last night. At one point, he looked like he was going to pass out, and it was from doing nothing other than walking around for a very short distance. I'm talking about 20 yards here. I'm thinking he should get a gym membership and whenever he has that "I don't know what to do" feeling, he could go there, but maybe he isn't ready for something like that yet. If he is already looking bad after a casual stroll from the car, then the gym really isn't the place he should be. I'll figure it out, I just hope I'm able to do it before something bad happens to him.

     I was thinking about doing a video this weekend, but things just didn't fall into place for a good time to do it. I wanted to do it in the evening, but Friday, I was building the toolbox, Saturday I was playing that game, and tonight, I have to wash my clothes. The idea for the video will still wait, and I can do it at anytime, so I could do it some time this week or even next weekend some time. Although Saturday is already locked up, I'm going kayaking again. I am taking the GoPro with me, so I'm going to try to make a video a little different from what I've posted so far, so there will be a video coming this weekend regardless. The question is whether or not there will be two of them. You will just have to wait and see.

     The last few weeks, I've been writing this Sunday Post earlier in the day. I kind of like it. It gives me time to relax at the end of the night, and just go to sleep. I'm going to try to keep it up for a while, so if you are anxious to read the latest Sunday Post, for the foreseeable future, you will be able to see it at 7PM New York time every Sunday. You will still receive the email ( if you subscribed) at the usual time. I've found that it doesn't matter when I write this, it always gets sent at the same time the following day. With that in mind, I'm going to finish washing my clothes, and watch some Game of Thrones. Peace in and goodnight.

We Lost Another Great Talent.

     I had all kinds of plans for what to write about today. Then I got home and saw the news on Yahoo's front page. Chester Bennington had died of an apparent suicide. If you don't know who Chester Bennington is, he was the lead singer of the band Linkin Park. They were founding members in the Nu Metal scene. It's a genre that has fizzled out over the years, but Linkin Park managed to stay around, because of catchy riffs, good musical talent, and the vocals of Chester. He was the king of the Screamo sound, and his voice was far and above anyone that was doing that style of music.

     Lately their music has been attached to the Transformer movies, gaining them success when radio stations cater to specific styles of music. None of which are what Linking Park are.

     Chester took his life and is swirling in the ether tonight. Here is what I want to talk about though. We may never know why he did it, but if you are close to someone that suffers from depression, or has suicidal tendencies, or has attempted suicide in the past, be there for them. They may not ask for help, and definitely won't when they go deeper down the spiral. There are things to look out for though. If they are distant one day, and then exceedingly happy the next, that might be them coming to terms with their life nearing it's end. If they start giving away prized possessions, If they start acting in extremes. These are things that you can see if you look close enough. Talk to them, and listen to what they have to say. You listening can be the thing that saves their lives. Sometimes, that is all it takes.

     If you are someone who suffers any of those things above, and you feel like there is no way out of whatever it is that is dragging you down that hole. Seek out help. Talk to someone, and make them listen to you. Their are people that want to hear you. You may not see it now, but you will. I know that it is tough, but there is always another way.

     I've dealt with depression and thoughts of suicide, nearly my entire life. I've been very close a few times, but I found another way. I talked to friends, I let time pass, I thought about things I would miss. I took a step in a different direction, and then took another. It's not easy, but you can come out the other side.

       If you take only one thing from reading this, let it be that I love you. I know, it sounds corny, but it's true. I don't have to know someone personally to love them. Love is a universal feeling. We have it inside of all of us, and we can give it freely at anytime. It isn't used up, it replenishes itself. Love is always there, even when you feel like it's not. If you just take the time to look for it, you will see it. I give my love to everyone, and that includes you. Peace in and goodnight.

What Happens When A Pumpkin Man Wears Kashmere.

     This week is going by very very slow, also, I think that today was the first day the The Truffle realized that her sister is gone. When I walked out to her room this morning, she was sleeping in Lily's bed. That is not something she ever did on her own. There would be times when she was there in the morning, but that was because Lily would kick her out of her own bed and take it over. Lily was very much the alpha in their small pack.

      I've been going through the new experience of things that aren't there. Lily would greet me when I came home from work. She would be there at night when I would watch tv. She would wander into the computer room to get love. Those things aren't there anymore. I'll get through this, and so will The Truf, but it will take a little time.

     With the loss of Lily this weekend, I needed a win of any kind, and I did manage to get one. I"m not sure if you noticed anything new about the latest video, other than the content that is, but I figured something out, that I've been working on ever since doing the first video. It's something small, but something that I felt was necessary for the overall product. What is it? You ask. Fading out the music. I finally figured out how to fade the music, so that it doesn't just end abruptly. I know, it doesn't seem like much, but it is all about the sensory experience, when it comes to something like that. When something just ends, you are left with a sense of, "what am I missing? Something was coming next.", but when the music simply fades out, it takes the ease of your mind, and you forget about it and it just blends together. I still need to improve on it, but if I did it right, you didn't even notice at all that it was done. It's something important to me, but in the end, it should be something that you don't even realize is happening, unless you are specifically trying to notice it. If you go back and rewatch the video, you will notice, but if I didn't tell you about it, you surely wouldn't have.

     I played around with a few other things, but didn't add them into that video. The video didn't call for it, so there was no reason to put them in, but that will be useful information moving forward. I want to improve every time I do a new video. I want to learn new things each time. Eventually I will look into doing some kind of graphics for the channel, also, there is the music score. I want to be able to do that as well. Don't forget, my ukulele teacher has the ability to record music, so that part could be coming in the near future. I need to learn a little more on the guitar first, but it will come.

     On to a little more fun. I haven't posted any videos from America's Got Talent lately. That is for two very good reasons. The first being, that they weren't on over the 4th of July holiday week, and last week I was watching the Allstar game. Actually, there is a third reason. I didn't feel that any of the acts were worth sharing. Don't get me wrong, there were some good acts, but nothing really blew my mind. That changed this week. There were two acts that were fantastic, for polar opposite reasons. The first video I'm going to share with you, is a dance troop from South Korea. They are the most precise dance group that I've seen. They seem to be of one mind, and body when they dance.



    Unbelievable right. They have a good chance of winning the whole thing if they can keep improving over the next few weeks or however long the show is on this year. They made it through to the live shows, I'm not sure when those are going to start. This was only the first round of the Judge Cuts. If I had to take a guess, I would say that they are going to have 4 rounds of the cuts, but I really have no idea.

     The second act, well, it just makes me happy. I found out tonight, that this guy is an internet sensation. I'd never seen him, but since I left Facebook over year ago, I have been out of the loop on a lot of internet trends. I don't miss it, but I have been thinking about going back. It would only be to expand this blog and the YouTube channel, but I really don't see much expansion from it, and that is something for another time. Right now is all about Dancing Pumpkin Man. The guy has a goofy act, but it is one that is so goofy, that it is great.



     If that didn't make you smile, well, I don't know if there is anything that can make you smile.Sadly, he did not make it through to the live shows, so you will only be able to see him on the internet. Hey, the show gave him some good exposure which I'm sure will lead to more views on his viral video hit.

     I finally got that picture of the back of the head of my guitar for you, so that you can see the engraving in it.

     It's something small and somewhat insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but I think it's pretty cool. I have one other picture for you. I got that toolbox finally. I won't be putting it together until the weekend though. I did get a shot of the box so you can get an idea of what it looks like.

     When I get it all together, I will get pictures of the completed project.. I get the feeling that the toolbox itself is assembled in there, due to the size of the box, but I will have to assemble the cart that it sits on. It shouldn't be all that big of a deal, but I'll let you know how it goes. Which reminds me. I've been thinking of doing a video this weekend, but I have no ideas for you, so I have a question for you. Should I do one, and if so, what should it be about? Is there anything that you want to hear me talk about, or maybe something you would like me to show you on the bike? Let me know.

      Speaking of the videos, yes this all ties together, that brings us to Favorite Song of the Week. Here is how it all goes together. This is the last song from the Baby Driver soundtrack that I'm going to post, for now. There might be others in the future, but this little three week highlight is at an end, it it ends with the one song that has transfixed me since hearing it. I even tried to use it in my Instagram promo video for the Inlet ride. yes, this is the song that fit perfectly. If you want to see how perfect it fit, just go on my Instagram and find that video, and when it starts playing, play this song. I'm still saddened that I couldn't use it, but it all worked out. Turns out that this band was an elite performing unit from a high school student band in Texas. I can't tell you the name of the school, because that will take all the fun out of you learning the name of the band too soon. This project lasted from 68-74 and they managed to release 3 albums during that time. This song comes off the first album entitled Texas Thunder Soul. This song shows what soul music can bring to the table, and it has a little precursor to funk in it as well. I give you, the Kashmere Stage Band with "Kasmere".

     How good is that song? This is just one of the reasons, and you heard two more of them as to why I saw that the Baby Driver soundtrack, is the best one ever. I'm telling you, it is outstanding. If you go on YouTube and type in a search for Baby Driver Soundtrack, there is a playlist of all the songs on there. You can listen for free, and let me tell you, you are going to get so much in return if you do listen to it. You may even go and buy the soundtrack right away like I did. Give it a try, what do you have to lose. Peace in and goodnight.

Adventure Time Series: Mennello Museum & Ace Cafe Orlando

     Took a ride to Orlando yesterday. The day turned out to be much better forecast wise, than I thought it would. Of course you know by now that it wasn't a truly good day, but we are going to put all that aside for now, and go on with the ride itself. 

      This was my first time riding that deep into Orlando, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. That is mostly due to the time of day I went through there. The traffic on I-4 wasn't all that bad. I-4 is normally a parking lot on a real beat up road. I had a companion for this ride, a very good and dear friend. This of course was the first time going on an ATS ride with someone along. It was fun, being able to share the whole experience with someone. We had a great time on the ride, and had a great meal to top it all off. I think I'm just going to share the video here, and then post all the pictures after.. The video explains it all, as good as I could here, and the pictures fill in the blanks. So without further fanfare, here is the video.

     Not the way I wanted to post the video, but it works. Now for the pictures.

     After the Museum, we hit the Ace Cafe Orlando and got our grub on. It was really good.

     After that, it was upstairs to check out the gallery. The host even told me, that they can close that are to the public and you can have company meetings up there. Now I only have to figure out how to get my company to have a meeting there. Well, first I need to get my company to actually have a meeting. Anyway, you saw it in the video, but the pictures are a little more clear.

     After checking out the gallery, I had to make a pitstop in the bathroom. While I was in there I saw an large version of their event calendar. We had a small discussion about one particular night. Any given night, they have something going on. Bike Night, Hotrod Night, Cafe Racer Night, so on and so on. Here is the one night we just couldn't figure out. I got this picture while I was in that bathroom looking at the calendar.

     Your guess is as good as ours on what that night entails. Neither one of us wanted to ask the server, on the off chance that we said the stupidest thing possible. We will all go uninformed on that one. 

     After the upstairs we headed down to the retail area. I wanted to check out the D-Store, and there were two particular bikes down there that I needed pictures of. The first one, is the bike of non other than Billy Joel. He even signed the helmet. I'm not sure if you can see that in the picture.

     The second, is a bike that I never thought I would ever see in person. It is made by a company called Confederate Motorcycles. They make all their bikes out aircraft grade aluminum, and they supercharge all the motors. So not only is it light, it will go real real fast. This is the Confederate P51 Fighter.

     I'm not sure, but I believe that yellow lens that you see under the seat is the oil tank, at least it should be. Pretty cool right?

     That is all I have for you tonight. I hope you enjoyed coming along for the ride. I haven't picked out the next location or a date yet, but I will be doing that soon. Peace in and goodnight.

The Loss Of A Friend.

     I know, this isn't the Sunday night post, but there is a very good reason for it. I need to get this out there, because I don't want it to only be a footnote in the Adventure Time Series.

     As you may have thought, I went on the ATS this morning, and when I arrived at the first location, I got horrible news. A call from my nephew, telling me that my oldest dog Lily had died. I could hear him braking up over the phone, and I did a little as well. She was the sweetest dog that there was. She loved people and always wanted attention from anyone that she saw. She had the friendliest personality of any dog I've ever known.

     The vets said that she had a mass in her stomach that was more than likely cancerous, and that is what caused everything. She was so tough. She showed no sign of being in pain, she was only lethargic the last two days. My nephew was the one that took her to the vet and said that she began convulsing as they walked in the door. The vets snapped into action and attempted CPR on her, but there was nothing they could do.

     I don't know how I did it, but I made it through the whole process of the ATS ride. I think the distraction was needed. I was going to do the final wrap up on my way home from my friends house, but I decided to do it on the way to her house. As soon as I got to her house and sat down, and started letting those thoughts go through my head, I finally broke down. I went and pet her dogs and let them know that they are loved. It was a transferal thing. I was passing on the love I couldn't give to Lily to them.

      I got enough composure to be able to take the long ride home, and it was a long ride. I put my headphones in and just listened to music to drown out my thoughts. As much as I didn't want to walk into a house without Lily in it, I needed to get home and give all the love I could to The Truffle. I spent most of the ride in the triple digits, and made it home in record time. I don't think The Truffle really knows what is going on yet. She seems to be pretty normal. She didn't see Lily swirl into the ether, so she may not be aware that she is gone.

      I needed to do this tonight, but I also need to wrap it up about now, because I need to get out to The Truffle and spend more time with her. Before I go though, I have a few pictures to share with you, including the sculpture that I was looking at, at the very time that the call from my Nephew came in. It's a little eerie. Peace in and goodnight.

I've Got Something To Show You.

     So, a package arrived yesterday. I'm sure you can guess what it is by the box, but we'll talk about that a little later. 

     It appears that the forecast for Saturday has changed, and it has changed in a good way. It looks like now, the weather is going to be exceedingly favorable for the next ride in the Adventure Time Series. What was supposed to be a morning full of showers, is now a slight  chance of showers. It should be a beautiful day for a ride, and I'm really looking forward to it. There is going to be a surprise guest along for the ride this time, and the two, that's right, two locations that we are going to, are relatively new to the area. I now for a fact that one of them only opened about a month ago. This will be a long day, so I'm going to have to do some self editing on myself while I'm shooting with the GoPro. Fortunately it is voice activated, so I can start recording and stop recording by just saying those very words. Tomorrow night I will go over everything on Saki, and the GoPro, so that all the batteries are charged, all old video footage is deleted form the SD card, and Saki has good air pressure, and all the bolts are tightened down. 

     Don't forget, that I will be posting an Instagram story along with this, so that you can follow along as I do it, or you have 24 hours from the time I post each part of the story to watch it. Once it's gong though, it's gone, and you will have to wait until Sunday night to read about it. I will hopefully have the video edited and posted on YouTube by the time that I write the blog post. If for some reason, I don't have it ready in time for the Sunday night post, I will have it ready for the Tuesday night post. It will just be a little out of place on a Tuesday night when I will have already talked about it on Sunday. Can you tell that I'm rambling on? There's a reason for that. I really just want to get to what's in that box up there, but I need a little more content before I reveal it to you.

     Another picture, and no real reveal? Yeah, I'm being pretty sneaky tonight. Ok, I'm sure that you can tell by the box, and the above picture of what appears to be a gig bag with a guitar in it, that I ordered my guitar finally. That is the case, but before I show you the guitar, I have to tell you about my ukulele class tonight, which wasn't a ukulele class. 

     I was a little nervous tonight. It was like going to my first class all over again. I know very little about playing guitar, and let's face it, ti's a bit intimidating. It's larger than a ukulele, it has 6 strings (yes the guilele has 6 strings as well, but it's not the same), ti's electric, and has knobs and switches and things. There is a lot to take in. Anyway, I got to class at the same time I always do, and hung out in the little lounge area that they have. I purposely stuffed the gig bag a little back form where I normally have my ukulele, and had my leg in front of it, partially hiding it. It wasn't a very good job, if anyone really cared to look, they would know instantly that it wasn't a ukulele. My teacher walked out from his previous lesson, and was focused on other things, but still pointed at me, and said,"You". In a somewhat accusatory voice, implying that I was next on the chopping block, and then said that I could go back and he would see me in a half hour. My lesson is only a half hour, so you see the humor in that. I picked up the guitar and snuck past him and headed into the music room. 

     He was helping his other student to his car, because he had surgery on his knee or something not too long ago, and has to walk with a cane. The student not my teacher. I got the new guitar out of the bag, and sat there waiting for him. the bathroom for the place is directly across from his room and he headed in there to wash his hands. As he did, he flippantly said, "So where is you Les Paul?" I said, "ti's right here." He finished with his hands, came around the corner and I held up the guitar. He was blown away, "Are you kidding me?" "That is beautiful." He's a guitar guy so he loves guitars of any kind. he immediately asked to hold it. He tuned it up, which is a normal practice when I go in. With new strings on any instrument, they go out of tune almost immediately until the strings are broken in. He was loving it. he looked it over completely. He pointed out a few of the features that stood out to him, like the finish and how it wasn't overdone. He loved the rosewood on the fretboard, and the etching that is on the back of the head. Gibson etches "Made in USA" on the back with then model year and another thing that I can't remember. If I do remember, I will get a picture of it for Sundays post, so that you can see what I"m talking about. I guess I should finally show you the new guitar right?

     Not quite yet. This was a new experience for me. We had played around with his guitars in the past, but we never really got in the nuts and bolts of them until today. He showed me what all the knobs and switches on my guitar did, and it was fascinating. I won't go into it here, because it wold probably bore you, but the knobs are in sets, and relate to the pick ups on the guitar, same with the switch. Here was the biggest thing. On the ukulele the chords are similar to the guitar, but they aren't the same chords. I know, that makes no sense, stick with me though. Since the ukulele is scaled differently, not just in size, but in the actual scale, what might be a C on the ukulele, is a G on the guitar. It has the same fingering, but since it is in a different area of the scale it has a different name. It's going to take some getting used to, but it's going to be fun

     Now a picture? Ehh, not quite yet. He started pulling out all kinds of charts for me that relate to the guitar. Chord charts, barre chord charts, and note charts. All of it is interesting stuff to me. It's old stuff, but it's all new in this sense. Now it was time for the nitty gritty of actually playing it. He starts showing me the different chords and having me play them. I took to them really quick, after all, they weren't really all that new to me, they were just given different names, and the scale on the guitar is slightly longer than on a ukulele. I'm talking about the fretboard here. It is longer between frets on the guitar than on the ukulele. I was able to get through all the chords with very little problem. He then went over the barre chords. I took to them just as quick, and I learned a few things about them, and how to name them, you know like A chord or B chord, stuff like that. These were a few things we didn't really get into on the ukulele. It's new and fascinating stuff to me. That took up all of our time, but he told me, that we just covered about 6 months of lessons in a half hour. It seems like aliens, but I remember when I was just starting out, and how long it took me to just get a G chord under mu fingers, so I believed it. Hell, barre chords terrified me. I thought there was no way that I was ever going to get them, and now they are my favorite type of chords to play.

     I told him that I had the ukulele to thank for my speed in picking all that stuff up today. Alright alright, I'll put of the picture of the new guitar. Before we get to it though, I need to make a proper introduction. I mentioned in previous posts that I was looking at a specific Gibson Les Paul. Well I found it on a site called Musicians Friend. My teacher mentioned it to me, and I went there on Friday, and there was may guitar. The site is great, it has all the things you need and then some, and the best part is, that there were no taxes on it, nor did I have to pay for shipping. I got it for cost. I couldn't pick it up cheaper if I went to Orlando and got one form one of the music stores there. Anyway I would like to introduce you, to Penelope.

     As you can see, Penelope is a fiery red-head that can really wail. Classic Les Paul design with all those beautiful curves. That is the finish he was talking about. It has a light gloss finish to it that he really liked. The word is, that the less finish that is on a guitar, the better. It lets the wood open up faster than if you had a high gloss finish on it. this particular one is called the Gibson Les Paul Faded T. There are a few other numbers and letters, but it isn't really important that you know all that. It's called Faded because it is supposed to look like its is worn down over years of playing, hence the light gloss finish. Sometimes I stumble into the right thing, and this appears to be one of those cases. Like with the GoPro and the mic set-up. I had no idea, that a light gloss finish would be better, I just liked the look of it, and I knew that I wanted a Gibson Les Paul. This is the one that stood out to me, and it was a very good price. I told my teacher the cost when he asked, and he said that you would have a hard time finding a used one for cheaper than that. He also said that he would take that on stage for a show in a heartbeat. It's not professional grade, so that made me feel pretty good when he said that, and he has professional grade guitars.

      I'm really excited about everything that is going to come next with this new world to explore. It's going to be a wild ride. Peace in and goodnight.