It looked smaller on the internet...

 

When the guy at Guitar Center wheeled out the drums, I was surprised by the size of the box.  Even more surprised by the weight of the box.  He put it in the car for us.  It took both Joan and me to get it out of the car and into the house.

My music room is compact... the box felt like it filled the room.  And when you open the box...

 

Even more boxes.  There is another layer of boxes below what you see in the photo above.  Reviews online said it took them an hour to set the drums up.  I carefully considered how each drum trigger attached... apparently, that careful consideration takes time.  It took me closer to two hours.

Almost done...

Yes, red trim on the cymbals and drum shells.  Probably why I got a good deal on it.  The exact same set in all back wasn't on that "Stupid Deal of the Day."  Functionally, they are identical.  As I added each stand, drum, and cymbal, I wondered if I was going to have room to move around it in that small room.  Once together, I adjusted the rack to make the whole set more compact.

This set is replacing a very small electronic drum set that I have used for several years for recording.  It's a compromise between that small set and a more typical set of acoustic drums - the electronic drums can be used with headphones and not drive other occupants out of the house... not exactly silent, but not much more noise than tapping your foot.  And, these e-drums are physically smaller than acoustic drums.  Still, they take up a good chunk of floor space.

One of the other advantages of e-drums is the variety of sounds you can get out of them.  There are a good selection of acoustic drum kits in the drum module (the "brains" of the e-drums), plus another 600 or so sounds, most of which the average person will never use.  I did find the cowbell, in case I feel the need for... more cowbell (Saturday Night Live reference).

I played for a while last night, using the headphones.  Joan went to the store today, so I had the chance to plug these into a PA and hear what they sound like amplified.  Pretty darn good, actually.  I could easily annoy the neighbors on either side of our house.  ;-)  But, I won't.  I'll use them for recording; and, they're a pretty good physical workout, too.  I have the aching muscles to prove that.

Joan shot this right before she went to the store...

 

That was before all that playing wore me out.  ;-)

Bait and Switch?

 

I got an e-mail this morning for the "Stupid Deal of the Day" from Musician's Friend.  It was a good deal and on an item I was considering.  The price moved me off the fence.  Joan tried to order it online and it came in $50 higher than the advertised price.  Tried again and when put in the cart, it came in at full price.  Not much of a deal.

I called them and spoke to a nice young lady who saw what I was talking about.  Her computer wouldn't let her enter it at the "Stupid Deal" price, either.  She put me on hold while she spoke with her manager.  I was pretty sure she would get this issue resolved.  Nope, she gave me some double talk about "a systems error," and said her manager said she could go 7% off the regular price.  I would truly be "stupid" to take that deal.  She said she'd keep working on her manager and get back to me.

In the meantime, I called a related music store in Brownsville and asked if they'd match the "Stupid Deal" price... I was told, "We will - we'll just have to see the e-mail."  Yep, I still had the e-mail.

We drove to Brownsville and picked it up.  No hassle - they looked at the e-mail, matched the price, and brought it out to the car for us.

Some assembly required - I spent the afternoon setting up my new electronic drums.  When I was done, there was an e-mail from the nice young lady at Musician's Friend - she got her manager to come down to the $50 over the advertised price.  IF it was a mistake, you would think it would be smart business to give the customer the advertised price and take down the ad.  Or, they could have said, "Sorry we sold out," which would have been false, but better than calling it "a systems error"... not smart business on their part.  Odds are pretty good it won't be the last music equipment I'll buy, but I won't be making any purchases from them again.  I would give the young lady two thumbs up for making the effort, and a big thumbs down for Musician's Friend management.

Still at it...

 

Still "moving back in"... well, we are in the house, the motorhome is in its storage unit, but still getting things in order at the house.  Today, it was the deck: patio furniture in place, the deck cleaned, and the patio matt tacked down.  I cut the tie-wraps keeping the sun-screens wrapped up, and Joan got them down... it helps with the afternoon sun and makes it feel more like another room out there.

On the getting back to living side, I got in a bicycle ride this morning (first since we left South Dakota) and we got take out for lunch - Burger Fi.  Best burger we've had in a long time.  Got the car washed and ran a few errands.  I picked up mail and had a nice visit with our neighbor Susan (who has been getting our mail).  The resort is pretty quiet right now, very different from when we left in June.

I got my music room semi-set-up.  I need to get some guitars out of their undisclosed secure location and on the wall.  I did get to spend some time with the Yamaha stuff - no, not Joan's scooter, rather the 12-channel mixer and the THR30ii amp.

Getting there.

 

 

Will the fun never...

 

... start?  ;-)

We enjoy being out and about with the motorhome, but this moving back in stuff is a lot of work.  We went after it again this morning, heading back out to the storage unit to bring in one more load.  It is amazing how much stuff that motorhome can hold!

A few photos from yesterday that I didn't get downloaded: a fire alongside the road...

 Seems that a semi hauling giant bales of cotton had a tire problem and when he pulled off the road, the heat from the wheel set the grass on fire.  Fire department crews were arriving on the scene as we got close - we could see the flames under the trailer.  It appeared that they had it under control before it could spread to the cotton bales.

When we first put the motorhome away...

We had the CR-V and the cargo trailer loaded down.  Our trip to the storage unit today was with an empty car, no trailer.  Joan did an impressive job of packing everything in...

More unloading and putting away when we got home.  Then, we went after the trailer; all the stuff was unloaded, but we needed to unstrap the scoots, pull the chocks out, move the trailer, then repark the scoots so they can be ridden again.  Sometime.  Even if the roads around here can't begin to compare to those in the Black Hills.

There is still plenty to do around the house - the next big tasks will be getting the music room set up again and getting everything set up on the deck.  We've been watching weather here, and the days have been in the low 80s for a high, lows in the low 70s.  Pretty darn nice.  We need to get this work done so we can get out there and enjoy it.

Be it ever so humble...

 

Yes, we are home.  This last driving day was typical deep south Texas: some palm trees and a headwind.  I don't know why, any direction we are heading here is a headwind.

Enroute today, I commented to Joan about a classy-looking toterhome with a large double-level trailer that was passing us.  About 10 seconds later, her phone rang... it was our friend Pete (he is the one who built our house), calling from that toterhome.  He knew I'd be driving, so called on Joan's phone.  Nice to visit with him.  He'll be home before we are.  ;-)  (I keep it around 65mph.)

We stopped at a Loves gas station, with a plan to fuel up and get an Arby's brisket sandwich; and, of course, get Rufus his lunch.  One out of three: fuel at this station was about 20¢ per gallon less than other stations in the area - apparently that word was out because the traffic fighting to get a spot at a fuel pump was crazy.  I took a pass on the fuel.  Same with Arby's - Joan made us a sandwich while I fed Rufus, and we rolled.  I had plenty of range left on the fuel we had.

Our plan: stop at our storage unit and drop off the motorhome; load up the car and cargo trailer, and head for home.  We can't get it all in one trip, but we'd have to drive back to the storage unit anyway.  The only downside: Rufus is not a fan of car rides.  He does great in the motorhome, but he has all his stuff and room to move around.  He did fine, though.

Without a bunch of trips to and from the motorhome, we had everything unloaded and mostly put away within two hours.

Rufus seems happy to be home: he hugged his toy (it travels with us)...

 And was even happier to be in "his big chair"...

That is the chair Joan bought when I was recuperating from the hip replacement... it is big, wide, and electric.  And, Rufus loves it.  

There will be more moving in, but right now, it feels good to be back home.  It was a great summer out, and now "another summer" back in the Tropical Tip.

Three into 4...

 

If you said, "1 1/3," you have an analytical mind.  If you said, "I need more information," you are practical.  If you said, "Driving in the corridor between Georgetown (north of Austin) and San Antonio," you have been there and done that.  No bonus points because this wasn't the kind of entertainment I want to encourage.

Heading south today, the most expeditious routing keeps us on I-35 through Austin.  It has been a few years since we've been on this stretch of Interstate.  Back in the 90s, it was in a constant state of construction... the population grew so fast that the infrastructure of roads couldn't keep up with it.

Nothing has changed.

Texas road engineers have a sick sense of humor: "We need to expand from our three lanes on each side to four lanes."  The normal person would say: "They should have planned ahead and allowed space for more lanes."

The Texas road engineer says, "Let's take the space we allowed for three lanes and divide it into four lanes."

Being normal, you would say, "But doesn't that narrow each lane down by a significant amount?  Is that even safe for big rigs?"

To which Texas road engineers would reply, "What are you, some kind of candy-ass safety nut?  They drive faster than that on NASCAR tracks, and they don't even paint lanes on there!"

And then a second Texas road engineer who was eavesdropping says, "We can save the state a bunch of money if we just add some extra lane lines and don't remove the old lines."

To which the first Texas road engineer would say, "That's a great idea, and let's rip the shit out some of the lanes for no reason!"

Then, they all laugh their sick laughs and take a 3 hour lunch break.

That's what we dealt with today.  Well, it is what I dealt with... Rufus kept nudging me and saying, "Is it time for lunch, yet" and Joan helpfully pointed out, "You have a semi coming up on the right and you are close to that white line."

So, that was fun.

On the bright side, we are down early.  We'll start gathering stuff to make it easier to unload tomorrow... yes, if all goes as planned, we'll be home tomorrow.

No photos today... I guess I was feeling lazy while piloting the circus train.

A wandering eye...

 

For another spousal unit?  No way.  Getting Rufus a little sister?  No, he is quite happy getting all our attention.  A different ride?  Well...

We took my Vespa into AF1 Racing to get a new rear tire today.  I made the appointment before we left the Black Hills, so we planned an extra day in the Austin area.  1:00 this afternoon is what we set up, so that gave us some time to run around unhooked from the motorhome this morning.  One stop was a must...

If you said, "Chick-fil-A," you know me well.  I have been craving one of their chicken sandwiches since before we got to the Black Hills in June.  Yes, it was as good as I remembered

Digressing?  It's what I do.  Back to the wandering eye.  I like my Vespa... but AF1 has some very nice new options.  There was a blue Vespa GTS, and a silver matt Piaggio BV350, both very striking...

 Pretty, huh?  The salesman, Sean, suggested I take each one for a ride.  Yep, both very nice bikes.