A Tough Month
March was a tough month. In Ottawa, we typically expect the weather to get better and the snow to melt, but that wasn’t the case this year. We got hammered with snowstorms and a few days of freezing rain. I’m not sure
which I dislike more, but I think the freezing rain has a slight edge given that you must be extra careful not to fall and break your neck. Here it is, the first day of April, and we still have snow on the ground and some snowbanks that look like they may still be here come June. In fact, we had it snow most of this past weekend, which added more snow to be melted once again. It seems we have some melt, and then it snows and we’re back to square one. No doubt, at some point it will be gone, and we can enjoy getting outside again and not be slipping and sliding on the sidewalks. And we will have some green trees and see water on the rivers instead of ice.
A Hospital Stay
My wife had also decided on getting some elective surgery done in March. The procedure was supposed to see her stay in the hospital overnight, however, things didn’t work out that way. She ended up being in the hospital for 5 days and then coming home and having to stay in bed for another week. The day of her surgery, I came down with the flu and it was bad enough that I couldn’t take her to the hospital. My wife ended up getting that same flu a few days after she got back home. Neither of us has had the flu for some time, but this one really took you down for a few days. I also ended up on antibiotics for a severe sinus infection. I had been using the Navage, but the infection was so bad that nothing short of antibiotics was going to work. Unfortunately, the antibiotics didn’t work, and I got put on stronger one’s last week for 15 days.
Little Time for Work
Given all that went on in March, I had very little time for getting any writing done and went for some time without picking up a guitar to practice, something I have been doing daily for the last 3 years. It was the longest time I have gone without playing since the Spring of 2015. I have been getting back into it the last few days and I’m looking forward to when I can go sit on my deck and play. I’m looking forward to driving a few neighbours crazy with some loud distorted guitar through a Marshall amplifier. I also have a new guitar that I haven’t used out on the deck yet that has some high output pickups in it and roars through the Marshall.
One Last Hurrah
I decided this past Sunday that I’m going to go see the last Kiss show. They are now touring on what they say is their final tour. Given the age of them, I can believe that the two original members will probably not be able to continue once they finish this world tour. There has been some controversy online surrounding this current tour and that there is a lot of lip-syncing going on. Given the age of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, it’s not surprising that they would not be able to hit the notes they hit back in the ’70s when they started. If you saw Ozzy during the final Black Sabbath tour, his singing wasn’t up to the standards it was back in the ’70s and ’80s, and I doubt anyone would expect it to be. These days, there’s a lot of things going on behind the scenes in music shows and concerts when it comes to the instrument and vocal tracks. It should come as no surprise that during most shows there are music and vocal tracks being played along with the live instruments. Most recorded music just cannot be replicated on stage, especially the more modern music. It’s not unusual currently in this age of digital recording for there to be over 100 tracks on a song. Even back in the ’70s, they had 24 track audio recorders and many instruments were double-tracked, such as guitars, and then overdubs added, providing multiple guitars and bass tracks in the song. You simply cannot have two guitarists play the five tracks live they may have recorded on the original release of a song. I am just hoping to see a decent show and get to see them live one more time. I went to the Motley Crue and Black Sabbath final tours, might as well do the same with Kiss. I saw Black Sabbath twice on the same tour in different cities.
Back to Work
I should now be able to carve out some time to get back to writing and working on websites. I have some security camera work to do over the next couple of weeks, but I also plan on getting some writing done and perhaps start recording some music. I managed to get some 12-string guitar tracks down last month on a song I’m working on. With digital recording, double or quad tracking a guitar is straightforward and easily done. I also added some layers with electric guitar, which very much makes recording music digitally these days like working on a picture in Adobe Photoshop. Anyone can be a recording artist these days and getting the software and hardware that you can do the recording and mastering on, isn’t expensive and some software can be had for nothing and works quite well.
Back on the Diet
I managed to get to under 200 pounds last month, which is the first time I have been at that weight since 1995. I want to get back down to 185, but that’s going to be some work and may take a couple more months to achieve. The first 30 plus pounds took a few months to get off. The lower weight does help with my knee and back pain, so losing a few more pounds should help even more.
Cheers,
GP Joa