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Here In Oakland

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Under here.

May 4, 2010

Or Didn't Went

Wednesday. Up this morning again at quarter to six, to bed last night close to eleven, I have no idea when I finally went to sleep. Don't remember it taking that long, but then I don't remember many things that happened yesterday and don't even ask about the day before.

Still, back now after breakfast and the papers, the sun bright with the weather people saying well into the eighties today, my guitar lesson coming up at ten. Am I ready for my guitar lesson? Am I ever ready for my guitar lesson? Probably not, although I've practiced many hours this past week. No complaints, I practiced because I wanted to practice and am more than willing to let any progress take care of itself. I guess I get off playing these simple scales and chords over and over, some of which are starting to sound reasonably good, some of which are fighting me tooth and nail. I now have a Beatles tune I'm able to play without too many errors. What, one year of guitar practice and I know one tune? One tune? Yup. More to follow.

Later. Not so bad. Still don't have that D to B7 chord shift down so that it sounds in any way like music, but there's been progress. The rest went well, able to make the other chord changes at a fairly decent clip. Back with the beginning riff to the Stone's Satisfaction or a reasonably facsimile thereof and a basic 50's rock and roll routine to learn this week. We're making progress. Glacial, but glacial is getting faster in these days of global warming, here in the ice caves of Oakland.

Later still. Some time on the guitar. It doesn't sound as nice to me as my instructor's Strat, but that could be the fact we're using two different amps during the lesson. Best to think that as I've been wondering what, say, a Telecaster might sound like. Best not to remember they cost less than many a camera lens I've acquired over the years. Best not to think about that at all. Just, you know, play.

A warm t-shirt day. They've been discussing the various effects of global warming on the San Francisco area on the news these last couple of days saying we have perhaps twelve days during a year that are really hot, where you need air conditioning and such to keep reasonably comfortable. I was interested in hearing them say twelve days as that's the number I came up with from my experience living in Napa. The problem is those twelve days will become something like seventy plus days a year and very few people in the Bay Area have air conditioning. I, for example, have always been comfortable here with just a fan.

Of course we're talking about this ratcheting up over the next four or five decades. Best to remind myself I'm not going to be around by then, no need to think about it, let alone worry. Still, one of the things (and there are many things) that keep those of us who came here fleeing other places is the wonderful weather not shared by inland areas and those living in the south. (No offense, people to the south, although I admit a bit of a snark in my remark.)

Oh, I mentioned thinking of sushi for lunch yesterday, hoping I'd cop out. I did cop out. For lunch. Went down, however, and had an early dinner at five after checking my bank account, realizing I could slip it in just under the wire. Which means I've blown my sushi-sake budget for the week (please) and, should I wish to do anything about sake this evening, I'd need to drive to a local supermarket. Cheese, crackers and sushi sound nice, but getting my butt in the car is a project. I avoid projects. Be interesting to know how this one went or didn't went tomorrow.

The photograph was taken at the San Francisco How Weird Street Faire yesterday with a Nikon D3s mounted with a 70-200mm f 2.8 Nikkor VR II lens.


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