Iced over

Well. It's Iowa. That's really all you can say. It's Iowa, and there's ice everywhere, and they say it's gonna turn to snow, and that just sucks.

I haven't recorded my new record yet. It's coming. We're discussing. We'll see. Eric and Dan may show up in the mix somehow and that would be seriously cool...

It's late and I'm baking bread...

I seem to be baking bread a lot lately...weird, but oh well. It's been that kind of a day...

But it's a good night for baking bread - there's an ice storm going on outside, so the house could stand a little warm up. I am not dealing with this winter thing very well, I'm sorry to say...

The songs are really shaping up now, starting to feel a little more natural. I need to just knock out about 2 hours a day and really polish them up nice for a week and then I think I'll be set to record. I hope.

Weather crap

The temp dropped 50 degrees in a day. It's so frickin' cold I can hardly feel my fingers. This ir wrong...so wrong...

Hang on - I'd better drink my coffee before it freezes in the mug...

Ah...that's tasty. Jazzy Chestnut from Sugar Grove Winery. It's Christmas in my mouth.

So...last week...I didn't blog...I barely picked up a guitar if at all...and I don't know why, I don't know what the hell was going on. It was completely weird...and now I can't remember a thing about any of it to even say what I was doing that was keeping me from this stuff that's so very important to me. WEIRD.

I have to warm my fingers around the coffee mug again - they're getting stiff from the cold.

Sad guitar

My oldest guitar friend, my 1972 Gallagher G45 Custom, is a sick baby. The weather was just too much for it this year and the neck is...bendy...I can't play it anyway because it causes my right rotator cuff to freak OUT, dreadnaughts are just too big for me. But it was my dad's guitar, and he gave it to me after I had a bunch of work done on it in the 80's...and now...sigh. I have to call Don Gallagher Monday and talk to him about it and it's probably going to make me cry. I adjusted the truss rod as much as it'll adjust, and it's not enough. He could probably put a new neck on, but he'd want to put a new back on, too, because the back is the home of the Crack of Doom... it's been a working guitar, so it's taken a beating through weather and winters and who the hell knows what all. I don't know if it would be the same guitar after all that...and maybe that's ok - maybe that's a good thing - new back and new neck with a modern truss rod and carbon fiber rods - maybe I'd get another 35 years out of it. I should live at least that long...well...we'll have to have a good long chat about it Monday. In the meantime, I'm all worried about it...

It's disgusting

There's a shiny layer of ice all over my world. I don't like it. I wasn't ready for winter. It's going to make me NUTS. I want to be warm again...just for a few days...pul-leeeze..?

Have made no progress on much of anything and now I'm fighting a cold. I may win, we'll see. I've hit it with everything I've got. 'Tis the season to be snotty.

F-f-f-reezing...

Alright, I've been cold for 4 solid days, and this is NOT NORMAL. I'm usually too warm, even if everybody else around me is freezing. I am not running a fever. I am not coming down with anything. It's just bloody cold and clammy here in lovely Iowa.

Major snowstorm on the way for tomorrow...sigh.

Rough night

It's a sweet gig, but damn it was cold. The wind was howling through town, sucking the heat out of everything and everyone. I was freezing, my hands were so cold I couldn't play, or concentrate, or focus...my hands simply would not work. First set was ALMOST a disaster. Second was somewhat better once the bodies started warming the room up more. Guitar was FREAKING out. Even after I threatened to go buy a graphite guitar. Met some damn nice people though.

Well, if Tiger Woods can have an off day, I can have an off night once in a while. And there wasn't a bazillion dollars on the line for me, nor was the national news there minutely analyzing every botched note. But here's the REAL newsflash - I DID NOT FORGET A SINGLE WORD IN ANY SONG ALL NIGHT LONG.

Pat Smith is taking me for a belated birthday breakfast (and little does he know, commiseration fest) this morning so I probably need to take a shower and put on some real clothes. It's flarping cold out there. No wandering about in my jammies today.

Better

Actually fixed 2 songs last night - I think I'm solid now, nothing missing. I hope. Listening back the other thing I noticed was that I played everything too fast, well not everything but a few things, so I need to get that in my head, too. SLOW is good. Some of these songs, slow is sensual and lovely, which is great.

Eeking closer and closer and closer...

Simmering

I think I got a good handle on how to finish the one song that was bugging me...hopefully it'll come together tonight. Guitar needs to be changed up a bit, along with a few words...here and there, it's all good.

WAY sleepy this morning...want to crawl under the covers and tell everybody to get stuffed and leave me alone...but...sigh...

2nd listen

Well, after a second listen this morning, I'm really pleased with all the songs. There's one that doesn't seem "done" - it's a complete thing, but somehow when you stick the fork in it you go, hmmmm...just needs a better arrangement maybe. I'll work on it tonight. See what I can come up with...

Back to work work work...