Slapping da bass...

If you were picturing me slapping a fish, you loose 100 bonus points.

Bass, not bass... um, pronounced: "base not bass"... still confusing.

I have been considering picking up an inexpensive bass guitar for recording.  The various music/guitar shops that have been sending me "holiday special" e-mails, several a day since before Thanksgiving, apparently thought I should, too.

After a fine Italian meal for lunch, Joan suggested we take a little drive to Brownsville.

"Brownsville?"

"Guitar Center."

"Oh..."

I had an e-mail offer from them, about a dozen of them, suggesting that I could get 15% off.  Well, there was a Fender Squier Vintage Bass that looked pretty decent on one of the websites.  It had decent reviews, too.  A quick check on-line showed that the Brownsville store had one in stock.

It was an interesting drive there - we haven't been this way since last spring... lots of oil rigs being built in the port.  Pipelines being assembled alongside the highway.  And, traffic.  Brownsville always seems to have heavy traffic.

We went into Guitar Center and were greeted by my new best friend, Sam.  I told him what I was looking for, and he didn't even wince when I emphasized "inexpensive."  He showed me the Squier model I was interested in... it was a heavy beast and didn't sound all that great.  He brought me another.  And another.  They actually had a decent selection of bass guitars in my price range.  It was between an Ibanez Mikro short-scale bass and a Yamaha not-quite so short-scale.  Sam pulled out a sunburst model Yamaha... which Joan liked.  Sold.

He had one that was still in the box.  Back through the Brownsville traffic and home.  Opening the box, I found that the bass was protected from aliens and secret government mind probing projects... there was a foil cover over the head of the bass...

I plugged it in and quietly tuned it up.  Nice sunburst finish (a bit more red than the one in the store) and a decent sound.  Even in small scale, the neck seems long (34" scale vs the 24 - 25.5" of my six string guitars).

This would be considered "a beginner bass" - seems appropriate since I would be a beginner bass player (a whole different technique from my 6-string guitars).

Gray Seas...

No, there were no gray seas today - it was an absolutely beautiful day again today.  This morning, the house was filled with music and a quilt-alteration project.  After lunch, we decided to take the boat out for a couple hours.

The dredge pipe has been rising and sinking in our canal, as the dredge pumps slurry through it.  Of course, the best timing would be to get out while the dredge is pumping so we wouldn't have to scrape our way over the pipe... unfortunately, there is no way to predict when it will or will not be pumping anything through that pipe.

As we got the boat ready, the pipe was floating... then, sank enough that we could get over it.  The dredge is on the other side of a bridge from us, and there is no way to see them and vice versa.

By the time we got to the third crossing, the pipe was coming back up to the surface... motor up and off, and we got across.  Back down with the motor to move up the canal, and repeat...

With Joan at the front of the boat, she could see where the pipe was - working together, we got out.

Very little breeze today, the water was flat and pretty...

Heading out the Port Isabel Channel, we came across some familiar faces...

Mike and MJ's boat is named Gray Seas, because...

This is Gracie, and she lets Mike and MJ go out on her boat.  (Gracie's... Gray Seas... get it?)  Pulled up by each other, we visited for a while.  MJ said the dolphins weren't being very social today - we were just looking to get out on this beautiful day, but she was right: we did not see a single dolphin.

But, it was a lovely day and nice to be out and about on the water.  Very little boat traffic of any kind today...

Well, this one crewboat coming up behind us...

Coming back in, this Great Blue Heron kept an eye on us...

Once again, the pipe was positioned differently from when we went out.  Two "scrapes," one drift across, and one right out from our dock that we cleared as we rotated to come to the dock.  Not long after tying off, the pipe came floating up...

Good timing - it would have been a pain to get across it and get rotated with the motor up.  I'm crediting good clean living.  ;-)

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I know what you're thinking: "What about Izzy?"

Yep, sweet.  A year now with this boat and we haven't taken her out on it.  She did fine with Wild Blue, but there was a secure cabin with a comfy V-berth for cat naps.  Maybe one of these days if the dredge is ever out of here, making our departure and return less ... um... dicey.

Mele Kalikimaka...

If you said, "Bing Crosby (and the Andrews Sisters), 1950," you are probably older than I am.  If you said, "Jimmy Buffett, 1996," that's more like it.  No bonus points, but I would suggest a holiday margarita before day's end.

There was some discussion on the carbon fiber guitar forum where I participate about Christmas songs.  I play a few - I mentioned that I learned Mele Kalikimaka yesterday.  The discussion morphed towards ukuleles.  Someone said, "You should play that song on a uke."

I mentioned, "I have a uke... somewhere around here."

This morning, Joan got it out.  Oh, I could have gotten it out, but it was behind some other stuff and there would have been a melee of stuff strewn about.  That's melee, not Mele.  But, I digress.  I haven't had that uke out in years...

If you look close, there is a Hawiian print throw behind me on the chair.  Not just for this song, it's always there.  I quit wearing Hawaiian print shirts when that became "a thing;" not giving up the throw, though.  Sometimes I miss the annual trips we used to make to Hawaii, back when we lived in the frozen northland, but I really resent what commercial flying has become.  Yep, digressing again.  Back to the uke: it was horribly out of tune.  I truly couldn't remember what note for each string, so I had to refer to that sheet beside me on the arm of the chair.  Quickly in tune, I remembered that I couldn't remember a single chord.  Back to that sheet.

I played Mele Kalikimaka, then threw in Over the Rainbow.  By that time, the pointy edge of the uke was cutting into my forearm.  I have really gotten spoiled by how comfortable my Emerald guitars are!  I don't think I'll be making the uke a regular part of my repertoire.

After lunch out (Texas has some fine BBQ, by the way), we took a drive by the beach.  Like yesterday, beautiful water.  Not a lot of people out there, but we enjoyed one guy kite surfing on a foil.  And, just taking it all in...

Back home, the real reason I post...

Yeah, she's so darn cute.  Sweet, too.  What?  That reminds you of me?  I was thinking that, too, but didn't want to bring it up... since you did: yes, I agree.

And let me be the first to wish you: Mele Kalikimaka!

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On edit:  "That Izzy is so photogenic!  Does she pose like that all the time?"

She used to.  Some days...

;-)

Porpoising...

"Porpoising" is not the act of watching dolphins.  ;-)

Porpoising is the name for the high speed piercing motion of dolphins and some other species, in which long, ballistic jumps are alternated with sections of swimming close to the surface. Analysis of this behavior showed that above a certain “crossover” speed this behavior is energetically advantageous, as the reduction in drag due to movement in the air becomes greater than the added effort of leaping.

I've seen this with Orcas when they are chasing prey; not so much with our local dolphins.  We were treated to some of this behavior today.

First things first: we were able to get out of our canal, over the dredge pipes - had to "jump" three of them, but the wind was light and from the east, so it wasn't pushing us backwards as we tried to cross.  Making it into the next canal...

I've mentioned before that our canals open into the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway - here's the view of a tug and barge passing by the canal, in the ICW...

Yep, that's close.

It was a beautiful day today, with temps near 80 and clear blue skies; a perfect day to be out on the water.  We saw very few small boats, but plenty of commercial vessels...

Not typical around here: an airboat...

Back to the commercial stuff...

At this point, we saw one lone dolphin near those barges - no, we weren't going to go closer to investigate; these folks are hard at work.  We continued out to the jetties area...

The pretty water in that area...

Then, our first decent view of dolphins...

The fishing must have been good in this area - there were pelicans and dolphins all around (and only one small fishing boat)...

The dolphin came up right underneath this pelican and sent him flying...

The porpoising behavior I spoke of at the beginning of this post...

This particular dolphin was moving around the boat, but never in a straight line, and always at this speed.  Joan did a great job in getting photos of this, since the movement was hard to predict.

After taking this all in, we turned west, heading for home.  One of the tugs that had been working with the barges on the pipeline operation, pulled out to go for their next load...

It was constant movement with these folks today - most of the tugs/barges and crewboats were working this project.

We did stop to look at a few more dolphin along the way...

They seemed to be on a mission (perhaps heading for where the others were feeding), and heading the opposite direction from us.  We give them plenty of room.

Birds sitting where the ground of Mexiquita Flats shows at low tide...

About to turn into the PI Channel, this shrimper was heading out...

Coming back into the turning basin, and just taking in the beautiful color in the water...

Working our way back into our canal was easier than getting out.  Three "jumps" again, but in different places - they had moved pipe sections while we were out.  Just enough room to rotate at our dock and tie up.

Another gorgeous day on the water.