Sunday, January 8, my Aunt Marise’s 81st birthday, on the old Wilkins home place in Guyton, GA. I had a nice visit by phone this evening – her time. Pretty much this day was spent on the computer, either transposing music or working on the 2011 newsletter and the links to my trip to Atlanta in May of 2011.
Monday, Jan 9 It’s a slow day today and we must do some paperwork and dehydrate the bananas we got last week. Banana chips are really good, and good for you. Dehydration concentrates the radioactive potassium – read about the BED:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose
Most of the day was spent on computer chores and organizing music. Mostly I worked on trying to complete the details of the 2011 newsletter (never finished).
I got a nice surprise email from Complete Computer Services, our computer gurus, who also provide our service for our account we have had since 1995, nancyh@ellensburg.com . The surprise is our cost is going down to $2.99/month, and our service is being enhanced with unlimited storage for mailing files. That has been a drawback and caused me to turn many friends away from using that account, because of the storage limitations. I still don’t wish to encourage people to send large files, but at least now we are not in danger of filling our account while away for a few hours. John played cook today, and fixed a great pork loin roast for dinner and for meals for the next few days.
I tried searching the web for a guitar like one a friend has for sale, but I cannot locate much information, and neither could John, but he went and unpacked my old 12-string (1 string is broken, so it’s an 11 string), Gibson:
http://www.guitar-museum.com/guitar-8455-1967-Gibson-B-25-12N-Guitar-Vintage-12-string
He managed to find information about that on line and one for sale in a bidding process. The price has been bid up to $798, but the owner says it is worth a lot more, and that one like it fetched $1200. I paid $300 for mine in Iowa City, IA sometime around 1970, lightly used. John found a serial number on the back and from the Gibson site learned it was made in 1967.
This new found interest in guitars is a result of John’s deciding he wants to learn to make music on something. I suggested he not begin on a 12-string. We also have a 6 string classical that I loaned out to a friend in Yakima but he hasn’t had a chance to start lessons yet with the teacher he wanted. So we are going to go down and visit a future weekend and “borrow” it back, so that John has one to learn on. I want him to get his own, however, and that’s why I’m trying to work with the friend in Montana, to find out what the one she has is worth, so we can give her a fair price for it. I haven’t found out much yet, but intend to do some more looking. All we know is that the sticker inside the guitar says “The Classic Guitar”– made by Kay Musical Instrument Company” and a stamped number says: L 4384. I finally found one tonight on eBay, and they have a start bid of $145 but no one has bid. It must be the same as the one she has .. especially considering looking at the pictures and relating to the description she has given me. (I’m adding to this Saturday night Jan 14, before this is posted. The owner lowered the starting bid to $115, but no one ever bid on it. It had nice pictures and was described as an Acoustic Kay of the 40s & 50s. Our friend followed the links and agreed it was very close to the one she has, which we hope to get. We just have to settle on a price. The ad was removed today from eBay without selling it.
Tuesday, Jan 10 Up earlier than wished and did some emailing and then burned some CDs to share with friends I was to see today. I went for a tour of the CWU Archives at the CWU Brooks Library, and got a 15-minute tour of the new parts of the library by the “new” Dean (hired in 2010). I was invited by Jim Brooks, for whom the library is named. He is 85 now and in really good shape. He was CWU President for 17 years, and taught before and after that term in Geography. He was still teaching a couple of courses when I arrived in 1988.
I squeezed in a trip to the Dollar Tree to trade in the clip-on watch that wasn’t working and to grab some canned cat food. I made it with little time to spare to a 3:00 massage. Also, I ran our tree order (Grand Fir and Ponderosa Pine by the Kittitas County Conservation District, where John has donated time (prior years) sorting plants in the spring for the community sale. After many years, the scale of this sale requires more work than volunteers could provide so they now get an AmeriCorps crew. Our driveway is lined with Ponderosa Pine and our property has a dozen types of trees not here when we arrived. John went with me tonight (for me to play music at 6:30 with The Connections group) because we wanted to show my guru-music-friend who plays in the group the 12-string guitar and a newly acquired viola (free). He really liked the guitar and recommended the owner of the music store here in town for installation of new strings — having experience and a special stretcher-tool. Otherwise, here is a description we would need to follow: [Who knew you can get hurt doing this?]
http://www.mediawebsource.com/guitar/12-string-guitar.htm
The temps are going to 15 tonight, so I don’t know if John will want to work outside in the day as he did today. We were quite late eating dinner tonight (9:00) — biscuits and beans to go with our leftover pork loin. We are both really tired and may hit the hay earlier tonight.
Wednesday, Jan 11 was another busy day. Played at the food bank, and they gave me some almond drink (not milk) to try. Nice meal today. Chicken Enchiladas but not with all the tortilla stuff like I don’t like. MUCH chicken and very tender. I took the 12-string in and the owner of the shop knew the model. Good sign! He respectfully oohed-and-awed —
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiTejNnV6UE
over it and looked it up in his book — finding it is valued at $1,150. I left it to have new Extra Light strings put on it. Then off to exercise class and our teacher was not there so I guided the class, and we went for 50 minutes. It was probably more of a workout than I normally get, having to call out instructions and keep all on task.
John fixed a good dinner of leftovers: Chicken & pork Fettuccini with fried cauliflower. He’s been working on the computer on his guitar music theory learning and creating charts and symbols for when he has a guitar with which to practice. I spent a lot of time tonight setting up music for members of our group.
Thursday, Jan 12 John went with me to run errands while I played music at the Rehab center where I was incarcerated so long back in 2010, and it was so great to see people who remember me and are very happy to see me back on my feet, and walking down the hall on my own. I remember when it was a real struggle to push myself in a wheel chair, even pulling along the rail along the wall. Then when I moved up to a walker and how much trouble it was to go down one very long hallway to another longer (I think) one to get to Physical Therapy. So, now when I walk down the hall and a nurse says, “Nancy, it’s so good to see you,” I always reply, “Thanks, it’s good to be seen.” From there we did Burger King for a rushed hamburger & fries, because we were going back to town for a bluegrass jam session with Julie Henigan, the Celtic Music presenter tomorrow night at CWU Music building recital hall. 15 people came including John who went along just to enjoy the music. There were a couple of mandolins, an autoharp, 6 violins, 2 dulcimers, 3 banjoes, and the rest guitars. The Dulcimers were second instruments of guitarists. And one of the mandolin players also had a violin. The people there were from around the valley.
Friday, Jan 13 Started off the day by talking to a friend about an old CTK 510 Casio Keyboard passed down by his wife’s father, and no one else has used. John is interested in having a music keyboard adjacent to his computer while he is learning music on the guitar. This is an old model (CTK 510) but there are still a few being offered on the Web.
Tonight’s Celtic Music Performance was interesting but not totally clear completely to me and John. The lecture part started at 6:30. She explained some of the history, geography, conflict and character of the Irish people and how the poets and songs developed. See here, sections “Music for Singing” and “Caoineadh Songs.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_music_of_Ireland
John’s grandmother was from Ireland [http://www.ballinamore.ie/about/ ] and so he has some personal interest in the subject.
We got there early to have good seats which we got and we were hearing fine. Sadly however, 120 people arrived at just before 7:00 for the concert and they moved us to the bigger auditorium, with those late arrival people getting first choice of seating. That was a big bummer.
The microphones were not working well in the larger hall, and there was a buzz that was irritating through some of the performance. John and I liked the lecture better. Then she sang and played for more than an hour. She told stories about some of the songs, and they were audible. However, some of her lyrics were not understandable by us, yet people closer to the stage would laugh occasionally, so one has to imagine they were hearing a bit of Irish humor that we missed.
She sang with and without instrumental accompaniment (called Sean-nós (Irish for “old style”)–a highly ornamented style of unaccompanied traditional Irish singing.
http://juliehenigan.com/mp3/06-Adieu.mp3
She also sang while playing her guitar and used her violin between the verses of a couple of songs. Mostly she just played instrumentals on the violin. That’s not the way I sing and play the violin, but I am clearly different from most. I will sing and play the melody, or the harmony, and do one on the violin and sing the other. My group gets a kick out of that and don’t know how I manage it. I just tell them it’s because I was an only child and had cover both parts.
The lady who we took along with us, (who is hard of hearing), heard most of the concert, probably a little less than John and I did, but she heard enough to enjoy it, and that’s all that matters. She has macular degeneration and can no longer drive, so she really appreciates being given an invitation and ride to events around town. She’s a trooper, living alone.
Might snow here tomorrow and some or all days for a week, they say. It is damned cold out there. The temperature went to 11 last night. When we came out of the music building just around 9:00 it was 28. We were parked on the front row (staff parking), but it is still a few hundred feet walk up and down. John said it felt as if it was minus 28. It was chilly in the building, and I was glad I had on two jackets over a blouse, and still had an outer coat to put on outside plus a winter pull-down hat that covered my ears.
It was a not-so-all-right Friday the 13th. I lost my temporary gold crown again this morning (eating toast)–not even anything gooey, but got into the dentist and had it repaired (no cost). Also got to my exercise class and, later, picked up the newly strung 12-string guitar. They charged me $26.46, so must have either been expensive strings and no charge for putting them on, or $6.00 for the strings and $20 labor. I only got the total charge, not an itemized bill.
Then off to Les Schwab (tire & battery place) to check the Ford Truck’s battery. John charged it the past two days and put it in the truck but it wouldn’t start, so I took it to town and went by to have it checked. Turns out it is fully charged and in good shape. The switch on the steering column is flakey so we will have to try again and get it to town for a fix. When it warms up some.
Saturday, Jan 14 Today was an interesting day, and it was too cold for John to check out the battery and truck ignition. Most of our day was involved with music, and we are adding yet another instrument to our growing collection. We spent morning on the computer and doing chores, and I put together a book order for Hamilton Books (which has a special NO shipping charges on orders through Feb 8). They sell “remainder books” for about one-third the original price; sometimes better. John found a kit that teaches the Harmonica, with a CD, DVD, instructional book, AND a basic Harmonica. He also found a book, “How to Play the Guitar.” I found 3 books with scores of music (notation w/ chords), for singing while you work, 100 sing–along favorites for around the Campfire, and some “Negro Spirituals” of the Jubilee Singers (originally published in 1892). I dropped the order in the mail at the PO when we went to town on our way to Thorp to look at our friend’s Casio Keyboard. We visited for a couple hours and came away with the instrument. John has set it up back in our computer room. As best we can figure it was made in the 1980s and except for a small “buzz” it does everything it is supposed to, and we even have the instruction manual. While in town we bought 50# whole oats because our bird food has been depleted. The little devils get hungry when it is this cold. Arrived home and retrieved the mail, which had the book on the Dulcimer (written in 1974) and it arrived in perfect shape. Not a mark on it, or bent page.
Hope you had a nice week.
Nancy & John
on the Naneum Fan