Don't Blink or You'll Miss It!
Music, Arts, Nature, Lifestyleall the small things
if we could have said 3 months ago, we’d be jamming on the bass with 3 other skilled musicians, ppl would have thought we were nuts. but there we were after only practicing the bass for 3 months and having just bought a bass 3 days prior… jamming it good, classic rock style. where it goes from here? who knows but the first jam is under our belts.
a moment
today was a horrible weather day. cold and rainy except for one hour. the sun came out, the land was glimmering, nature was calling, the leaves and soil were moist and scattered all about undisturbed. t’was a great moment. one to cherish and remember. soon it was back to the cold and rain and that hour was only a memory…
What Can It Mean?
What can it mean when the puppies eat your glasses, shoes and their pillows in one day? Boredom? Time for new items? The old ones were getting too old? Perhaps, it means the puppies need more toys. Whatever it means, all we know is that its harder to see now.
Astray
5 hours is what it took to find our lost dog the other day. As luck would have it, he ended up stopping about a mile from our house to check out some other dogs. After a few hours, the owners there called the SPCA who already knew we were looking for him and reunited we were.
A happy ending to a search. On order is a new stronger chain for our front yard, everyday collars and tags for every single collar we own.
What was strange was the direction he took off in. One that we never take. Was it the desire to go to an unexplored area or was the wind just simply coming from that direction that day? Who knows. Not even sure if he does. We’d have thought he’d go to an area that he was familiar with and one that he likes. Proven wrong but we can’t help but wonder if there has ever been a study on dogs that go astray and their habits…
Know Your Limits, Play Within Them
When you work a lot and there’s not much time for play, you tend to push the envelope on trying to squeeze in the things in life you want to do in a short amount of time.More often than not, the results aren’t what you had hoped. In the end, one looks back disappointed in the accomplishments.
Sometimes you just need to pick and choose your spots and try not to squeeze in as much as possible into those small windows of opportunity. The quality of the things you are trying to accomplish suffers when its rushed or when one is tired or when you can’t commit the time necessary to do it right. Its better to do things well, rather than just sufficiently.
Its hard to stay the course but doing less creates better long term results. Life is hectic and we all want to keep busy and not miss a thing. Life pushes us to our limits sometimes. There is just so much out there one wants to do!
Even if we just look at our worklife, we are way more productive in a 30-40 hour work week than a 50-60 hour work week. We’ll be the first to admit that even on a daily basis, the ends of our workshifts don’t amount to much productivity. Now apply that train of thought to our personal lives.
Learn to recognize when one is trying to do too much and adjust accordingly. Perhaps its as simple as just picking one thing to do and focus in on that. Perhaps its better time management. Perhaps its something else entirely. No matter how you go about it, figure out what works best for you and stick to it. You’ll be better for it in the long run and it will show in the results.
This Week’s Choice Music Cut is: Music for Young Lovers!
Surf’s Up!
Working hard this week to prepare for a surf music jam this coming weekend. It may evolve into a band. Who knows though, it could go either way BUT you don’t know unless you try. Right now, it doesn’t much matter. Drumming along to surf music is a blast! These guys had it goin’ on!
Check out any of these artists listed here and catch a wave!
Tornadoes? What?
When a person works the graveyard shift, you tend to miss a lot of what happens during the day/evening. Woke up today to discover that a tornado had landed 5 minutes away from the house while we slept. Crazy!
The street here is fine. 5 minutes away disaster zone.
Nature sure has its ways!
In other news:
Still searching for a band to play bass for. Lots of talk in the virtual world… just no firm results. If you post something that you want, why would you not follow thru on it? Especially after we’ve xchanged a few emails already. Regardless, we just keep pluggin’ along hopin’ to find something suitable that sticks. We knew when we started the search that it would be more work to find a band to play with than to actually be in the band once we found one.
Of Trees and Trails
A wicked case of heartburn yesterday after our run. Maybe the result of some dehydration on our part. T’was a horrid end to an otherwise beautiful day. One of the best of this summer that has been mostly cold/rainy or stupid hot/humid. This shot is taken from the end of our running route. The trail makeup is new. Our town in its infinite wisdom decided this year that a gravel trail was needed instead of the ol’ skinny dirt trail. Based upon the increased number of ppl on the trail, maybe they were onto something. It suprised us how many more ppl have come out to use the revamped trail that has been in existence for many, many years. Was the old trail that bad? That undesireable to use? We think not. Though its lost some of its old charm, not all the trails in the system got the new treatment. That provides us a good mix of terrain and hopefully it will stay that way for some time. We do enjoy the perks of the new trail (there are even “official” rest stops for your convenience) though it has taken some time to get used to. For instance, seeing work trucks in the middle of the wilderness always throws us off unexpectedly and is something we’ll never get used to. Hopefully the new trails will work well with snow and our skiis. Time will tell in that regard.
Musical discovery of the week: Animal by Miike Snow
Auditions 101
Its been awhile since we had to “audition” for anything. Our first bass audition ever went so-so recently. Trying something new is always a challenge and then taking that new thing public is completely another matter. Nerves aside, we are glad we did it and got the first one under our belts. T’was only a 3 song jam session but well worth the time and effort. Yet another small step towards performing with the bass on a stage soon.
The project this week is to work on not lifting our fingers on the fret board excessively high. Wasting too much effort currently getting from point A to B. Having a coach/tutor is awesome to have so they can notice such things and come highly recommended! Also, having a drum machine and an ipod hooked up to our Rumble 60 is fantastic and makes practicing wicked fun! Learning something new and having fun with it at the same time is key!
Bass 101
Just starting bass lessons. Crazy amount of stuff to learn but having fun with it.
Goal: to be playing bass in a band by sometime in the fall.
So far this is by far the best site on the ‘net to get you started. The info there is priceless and sensible. Now, back to practice!
