Let the building begin...

 

"OMG - you aren't getting a different house, are you??" Oh, hell no!

Some of the items for the pedal board (for my guitars) are starting to show up.  Thank you, Amazon.  I did make a stop at Guitar Center last week, but they didn't have a powered pedal board.  Amazon had scads of them.  Considering that I may want to add some new pedals, I wanted something that would have enough room on it for expansion.  And finding a board that has power already built in eliminates making a separate power source fit on a board.  And, while I was at it, I ordered some patch cords (to connect each of the pedals together) and a couple more pedals.

More pedals?  Yes, thanks for asking.  I was thinking I wanted a volume pedal, and Joan suggested a Wah pedal.  Some manufacturers make a combo that has both in the same pedal.  That, and a package of 6" patch cords, showed up yesterday...

The red pedal is the new one; the brown pedal on the right is one I already have, but I put it in the photo to show some size perspective.  Most wah-wah pedals are long and take up two spaces on a pedal board.  This one is more compact.

Of course, Joan wanted to hear it; so I plugged into an amp in the living room... and wah-wah-ed my way through some songs that I thought it would work on.  Joan approved.

There is a tuning pedal that should show up tomorrow.  Alas, the board itself isn't due to be delivered until Tuesday.  And I have music with the guys on Tuesday.  And then I will start working on the board.  There is a best order for hooking up pedals.  As well as seeing what fits where.  Assuming the board shows up on schedule, I'll be working on that Tuesday evening.

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And speaking of Amazon deliveries...

It's not unusual for us to get several Amazon deliveries during the day.  Yesterday (yes, a Sunday) was one of those days.  After getting two deliveries in the morning, Joan informed me that a delivery had... gone astray.  Amazon informed her that items had been delivered.  They didn't show up here.  They take a photo of the pile of packages, and the photo wasn't of our front door.

Joan got with Amazon Customer Service and starting figuring out what we need to do.  She was on the phone with them for over a half hour.  During one of the many "holds", Joan asked me to get on our neighborhood group on Facebook to see if anyone has posted that they got packages that didn't belong to them.  "Will do."  I also posted a screen shot of the delivery photo the Amazon person had taken... and noted that "they still have their Christmas doormat out," thinking someone might recognize that...

I asked Joan if she wanted me to take a walk around the neighborhood, to see if I could find her packages ("No, you'll look like a porch pirate.")  A few minutes later, there was a response to my post... from my next door neighbor: "I told Alyssia that she needs to take down her Christmas decorations."

Yep, after all that time on the phone with Amazon, the packages were right next door.  As I was walking up their driveway, Alyssia was heading towards me with an armload of packages.

A couple of the things in the packages were for me.  Oh boy, more stuff!  Not pedal board stuff, camera stuff.  Both for the DJI Pocket 3 camera; one Vine item, one I paid for.  The Pocket 3 is a great little camera, and there are a bunch of accessories made for it (I think it was the best selling camera in 2024), most of them 3rd party.  One of those accessories is a side grip; yeah, it's a grip that attaches to the side of the camera.  Duh.  Sounds basic, but it will allow me to hold the camera much steadier...

It goes in an "expansion adapter" - that's the piece wrapped around the bottom of the camera (no, not the mini tripod).  I have gotten several different expansion adapters from Vine that allow different connections to the camera.  This one is made by SmallRig, a well-known camera accessory company.

The other thing is a windshield attachment: it suctions to the windshield, then you can mount the camera to that...

I didn't have a windshield handy, but this is the glass in the patio door.  Yes, it left that "round ring mark" that Joan noticed right away, and cleaned off.  Not sure I would trust this to hold the Pocket 3 in place while going down the road, though.  (The Pocket 3 is not a rugged action-type camera.)  It came with another extension adapter made for the Pocket 3, but I could mount my Action 4 on there and not worry about it (it is rugged).

"What is all that umbrella stuff going on outside your patio door?"  You noticed that, huh?  We use a couple good size patio umbrellas out there to provide shade at different times of the day.  With yesterday getting to 80º, and our patio having a southern exposure, the umbrellas are handy.  One is somewhat stationary, the other has casters on the bottom that allow us to move it around where it is needed.  Yesterday morning, Joan was riding her stationary bicycle and I was soaking in the hot tub.  It was nice to have some shade for both of those activities.  And, yes, Murph was out there with us.  I didn't have a camera with me in the hot tub, or I would have gotten a photo of his puzzled face as he peeked over the side to check out the swirling water.