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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Posts by Zurf
Thanks for the prayers. They were answered this morning with a "yes". My dad told me that all prayers are answered, and there are only three answers you can get: yes, no, and not yet.
I'll tell you more on Thursday when I am better informed and more free to discuss.
- Zurf
But I don't really believe in luck, so if you're a prayerful person, keeping me in mind this week would be appreciated. I heard a rumor that could seriously affect my family. I've got a meeting on Thursday to address it head on. Sorry I have to be circumspect until then.
- Zurf
I used to race bicycles. In my first year I placed exactly middle in every field I entered. After three years of fairly intensive training, I continued to place exactly middle in every field I entered. So I converted my race bike to the world's shortest touring bike and never looked back.
That sounds like a bad pull D.E. I did in fact use a fair bit of medicinal bourbon. There were wineries all over in Missouri, Illinois, and Ontario. We only made it to one winery in Missouri, and it was without question the oddest winery to which I've ever been. There was a clothing optional pool at it. We opted for "with". However, the view of the lake was unrivaled.
That kind of trip schedule doesn't sound like anything new, though it's nice that Jen will get to accompany you for some of it.
- Zurf
Not too scary looking to me.
Willie Nelson. There's just too much to tell. One thing I like about him is that he remembers where he comes from and who helped him to get where he is, and does each of them a good turn whenever he is able. I heard a funny story about him about shooting the video for Beer For The Horses. The lyrics say "Whiskey for my men, and beer for the horses." So the video shows the men passing around a bottle and drinking from it. During the shoot, when the bottle got to Willie, he pitched a fit that it didn't contain real whiskey but only colored water. So he refused to continue with the shoot until a genuine bottle of whiskey was produced and used. Supposedly, the rest of the shoot got progressively "interesting." That has nothing to do with what I like about him, but is a funny story I heard recently.
- Zurf
Very nice of her, and very nice for you.
- Zurf
You might have built my camper zguitar. Wouldn't that be cool? It's a Coleman Utah (which was built by Fleetwood). On line I see a lot of things that people claim to have wrong with this model, from the ABS roofs breaking and they don't track properly and such. It does fishtail a bit at speed, but I can usually go the speed limit or close to it which is good enough for me. If not, I could always have a stabilizer put on. The ABS roof is in good shape, but I keep it treated with a UV protectant and under a breathable UV protecting tarp when stored, so that probably has something to do with it. Most kayaks I can afford are ABS plastic, and so I am familiar with how to maintain them.
Regardless of what it was like to work for the folks, my camper is going strong. I am entertained by one thing - the emergency escape notices. The thing is tented plywood held together with staples, velcro, bungee cords, and glue. If someone has to be told how to get out of it in an emergency it must not be much of an emergency!
- Zurf
S6 - Sweet!
- Zurf
I will be pleased to get back to work. The trailer is need of a bit of maintenance, but no repairs, which testifies to the quality of Fleetwood products. Most automotive products are built with an expected life of eight to ten years. This thing is now 13 years old and with proper maintenance should continue to serve us for a good while longer. My truck is another story. The engine and transmission seem to be fine - though I'm going to have the transmission checked and serviced as preventive care - but the interior has a ferocious funk. It hasn't got THE funk, which would be a good thing, but is putting up A funk which is not.
Yes, I had a guitar and even the temerity to play Gordon Lightfoot songs at a campground in Ontario, Canada with Budreiaux the competent French-Canadian listening in. I don't know what his right name was, but if it wasn't Budreiaux (or however "Boo-dro" is spelled) it would be a shame.
I am used to playing guitar at a campground and people falling on by, sharing a glass of wine or a beer, and hanging out for a time. Sometimes they'll take a turn, or if they don't play will perhaps sing a folk song they know. In all the time we were out, not one person came on by. I blame this on the drought that seems to have affected the entire eastern U.S. and southcentral Canada. Because of the drought, campfires were not permitted anywhere we stayed. Without the fires inviting camaraderie, there were no visits. The closest I got to a visit was a gentleman with a pipe stopped to listen from a nearby path, then nodded as recognition at the end of the song.
- Zurf
In case you didn't notice that I was gone, I took my family on a vacation trip. We drove through or stayed in (*) the following states and province: Virginia, West Virginia*, Kentucky, Indiana*, Illinois, Missouri*, Illinois* again, Iowa (forgot that one on facebook update), Indiana again, Michigan*, Ontario*, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and home to Virginia. The total pulling my camper trailer was 2,516 miles (measured by GPS). For my European friends, that's roughly 4500 km. We had seven travel days out of twenty one, meaning an average of two days per location. However, it was not equally distributed. Some of the stays were measured in hours rather than days. We set up camp, slept, ate a quick meal, broke camp and then moved on. Two stays included wonderful luxury, air-conditioned condominiums that could not be beat (thanks to the generosity of my brothers-in-law). There were a lot of injuries, with me sustaining roughly half of them and two of the three most severe. They are mostly healed now and were a bit of a blessing in disguise as they forced me to think outside the box for activities to do. We had a lot of fun visiting touristy areas during the work week (for most people). Several locations really surprised us with how much fun we had and how long we stayed. The two most memorable are the Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium and Greenfield Village. We also had a great day knocking about Galena, Illinois for a day window shopping and bike riding along the Galena River.
Almost all locations were selected for being near water, but because one of the injuries I sustained was a large third degree burn, I had to keep the raw flesh clean to avoid infection, which meant no open water. So no fishing. Bummer, but as I said it forced us to do different things than we would have usually done, which was fun.
So - my best to all and I will now rejoin the fray.
- Zurf
Happy birthday 3XJ
P.S. Take some extra bourbon with you, just in case Galena sucks!!
Way ahead of you on that score.
You're going to Galena because it's awesome. Never been I take it?
Never been, never heard of it, never had much interest in returning to the northern mid-west after a few years exile in Michigan. But we're going, and after checking it out on the internet it does look like a pretty little town. There's a country fair going on not far away, so maybe we'll get to take in a tractor pull. I think my girls would love that. There's some nice looking water and bike trails too. My guided fishing trip on the Gasconade River fell through, so that frees up a few hundred dollars to rent canoes and stuff while we're there. My kids don't know how to canoe (just one to kayak), so this may be a good opportunity to teach them. I'm also taking a steelhead rod to Canada with me in high hopes of hooking up with one on the Niagara River. They're there and in season. The only question is whether I'll be able to get to chase them, and if I get to chase them whether I'll be able to connect. That's a bucket list thing - catching a steelhead with a fly rod - so if I get to do that it's all good.
- Zurf
About two years ago my wife and I began to plan a camping vacation to Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. Because Lake of the Ozarks is about half way between us and my brothers in law in Denver, CO, we called them to see if they wanted to drive their half and meet us there. They did.
So, our plan was to drive out to Lake of the Ozarks through West Virginia, north Tennessee, Indiana, and then Missouri. This would take us through Louisville, St. Louis, and on to our destination. On the return we would go down to Arkansas and then come back through Memphis and Nashville. For a year we had been planning this. I was making contacts with folks out there to meet up for some epic campfire jams.
One call to the brothers in law in and they suggest that instead we return across the north of the country. Further, they were going to get resorts for us all. So much for Memphis and Nashville, but add in Galena, Illinois (why? I don't know) and Ann Arbor (see some friends) and Niagara Falls. Ontario (so we can say we camped in Canada). Also, cut about ten or twelve days of camping out of it (but still drag the camper 1000 miles not to use it).
We did this to keep the brothers in law happy, which is a good and reasonable goal. We very much like them. While it is not technically true, it is essentially true that her brother is the only family she has left. And given the nature of his life partner, they aren't going to have any children. So they love our children and our children absolutely adore them, so it's all good. It's worth changing our vacation all around to get to spend the extra time with them.
But last night we learned that the brothers in law aren't going to be able to join us on the northern part, which we were only doing because they wanted to.
What can I do but laugh?
I'm still not sure why I'm going to Galena, Illinois. We hadn't really looked into it, figuring we'd just hand out with the brothers in law and do what they wanted to do while we were there. But after looking at the options some, I'm sure we're going to have a good time. Not "Nashville campfire with professional country musicians" epic, but fun. I'm not sure my daughters are ready to see that much bourbon consumed. Those country pickers sure can drink.
One day I'll see Memphis and Nashville.
- Zurf
I heard this storm was a derecho, which concerned me given that my name is Derek, the radio announcer didn't enunciate very well, and I had had a wee drop to drink with my Chordie friends on Skype that night....
Good luck. It's good that you approach this from a fit perspective rather than from a personal perspective.
Practice is your only route to smooth transitions and steady patterns.
We're in the thick of it here. It's been hot, but I like heat a lot better than cold so no complaints from me. The only thing I don't like about heat is trying to sleep in it, but having an air conditioned house takes the trouble out of that.
Thank you and congratulations.
Sorry I missed you. Once the chores were done last night, I sat on the couch and almost immediately fell asleep. Only about four hours of sleep since Thursday night and I've been taking Benadryl for some bee stings. I guess I was tired because I slept for about 11 hours. At some point I made my way up to bed from the couch.
Last night a few of us were on Skype. My power kept dimming and coming back. Turns out there was such a bad storm that there were tornadoes fairly close by. I probably shouldn't have played "Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season".
I just accepted and am trying to call now. That funny whooping noise you hear is a phone call.
My office isn't soundPROOF. It's sound insulated. I didn't see that request. Let me go see if I can figure out how to find it to accept it.
Well, here's my problem with that. This is one of those "take it for what it's worth" moments. What you hear on a record usually has a bass guitar, a rhythm guitar, a lead guitar, drummer, percussionist, maybe a sax or trumpet player, and some dude on harmonica plus a couple chicks banging on tambourines. You have an acoustic guitar. Good luck trying to replicate that.
If you try to replicate the sound of a whole band with an acoustic guitar, you won't.
Listen to a really good solo bar guitarist. What you will hear him play will be pieces and parts of the drum beat, the percussionist's fills, the rhythm guitar's strums, and the lead guitarist's riffs all blended together. That's as close as you're ever going to get to "replicating" a piece without a band.
Whether you want to or not, you're going to either have to put together a tribute band with common interests in perfectly replicating studio recordings, or you're going to have to wrap your head around the concept of arranging a piece to solo work.
Are strum patterns important? Oh heck yeah! Is it the most important thing? Not even close. Keeping time is the most important thing, followed closely by staying in key. By the time you figure those two things out for any given song, you're arranging.
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Posts by Zurf
