…the endocrinologist. She’s going to feel better soon. She’s got a prescription for more meds.
It’s STILL raining.
We’re still working with Savio to get that UV light replaced, so I’ve set up a pot filter to handle the algae and dosed the pond with algae killer: the fish hate it when I do that, and I hate doing it. It’s hard on the ecosystem, but so is too much algae. It’s just complicated. But we’re getting there. They admit now they owe us a light. (UV light kills some disease thingies and single-cell algae.)
So I have to go out and clean filters 3-4 times a day because of the want of that light. Arrgh. I could get one at Lowe’s, but they’re spendy, and they owe us this one.
I’m also rebuilding my calluses for the guitar. Sore fingers. I replaced the 10 year old strings, and the new ones fight back. Very sore fingers. But callus rebuilds very fast when you’ve played before. Your body remembers and starts working overtime to rebuild it. The guitar sounds a lot better with live strings. [I play an Ibanez 12 steel-strung acoustic: Ibanez is an inexpensive 12, but if you listen to it and try it before you buy, you can pick the 1 in 5 that’s better than some of the higher priced brands. And mine is not that bad—it holds its tuning pretty well, a great virtue in a 12.] I’m no great shakes as a guitarist, but I enjoy it, and Jane has fired up her own 6-string nylon-strung folk. She has a far better voice than I do, and is a better guitarist—and pianist. My other instrument is the flute, but it’s just not good for singing, eh?
Anyway, it’s a skill we couldn’t really practice in apartments; we let ourselves get rusty; now we’re trying to build it back again. Restringing is always a pain—even using a stemwinder, which really speeds up the winding. When you get to the last few half-turns of tension on the higher B string, you just wear protective glasses and hope that the ‘new’ strings you bought 10 years ago are going to hold up. You can feel the guitar shake as that last adjustment goes: it jumps: when it goes into tune all the way across, it starts to resonate—you hit one string and the rest go live and quiver in sympathy. I had to sell my sitar when we moved—an instrument as large as a 6 year old is just too much to move crosscountry, and fragile to boot. But it has 11-20 playing strings, and 10 more ‘sympathetic’ strings that aren’t plucked, but resonate under the main strings as the ones in tune to them are plucked or strummed. Interesting instrument. It vibrates in your hands (so do many instruments, but a sitar is very, very live) as other instruments are played. A 12-string has a lot of those properties: its resonances make sense to me—I can ‘hear’ the harmonic lines on it in ways I can’t on a 6, and for some reason, probably that one, I can’t play a 6 worth a darn. I started on the 12, because it hurt less (a ukelele is the most painful instrument you can play, I swear) and it just makes sense to me as a 6 doesn’t.
Anyway, for good or for ill, we’re back at music.
But as aforesaid, I’m no great shakes as a guitarist. I just enjoy it.
“My other instrument is the flute, but it’s just not good for singing, eh?
”
there’s a few folk bans with lead flutisit/singer. They do some verses then an instrumental verse etc. Or instrument and sung chorus. Can work very well.
Having the time/space/ability to reconnect with a musical talent must be great.
Hope Jane feels better and not drugged up soon. I recently corresponded with her and she was very helpful and encouraging. Best wishes from Doug,
What she’s on is meds, but not the druggy kind—it’s basically that if you’re low-thyroid, your body doesn’t produce enough of this stuff, and it operates like a vitamin supplement, in one sense. It gives you what you need to function.
The fun is in the doing…..a ceilidh is for friends to share after all. 😉
I hope your koi are better at withstanding changes. My mom’s pond developed a leak, so they went and bought a liner for the plastic tub that was the original pond. They transferred them to a holding tank (a garbage can lined with plastic), and went to get the liner installed and the fish put back before too much time had passed. Unfortunately, and I don’t know all the details, but every one of the koi died. This is not the first time they’ve moved the fish out of the pond into the can while they clean the pond, but whatever it was, all of them were gone. Some of them are over 21 years old, and such a loss, she didn’t say how upset she was, but I’m pretty sure she’s hiding it.
My mom has also had her thyroid removed, so she’s permanently on medication for the hormones she’s missing.
I wish I could do more with my guitar than I do. I have a Sigma (imported by Martin) D-28 Dreadnaught I bought while stationed in Norfolk, Va the first time. It’s got bumps and bruises, it’s been dropped off a bed and had one edge cracked, but it still sounds great. New strings are always nice to have, but as you, I’m always reluctant to change the B and E strings. You never know when that thing is going to let go and you just hope that the breaking point is somewhere much higher than where you will be tuning it. I’d like to get a 12-string, and I was looking at the Ibanez line. One of the local music dealers said he’d keep an eye out for a nice one like I’d seen before in his shop. It went for a song – $175. All of the ones I’ve seen at other manufacturers’ websites are ‘spendsive!”
An Ibanez is a sort of a knockoff of some spendier models, but, as aforesaid, if you pick the right one they’re nice. You might check pawnshops, too. I got one from a pawnshop once on the extremely cheap that had a seriously torqued neck. I began working with it: wet the neck down with a damp rag, left it in the sun, tightened the strings on one side and loosed them on another, for a number of weeks. Plus messed with the block screw. And when I sold it, it made a nice first guitar for a friend.
Wearing glasses is good. I’ve had my cheek sliced by a breaking string. Not fun! Sort of like working on bomb disposal…you never know what’s going to be the last straw.
Re the koi, my only guess would be uncommonly high water temperature combined with oxygen shortage. So, so sorry to hear that. When you have a pet that lives upward of a hundred years, that’s a very sad, sad event.
Dad thinks that when they put the lid on the can, even with the pump circulating water into the can, that it might not have been enough.
Unfortunately, the dealer I mentioned has gone out of business. I think he got tired of the job, which he’d inherited from his father. The other music store in town is more for metal bands than us acoustic folks. I’ve gotten to play a 12-string one time. A guy I knew in college had a Silvertone 12-string. Silvertone was the line of electronics, etc., from Sears. It sounded really great, and Charlie liked it a lot. I’ve been looking at the various manufacturers’ websites, and most of their 12-strings, if they have them, are cutaway styles, and I don’t favor them. Besides, the costs are usually in the 4 figure range, which puts it out of my reach until I can get my car paid off (September!) and get some oil in the tanks for the winter.
Oh, the lid was not on tight, just enough to keep the leaves, dirt, birds, and other things from getting into the can with the koi.
Probably did limit the gas-exchange, however. So sorry for it.
This is the guitar shop we use: http://www.guitarcenter.com/12-String-Acoustic-Acoustic-Guitar.gc —which is a chain, as you can see, and they don’t have every guitar in every store, but they have been good, and their prices are good.
I was quite the musician as a teenager and young woman, and saved babysitting money until I could afford an classical acoustic Giannini Craviola, because it had such a pretty sound and unique shape (and was almost a thousand dollars even in the 70’s). It’s the thing I’d save in a fire. I was never a great guitarist either, but the Giannini made up for a lot. Now my voice is totally ravaged and my fingers arthritic, but I can can still play that beautiful instrument because the action is so easy. (Didn’t stop me from breaking the low E string last time I changed out the strings, though.)
One thing I’ve found, after cracking a finger in the 70’s with a hammer—it healed a little crooked—the guitar actually staves off stiffness. That finger had only 50% flex until I took up the guitar, and it became nearly ordinary after: now it’s stiffened a bit in the last 10 years, but it’ll regain its flexibility, I’m determined so, now that I’m fingering again.
I had two really nice guitars, one of which I sold six months after I bought it for twice what I paid for it—and the other of which I sold back in the 90’s, as I recall, curly maple. Both were way too loud for me—not that I don’t like the loudness, but they’re too bright for my voice, which ain’t much, I’ll assure you—but being submerged in rotten guitar playing doesn’t help. They both went to far better musicians.
12-strings are lovely instruments. One of my friends is a professional musician with a collection of guitars, but when he wants to twiddle about for his own amusement, usually the 12-string comes out, rather than one of his many electrics. Comparatively, they have an incredibly rich sound.
I saw the Sage series from Ibanez at Guitar Center…oooooohhhh, I was so tempted to plunk down the credit card number and have it shipped to the Spokane store for pickup. But then, Xheralt and WarriorofWorry would have one more thing to crowd them in the car. Besides, i need to save money and I don’t need to be spending that much this month. After the debacle with the tickets to Phantom of the Opera, I’m watching what i spend.
As for brightness, different strings give different sounds, unless no matter which strings you used, they were still too bright.
I prefer silk and steel, but usually what I can find is Phosphor Bronze, which is not exactly quiet. 😉
I know Martin makes silk & steel for 12-string, but you’re right, it’s hard finding them.
Have you tried Hoffman Music? (504) 444-4140 in Spokane? I know Guitar Center doesn’t carry them.
Thanks for that. They’re only about 10 blocks from us. The phosphor bronze is ouchier, though my fingers are healing fast, so I should be better soon…like maybe by Thursday. Now if only my favorite once-broken finger (index, on my fingering hand) will get all its flexibility back by then…
I think I’ll stick with the phosphor bronze since they’re on and keeping their tune, but I know where I’m getting my next strings.
If you can’t find them, perhaps on our way across country, we can find you a set of silk and steel for 12-strings….I don’t know if you’d want my cell phone number just in case, or not, so unless otherwise indicated, I’ll await your word here.
BTW, you and I now own twin 12-strings. I ordered mine yesterday, I don’t know how long it’ll take to get here, but when it does, I’ll let you know.
great! Enjoy!
It’s here! Jane wants me to name it, and I still need to figure out a couple of songs…..
congrats! Actually, I haven’t named the guitar I have…the old curly-maple dreadnaught Martin was Princess. I have not a clue about this one. Maybe its name is Nameless.