As It Turned Out...

 

Yesterday was particularly unlucky for over a million airline passengers, who found themselves in the middle of an hours long, nation-wide ground stop.  Ultimately, the explanation for the shut down was determined to be antiquated equipment that was overloaded.  On a non-holiday Friday.  Yes, that seems odd to me, but I am not a conspiracy theorist.  Glad I don't have to be traveling anywhere on the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday week.

Or, if we should choose to travel, it will be in the RoadTrek so Murphy and Stella can be with us.  But, we don't have anything planned (well, we do play to do Thanksgiving with Steph and Dan)... with the unusual wet fall we've had, there are places within a couple hours of us that had severe damage from flooding, including some of the scenic roads in northern Arizona.  Less desire to go west because California is requiring anyone traveling with animals to have a vet health certificate due to the screw worm situation.  And, that didn't happen on Friday the 13th.  Snow is predicted over the the next few days for the higher elevations in northern Arizona.

So, I don't see any travel in our near term.  Except for gigs for the Hip Replacements today and tomorrow.  Speaking of which, good news for today's gig: the weather looks to be cooperative for us to perform outside and for vendors to be set up, and Banner Health (who is putting this on) people will then move indoors for their award presentations.  Which means we don't have to provide a PA for them, which means we can tear down and load out immediately after we're done playing.  Which means way less idle time for us.  Last I heard, we'll be playing for about an hour and 15 minutes.  Easy.

So, for some soothing, here is an image of the first light of the day coming under the clouds over South Mountain...

 Murphy and I were out before the sun came up - that light on the clouds lasted a very short time, less than 3 minutes, constantly changing.  That was the peak of it.  Timing.  Lucky.  Because it is Saturday, the 14th.  :-)

 

I Ain't Afraid Of No...

 

If you said, "Ghosts - from the song Ghostbusters, by Ray Parker, Jr, from the movie Ghostbusters," you get 3 bonus points.

Only 3?  Oh, come on, that may have been the easiest music trivia question ever posted here.  Nothing to do with ghosts, but today is Friday the 13th.  There are fears around this date.  Do you know the difference between triskaidekaphobia and paraskevidekatriaphobia?  Both are fears related to the number 13, but they target different scopes.

Triskaidekaphobia is the fear or avoidance of the number 13 itself, no matter the context or day of the week.  Paraskevidekatriaphobia (also called friggatriskaidekaphobia) is the specific fear of Friday the 13th.  An interesting (??) bit of word trivia regarding today's date.

Am I afraid of Friday the 13th?  No, I am not superstitious...

 

I will, however, spend the day indoors, wrapped in bubble wrap, and not have any contact with the outside world.  So, no motorcycle or bicycle ride.  No walking under ladders.  Being especially careful around mirrors.  We don't have any black cats, so I'm probably OK there.

But, I'm not superstitious.  ;-)

 

Take A Stand...

 

Umm... the election was last week, Jim.

Not that kind of stand.  One of the Hip Replacement gigs a few weeks ago was in a place where there was a 2-story open, atrium type design.  Looks nice, not great for the acoustics.  An amp stand that would allow me to tilt the amp back... surprisingly (to me), Mark had an extra amp stand.  It makes a difference in being able to hear the amp better and give it a better spread.

I decided to add an amp stand to my gear.  Because I don't have enough stuff to carry.  (humor)  Last Friday at Allan's, I used one of his amps, on a stand.  That cinched it for me.  I have some "rewards" money at Musician's Friend - enough that would pay for a stand.  Almost like "free."

I looked at a bunch of different amp stands; considered a set of Fender tilt-back legs.  I like the idea of those, but I was thinking something that would get the amp up off the floor, and have some adjustability in the angle of the tilt.  I decided on one that is built similar to a tripod leg mic stand; and, I can use it on any of my amps.

It came in yesterday while I was at rehearsal.  Here is how it looks with the amp on a stand...

 Very sturdy, adjustable angle.  This will be good on Saturday's gig, if we are able to play outside (the weather is looking a bit iffy right now).

On another inexpensive gear front: while out for lunch today, we weren't too far from a Guitar Center.  I have been using "boutique" guitar pics.  They make a difference on my acoustic guitars, but I don't hear any difference on my electric guitars.  We stopped at Guitar Center and I picked up a 12-pack of Fender Heavy pics.  $8.  Yes, I am almost thrifty.  ;-)

 I like this particular Guitar Center.  (in Tempe)

I Believe In Music...

 

If you said, "Mac Davis, 1971, from the album of the same name," you get 20 bonus points.  If you asked, "Who's Mac Davis?" - get off my lawn ya damn whippersnapper.

Music today at Mark's; rehearsal for the Hip Replacements.  We have two gigs this weekend: Saturday is an outdoor performance at Banner Health downtown; it is a Spotlight on Alzheimer's event, the public is welcome.  Right now, there is a 30% chance of rain for Saturday, so we'll see if it goes off as planned.  We did this event last year and wound up playing inside, thanks to a pounding rain.  They are planning for 25 vendors to be set up - the vendor portion was cancelled last year due to the rain.

On Sunday the 15th, we have our last gig of the year at Pizzicata - Happy Hour again, 3:00 to 5:00.

Last gig of the year?  Yeah; Mark goes in for another back surgery on the 17th.  He is anticipating a longer recovery time on this one.  So, nothing else scheduled for a while.

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A good rehearsal today - we nailed down things for both gigs this weekend.  Set lists are ready.  Ron surprised us with some new percussion items today...

 And one you can't see: a nice seat pad for the cajon.  The snare adds a lot, and allows Ron to play in a more upright position.  A good addition.

 

Another Morning Ride...

 

Ebike today, rather than a motorized conveyance.  Another beautiful morning; it was 70º when I left the house.  For all the grousing I do about the summer heat, this time of year is pretty darn nice (just wish it lasted longer).  As the northland moves towards being "the frozen northland," the autumn days here are welcome.

I have a bit of a "route," that takes me through a large city park, then south and west through another neighborhood.  This keeps me away from the majority of the traffic.

 Photos taken with my Oakley Vanguard Meta glasses.

 

X Max the Spot...

 

Yes, I took the weekend off.  No blog post here for 2 whole days.  Everything is fine here, thanks for asking.  Joan's fine, I'm fine, the cats are fine.  "The neighbors" are fine.  We're all fine.

No, that title isn't a typo.  I took Joan's Xmax out this morning.  I'll say it again: that is a fun scoot; faster than my Burgman, more nimble than my CTX.

 A glorious morning.  Sunshine and bright blue sky.  Comfortably cool.  I left the house just after 9:15, so there was almost no traffic on the surface streets.  Even less on the mountain.  

The scoot...

 The happy rider...

 Great way to start the day!

Music at Allan's today...

 

This is not the Hip Replacements, or the Brothers MIM.  I call this group "the Allan Lindsay Project," or "the local guys."  (3 of us are within 5 minutes of each other.)

Some background on this - we would generally get together every other week.  Allan's wife Carole, was suffering from a terminal illness, and it has been a couple months since we've gotten together to jam.  Allan's wife passed about two weeks ago... and he invited us guys to his place today to make some music.

The mood was not jovial, as you'd expect, but I think each of us wanted to be there for Allan.  We made some music.  I took a few photos...

Allan above, Bob below...

Joe above, Tony below...

Yours truly making a selfie...

 While taking a break, I offered Bob a try with my PRS...

 Bob also plays guitar.

This is a good bunch of guys.  The music is not my style, but it's another circle of friends.  I think I speak for all the guys in that this was being there for Allan.