Anything Goes (in)

Wednesday: Woke around 10:30. Some lazing. Email. Shower. Cats. Down basement and morning practices. Did some cleaning. MB called as I was pulling my stuff together. Headed out.

Drove over to the Fresh Pond area to my doctor's office. I saw a large woman in a wheelchair, smoking, with another large woman taking care of her. The followed me to the waiting room, where I overheard the woman in the wheelchair giving her helper instructions on how to go and purchase her a double cheese burger and coffee with extra cream while she was seeing the doctor.

The annual physical was uneventful. I'd never seen this doctor before (he's subbing for my regular doc, who is on three months of paternity leave. His wife just had twins.) This was the first year they examined my prostate. Oh, the joys of middle-age. Not complaining, mind you. Blood drawn, and hesitantly got a flu shot. We'll see how I do with it.

Stopped for a veggie burger, which I ate overlooking the reservoir. In to work, and continuing on from my progress of the previous day. Hooked up the vari-speed stuff, and began debugging. Coffee. Ate the lunch MB had packed for me, for dinner. At 7:30, met Shawn at the bench.

We decided to have our rehearsal at his studio space tonight. Some fussing around to get his kit in order, and the PA functioning, but no major problems. Phase one of the evening involved running through all our performable material. Not bad. Took a short break, and got a soda at the CVS. Phase two: Thrak. Shawn has improved in his ability to play the combined polyrhythm, and we developed a preliminary arrangement.

Dropped Shawn off, back home. Hello to MB. Sorting through snail mail. Garbage and recycling out. Email. Spent some time looking for a copy of of Pat Boone's cover of the Judas Priest. Couldn't find it, but did find his cover of "Crazy Train." Good lord... now that is truly evil music.

Off goes the laptop

Tuesday: Slept in. UPS guy came to pick up cans of cat food for testing. Worked on copying over some vital stuff to the iMac from my laptop, before sending it off for repair. Shower. Cat nurse. Down basement and morning practices and drums. Decided not to do a job that I had been planning on. It was too late in the day. Cleaned up the basement desk.

Stopped for an egg sandwich on the way to work. A dreary day. I wonder if this sort of weather effects cats in the same way it does humans. At the office, scheduled pick up of my laptop. A solid day of work, ripping out a lot of code from a low level system that was no longer needed, and refactoring a higher level object so it could be subclassed by two different drivers. Got the refactored code working. Got a burrito. Later on, some coffee. Called MB. Email. It's late. Soon home, and evening stuff.

Phone calls

Monday: My alarm went off at 8:30, even though I thought I had set it for 9:30. Email. Tried to get back to sleep, but no luck. Up, shower, cat nursing. Quick breakfast (cereal and coffee). Gave a call to a friend, and realized I was calling an hour too early, as she is one time-zone over. Drums. Sitting. Then the call. We talked about time management. Some emailing. Off to work, driving the long way around.

Parked the car, and went up to the office, but then right back out. Got a haircut, doing what I could to make conversation, although this is a skill I'm not particularly good at. Coffee. Worked solidly through the evening, getting my 'backwards' stuff working, and then trying some different rates as well. A box arrived to take my laptop back to Apple, to have them replace some plastic that is prematurely yellowing. At 5, a call with some of the senior North American Crafties (Victor, Tom, Curt, Tony) to talk about a potential course for next year. Victor has some action items. I mostly just listened. Ate the lunch MB packed for me.

Back home around 11. A soy-chicken-puck, stuffing and cranberry sauce. Said goodnight to MB. Completing the day.

Cleaning gutters

Sunday: A nice sleep in, MB off at OCBC. Shower. Cat nursing. Breakfast with MB (waffles, eggs, soy sausage) We didn't have any maple syrup, so we used cherry preserves and agave nectar. Down basement and morning practices. Checked out the Christmas light situation. Found that the strings we'd used for the front of the house were all kaput. Cleaned out the gutters along the sides of the house. Swept off the garage roof. Talked to neighbor Bl, who gave us tips on avoiding parking tickets (His specialty. Interesting, since he doesn't own a car.) With MB, raked leaves up along one side of the house, more or less completing the job. It was almost dark by this point.

Inside, and some nice time hanging out. A snack sort of meal eating recombinant leftovers. MB found some eye goop for Leo. MB headed off to the Free Circle. I did some vacuuming listening to "Under Wraps" (perhaps the oddest Jethro Tull album: all synths). "You Know My Name" by Chris Cornell (the music for the new Bond movie) has a similar melody to "European Legacy" and so "Under Wraps" had been floating to mind. Down basement and updating the KKC website. Headed off to guitar circle.

Arrived as the Free Circle was ending. Quite a bit of talking for us, seeming to be at a transition point. My preference would be less talk and more working on the hands. Don't feed the rat any cheese, I say. So, then, a little playing: EotN, Bartok, Invention 1. David had a bit of a laugh, the image of an evil clown emerging from a repeated open string on Askesis.

Back home (MB had run an errand) some snacks and coffee. Cat nursing. MB returned. Chat. Down basement and more KKC update. Drums, playing with attaching stuff to the hi-hat stand.

The LF Foundation

Saturday: Up slightly earlier than recent days. MB headed out to run some errands. Shower. Cats. Down basement. Emerging, and breakfast with MB: Coffee, eggs, toast, a grilled muffin, soy sausages. Cleaned and vacuumed the carpet in the music room. Cleaned out the leaves on the basement steps. Secured the rose trellises in the front by driving some screws through them and into the siding.

Headed up to NH to visit friend Chln. Stopped for gas. Arrived about 4:45, finding her walking back to her place from the mailbox. A decadent birthday plate of chocolate cake, strawberries and whipped cream. Brainstorming and drawing. Left about 8:30.

Back home, and supper with MB: soy "buffalo wings" and a funny salsa mayo dip that I had to make twice ('cause the first batch landed on the floor). Watched an episode of The Wire. Cake and tea. A bit of an SNL rerun, with a fun segment of Beck being backed up by a fork-and-spoon-jam on dining-room-table.

Raking leaves

Friday: A nice sleep-in. MB was recording in the war room. Shower (quietly), downstairs. Playing kitty doctor. Made plans to do some yard-work with MB (she was on break from her recording project). Down basement, and morning practices.

Had a quick egg sandwich for breakfast while MB was in the backyard. Up on the roof, and pulling leaves out of gutters, while being careful not to fall off the edge. Raking. The sun went down, and I declared our work for the day complete.

A little hanging out with MB, then off to work for a bit. Coffee (with free goodies). Got a call from my mom. She has a diagnosis about her knee, but needs an MRI to confirm, which can't happen until Monday.

Back home, and watching "Cry of the Snow Lion" (a movie about Tibet's history under Chinese occupation), while eating leftovers. Then tea. Too hot: Ouch! More kitty doctoring. Now, down basement.

Thanksgiving

Thursday (Thanksgiving): Woke with the feeling I'd forgotten to call someone. Also, realized I'd forgotten to send an important email at work. Shower. Cats. Down basement.

Cold and rainy. Drove out. Stopped at the donut shop for an egg sandwich. Thanked the fellow behind the counter for working today. At the office, sent my important email, then worked for a couple hours. (When work is being done on threads, its often best to simply use a message passing interface to them, rather than trying to sync up.)

Back home, MB was cleaning the cat box and so I couldn't get in the kitchen. Put away laundry. Down basement for email and some drums. Then, cooked a fun little Thanksgiving meal: Herbed potatoes, butternut squash in molasses, stuffing (with nuts, raisins, onion and celery), pan fried tofu cutlets, mushroom gravy, cranberry sauce, and salad. Quite yum. Ate with MB, then clean up. Moment of prickliness on my part talking about how to do the Caravan DVD. Called my mom, who is having problems with one of her knees. Pie, ice cream and coffee.

Drove out with MB and saw the new James Bond movie. I thought it was fun, but she didn't like it so much. Back home, more taking care of Leo, and some more coffee. MB to bed. Down basement.

Old cats

Wednesday: Slept in a bit. On waking, arms pins and needles, Leo the cat next to me. Gave the cats their meds, which at this point, is fairly involved. Down basement for morning practices. Brief drums. Made a couple of phone calls and sent some email. Contacted the manufacturer of the cat food that possibly caused Leo's stomach problems. Contacted Apple about getting the inner plastic of my MacBook replaced. Set up a heating pad for the cats to sleep on during the day. Headed out.

Mailed a check to my old friend RS, and his friend SC. Stopped at the grocery store to make sure that we could sufficiently gorge ourselves tomorrow. Mostly bought vegetables. In at work, continued debugging some rather puzzling behavior in my 'backwards project.' In down time, also loaded more music into iTunes. Went to the pharmacy. Got some pizza at Pinocchio's. Stayed until about 10:40 PM.

Back home, hanging out with MB. Put away groceries. Fed Leo some baby-food. Tea. Installed recording software onto the upstairs iMac for MB. Web surfing. Soon down basement.

Leo comes home

Tuesday: Woke, the phone ringing. Thinking about getting up. Decided on a bit more sleep. Heard my mom stirring about, so then up. We had some breakfast (cereal yogurt etc), and a nice time chatting. Shower. Gus. Spent some more hanging out time with mom. Then, I helped her pack her car. Her dog led me down the street to sniff and pee upon, a Very Important Tree. Waving goodbye.

Down basement, and morning practices. Brief drums. Talked to Chln about how to move forward with our collaboration. She asked me for some to-the-point feedback. The feedback I gave her was essentially "often you need to let people figure things out for themselves." There was some irony there. Laundry. Off to the kitty hospital, and retrieved Leo. He's doing a bit better. I liked the doctor that had been treating him. She showed me the ultrasound images they'd taken.

Dropped him back home. Snacking. Headed to work, it already growing dark. A brief and somewhat distracted day, getting some of my backwards code up and running (backwards). Tofu burrito. Headed home around 9 PM.

Call with workshop friends. People are doing well. The fellow from Texas has reemerged, and has a few found interest in Buddhism and meditation. Hello to MB. On the raft, with the two cats and the two people. Goodnight. Feeding Leo, and washing him up a bit. Reading Rolling Stone Magazine's take on the mid-term elections. Down basement.

Dinner with mom and MB

Monday: Slept in. MB wished me a good day on her way out. Mom's friend came over around 10:30 and began helping her in the kitchen. Up, shower, Gus. Downstairs and hello to mom and friend. Then down basement. Morning practices, still feeling a big charge from practice last night. Drums. Off to work. Dropped some books in the mail. Egg sandwich at the donut shop.

Driving around on Storrow, a man was driving aggressively, far too close to my bumper for the speed we were traveling. I slowed a bit to allow myself room to change lanes to get out of his way. He tried to cut around me to the right, aggravated by my slowing down, but then saw I was also shifting into that lane, and sped past. I heartily gave him the finger.

In at the office, a last minute tweak. Strange behavior, only happening on my machine. Some talk with Al about the integration work he's doing. Back to my reversal project. Left around 7.

Up to the kitty hospital, and spent a little time with Leo. Managed to get a little food down his throat, but I was practically force feeding him. (If I put the mushy food in the back of his throat, he would swallow it.) Back home, and enjoyed a lovely dinner with MB and my mom (arugula/apple/goat cheese salad, tofu stir fry, sesame noodles, walnut cake with whipped cream.) Mom fretted that she'd cooked the cake too long. Laughing about "Life of Brian."

Opening some presents. Good fun. I showed mom how to use the iTunes music store, and then we watched some Sacha Baron Cohen clips on youtube. Mom to bed, some hanging out with MB, now down basement.

Leo goes to the clinic

Sunday: MB woke me a couple of times. Finally up around 11. Downstairs, and some oatmeal and coffee, hanging out with my mom and MB. Shower. They headed out to do some shopping, and see a concert.

Down basement. Leo the cat was not doing well. Called the clinic to see about taking him in. Morning practice. Friends arrived for our second "class reunion." A lovely session, with 4 of us on hand. Ended things a little sooner than I would have liked. Whisked Leo off to the hospital. They were very nice, and he was admitted. Back home, no sign of mom or MB. Had a little food. Fixed the front door lock. Cleaned up the kitty infirmary in the basement bathroom.

Mom and MB returned. They talked about lovely music, and a sweaty cellist. Some socializing, then MB headed back out to the free circle. She told me later that this wound up being held in an alternate location near the Charles Playhouse. Spent time with my mom, talking about the Caravan performance, and such. She just had some toast. I ate (frozen, then microwaved) Indian food. Took her dog Max for a brief walk in the back. Mom decided to go to bed early, around the time MB returned. Email. Now, down basement.

Caravan Sans Martin

Sunday: Moved Leo the cat down into the basement bathroom. Then back to sleep. Back to check on Leo. Morning practices. Shower. Someone had puked in front of our house. Hosed it off, while checking in with my mom, who was driving up from CT. Drove out, dropping stuff off at the dry cleaner and picking up a couple things at the music store. While paying, MB called to say that Martin was quite ill, and could not participate in the show. Such a shame. And quite a little poser for us, as he was pivotal to several parts of the show.

Back home, mom had just arrived. I made some quick food, leftover Chinese and cheese toast. Shawn arrived. I ate, then changed strings on the electric. Down basement and ran a couple of things. Packing. Gave my mom directions to the space. And then off we went.

Connecting wires and so on for about and hour. A huddle to work through details, and figure out how to rearrange things to cover for Martin's absence. Shawn sang in the Embroidery, and sang a song at the end of the first set. I sang the drunken philosopher's song with Alex, who looked into a book for his crib notes. Victor played bass on Eye of the Needle. The twinkles got reassigned. Jessica led in during the Feynman piece, and so on. The show went quite well. About 28 people showed up. A splended time was had by all. Plenty of fumble fingers on my part. Getting excited, still causing problems. I almost tanked Bicycling, but we recovered somehow. "The World Blind" sounded great. The success of the event can be attributed to MB's skill at social organizing... That and a generous audience, and some semi-skill performers willing to be a little foolish.

One thing I noticed tonight: My new guitar allows me to be more expressive, which gives the music the opportunity to more fully express itself. The music being more fully expressed, inspires others to be more expressive. We are in a different world. Change one part, and you change everything.

After the show, cake (for my birthday!), cheesecake (per RF's recommendations) a brief circle, lots of undoing what we had just done a few hours earlier. Wnd gave Shawn a ride.

Back home, unloading. Nursing Leo. Ordered a pizza from the only place open. Over there to pick it up. And salads from a fast food place. My mom joined us, and ate pizza crust. Freezing cake. Down basement, and straightening books on shelves. Email.

Caravan dress rehearsal

Friday: MB woke, the internet was not working. Seemed that the modem couldn't latch a signal. Talked to RCN. They said they would send someone in a week. Back to sleep for a time. Up later, cats, shower, feeling groggy. Down basement and very brief drums. Morning practices. Loaded up my car with all the stuff I'd need for the evening's rehearsal. Stopped at the donut shop for an egg sandwich. Read an article on Jeff Daniels.

In at the office, they had done some work cleaning the carpets, but the blue tarps still hung from the ceiling. A meeting was going on in my office. Got a bit of work done, continuing my little backwards project. Walked out and picked up programs from the printer. Briefly walked through Tower. It's being liquidated. There was something depressing about it. Met Shawn at 6:15. "Drama?"

Stopped at his place to pick up his sticks, then to Third Life for rehearsal of the Caravan performance. Things went pretty well, although I have a feeling some of the last minute choreography isn't going to be remembered. Very bright projector. New battery for my electric guitar. Broke a string in Branding Iron. Unfortunately, had to pack everything up. Gave Shawn a ride home.

Back to my place, Leo the cat was sick. Sequestered him in the downstairs bathroom, and administered fluids. I think perhaps it's bad cat-food. MB and I cleaned up. I had some leftover Chinese food. MB and I both felt pretty wiped out. Now, down basement.

Three Peeps

Thursday: Slept in a little after another late night. Email. Cats. Shower. Down basement and some more email and morning practices. Drums. Guitar. Up a level and had some coffee and pasta. Chilly grayness continues outside. Picked up leaves from the ficus tree.

In to work, and continued on my stream reversal project. Some discussion with Dv and Al about how to merge our code together. And so, of course, griping about the horrible SCC that we are now saddled with. Left at 7:30.

Over to Union. A good class tonight. Three peeps, one from the first level, one who has become a regular, and one person who came to an intro. Some cell calls. Picked up Chinese food. Home. MB in the shower. Food. Emailing and stuff. Now down basement.

Dragonfly

Wednesday: Up, feeling less of the devil bug on my shoulder. Email. Hanging with the cats for a bit. Shower. Had a lovely breakfast of eggs and such. Emailing about someone who is asking for something back that was left at my (then) apartment, 13 years ago. Down basement, a few moments of drums, morning sitting, guitar.

In to work. Stopped at the old recording co-op that I used to be a part of (where the vocals for the first Sabot CD, and all the rhythm tracks for the second, were recorded.) Trying to reclaim some equipment. No luck, but it does look like the studio still exists, so there's a little hope.

In at work Al back from Africa. Talked to him a bit. Talked to Dv about a data presentation interface to the third party hardware subsystem that he helps to maintain. Worked on doing a bit that allows data to come out in reverse order, even though most of the system thinks its going forward. Burrito.
Found a wonderful band: My Brightest Diamond. Check this out. Jeff Buckley returned in female form? Talked to Crln briefly.

Back home, hello to MB. Reading. Down basement. Guitar. Email, and more email. Now completing the day.

Devil bug knocking/phone calls

Tuesday: Woke feeling like the devil bug was scratching at my door. Oh, that's just the cat. Email. Back to sleep. Shower, cats. Reheated some coffee. Had a nice phone-call with Kty from MD. Breakfast, and down basement. Morning sitting. And off to work. The drearys continue.

At the office, the tarps and ick was still in the main space. Didn't write any code today. All design. Realized some previous design work I'd done was mistaken. Coffee. Reassured RPT that some code of his I'd moved around was the correct version. Late in the day, got a burrito. Headed home around 9:30.

Hello to MB. Made some tea, and put away a pile of DVDs and CDs that had been staring at me for weeks. Down basement. Long conversation with Nc from OR and then Chln. Finally around to guitar. Now, completing the day.

Raining indoors

Monday: Woke around 9:30. Email. Back to bed for more glorious sleeps. Up, shower, cats. Breakfast of cereal and coffee. Strained my wrist slightly trying to open a very stubborn jar of preserves. Down basement, drums and morning practices. Took a long time today. Off to work.

Pretty productive day, putting more polish on my "data transcription" project. Did the thing to bump out the EOFs to avoid fragmentation. The drop ceiling is all torn out with wires and tubes hanging down. They're working on the climate control. Then, the roof started leaking and streams of water poured down from above. Some of my colleagues arranged waste baskets to catch most of the flow. Later in the evening the building manager showed up to hang some tarps to consolidate the dripping. Headed home around 10:30. Stopped for some not-so-good pizza. The garlic shaker had big holes and dumped garlic granules all over my slice. Bad pizza shop! Did a grocery run at Porter Sq. Dropped a copy of Zooter's CD off at F&M's.

Back home, unloaded groceries. Hung out with MB in the kitchen for a bit. Watched this video, and laughed so hard I couldn't breath. Down basement and guitar for an hour. Email.

Caravan rehearsal

Sunday: Woke at 7:30, MB heading to rehearsal of the Caravan at Third Life. Up, shower, cats, down basement. Arrived at Third Life at 9 AM. Ran back home to pick up DI boxes. Interesting seeing the show come together. Things got off to a bit of a slow start. I stayed until noon. Back home, and a mentor session with Wnd. Good questions.

A couple of slices of pizza for lunch, watching 24. Some reading. MB came home around 3. Nap. Up, then some coffee. Reading. MB headed out to pick up something from Bn. Gave Crln a call. Sorted through my wallet. Food, listening to a debate about Iraq. Emptied the dishwasher. Now, down basement. Guitar and completing the day await.

Trending

Saturday: Woke around 9. Email. Cats. MB got back from doing some dance practice. A little breakfast. Another hour of sleep. Shower. Down basement, sitting. Talked to Chrln on the phone for about an hour. Productive.

Upstairs, a grilled cheese and coffee for lunch. reading. Around 4 MB headed out to do a BD performance for a birthday party. I drove up to visit Chrln. A good business meeting. Headed home, stopping in for some quite poor fast food. MB is out at a BD gig. Now, down basement.

Cultural Learnings

Friday: Woke around 9:30. Didn't get much sleep, but felt nicely rested. Email. Cats. Shower. The house cleaning people arrived. Fed cats. Down basement, and had a nice conversation with Tracey Lynne. Noticed people, kids probably, have been throwing balloons filled with day-glo paint at the house, but not aiming very well. Morning stuff. Sending out receipts for some payments received. Off to work. Stopped at the bank to deposit some NET checks.

In at the office and a food bar. Worked on completing some ancillary subsystems for the data transcription engine I've been working on. Went out for a break and to get some food. B was out of the office today. Worked until 6:45.

Back home, couldn't turn down my block, because a cop car was blocking traffic. Eventually they left. Picked up MB, and drove to Union for Bi Bim Bap and sushi. Told her something about my preparation for the GC Level 3 in '03. Took a walk. Headed to Revere to see Borat. Quite funny. Back home, made the bed with just-washed sheets. Set up the schedule on the thermostats. MB said goodnight. Some coffee and a cheese sandwich.

Well rested

Thursday: Woke feeling well rested and not unhealthy. A welcome change. Cats, shower, down basement, some drums, morning stuff. Off. Cloudy, then, a lovely day.

Got a sandwich and coffee before sitting down to my desk. Working on some more nitty-gritty details on multiple pass of my new data transcription subsystem. Later some disappointing pizza. Left work at 7:30.

Over to Union Square and class. Just K showed up. I took the opportunity to fly without a chart.

Back home, and hello to MB, who was napping on the futon upstairs. Folding laundry. Email, standing in the kitchen. Some leftover Indian food, with Gus trying to steal butter.

Both Houses

Wednesday: Up around 8:20. Shower, cats, down basement. Headed out at 9:35. Lots of traffic on the off-ramp to Storrow, so tried to find my way through Boston. Got a little lost. To the dentist's office by 10:10. Experiments with sensitivity to cold. Cleaning. Got an egg sandwich at the bagel shop. Rainy day.

In at the office, and more tweaks and fixes to my recent data recording subsystem. Watching the election results. Quite pleased. Burrito. Down to meet Shawn at 7:30.

Back to my place, and practice for a little over an hour. Decided to call it early tonight. Watched some clips on the web. Gave him a ride home. Cleaning people didn't come today. MB had arrived when I returned home. She made some tomato soup/magma and cheese toast, which we enjoyed. Victor stopped by to pick up speaker stands.

Colrain and the last few days

Friday: Woke to Tony G on the phone. He convinced me to come out to the Roundhouse. Up, packed the car, in to work. Good progress. Headed out around 5 PM. Arrived in Colrain at 7:40. Stuffed peppers for dinner. Some evening music.

Saturday: Up early and then sitting in the cottage. Furry pancakes. C Major Arpeggios. AT work. Practicing walking in and out of green room to stage. Soup for lunch. Talking about what is necessary. Tom sings a song about our deities. Put together a pretty decent concert for the evening. Victor played the Paganini piece he's been working on.

Sunday: Up early again, and sitting in the cottage (no mice this time). Talk about the performance over breakfast. Upstairs and a sitting. At 10:15 RF arrived (I wasn't expecting him). A big circle with some talk. More pitiable attempts are circulating C Triads. Lunch. Robert was happy to eat some pumpkin pie and ice cream. Then, winding down. The final meeting (with dogs). Tom gave me back my checks. The money had been raised in a group effort, though the instructors were still not given full compensation. Goodbyes. Driving home in separate cars. MB too tired to go see Borat. A voice in my ear during evening practice "You Finished." Not exactly a happy thought.

Monday: Up and ran some errands. Laundry. In to work and getting a new transcription subsystem up and running. Burrito. Feeling sniffily. Zinc. Home late. Long and interesting talk with Cln. Posting assignments.

Tuesday: Up fairly early and then drove up to NH to visit Cln, stopping to vote. Interesting potential business partnership. In to work, and continuing to iron out bugs. Decided not to go to yoga. Back home around 8:30, some practice. Doing some stuff for MB's performance. Dems looking like they're doing pretty well tonight. MA has it's first black governor.

Paying bills

Thursday: Woke at 7. MB headed off to work. Shower. Cats. Coffee, breakfast of eggs. Down basement for sitting. A thought occurred to me about how to solve the financial mess the course has turned into. Called Tony to float it past him. He didn't like it. He talked me out of it. So, packing.

Headed to work, stopping for kitty litter, vitamin C and zinc. At the office, got a voice message from the Director of Level T asking if we should renegotiate with the proprietor to reduce our payment. I had to wait a little while to call Tom back. In that time I made up my mind. I was not going to let good people doing good work go without their pay. Having TG and SBC schlepp around the countryside for no money is unacceptable.

Back home, paying bills. Wrote a letter to be read at the inaugural meeting. MB came home, and I let her know about the change in plans. This caused some upset, and we spent an hour or so working through it. I almost was convinced to go to the course at one point.

Tony actually gave me the insight that set me on this path last night. He asked "Is this course necessary." The answer is obviously, to me, "No." This is why it's so expensive. We scheduled the course because we had a nice experience, and figured we could do something with the time. This is not the right way to plan a Guitar Craft course. There has to be a need. Something has to be asking to be born. Thinking about attending the course, I realized would feel like going on vacation. A lovely vacation, with good food, and strong practice on the guitar. But, my work was elsewhere. My work was, cleaning up the financial mess caused by booking an unnecessary course. And, coincidentally (as if these things could ever be coincidences) the amount that I could earn at my job while the course was going on, almost exactly equaled the deficit.

Eventually MB came around to my way of looking at it, or at least realized I wasn't going to be happy if she forced me to change my mind. She headed off. I took a walk to drop something in the mail. A little later, Victor called trying to convince me to come to the course. After that conversation, I headed back to work.

But here's a question: What could ever possibly be necessary about playing guitar?

Worked for a good chunk of time. Got a burrito. Cold out. Sensing the life of the course. Worked until about 10:20. Back home, practicing guitar. SBC called and said they were going to sell slots on Level T staff for $25 a head to raise cash. And she was still giving me the "Oh, I wasn't expecting to be paid. It's not about the money" line. Sweet of her. Made me feel like shite.

A bit more guitar practice. Checking email. MB called to say hello. She said that everybody wished I was there. I doubt she took a poll, but it was a nice thing to say. I've had a lot of that today, earnest people saying nice things that leave me feeling completely flat. It's very simple. There's a hole. I'm filling it.

It's only cash and that is all, why should I feel the way I do?

Wednesday: Fairly focused morning. Cats, email, some breakfast. Down basement and took care of some stuff, so I could get to bed earlier in the evening. Some tidying. Dropped some books in the mail. In to work.

Pretty productive day today, filling in the last of the big gaps in my stub functions. Close to having lift-off. Coffee. Met Shawn at 7:30 down at the bench. Finances for the Roundhouse course weighing on my mind. Well, its only money.

Back to my house, hello to MB, then in the basement in my little studio. Putting together a set for the Third Life gig that MB is organizing. Then recording our pieces. I was not playing well tonight. Interesting hearing the difference between acoustic and electric guitars on the same material. Gave Shawn a ride home. Some email in the basement. Some food. Took out garbage.

Car inspection, lots of email

Tuesday: Woke up thinking it was Wednesday. When I discovered it was Tuesday, it was like someone had given me 24 hours! A busy morning of email, guitar, cats, drums, being in the basement, more email. Dropped some stuff in the mail at the PO. Drove a snakish route to get my car inspected. Picked up a veggie burger while waiting. Ate while driving.

Pretty productive day at work. Ripped out a class I had written just a few weeks ago, that I realized wasn't really a good idea. Got everything linking, with a few stub functions to fill in. Email. Walked out and deposited my pay, and other checks I'd been holding for some time. Pizza, which I carried back to my desk. Phone conversations. Wnd said she has a date with a good friend of mine! More work. Headed home around 10.

When I got in, MB was on the phone with Christine. Coffee. A little hanging with MB. Guitar. Email.