Your Backup Hobby

People suck

Shellhead wrote: I live on a big corner lot, and that part of my yard is too far from the street for random roadkill to bounce all the way back there, making a detour around my garage.

A bird probably dropped it.

Well, I always go to see my bestie in Colorado...but this time I did so with my first post-wife girlfriend. "Why does this have anything to do with your backup hobby", one might ask. Well...I also played a live gig and sang two songs.

The setlist was given to me 4 days prior to the gig, and I was told to add two songs. I added Gary Moore's Midnight Blues and John Mayer's Find Another You. Then...the lead guitarist who knew the set by heart had vertigo and couldn't come out. Irony...if you know my situation. So we had our mutual friend Daniel come out (who is my buddy's backup lead man, but who doesn't really take time to learn songs as much as just improvise leads). Worst of all, it's almost all country music, which I am OK with but would rather not listen to. I now know about 25 country songs.

Now the bad news: it turns out that as smart as my girlfriend is, with her MBA and all, she is shit SHIT SHIT at operating any technology. Like at all. So, almost no usable video got taken, but I did make a short video of the overall trip and the best video (not the 4 second videos that is 2 seconds of video of the band and then 2 seconds panning to the table as she sets the phone down with her finger still on the red button)

Great stuff, Pete. Looks like you had a good time. Was in Denver and Boulder and surrounding areas back in June for the first time in about 20 years. It's nice country.

It seems like playing a musical instrument isn't really a backup hobby if you want to be good at it. Need to keep practicing, and that takes up a chunk of time. I played the clarinet for several years when I was young, and happily gave it up as I got older and interested in other activities at school. Maybe I would have felt differently if I could have chosen a different instrument like guitar or drums, but the clarinet was like a family heirloom.

My oldest daughter played clarinet and I got her a middle grade one so we didn't have to rent it. Of course, just after we got it she quits.

I kept it anyhow. I may learn it too down the road. I already have a little bit of skill with a trumpet (I'm going to learn that fully before I die!) so I figure it's just mechanics after that.

The last couple years have been a tough one for me in terms of keeping busy and having something to fill my life. My wife has felt the same thing to a lesser extent, so we joined with a choir here in Nairobi. It's actually been really good, we both enjoy choral music a lot and they do some challenging music. We have a Christmas concert coming up in a little under two weeks, and some of the songs are tough as nails. It's been extremely gratifying to have something musical back in my life.

Garden is a loss this year. Tomatoes are looking decent, strawberries got their first decent harvest and raspberries just keep going, but everything else is a loss.

Family of woodchucks made a home under my shed and a meal of my vegetables. Every time I blocked one hole under the fence, they dug a new one. Every sprout nipped the moment it looked tasty.

Really disappointing because our three-year drought finally broke and so much was looking strong in that first month.