8-Track

Cary drove his Lincoln land barge to the house tonight. Laurie said “You know how your memories of most things are larger than what they really are? That Lincoln is larger than I remember!” Her grandmother drove Lincoln Continentals. Either way, it’s one big car, and what I found amazing is it has a working 8-track tape deck and, even more amazing, Cary has 8-track tapes. I had an 8-track tape deck in the first car I bought in 1975, a 1966 Rambler American. I hated 8-track tapes because if I forgot to eject the tape cartridge before I turned on to our rough dirt road, the tape deck would eat the tape. I had an 8-track recorder at home in the 70s, and I used to record my favorite songs onto 8-track tapes from records (playlists today) to play in the car. At least when a tape got eaten by the tape deck, I could record another one.

Doggonit Santa’s a Jerk!

Santa is one sick, silly dude. He gave me a blue My Little Pony for Christmas. I’m trying to decide if I was naughty or nice (most likely naughty), to deserve this Shocking Blue pony. A Brony I’m NOT! Tristan has a name for her that I’m not going to publish here. Miss Shocking Blue is kind of cute and will probably end up in future posts and videos.

The painter took Christmas off. We had a colorless (gray) Christmas morning.

Jake waiting to open his Christmas present. Sasha is giving him kitty Mad Dogs.

The moon through a veil of clouds.

Tristan embroidered this amazing tiny portrait for Spunk for Laurie.

Tristan’s beautiful Bearded Dragon, Donny, made an appearance for Christmas.

Jake & The Bass

I ordered an Ibanez multi-scale 5-string bass in the middle of August. I just got it last week. I was thinking the fanned frets on the fingerboard would help my poor arthritic fingers. Why not get a fretless bass, you might ask? I did consider that, but I like having frets. I’ve been practicing with it and I finally got time to record two new songs this weekend. The one I recorded today I’m calling “The Bass” and I put it together with video of Jake chasing a stick and rolling in the dirt. It’s a jazzy piece. The other song I named “Black Widow” is very hard and dark. I don’t have a video for it unless I do a visualization. I’ll post it at another time after I figure out if I’ll at video or go with the audio.

The multi-scale fingerboard is a lot easier for me to play and my fingers and hands are not hurting or swollen beyond normal after hours of playing and recording. I played the Ibanez multi-scale 7-string guitar on the recording.

Bottoms Up!

The Mallards are happy to have water in the clearwater ditch again.

Taking flight.

Jake was having a ball running and shaking on the beach.

The Sandias from the beach. Clouds over the Rio Grande. Beaver Dam in the clearwater ditch

Cranes grazing in the orchard.

Birthday & Balloons

Today is Laurie’s birthday and the second day of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta with a mass ascension.

One of the helium balloons taking off last night.

Dog Daze

Tristan brought Jake over for Father’s Day. Jake is a five year-old Great Pyrenees/Golden Retriever cross. Jake is very well behaved, but all the cats are totally traumatized that we let a DOG!!!, can YOU BELIEVE IT? A DOG!!!, ¡¡¡Un PERRO!!!, UN CHIEN!!!, UN CANE!!!, come inside the house. I tried to get a photo of Spunk’s despising look, but Jake was being too rambunctious and Spunk ran for cover before I could get a photo. We took Jake to The Beach, and he got into the river for the first time, all recorded in the video below.

Jake is giving Spunk a serious run for the money in the modeling department.

Ready to go to The Beach