What a Racket

In other news, I made the yearly trip out to Palm Springs for the BNP Paribas Tennis tournament, something I enjoy doing annually.  It ends up being a very long day, getting up around 7:30am and then getting home at 1:30am, but it's usually worth it.  This year was particularly interesting since rain was in the forecast, and as promised, a short rain storm stopped play for about 2 hours on the grounds around 3pm.  The interesting part was that on Stadium 4, where Shapovalov was playing Humbert, the grounds keeper guy brought a bunch of rollers in order to dry off the court and a bunch of people from the stands were so enthusiastic to get back to the match that they jumped out of their seats, grabbed a roller, and promptly started working to dry the court.  Here's a pic of a couple of them in action, and I'm fairly sure this made the news reel:

You'd think that the people running the tournament would have been overjoyed; instead, they were being jokingly critical and showing the fans how to roll the court correctly.  It was rather memorable, to say the least.

Later that night, I also got to see Medvedev and then Giorgi on the big stadium for the evening session, Stadium 1.  It ended up being a very late night, and even though the rain blew about 2 hours plus of time, it'll be a year that I certainly remember well.  The seats were great for Stadium 1, and here's a great shot of Giorgi vs. Pegula (unfortunately Giorgi lost after winning a strong first set):

Ah, DST...  Don't get me started.  I did finally play a bit of guitar today, and it's murder on my left hand after not playing for a couple of weeks.  I realized by looking at the calendar that Memorial Day isn't that far off, and since I plan to start the recording sessions for the new Jazz Machine album during that week, well, I better get my sh*t together.

Brushed

I woke up in a panic around 2am to the sound of a strange whirring sound loudly emanating from apparently the master bathroom sink.  What the hell?!  It is a fairly new faucet but since when do faucets make noise when not on?!  Turning the faucet on/off seemed to do the trick...for about 10 seconds.  Then, it started again.

Everything you buy these days seems to be complete trash.  It was bad enough pre-pandemic; post pandemic has made it feel like you're buying goods from some stranger in a trench coat standing on a street corner.  To make the jab in the crotch even worse, they've upped the price on everything.  Great times.

More whirring, more jiggling, and then I decided to turn the water off at the faucet.  Still whirring.  Wtf?!  Then, I realized that the faucet has 2 separate water lines to turn off.  With both off, I thought I had it...and then more whirring.

It was then that I realized that it was NOT the faucet but my Sonicare Toothbrush which sits directly to the left of the faucet.  Yes, this is what happens when you get woken up at 2am and you're completely out of it.  For whatever reason, the toothbrush, which I probably had about 6-7 years, decided to completely lose it's mind and was turning on and off at random.  Wow.

So, what do you DO about this?  I mean, there's literally only one button on the toothbrush, of which pushing it was doing almost no good, and no port to pull out the battery, etc.  It was a fantastic puzzle to encounter now around 2:20am on a weeknight.  And so, I pondered, trying to figure out what the hell to do.  I came up with 2 poor solutions, climbed back into bed, then thought about it a bit more, then left the bed again and tried a different solution.  This happened 2-3 more times.  Finally, I decided to get a towel, lay it in a storage bin, place the bin in the car's trunk outside, and leave it there overnight, hoping desperately that the toothbrush doesn't overheat and catch fire, or blow up.  It was the only solution I could come up with in a panic that a) didn't make noise that I could hear and b) wouldn't bother the neighbors since you couldn't hear it running with the trunk lid down.  Now, if it DID blow up, well, that probably would annoy the neighbors...but I had run out of ideas.

I got back into bed around 3:30am and, as you may have guessed, was filled with nothing but anxiety at this point, worrying about a stupid toothbrush with no on/off switch.  I tossed and turned for hours but at least I knew the house wasn't on fire and the car hadn't blown up.  I ended up getting about a total of 4 hours sleep that night.  I'm still feeling the residual lethargy.

That's it for me.  I hope life is treating everyone well, and all I can say is beware of those rogue Sonicare's.  I finally ended up hitting that damn thing with a hammer the next day to get the battery out and disconnected.  It almost seems like a good metaphor...for something.

New Year

It's hard to believe that it's 2023.  Sigh.  Where the hell did 2022, let alone 2020 and 2021, go?  They all went by so incredibly fast that it literally scares the living hell out of me.

No news flash here but I've never been a party or a people person so New Year's Eve normally is a time to watch a couple if not a slew of films at home.  This year's choices were the oddly disturbing "Brimstone & Treacle", a film I haven't seen since the mid 80's, and then followed up by "The Ice Storm", a film I literally despised when I saw it in the theater originally but would now rave about.  Both films are rather disturbing, I think, and the end of "The Ice Storm" isn't exactly uplifting, and so 2023 began with tears in my eyes as the film was finishing up.  Now, if that isn't a "me" way of ringing in the new year...well, I don't know what is.

Ironically, I kept hearing rain all through "The Ice Storm" and was mildly impressed with how realistic the sound bar was sounding tonight.  Little did I know that it's actually pouring rain outside, and how appropriate the timing was, as if it was trying to add a bit more ambience to the already heavy mood filled movie.

I'll admit that this week has not gone really according to plan on multiple levels but I have been trying to get a little bit of work done and also relaxation time in.  I'm not sleeping well right now and I'm not sure why, and I've been overall in not the greatest mood either.  I kind of feel like the last 3-4 months finally caught up with me at long last.  I did just discover that Dark Horse Comics released a slew of original "Tales from the Crypt", "Vault of Horror", and "The Haunt of Fear" comics in big bound bundles and so I've been reading some of the latter in the evening which has been quite fun.  I remember buying some of those back in the late 80's when they were reprinted for a short period of time.  I have no idea what happened to those comics that I owned and I fear that my parents, in their infinite wisdom and not so good nature, threw all of them out at some point.  In any event, it's been nice revisiting some of that stuff after all of these years and I'll surely buy more.

In regards to music, I have been working on the "Lost Weekend" remixes and so far they're coming along nicely.  I did a bit of work on the Defrost Nixon album but it was incredibly frustrating so I have yet to return to it.  At the same time, I know that Peele is still struggling with "The Effects of Connection" and we're both experiencing some of the same issues, mainly drum problems.  It'll be interesting to compare how we both deal with these issues in the end and what the final result comes out being.

That's it for now (it's 12:30am) but more in a few days.  Happy New Year everyone and let's hope for a decent 2023!  I think we'd all agree that we sure could use it.

Farewell, Christine

Today we sadly said goodbye to Christine McVie, most notably known for her role in the band Fleetwood Mac.  It seems appropriate that she was born Christine Perfect for I personally think she was a beyond brilliant songwriter, someone that I've really admired for quite a long time.  There has been just a plethora of talent in the Fleetwood Mac catalog over the years, of course, but with the more well known line-up, I've always been slightly annoyed at the fact that Stevie Nicks got most of the attention while Christine seemed to be closer to what I think of as a songwriting genius.  I'll also say that Christine had such a unique singing voice that I really loved.  Stevie had one as well, of course, and she was certainly the sexy part of the band, but Christine always seemed like the anchor and reliable one that would always submit top notch writing.

I couldn't resist digging to find "Future Games" and playing it tonight.  It ended a bit ago and now I'm on to "Bare Trees", the follow-up.  Both albums are considered "weak" and a forgettable point in Fleetwood Mac's early career by many but I really love these two albums, and once again a sincere thank you to my friend CJ for turning me onto them.  I'm not sure that I would have ever ventured there without that necessary yet gentle prodding and I'm forever grateful.

I decided to pull out the Gibson 335 tonight.  I'm not really sure why but it's been in my brain for awhile to dust it off and play it.  The guitar is practically brand new, it's been played so little, but it's nearly 10 years old.  I know, despicable.  Anyhow, I hadn't even touched it in quite awhile and I was beyond tickled by how good it sounds and plays.  The guitar bends like no other instrument I own, or maybe I'm finally just getting the hang of the bending thing.  I will say that guitar and I have clicked on a whole new level over the past couple of years and I'm constantly amazing myself.  I truly believe that if I keep at it that I could actually one day be a decent guitar player (wow).  I have been mentally planning to use the 335 on the new Jazz Machine album, and since I'm going to start playing around with those ideas in a few weeks, it was time to get reacquainted.

Having said that, I'm having incredible issues with my pinky finger on my fingering hand.  The trigger finger has set in now to a point that I basically wake up with a completely stiffened pinky that needs to be massaged for about 5 minutes before it'll even think about bending.  Unlike how my middle finger acted at the crux of my trigger finger issues on it a couple years ago, my pinky can be quite painful when trying to get it to bend.  Getting old sucks, and I wish I could say it's my only issue but alas it isn't.

Wow..."Sentimental Lady" finished just a bit ago.  What a gorgeous song.  It almost brings tears to my eyes.  The other track that I simply adore is the title track from "Future Games".  Pure bliss.  But, not long after came Christine's "Spare Me a Little of Your Love".  Ah, that voice.

Thinking of Baseball

Hah!  I can't help but laugh at that title.  Well, for those of you young 'un's, that phrase used to be a sort of recommendation for, um, a certain 'something', something that used to be recommended to young men specifically (and that's all I'm saying).  In my case, though, the title is really about my lack of any real update, all due to the fact that the San Diego Padres just happened to make it into the Post Season.  And yes, folks, that is my excuse for doing close to nothing on the musical horizon over the past couple of weeks.

I was fortunate to see both a Division series game and an NLCS game, albeit not the "right" one, mind you (meaning they lost).  In any event, baseball fever has overtaken San Diego in general and so all scheduling is right now revolving around the game times.  I even skipped two shows that I was planning on going to.  You can tell that this is serious stuff.

Apart from that, I now have a plan in place for getting a couple tracks mixed, one by Peele and the other by myself.  I'm hoping to have something released online at least in the next 2 months.  In the meantime, I need to somehow get my head back "in the game", as they say.  See what I did there??

Meanwhile, ideas are rattling around in my head, enough that they're beginning to make some real noise.  I have a week off coming up in November and so I simply need to get back to it soon in order to be productive.

On the listening front, one of the albums in my current rotation is Richard and Linda Thompson's "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" CD which I just recently found/acquired, actually based upon Marc Maron mentioning it more than once.  I must say that I'm liking it quite a bit.  Now, see?  That had nothing at all to do with baseball.  Go figure.

Let Them Play the Music

I've taken yet another small break from even the thought of playing music as of late.  It's not exactly intentional; I simply have had no time.  First, I needed to deal with the stereo dilemma, of which I think is finally behind me.  I decided to keep the Outlaw Audio receiver, so therefore I returned the Denon DRA800H and I also just returned the Klipsch RP8000's.  It simply finally hit me that the damn things are way too huge for my studio room, and after extensive tests and flipping back and forth between the two sets of speakers, it slowly became obvious to me.  It's not official as of yet but I do believe that I'm going to keep the Polk R600's for I seem to really like them, and I'd say that they're a small step upward over my old JBL's.  Strangely, Billy Squier's "It Keeps You Rockin'" really sounds the most amazing on the R600's, of all things.  Now, why that's become my standard for good sound...well, I couldn't really tell you.

I will say that flipping between speaker sets is an interesting venture.  It's funny because it takes at least 20 seconds for your ears to adjust, meaning that no matter what speakers you "flip" to they always sound odd and worse than the predecessor initially.  I also learned by process of playing around with it that the critical sound that I wasn't liking was actually coming from the Denon Receiver, not as much from the speakers.  I did lose a little bit of that by going with the Outlaw Audio Receiver, which is a bit of a detriment for mixing and such, but my actual music listening experience will be a bit closer to what it was previously...which is good.  I was actually finding that I didn't want to listen to music as much with the Denon because everything sounded horrible to me.  Now, why exactly so called "audiophiles" want things to sound horrible...well, that's beyond me.

Apart from the stereo decisions, and I will say that it was quite a feat getting the huge Klipsch speakers back down the stairs and packaged up in their boxes (they weigh about 70 lbs. a piece), I actually finally ventured out again to see and hear live music.  First up, I FINALLY made it to the Hollywood Bowl, a venue I've been meaning to go to for literally 30 years but have never made it before.  The show?  Grace Jones...wow.  It was actually a double bill of sorts with Ms. Jones and Chvrches, the latter of which I will say I was fairly impressed with even though it's not exactly my usual sound (lots of strong 2/4 going on in an electronic vein).  Seeing Grace was amazing, though, and the most frequently heard comment was "...can you believe she's 74 years old...?"  No, actually I cannot whatsoever.  I mean, the woman shows almost no signs at all physically of aging, not in her looks, movements, etc.  Simply remarkable.

The Bowl is definitely a venue to visit, I will say.  It's not only historical and quite stunning to be at but the sound was also wonderful.  They built that venue in a truly amazing fashion, putting great care into the sightlines of each tier, etc.  The slope on the back of the venue as the seating rises up the hill is beyond words since the last row of seats is so incredibly high into the air (on the hillside) that it's hard to comprehend what you're looking at from down below.  And then, strangely, you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere...and yet you're smack just north of super busy and crowded Hollywood.  If you've never been there and you have an interest in such things, I'd definitely put it on your list.  I was also amazed by how easy it was to do a Park and Ride shuttle to get in and out of there, and so on.  Getting out was a bit more convoluted but getting in was super simple...and cheap!

Two days later, I went to my favorite local venue, the Belly Up Tavern, to see Cate Le Bon.  It was another great performance, completely different from the Grace Jones show 2 days earlier, of course.  Cate has a great stage presence and setup on stage with her band, and I must say that the show was even better than I had expected.  Cate's latest album "Pompeii" comes highly recommended from me.

I'm hoping to get back into the musical swing of things fairly soon.  I've had lots of ideas rolling around in my head so I've just been waiting for the time to actually act upon them.  More soon, hopefully.

No, I Haven't Given Up

I've mainly been quiet for the past 2-3 weeks since I was sick with some sort of persistent cold.  We're having work done on our house and, low and behold, it took a whole 3 days of said work for both of us to catch this freakin' illness from one of the workers.  The timing was great as always since I had planned to work on some vocal corrections that weekend, of which I still can't quite get back to even now due to persistent phlegm issues.

Upon feeling a bit better, I had meant to write up how I drove up to Irvine one Saturday afternoon to do an errand, and I just happened to be in the neighborhood of the one and only Taco Bell that was trying out the Cheez-It Tostada and so I made a point to stop in.  I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked.  Also, if you hadn't already guessed, the Cheez-It base is actually much smaller than they made it appear in the pictures so it isn't some mammoth sized cheese flavored biscuit attempting to take over the world.  Oddly, I was expecting a true flagship Taco Bell location but it looked no different than any other one except that it's the first I've ever been in that you literally have to order through the tablets for there is no one on duty taking orders.  Apart from that, the seating was a bit more community oriented but nothing else really stood out as that different.

There IS actually a chance that I'll finally submit the CD order for "...Miss You Most..." this weekend for the redo of Track 2 is currently at the mastering lab for reprocessing.  Once that's complete and checks out, I only need to do a few more minor changes on the booklet and layout, of which I'm hoping to get completed this weekend so I can finally put this behind me.

Apart from that, I've barely touched Pro Tools or did any real mixing over the past month just due to either feeling lousy or being overwhelmed between work and juggling house improvement decisions.  There was also Wimbledon to contend with which is always a major distraction but a welcomed one.  I did manage to upgrade my Pro Tools version to be the latest 2022.06 and that ended up being more labor intensive than I had counted on but at least it's ready to go.  I'll hopefully have some real news on my next update.

Uncle Bob

We went to see Uncle Bob (Dylan) this past weekend.  It might sound strange but I've never seen Bob Dylan live before, and to be honest I'm not even particularly even a fan of his, but I figured he was one of a sole few living legends still left on the planet, and that he was somebody that I really should see before he passes on.  For the record, I can't quite remember who coined the name "Uncle Bob"...it wasn't me...but I know that I heard it somewhere and, well, it's just stuck.

The good news is that Bob Dylan is still alive and kicking!  The bad news is, um, I'm not sure how much longer he actually will be.  There were quite a few true oddities at this concert, to be frank.  The first one was that his name was not anywhere on the marquee, and instead it just read "Rough and Rowdy Ways", as if that was the name of the band we were seeing (versus the name of the tour).  We debated the reasoning behind this and could only come up with safety as an explanation, considering we're living in an age where random fans go up on stage with daggers and try to attack performers.  I would think Dylan is fairly protective in general so this seemed like the logical reasoning but who knows if it's actually true.

The next weird thing, that I actually greatly applaud, mind you, is that no cell phones were allowed.  In fact, if you brought one, it was locked in a secure case and could only be unlocked after the show.  It was like the olden days all over again with no one sticking up a phone in your view during the show (aaahh).  This was a rare positive for the night.

I was under the impression that Dylan was primarily a guitarist.  Except for the instrumental bluesy opening number, though, he never played guitar again through the whole set.  Instead, he basically stood behind an upright piano the whole show so that the only thing visible on him was his head and mop of hair or hat, depending upon the song, and then he came out 80% of the time from behind the piano once the song was done so that the crowd could see his entire body.  Once everyone clapped a bit, he would do a strange prance back behind the piano once again.  Personally, I've never seen anyone do this and the whole thing seemed a bit unusual.

We then debated why they'd have the piano positioned so that it blocked his entire body during the performance.  It was almost like it was helping him stand upright because when he didn't have the piano there he looked incredibly frail, like he could maybe fall at any moment.  He did actually sing one song just holding the microphone but he was incredibly fidgety and the song was abnormally short, like maybe only 3 minutes.  Again, kind of odd.  We therefore wondered if he wasn't actually able to stand or hold a guitar on him at this point, and maybe that's why he didn't really play one.  Who knows.

His voice is, well, it's what it is.  He almost sounds a bit like Tom Waits at this point and trying to understand any words coming out of his mouth was nearly impossible.  The sound system was also the lowest volume I think I've ever heard at a concert of this type, so much that it was almost completely pointless to even have my ear plugs in.  The little bit of guitar playing that he did do during the opening number was done nearly in complete darkness, and even though I thought that the lights would go on once the singing began, they really didn't.  I've never seen a darker stage in my life, almost to the point where you could barely make out Dylan's face much.  Again, very strange.

Lastly, his playing, whether it was that intro electric guitar or his piano playing, was quite underwhelming.  I mean, he played piano close to around my ability which is saying very, very little.  The sound guys seemed to constantly try to hide his playing by lowering the volume of his instrument, trying to mask it by the other sounds going on.  Even more disturbing, Dylan's entire backing band watched him constantly with just a strange look in their eyes, like they were expecting him to keel over at any moment, and that they had a contingency plan in the wings just in case that did happen.  The whole thing was just very odd.

Apart from physically seeing Dylan live on stage, there really wasn't too much to cheer for.  He never once addressed the audience and he didn't say a peep when the band left stage.  In fact, there was no encore, and it was almost like he was debating whether we were worth another song, of which we apparently weren't.  I'd say, unless you're a mega fan or like me and have never seen him live, there's not much reason to go now.  The guy is 81 years old, though, so I guess we need to give him a break and understand his limitations.

Still, it's hard to take it all in when you're looking at a living legend on stage, so I guess that's worth something.  The sad part is that I don't think Dylan would stand a chance today if he was young and just starting out, and that says way more about us and society than it does anything else.  Cheers to you, Bob!

Windows 11 and Other Joys

I just received a phone message saying that I have an eye appointment scheduled for February 21st at 8:35am.  This completely confused me since, if you happen to know me whatsoever, I would never voluntarily schedule an appointment at that ungodly hour of the morning.  Upon calling the office back, I told the operator that I was fairly certain that I did not schedule this appointment, and the reply was "we do this as a service to you to make sure that you stay on your annual schedule."  So, just to put this in perspective, this means that the burden is on me to a) call and cancel/reschedule the appointment and b) if I don't get the message, I'm fairly certain I'd get charged for a no-show.  Yep, this really sounds like it's for my benefit.  I promptly told them to cancel my appointment and that I'd most likely not be returning to the office...ever.

Yes, this is the world we live in.  I could go on and on, of course, like most everyone else.  It's gotten to an absurd level lately and I'm not quite sure how to get through a day anymore without getting angry and close to livid at least once or twice.  The worst part, of course, is that we all PAY to have this anger occur.  Wow.

For example, my fairly new refrigerator is freezing items in certain areas of the fridge.  No problem - just alter the temperature, right?  Well, in the old days, this would take about 2 seconds because you'd turn the dial and be done.  This new fangled machinery, though, has everything hidden within a digital interface that is completely non-intuitive.  Therefore, I need to take the time to find the manual, then find the right page and info (mind you, the info in the manual is usually either incomplete or incredibly vague), and then maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to accomplish what I set out to do originally.  If I'm lucky, it'll take 10 minutes.  Yep, from what used to be 2 seconds to 10 minutes (again, if I'm lucky).  Good deal, no?  And then, the likelihood of it even correcting the problem considering the lowered standards of all modern day appliances is beyond belief low.

In other news, I just upgraded my fairly new desktop to Windows 11.  This is a computer I purchased last year mainly for doing my Photoshop work and other odds and ends.  I'm usually the very last person to do an upgrade to a new Windows version simply because a) I see no point in doing the upgrade and b) I take no pleasure whatsoever in being the first person on the block to do anything, and why others see this as important is beyond me.  Initially, the download wouldn't take but it was because there were other standard updates that needed to be done first and were therefore blocking the upgrade.  Once I fixed that, though, it went fairly smooth.  The end result?  Well, it's pretty much what you'd expect.  Windows 11 looks out of the box a bit more like Mac OS which I would think is sacrilegious for Microsoft, but apart from that nothing that major has changed or been improved from a user perspective.  This is of course absolutely no shock from me since I personally thought Windows 95 was absolutely fine in every aspect, and every update since then has just been either fluff or completely unnecessary in terms of the user interface portion.  Basically, if you create and refine a product early on, why upgrade or change it?  Well, that's me at least.

Besides these complaints and various whines, I'm afraid I have no other real news to share.  I'm still dragging my feet in the music arena but I just got word that my Boss SY-200 came in today so it should be arriving within a week.  I'm excited to start playing around with it and hope it'll give me some new sounds to create with.  If nothing else, it's another box and gadget to take up space on my floor and closet.  Sigh.

Gearing Up

Another semi-wasted weekend has passed but at least it gave me a chance to get out a bit, do some shopping, and so on.  COVID lockdown seems to be letting up more and more each day, and whether or not that's a good thing remains to be seen.  I'm not doing too much, mind you, but after doing almost nothing for a year I am at least venturing out a bit more.  Sometimes it's out of a bit of necessity.  For example, my desk chair is essentially falling apart and so I needed to find a replacement.  It sounds easy, I know, but in this day and age good luck.  Items that have always been no-brainers suddenly seem to be impossible to find, at least where they last more than a month.

Also, with COVID restrictions lifting, I'm beginning to think harder about what kind of live music I would like to be playing.  My voice remains pretty unreliable and so I'm really favoring getting 2-3 different instrumental based groups together.  I'm hoping to get something started maybe later this year.

Over the weekend, I decided to venture out briefly towards the coast.  It was great seeing it again, with the waves wildly crashing against the shore due to the wind, while tons of people were out doing their thing at the beach.  It's gorgeous over here and it makes me so incredibly grateful to be able to live in such a beautiful part of the country; I only wish I took advantage of it more.

My eye situation is about the same.  It seems to fluctuate on a daily basis, sometimes leaving me where I have a very hard time focusing out of my right eye while other times it seems fairly normal.  No matter what the situation, though, the floater in that eye can be fairly prevalent, and after looking through it awhile it gets a bit maddening but at least it's hanging in there.  Luckily, my "other" medical problems haven't yet reared their ugly head anywhere near as much as they were earlier in the year.  For me, it helps to try to deal with only one thing at a time but we're rarely given that luxury.

Growing older is definitely hell.  It's at least been my experience that life post 40 years old basically consists of having some sort of weird sudden symptoms, going to a short series of medical appointments (that are pretty much always a verdict of "you seem fine"), and then, provided you're still alive, doing it all over again...and again...and again.  I can only imagine that this is the way life will continue until...well, you know.

Well, that's enough of that for now.  I'm hoping to get back to recording this coming holiday weekend so we'll see how that goes!

Things are Sort of Quiet

I don't have much of an update on anything at the moment since I'm still trying to get into the swing of things again.  My eye "healed", and I use that term loosely since I still continue to have trouble seeing out of that eye.  This is nothing new, mind you, for I've been having issues with it since 2005.  I am incredibly paranoid, though, that the retina will tear again and then this whole process will start all over.  Or, worse yet, what if I lose vision in it altogether?  These are the thoughts running through my mind daily these days.

As previously stated, I had to lie on my side pretty much the entire week after the outpatient surgery.  This sounds easy albeit a bit boring but it came with an unintended side effect:  it completely threw my back out.  I've had back issues much longer than I've had eye issues and this ended up being one of the harshest back pulls I've had in many years.  I'm still trying to get it back (hah, hah)...but seriously, my back has yet to completely calm down and return to what I think of as my normal weak back-ness/pain so there's a lot of sudden yelping going on as I move around the house.

Lying on your side for a week is actually a bit of a trick as well.  It wouldn't be so bad if you could lay down in a normal position but instead it's all about your head placement.  I needed my head to be positioned almost completely on it's side and trying to do anything in this position is quite a task.  Even watching TV is bizarre in this position.  Typing was almost completely out of the question and so lying there and doing nothing was pretty much the solution.  For once, it's fortunate that time passes quickly at my age and so it went by rather quickly.

That's about all I've got at the moment.  I'll try and write some more maybe in the next few days.

Torn

Well, everything's come to a grinding halt, at least for the moment.  I had plans to be productive this past weekend but alas I was not.  I'm trying to wrap everything up with the Jazz Machine album by July and the clock is starting to tick rather loudly.

So, why was I 'lazy'?  Well, I apparently tore my retina in my right eye :(  I've had issues in this eye since around 2005, and being a computer worker by day I tend to get a decent amount of eye pain and strain at various times of the years.  I've suffered from floaters in that eye pretty much my entire life but they got much worse in 2005, shortly after a minor car accident where I was rear ended, enough so that it totaled my car.  I'm now thinking that may have affected my eye issues more than I ever thought.

About 2 weeks ago, I was simply walking to the mail box when I thought I saw a bolt of lighting across the sky.  I found it strange because a) it was sunny out and b) we don't get a lot of lighting out here in general.  Then it happened again, and again, and then I realized that it was a large floater in my eye that appeared to be slightly lit up.  Then, my vision got pretty cloudy, more floaters came, and my concern grew, enough that I went to the eye doctor the first thing the following morning (which, btw, you shouldn't actually do...you should go to at least Urgent Care and not wait on it).  The eye doctor said he didn't see any retinal tears and that it was probably just aging.  Oh, okay...  And so, I went about my business, all the while with my vision severely worse than it's ever been and having a bit of minor eye pain.

It wasn't until a week later, this past Friday, that I realized that there was a fairly large black spot or hole in my vision in that eye when I looked to the extreme right (the spot was on the extreme left side).  It also felt odd when I'd do that...kind of hard to explain but it sort of felt like the pain of a muscle strain.  After doing a few internet searches, it sounded bad enough that I should immediately get back to the eye doctor.

I went somewhere else this time, which was probably a good decision, and that doctor found the tear after quite a bit of searching, and immediately sent me to the retina specialist, all against the clock since it was 4pm on a Friday and they closed normally at 5pm.  They got me in, looked inside my eye, and before I knew it they were jabbing my eye with a needle to numb it, then freeze it, and then place gas bubbles in there, a therapy that basically causes a bit of weight inside your eye so that the vitreous reattaches to the retina.  The whole procedure took about 10 minutes.  It sounds awful when you say or write it; much to my surprise, I really didn't feel a damn thing and it wasn't that bad at all, and this is all coming from one of the most squeamish people out there.

And so, I've been pretty much laying on my side ever since, literally for over 90 hours now, with only small moments of getting up and moving around.  It's been interesting to say the least.  The retina apparently reattached fairly quickly but it needs many hours in order to "cement" again inside the eye and hence I'll be lying here for approximately a week.  So, no guitar playing, recording, or even day job working...

If all comes out well, meaning I can see normally again, I won't really complain.  This does put my time line for Jazz Machine a bit in jeopardy, though.  I guess, at least for once, I have a truly valid excuse if I don't make it...

The 2020 Vote Is In!

 Well, I survived another year!  The 2020 Spirit Awards ballot is due today at 5pm and I just submitted my own personal ballot this morning.  Per my count, I watched 32 movies this go-round for the period of February 26th - April 8th.  It was actually one of the easiest years to do this since they gave us more time than usual, of which I greatly appreciate.  I think we normally only get about 5 weeks to watch the films and it usually forces me to do several marathon watching binges which I really don't prefer.

I'll post my 2020 film picks fairly soon but I have a few more movies to get through first that are not on the Spirit Awards list.  Overall, the gist of the 2020 Spirit Awards film selection is that 95% of the films were good to great, and that's kind of phenomenal, to be frank.  I usually sit through at least 3-4 that I perceive as real clunkers that make me moan in agony for one reason or another.  This year, the only movie that I would say that I really despised was the much applauded "Dick Johnson is Dead", and it was ironically the first film I watched, starting everything on a bad tone which thankfully didn't persist.  Perhaps it's a matter of opinion but I just don't understand why anyone would find that film either interesting or entertaining, and how you can overlook the exploited opportunistic aspect of the film is mind boggling to me, hence my low opinion of it.  It was this years' "For Sama" for me, a film from last years' list that really sent me over the edge that everyone else seemed to really like.

For more info on the films I watch(ed), please check out my page on Letterboxd.com where all the gory details exist.

New Sun Chips Chili Lime Flavor - the Verdict?

 I found these in the snack aisle the last time I was at a major grocery retailer.  I'm a big fan of Sun Chips, and anyone who knows me really well will tell you that I'm a sucker for trying pretty much anything new when it comes to weird flavors and such.  Since this checked both boxes, well, I immediately grabbed them off the shelf.

So, what's the verdict?  Upon tasting the initial chip, I was taken aback just a bit.  I felt like my mouth had been overwhelmed with salt and intense flavor which is a bit unusual since one of the things that I've always loved about Sun Chips in general is that they're not too terribly strong.  The new Chili Lime flavor apparently is breaking that tradition, though, and the flavor was, to put it simply, rather intense.

I try not to comment too much until I've really had a chance to digest something completely (pun intended) but I think I've formed my overall opinion on Chili Lime Sun Chips.  To be blunt, although they got a bit more tolerable the more I ate them, they basically taste like someone wetted a plain Sun Chip and then dipped it in a packet of taco seasoning meant for ground meat, enough so that it completely covers the chip and hence providing the overwhelming flavor.  If that idea appeals to you, you'll love them and you should immediately run out and make the purchase.  For me personally, though, I think I'll stick with either the plain or the other flavors.  Verdict = nogo!

You Belong to Me

 I think it's time that I made a rather terrible confession.  I...um...am rather obsessed with...um...Carly Simon.  Okay, there, I admitted it.

It's a bit embarrassing, I know.  I've been listening to a ton of 70's styled pop lately mixed with some early 80's pop.  Carly Simon.  Linda Ronstadt.  Stephen Bishop.  Jackson Browne.  Am I just showing my age?  Perhaps.  Maybe I've finally crossed into that land of being truly old.  Sigh.

Back to Carly...  I don't know what it is but there's just somethin'.  And, to be completely honest, I got my first Carly album, "The Best of Carly Simon", for free back in the days of the Columbia House/BMG 10 CD's for 1 penny days.  I kind of got it on a lark and never thought I'd actually like it.  However, about 2 minutes into the opening track, the classic "That's the Way I've Always Heard it Should Be", one of the true greats, in my opinion, and my jaw completely hit the floor.  This was back around 2000 maybe?  So, yeah, I wasn't really that old and I was already hooked.

I will never forget talking about this embarrassment back then at work with this much older lady named Margaret.  She immediately said, "Oh, yeah, Carly Simon!  I don't know what it is but every time she comes on the radio my husband goes ape sh*t."  I'm not making that up...those were her exact words, and this from a woman that I had never even heard swear before, although maybe she did a lot and I was just never around to hear it.  Regardless, I guess I'm kind of in the same club as her husband.

I just recently picked up "Boys in the Trees", now that I've fully accepted that I'm probably going to buy at least every single earlier album of hers.  I had "No Secrets" on my phone for well over a year and would walk almost daily to it.  I just never got sick of it.  Call me crazy but I think "The Right Thing to Do" is quite possibly one of my favorite songs of all time and I find myself singing it around the house almost daily.

My newest favorite which never fails to stop me in my tracks is "You Belong to Me".  I mean, what the hell?  Maybe I've completely lost my mind, I don't know, but I simply love this song.  I mean, I treat this song like other people would treat some hard rocking anthem from somebody like AC/DC.  I must have lost it.

She has tons of goofy and terribly cheesy tunes as well but somehow I can overlook it which is pretty unusual for me.  Strangely, I can't stand James Taylor, her husband back then, who happens to sing on quite a few tracks and what I'd consider almost ruin them.  It's just something about that voice of hers and especially her harmonies.  Did I mention that it all started because of the new age artist Andreas Vollenweider?  I got his album "Eolian Minstrel" also from the Columbia House days and there's a song on it called "Private Fires" that Carly sings lead vocals on.  All I can say is that it's been one of the most haunting songs to me ever since I first heard it around 1996 and this is what eventually led me to get the greatest hits album.

Maybe I've just always been an old soul?  I remember back in the early 90's, back when I was in my 20's only, where this guy I worked with did a massive double take when he asked what I was currently listening to at home, and my response was Al Stewart.  He laughed, thinking I was joking, looked uncomfortable when he realized I wasn't, and then said in a snarky manner, "You know, I just have a hard time seeing you 'rockin' out' to Al Stewart on a Friday night."  I thought to myself, well, you don't know me very well, now, do you?  I still 'rock out' to Al Stewart, in fact I still consider "Between the Wars" one of the all time greats.

Well, thanks for listening and allowing me to tell my deep dark 'secret'.  I feel slightly better.  I'm actually considering writing/recording a 70's pop styled album in the near future.  If that happens, then you'll know that I've completely lost it.

Spirit Awards Madness Returns Tomorrow

 As a member of Film Independent, an organization and membership that I simply can't recommend enough to any cinephile, we're about to kick off the 2021 Spirit Awards frenzy of movie watching tomorrow.  Basically, the Spirit Awards are sort of like an independent film version of the Academy Awards, and they're shown on IFC every year, normally around February.  This year, everything is pushed back a bit due to COVID and I believe they'll be shown at the end of April.  They're kind of unique because the members of Film Independent are the sole voters on what films get 95% of the awards.  Since I take film very seriously, I try to watch every single film that they send me so that I can properly vote, and that more or less means taking in around 30 film in 30 days each year.  It's a bit exhausting but also rather fulfilling since you watch things you'd probably never watch or know about otherwise.

What's my point?  It means that my time will be balanced over the next month with watching movies.  I know, just what I need, right?!  I have a hard enough time juggling work, music, writing, etc., and now let's throw movie watching in the mix.  It's almost like I'm punishing myself.

I have a few other blog entries that I have written in my head but yet have committed to the computer.  Perhaps I'll get to those soon before they altogether disappear.

Other than that, the "Mirror Land" artwork is basically done and I've been fooling around with coming up with logos and other odds and ends.  It's a lot to take in all at once.  I wish I had the funds to hire someone.  Wouldn't that be grand?

I'm Still Alive

No, the title of this post has nothing to do with COVID-19.  I mean, I guess it kind of does...I have not gotten COVID-19, etc., but it's more about the lack of posts over the (gulp!) last four years.  In truth, I've been meaning to transfer my blogging over to a different platform, and therefore stopped writing back in 2017 with that full intention.  Time got away from me once again, though, and so here I am, four years later, still touching this old volume of thoughts and observations.  I figured something is better than nothing at this point.  I also have a lot of news to share so I needed some sort of forum.

2020 was of course a very strange and trying year for us all on so many different levels.  Being an introvert to the max (I prefer the term 'home body', btw), the 'not seeing people' thing really didn't affect me that much since I prefer my alone time.  My creative spirit was in full force, though, and I made the goofy decision to begin recording yet another album, this one being an instrumental album, even though my list of unfinished recordings in the proverbial hopper is beyond words (let's just say that I run out of fingers when counting how many albums there are).  The good news is that the new instrumental album is pretty far along and I'm thinking it just may be released by summer.  I'm so far very pleased with and excited by the results.

In other news, I missed the 20th anniversary of my first recorded album/instrumental album "Lost Weekend" but I've been working diligently on remixing it.  I'm hoping to see it get the full treatment for the first time ever, hopefully sounding way better than the original (and maybe looking better as well).  I'll be talking about this more in days to come.

Lastly, the "Mirror Land" EP which has been sitting around waaaaay too long is my first and main priority right now.  It's only 3 songs and they're all from my very early days (would you believe 1989 - 91?) but I'm actually very pleased with it.  They're probably three of my favorite and best tracks from the early days, hence they needed to see the light of day at long last.  Look for that hopefully soon.

That's it for now.  Stay safe and be creative; it can be a real lifesaver. 

The Age of Age

It seems that I’ve finally hit that age where one of the first topics that comes up when meeting up with old friends is ailments.  You know the conversation; it goes something like this:

“How are you doing?”

“Oh, pretty good.  My back is driving me crazy and my knee needs surgery but pretty good overall.  You?”

“Not too bad.  I’ve had some weird ‘bouts of vertigo and stomach issues but not too bad.”

“Ah…good to hear!”

Now, this is a fairly modest example in reality.  The real conversation tends to lean more towards ailments like gastrointestinal issues, heart, fatigue, prostate, you name it…all the sorts of things that don’t exactly make attractive or polite dinner conversation.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that no one really wants to hear about your diarrhea problems while eating green curry at a Thai restaurant.

There also seems to be a bit of stigma around bringing up constipation issues while eating chocolate ice cream, albeit understandably so.  But then again, how does someone answer the question of “how are you doing” in any other fashion?  I’m in that age now that most of how I’m doing somehow revolves around which ailment I’m currently battling and there’s unfortunately rarely a time when I don’t have less than 2 concurrent problems happening simultaneously.  Judging from most of my friends, I’m clearly not alone in this category.

I guess that’s just aging, right?  Quite possibly.  I’ll openly admit that it’s not my favorite thing in the world and if given the choice I’d probably choose eternal youth.  Aging so far has come with so many various surprises, things that they don’t forewarn you about in school and such, and most of them come as a semi vicious shock.  For example, it seems like it was almost literally on my 40^th birthday that various things started happening.  40 seems to come with a variety of special birthday “presents”:  first, you may start to not see quite as sharply as before.  Next, you begin having issues focusing and start spending more time staring blankly at words and paragraphs, especially on computer screens.  Then, your memory starts to also fade a bit.  You might also experience some trouble sleeping or possibly trouble peeing.  And, if that’s not enough for you to already handle, you’re also suddenly thrown into the pool for the risk of serious diseases such as diabetes, cancer, heart attack, and stroke.  What more could you ask for, right?

One of the things that’s always puzzled me, though, is the weird silent internal body chemistry command that suddenly tells your various body hairs to start growing at an alarming rate and simply never stop.  I really don’t get it whatsoever.  What is this underhanded event that occurs that makes, say, an eyebrow hair suddenly not remember when to stop growing?  For 40+ years, it had no issue knowing it’s set growth limitation but, all of a sudden, it’s like your eyebrow hairs have lost their memory as well.  This is no joke.  It begins by these strange tickling sensations that you receive, like as if someone was pestering you with a feather duster.  In annoyance, you look at yourself in the bathroom mirror and notice that it’s actually you who is in fact tickling yourself, or more specifically an eyebrow hair has somehow grown so long as to tickle the earlobe on the opposite side of your head.  I mean, it’s insane!  The ear and nose hair is even worse.  I swear that I could probably grow one simple ear hair out and, by zig-zagging it across my head, I’d probably give off the illusion of a full head of hair.  I’ve pulled nose hairs out of my nose that I thought were cat hairs…from a long haired cat, no less.  The best part is that those same nose hairs grow so long that they tickle your nostril endlessly every time you breathe.  You end up looking like a lunatic frantically trying to find the offending hair.  People all around you think that you’re incessantly picking your nose but in truth you’re just madly searching for the offending hair.  Again, fun stuff.

Surgeries also used to seem more like unfortunate accident repair in the past.  These days, surgeries are more akin to tune-ups on your automobile except that your tires seem to be guaranteed only for about 1,500 miles rather than the usual 30-40k.  Doctor’s visits also often end with a shrug of the shoulders rather than any definitive solution.  More often than not, the diagnosis is something along the lines of “learn to live with it”.  Sigh.

One incredibly positive thing about aging is that I usually can’t remember to stay mad at anyone that long and so happiness seems to flow a lot easier than in the past.  It’s amazing how if you can’t remember negativity how much happier you can be in life!  So, I guess it’s not all bad after all.

Aging is certainly not for the weak of heart (pun intended).  Then again, considering the alternative, well…

I Have an Emergency!

I was recently in Target and thought I might quickly become a witness to the latest YouTube viral sensation of a customer throwing a tantrum.  Frankly, for a moment, at least, I kind of thought that a fist fight might break out between two ladies and wasn’t sure if I should be excited by the prospect or completely terrified.

It kind of happened like this…  The checkout lines in Target were particularly long on this day, especially since this very Target is one of the only low traffic Target’s I’ve experienced in North County.  I believe the time was around noon on a weekday and so most shoppers were probably there over their lunch hour, just like myself, trying to squeeze a few errands in before getting back to the office.

After waiting a short amount of time, I was eventually next in line after a woman that I’d guess was around my age or slightly older.  She was well put together, with lots of jewelry and accessories, and clearly made a decent amount of money in whatever it was that she did for a living.  I would say that she gave off the vibe of possibly being a bit snooty but not altogether unapproachable, if that helps any.  Just as she was about to be rung up at the register, another lady pushing a shopping cart containing a large child car seat frantically rolled up and started saying rather loudly, “I have an emergency…I have an emergency…”  She wheeled her cart behind our line, thus to the back of the clerk who was ringing up our purchases, and more or less tapped the young girl on the shoulder.  “I have an emergency…can I be rung up??!”

The young female Target employee who was probably all of about 16 years old looked rather confused on what to do and simply managed to mumble an “…uhhhh….”  After a couple seconds, she sheepishly said, “Well, the line is on this side,” pointing to where we, the woman in front of me and myself, were standing.  “You’d have to pay on this side,” meaning that the card reader wasn’t movable.

Upon hearing this, the frantic lady looked mildly put out but started wheeling her cart around the back of the lane, basically where you’d pick up your purchases after paying for them.  She abruptly stopped when the lady in front of me didn’t move away from the card reader and instead looked terribly confused, eventually asking, “Um…what’s going on?”

The frantic lady stated, “I guess I need to ring this up over here,” pointing to the side with the card reader.

The lady in front of me had a look of both confusion and complete annoyance.  She looked around briefly and pointed towards the back of the line saying, “The line starts back there.”

The frantic lady now looked desperate.  “But I have an emergency!  I need to go!”

The lady in front of me looked at the Target employee who simply shrugged her shoulders, in an effort to more or less insinuate ‘it’s your choice if you want to let her in’.  The lady in front of me simply stood for quite a few seconds, pondering the whole situation and clearly was taken aback by the nerve of the frantic lady.  In the meantime, the frantic lady again stated, “Please??!  I have an emergency?  Please???!!!”

We all stood with eyes glued on the lady in front of me, patiently waiting for the verdict.  Like a judge in a murder trial, silence hung in the room while the lady looked back and forth, pondering, considering, etc.  It then became evident that she was administering the dreaded thumbs down response.  She turned back to the frantic lady and repeated once again with more attitude this time, “The line begins over there.”

It was right about now that I thought a fist fight would break out.  The frantic lady was completely in shock by this response.  “Oh my god!!  I have an EMERGENCY!  I can’t believe it!” she said, all the while shaking her head in disbelief.  “The NERVE of some people!  Oh my god!!!!”  She then began pushing her cart away and yelled out, “Guess I’ll just have to go to self check out then!”

The lady in front of me simply smirked in righteousness and mumbled quietly towards the Target clerk and the rest of us in line, “…well, I only have so much time on my lunch hour too...”  It was apparent that she didn’t buy the “emergency” story whatsoever and felt that she had really “shown her”.

It was at this point that the lady behind me in line chimed in, “Some people.  You know, she was acting really weird when she came in, too.”  By the time my purchases were getting rung up, I said to the young female Target clerk, “Well, personally, I think I would have just let her ring the thing up,” in which the Target clerk gently smiled and agreed.

I can’t deny that I really find this whole event rather intriguing.  What I find so interesting about this situation is that apparently very few people can even believe that the lady could actually have an emergency.  I mean, this is how far we’ve come in our society with crying wolf, preying on other’s good will, and so on.  We’re apparently so used to the concept of ‘fake’ everything at this point that we can’t even handle the concept of letting someone cut in front of us in a Target line, lest we feel like a real sucker.  It’s quite sad, no?  Then again, how does one tell the true “emergencies” from the fakers, and better yet who’s to judge whose emergency is “emergency” enough to cut in a shopping line?  Just like with people who stand on street corners with signs that say that they’re homeless and need help, we apparently as a society no longer believe that anyone is genuine in their cry for help, and we simply assume that everyone around us is running some sort of a scam.  I mean, I don’t know whether the lady had a true emergency or not.  How could I, right?  Still, she wasn’t asking for money or anything…she was simply asking to cut in a shopping line, and that doesn’t really involve anything from anyone except perhaps an additional wait of about 2 minutes, considering she just had one item to ring up.  I guess we apparently as a society feel like that’s not worth the risk.  It’s just interesting…and very sad at the same time.  It basically sounds to me like if you’re ever in need of real help from a stranger, the best thing you can do is simply stay quiet and suck it up.  Perhaps that’s what our society has come to, and if so, well, that’s pretty depressing.

I’m not really suggesting that the woman in front of me in line did anything wrong for who knows what the real story is behind the frantic lady’s actions.  I’m simply pointing out the fact that she automatically assumed it was a scam, and weirder yet is the lady behind me who felt the need to point out that the frantic lady was acting strange on the way into Target and automatically tied that in to the scam mentality.  For me personally, I would have tied it the other way around.

Still, what kind of legitimate emergency involves the purchase of an infant car seat?  If someone was in that desperate need of help, wouldn’t you just leave the car seat behind and run out of Target in order to get to your destination as quickly as possible?  And why not just use self check out in the first place?  These are all very valid questions.  I guess there’s a small chance that she might need the car seat for the emergency but that seems slightly odd, no?  Again, damn good questions and who knows what the answers are.

In the end, after paying for my purchases, I pushed my cart out of the exit of Target and nearly got run over by a car that zipped past me going at least about 40+ miles per hour in what would normally be a 10 mph zone.  As the car whizzed by me and I stood there flabbergasted by the near miss, I noticed that the driver was indeed the frantic lady.  Perhaps it was an emergency after all?  Who knows.  I guess at least I didn’t end up BEING the emergency, with getting run over and needing to be rushed to the hospital for my injuries.  If that did happen, I think we can already bet that someone would have thought it was a scam.

Life in North County

And so, yes, I've moved, if you haven't heard and/or already figured that out.  It was quite a task, to say the least, but I think moving across country almost always is.  It's certainly a lot more daunting of a task if you move yourself but then again it's also considerably cheaper.  In hindset, just my 2 cents, of course, but driving the Penske moving truck was probably the easiest part of the whole process so I personally see little reason to pay someone else a large sum of money to do this fairly straight forward task.  Ah, but that's me.

The drive out in my car over New Years was pretty straight forward except for a possible weirdo that was following me for quite some time that really put me on my guard.  Guess where he was from?  Yep, Minnesota, per his license plate.  He even darted off of the freeway at the last second, nearly hitting the median, when he saw that I put my blinker on to exit the freeway and then proceeded to follow me to the gas station.  Not long after that, he struck up a goofy brief conversation at the pump and then proceeded to follow me into the bathroom.  I did my best to hurry out of the bathroom and gas station without looking too obvious but he once again followed me back to the pumps and then onto the freeway.  I've seen one too many movies like "Zodiac" that simply told me to keep my guard up at all costs, of which I did and then did my best to distance myself from him by slowing down and sticking behind another traveller.  He may have just been an overly zealous Minnesotan hoping to ride alongside another former Minnesotan but you just can't be too careful these days.

That was the weirdest thing that happened.  On the lighter side, I guess I will not deny that I let out quite a big cheer when I passed into the Iowa State border from Minnesota.  Iowa isn't really much more to look at but at least it was progress in the right direction, in my head at least.  It really wasn't until I reached Colorado that I truly started breathing a sigh of relief, one that was about 10 years in the making.  Leaving the midwest behind me was definitely a reason to celebrate as far as I was concerned, and no matter what the future holds, I really hope to not have to ever drive again with the midwest being my final destination.

Oddly, Minnesota, in it's usual "Minnesota" sort of way, is one of the few states I've ever encountered that not only has a "Welcome to Minnesota" sign but also has a "Thanks for visiting Minnesota" sign just slightly before the "Welcome to Iowa" sign.  It might just be my personal bias but this seems to have that typical Minnesota "we're the best at everything" sort of mentality, as if to say, "Um, you're about to leave the wonderful state of Minnesota.  Are you sure you want to do that?  Huh?  Huh??  And, why would you ever want to leave?!  Are you crazy?!!"  Yeah, that's pretty much how I view Minnesota in a nutshell.  The very amusing part is that Minnesotans basically look down on Iowa as a worthless flyover zone; in passing into the state of Iowa, it looks to me like, well, Minnesota, just without the attitude.  'Nuff said on that topic.

I also had my first ever emergency whizz off the freeway.  I was patiently waiting to get to a gas station and over about a 20 minute time frame, when no stations were in sight, it became literally painfully obvious that I wasn't going to make it.  I seriously waited until I realized that I was about to pee my pants that I finally pulled over and in broad daylight watered the desert shrubery.  The next gas station of course ended up being only 10 minutes away but I seriously would have never made it.

And so, how is life in North County?  Yep, spoken like a native!  I quickly learned that when you say "San Diego" people usually mean county, not city.  So, we're all San Diegoan's here, apparently, since everything south of Camp Pendleton is in San Diego county.  To differentiate, we're in the northern part of the county and so...  I'm sure you get the drift.

I'd say life is good in North County.  It's amazing how quickly you forget about snow, weather, etc., not to mention, well, Minnesota.  I've done everything I can to shed pretty much any tie I might have had with my former state, even going so far as to instruct new acquaintances to never say that I'm "from" Minnesota...it was just a mistake, 'er, I mean, place that I lived for awhile.  In fact, it's best that we simply don't talk about it at all.

North County is so far pretty much as I had imagined it, though.  It's not completely unlike the look of Phoenix, my former former place of residency, coupled with the look and feel of south Orange County, ala San Clemente.  So far, I have no mega complaints except for things like I wish the roads were a bit smoother and traffic wasn't quite as heavy as it can be at times.  I am certainly enjoying being able to eat decent food again, though, and I can't say enough how joyous it is to have chips and guacamole once again on a regular basis, even if it does give me mega heart burn and will probably eventually be the death of me.

Apart from that, I'm just settling in to my surroundings, getting things put away (ah, the endless unpacking), and so on.  Life in North County is so far so good.  Now, ask me in 6 months and we'll see how it's goin' ;)