#catch-up – The Boring Old Man

Feeling Out of the Loop

As my readers know I’m a lifelong music fanatic and to this day I’m still trying to keep my finger on the pulse of the latest and greatest. On the one hand, with the advent of YouTube and Spotify, it’s never been easier to indulge in this practice. On the other hand, using these tools brings so much disappointment, so much faster than before!

Don’t get me wrong, there has always been musical disappointment in my life, this isn’t really anything new. I can remember hearing a song on the radio and being immediately hooked by it. Waiting days to hear it again. Maybe a couple weeks goes by, and a few more listens before you even find out who the artist is, because the DJ finally said the name over the air. Now you’re a few weeks in, you’ve got this great new song stuck in your head, you finally know who the artist/band is, so you head down to your local record store to snatch it up, only to find they don’t have it in stock. Maybe the album hasn’t been released yet, maybe they only had a few copies and it’s sold out so you have to wait a few more weeks. The anticipation builds and builds. You find yourself wishing they’d play it on the radio again, preferably when you’re at home so you can tape it from the radio to have something to tide you over until you can get your paws on the actual album. Then finally, FINALLY, after weeks of waiting and searching and waiting some more you finally find it in a store, slap down your hard-earned cash and now you’ve got your hands on the record. You race home to drop in on your turntable and listen to every song, every note, while devouring the album’s liner notes to find out everything you can about this new band…and after all that, it turns out the song from the radio, the song you love, is the ONLY good song on the record! Ugh! So much build up, so much excitement, and it all comes crashing down… It’s happened to me more than a few times, and the disappointment is great, but at the same time you’ve had an adventure, maybe spent time with your buddies trying to track it down. Maybe you got to talk to the cute girl working at the record store… It was all part of the game. And even if the record kinda sucked, you still had that one great song. The thrill of the hunt and whatnot… And, fortunately, the opposite was often true. You’d hear “that song”, go through all the rigamarole and find out the album is astounding. Sonic euphoria, from start to finish. And those moments my friends, made up for the few clunkers over the years.

But nowadays, things are much different. I still listen to “terrestrial radio” from time to time, but 99.9% of what I hear are the old familiar tunes. It’s been well over a decade since I’ve been turned on to a new band from the radio. I read different blogs that have a focus on music, I read a ton of articles from various musical publications to try and suss out what’s new and exciting. My wife and daughter are both music fans and I always take suggestions from them. And of course there is the almighty algorithm that knows what we’ve listened to before and makes suggestions as to what we might like… Nine times outta ten it’s not something I like, but every once in a while the algorithm strikes gold for me. And lately – say over the last 18 months – I’ve been reading a lot of threads on Reddit that are music-related (Side note – I can’t really “endorse” Reddit, there is so much on there that sickens me, but if you stay away from politics and “social issues”, there is actually a lot of entertaining and/or useful stuff there. All the threads I follow are either music, automotive or local-to-me stuff and I studiously avoid the rest of the bile…). Anyhow, I keep my eyes peeled for new bands that get a lot of notice and once I see a certain band or song mentioned more than a few times, I’ll go check them out for myself.

Now, I recognize that I’m a “boring old man”, and not everything is going to be to my liking. And frankly, being more from the alternative/punk world of music, I know there is going to be a lot of stuff that simply doesn’t do it for me. And that’s fine. But I’m also astute enough (as far as music is concerned at least) to pick up on things that are special, or impressive, or dare I say groundbreaking that leads to my understanding of why a certain artist or band is gaining notoriety.

A great example of this is the band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. If you were to believe the folks that post on Reddit, they are hands down the greatest band to ever pick up instruments. I have seen dozens upon dozens of posts extolling the virtues of this band, recommending them to anyone that has ears. Seriously, their fan base is RABID and all in. So naturally, I had to check them out. And while the music was not MY thing, I completely understand why a lot of people have gone mildly insane over them. Those guys can play! The music is quirky, kinda jam band meets jazz combo, meets psychedelic, with a little Zappa thrown in. It’s weird, it sounds like nobody else I’ve heard and I totally get it. I just don’t find myself sitting around listening to that style of music. I would however go see them live, I’m sure it’s an experience. And I’m thrilled that such a band exists in a world full of computerized, boring, unadventurous music. I hope that they achieve massive success and have a long, fruitful career. I sincerely mean that, even though I will rarely listen to them.

On the other hand, there is a relatively new band that I swear I see their name daily, a band called Geese. So after seeing them mentioned so many times for several months straight, I decided I needed to check them out. And I’m left shaking my head in disbelief. THIS? This is what has everyone in a tizzy these days? I honestly can’t think of a positive thing to say about them, and yet the “general public” hails them as the greatest band since the Beatles. I simply don’t get it. To me, calling them mediocre would be giving them more credit than they deserve. I went through their Top 10 songs on Spotify, each one of which has well over 5 million streams (one of them was over 20 million!) and I couldn’t get through more than a minute of any of them. Just messy, atonal dreck as far as I’m concerned. And yet, they are massively popular right now.

Then I jumped over to a song by Kendrick Lamar. I’ve known his name for a long time, I’ve heard him featured on other hip-hop artist’s tracks, and to me it was just… M’eh. Not horrible, but nothing special. But again, he’s hugely popular. Most of the kids my wife and daughter teach LOVE him. So anyways, I’m reading this gushing review of this one particular song, how it’s so amazing that the listener (and writer of that piece) is now inspired to seek out music in a whole other genre than hip hop, because this song just broke down barriers and made something completely new and ground breaking. So I’m thinking, OK, he’s been around a while, perhaps he’s grown as an artist, this sounds like something I need to hear. Uh, no. It was so flippin’ boring I couldn’t believe my ears. I’ve heard that “same” track a hundred times, and 20 of them did it better. There was nothing ground breaking. Stylistically it was the same regurgitated, uninspired nonsense that hip hop has devolved into over the last 2 decades. It was the Toyota Corolla of hip hop tracks.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Hip hop is NOT my main thing, I’m not nearly as well versed in that genre as I am in several others, but I do have a fair amount of it in my CD/record collection. I’ve been a drummer for a hip hop group, I’ve done recording sessions for another hip hop group, I would say that yes indeed, this late-50’s Northern Cali Anglo is indeed a fan of hip hop. But a lot of the very popular, successful hip hop artists leave me scratching my head. Jay-Z is arguably the most successful artist in the genre of all time, and I cannot stand his music. (FWIW, I can’t stand his wife’s music either!) I think Tupac is highly overrated. There are a great many artists that have become wildly successful that I think are terrible. This is nothing new. But it got me to thinking, is today’s music so dull because the kids and 20-somethings that are making today’s music had such terrible music to emulate and be inspired by?

I could be wrong, but it seems like the bands of the 60’s took their influences of say, Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly and the like, and pushed the boundaries into something wholly different and dare I say, better. If you listen to early Beatles or the Who, their music isn’t that far removed from “rock around the clock” type of tunes, but by the end of their respective run, they were putting out records that would’ve been unimaginable to Bill Haley and his cohorts. Or take the riff-heavy classic rock of Montrose and Deep Purple, add in some punk ethos and swagger and you get Soundgarden or Alice in Chains. Of course there were always middle-of-the-road bands that did their thing, but weren’t pushing the boundaries – say Foreigner or April Wine for example, but they still had talented musicians and solid songwriting and could put out a good, cheap thrill of a song on the regular. Nowadays, not so much.

I know for a fact that people get caught up in the era of music that defined their teen years. It’s scientifically proven. And I absolutely love the music of my generation, it will always and forever be special to me. But I kept gleaning onto new stuff for decades after my school years and hoped to do so forever, it just seems that music has lost a big part of what made it special over the last decade. Not that I haven’t discovered some great new bands in the last decade, I absolutely have and I am grateful for it! It’s just that the music that is getting so much attention these days would never have even seen the light of day back in the 80’s or 90’s. Musically, we seem to be in the Cream-of-Wheat era… Bland, bland, bland…

Music used to be exciting, sexy, somewhat dangerous maybe, it made you FEEL something. Most of today’s music just makes me feel bored. I’m excited by the fact that post-Covid people seemed to regain some interest in guitars and drums and actual instruments as opposed to computers, but we’ve lost that “it” factor for the most part. I hope this latest generation that is starting to put out records is just another starting point, and we see a resurgence of daring, exciting music. I’m encouraged by a lot of youngsters making “reaction” videos to classic rock and such, they seem genuinely blown away by much of what we took for granted growing up because it was as close as the FM dial on the radio. All day, every day. Will we ever see another band like the Who, or U2, Primus, or 311? Bands that took the past and all their influences, threw it in a blender and came up with something wholly unique and mesmerizing? I certainly hope so! It’s ironic that in an age where recording and releasing music has never been easier, when the Gatekeepers of the past are long gone, that musicianship and songwriting are at such a low point. If nothing else today’s artists need to pick it up to inspire those coming up behind them.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with all this. This piece kinda took a turn, and turned into a tangent with no real direction or resolution. I guess I should just consider it an “old man yells at clouds” post. If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate you. Please leave a comment with a band/artist/song from the last decade that knocked your socks off. I could use some inspiration!

Thanks for stopping by!

First Time in a Looooong Time!

At this moment I’ve got the truck loaded up and I’m on my way to my first drumming gig in a very, very long time.

I feel like I should be nervous, but for some reason I’m not. This band got together in the last week of April and we’ve had 8 or 9 rehearsals so we’re not exactly a well oiled machine, but I think we can at least pull it off without any full-on train wrecks on stage. It’s our first time out, so who knows what will happen?!? I haven’t set foot in this club in a decade (the Quarternote in Sunnyvale, CA) and I NEVER played there before… Fingers crossed!

We’re the 2nd band of the night, playing from 10pm til Midnight and honestly my biggest concern is staying awake… I was up at 5.30am and working in 90 degree heat outside all day has got me more than a little bit whooped!

Say a prayer folks!

Thanks for stopping by 😉

Thank You, Goodnight…

I’ll cut right to the chase, I’m taking a powder from the Blog. Not that I’ve exactly been a fount of entertainment or information these last several months…

The truth of the matter is that I had really high hopes for this outlet, and for a while was sincerely enjoying it, but my life has taken a series of unexpected downhill turns over the last two years and as I’m quickly approaching rock bottom I recognize that I need to put all my focus, my energy into rebuilding my life into something I can be proud of and excited about. Currently it’s neither of those things.

When it comes to writing, lately I’ve had nothing… I’ve got several drafts of things that I’ve been working on, meatier subjects and an attempt to go in depth, so to speak, and right now I cannot seem to finish anything. Nor can I seem to find motivation to put out any of the simple, fun stuff like the meme posts or the oddball music stuff that I love so much. It feels like I’m trying to force something that doesn’t belong.

One of my main “rules” for this blog when I started it was that I would not let it become saturated with bitterness and/or hostility. It was to be a break from the doom and gloom, a little beacon of light, some fun and positivity for me to share with whoever should happen to run across my little world here. If I were to write about my daily experiences at this point in life I would be breaking that rule and in a sense tainting what I have tried to accomplish here. Likewise, posting memes and such feels like trying to put on a mask. Anything ‘light’ I attempt to write feels insincere and phony. So after a lot of consideration, I’m putting the whole thing on an indefinite hiatus. Given the fact that today is my birthday, it somehow seems fitting that I make the cut today. It’s always bothered me when I frequent a blog and then is just stops with no explanation. Not that I have that many followers, but I didn’t want to be one of those guys that leaves their audience hanging and just disappears back into the ether.

Part of the motivation for this blog was to have a place for myself to go for jogging my memories, and it’s been great to be able to revisit past concerts or trips and such, but honestly when I come out the other side of this – and I will – I don’t WANT to be able to look back on this time in my life with clarity. I hope and pray it all becomes a blur. But with that said, I’ll post a few last updates for things that have happened over the last few months, so I’ll have a few highlights to look back on while I’m out slaying dragons and putting myself back together…

*The fitness regime is going well. I’m getting to the point of actually seeing a physical change as opposed to just feeling stronger. And I am absolutely feeling stronger these days.

*My “new to me” truck has been holding steady for me for a year now, without too much intervention. I haven’t got nearly as much done on it as I’d hoped to within a year – for reasons – but I have been tinkering here and there when I can. Most recently I rebuilt the rear brake system (first time doing drum brakes solo! It sucked, but now I know I can do it) and replacing sway bar links and bushings (something else I’d never done before). I’ve still got a stack of parts to install, but I’m grateful that she’s been a dependable ol’ girl. I’ve put about 13k miles on her in the last year, bringing the total up to roughly 317k – on the original motor. I’m telling you, they just don’t make ’em like they used to!

*I joined a new band about a month ago. Questionable timing for sure, given my current circumstances. I wasn’t looking, but when these fellas reached out to me, I figured I’d take a swing and here we are. It’s a cover band, which frankly I was not even remotely intersted doing again – been there, done that – but I was also EXTREMELY desperate for an outlet, any outlet that could get me outta my own head every now and again. Drumming is the only thing in the world that shuts out EVERYTHING for me. I need that right now, maybe more than ever. Even if just for a few hours at a time. And for a cover band, their musical selection is WAY more in line with my own musical tastes. No Motown, no Beatles, no lame Top 40 music from the last 5 decades… I’m having fun with it and I’m hoping we’ll be ready for some Summer time gigs soon.

*We adopted a new house rabbit a short while back. He’s a handsome devil – emphasis on Devil – but he’s still very young and as he acclimates to his new home and matures a bit, he should be a good guy to have around. I don’t recall if I’ve mentioned it in these pages here before, but the Mrs. and I have been rabbit people for over 30 years. This new varmint is our 5th House Rabbit, and as a teen I used to raise/breed rabbits at home in outdoor hutches. I guess you could say that I’ve got a soft spot for those long eared galoots.

*I usually do a trip to the record store on my birthday and dig through the racks looking for cool old used CDs, and this year was no exception. It was a great haul this year! 5 CDs and a DVD documentary/concert film of The CLASH, thst I have been wanting to see for a very, VERY long time. And all for just under 24 bucks!

*And lastly, though certainly most importantly, as of about two months ago we now officially have a Son-in-Law. That’s right, our “baby” and her Beau tied the knot back in April! It was an absolutely beautiful affair, held up in Sonoma, CA. If I’m being honest, it was the happiest day of the last decade for me in addition to being the happiest day of my daughter’s life. Just really epic vibes throughout the entire weekend. I sincerely couldn’t be happier for the two of them.

And thus concludes my personal highlights from the first half of 2025…

I want to thank my readers for coming around. True, the engagement wasn’t as I’d hoped it would be, but I blame myself for a total lack of consistency. The story of my life… I have a habit of trying to do too many things simultaneously, and that leads to half-assed results. Instead of focusing and giving my all to a couple of things at a time.

I won’t completely count out the idea of popping in here if something significant pops up along the way, I’m just taking “keeping up with the blog” off my radar to focus in other, considerably more important, areas of my life.

So long, farewell,
Auf Wiedersehen, goodbye. For now at least.

Until we meet again, thanks for stopping by!

Spring!

Hi again, it’s been a while…

Not gonna lie, been in a rut. Got too many things to do and not enough time to get ’em done. And yet, nothing that I felt was worth writing about.

Not that it’s been all bad, just not noteworthy.

I’ve only been to one show since my last post – Magic City Hippies at the Fillmore in SF. However, considering I’ve done something like 5 or 6 concert reviews about them on this blog and this was maybe the 10th(?) time we’ve seen them, I don’t really have much else to say. They are STILL gre,at, one of the best live acts out there. Seriously. If you like live music and you get the opportunity, go see them. You won’t regret it.

I also was surprisingly reunited with a dear old friend – one of my groomsmen as a matter of fact – that “fell off the radar” some 30 years ago and I haven’t seen or heard from since! We had a nice talk on the phone and he was coming to town from out of state, so we met up for lunch a few days later and it was fantastic. It really gave me a sense of joy that my feeble vocabulary can’t articulate. I’ve really come to appreciate old friends as I’ve grown old but it’s rare that I see mine, as we’re now scattered clear across the country. In different directions. I’m the only dumb sap that still lives in the area where we all grew up. Unfortunately it no longer even closely resembles the place of our youth and there isn’t much to draw them back here for a visit.

Such is life.

Still have a pile of parts to replace on my truck, but between the full to-do list and the absolutely crap weather we’ve been having these last couple months, I’ve not been terribly excited about doing the work.

But now SPRING is officially here, and today I felt pretty invigorated. Had a productive day at work, then came home and put in a couple hours of chorin’ , now throwing this little note out there just to pet you all know I’m still alive and kicking!

Hopefully the change in seasons will bring a change in output here on the old Blogstead.

Happy Spring. See you soonish.

Go call an old friend.

Thanks for stopping by.

A little catching up…

My apologies to any readers that have been wondering where I’ve gone… I know it’s been quite some time since I posted here, but quite frankly I’ve been having ‘one of those days’ for a couple/few months now. I really try to not let this blog be a place for bitterness or despair, so I’ve had my head down just trying to ride the storm out.

I’ve got to say, 2024 will go down in my personal history as the worst year on record, and I’ll be glad to see it in the rear view mirror in a couple months.

And while the last few months have been pretty disastrous for me, it hasn’t been ALL bad…

Back in early September I had a reunion of sorts with some old friends, brothers from other mothers so to speak, that was LONG overdue. While I’ve been in touch with them both fairly regularly, the 3 of us hadn’t been in the same room together for over 30 YEARS! Yeah, seriously overdue! So that was certainly a bright spot for me.

And we saw a few great shows along the way – Dogstar at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz, Nikka Costa in Berkeley, Abhi the Nomad in San Francisco and Still Woozy at the Greek Theater in Berkeley as well. All were great shows and there were some awesome opening acts as well – PawPaw Rod for one, was exemplary!

The Mrs. and I also had our 33rd wedding anniversary in October.

We had a couple nice outings with the family as well… A few day trips to Henry Cowells to bask amongst the Redwoods, we did the annual ‘Wine Walk’ in our little town which was nice. And just last week a 3 day camping trip down in Big Sur (more Redwoods!!) These are things that I hold dear. The things that kept me from losing my mind altogether. Much needed and welcome distractions from ‘the real world’.

And today is VOATING day. Yippee… Ordinarily I consider myself a very patriotic American and take my civic responsibility very seriously, but I’m struggling this year. BIG TIME. I’m sick of it all. Sick of the two wings of the same, diseased bird. Sick of the lies. Sick of the hyperbole and the projection. Sick of getting the short end of the stick, regardless of which way the wind blows.

Alrighty then, that is enough doom and gloom. Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully a better one.

Thanks to all who have supported me here, I do appreciate it. It’ll probably be a little quiet in the near future, but eventually I’ll dig myself outta this hole and get back to it on the regular.

Thanks for stopping by.

A Blur of a Weekend!

First weekend after the new job and it was a lot of fun, if short!

As mentioned in my previous post, we started off the weekend Friday night in San Francisco with the #CandlelightConcerts which was a great start!

Saturday we (the Mrs., the Kids and I) made our way to Downtown Los Gatos for their annual Wine Walk, which was much nicer than last year. Primarily because it was less crowded and the missing patrons seemed to be from the douchebag and party tramp camps, so it was much more subdued and easy going, with perfect weather to boot! We finished up our walk at a nice Asian noodle place on Santa Cruz Ave. I can’t recall the name off-hand, but it was delicious and we’ll certainly be back for more!

After we and the Kids parted ways, the Mrs. and I had a “date night” and went to the foot spa for a little relaxation. After all the miles I put on my feet during the week, this was a welcome respite! Once sufficiently relaxed, we stopped off at the ice cream shop by our house and indulged is some hot fudge sundaes! It was a darn near perfect day!

Sunday morning I went and picked up my Pops and we went down to Kelly Park in San Jose for the annual VW show. My parents had the first VW I ever rode in (and would later drive) and a love for VWs is something my Pops and I have shared for decades. Between us I believe we’ve owned 7 VWs over the years, just really great cars since forever!And I’m not sure I won’t own one again!

After the car show, I had to make a run to Felton, up in the Santa Cruz Mountains and ordinarily on a Sunday the traffic over the hill would be treacherous, but I somehow lucked out and zipped over there in about half an hour, again in perfect Spring weather! If you’ve never been through the Santa Cruz Mountains, I HIGHLY recommend it. It is truly gorgeous out there!

Once I got back from the Felton errand, our daughter came over and we had a pizza and watched a really bizarr-o documentary.

And just like that – poof – the weekend was over!

Then I got to come back to beautiful Portola Valley to a great job!

Feeling pretty good about now!

Thanks for stopping by!

A New Day Dawns…

Hi folks, it’s been awhile…

So, I found myself out of a job this week… Unexpected, and yet I’ve felt under the microscope for the last several months. Regardless of how much I did, regardless of the extra hours put in, nothing was ever good enough for TPTB. “So, you only completed 99 things today? What about that 100th thing?!?”

Word to the wise, if you want to keep your job, don’t tell the boss he’s being ridiculous when he’s being ridiculous. The ONLY thing coming from that is a nice big target in your back…

So this week I’ve been through all kinds of emotional crap, from bitterness to hostility, fear, self doubt…depression. It’s been a rough week to say the least.

To make matters worse, the Mrs. and our daughter have been on a Girl’s Trip all week, hundreds of miles and a few time zones away, so I’ve been left to my own devices and the voices in my head all week. Considering I’m my own harshest critic and my own worst enemy, this hasn’t been a good place to be. To say the least. I haven’t slept much or eaten much, but I DID completely avoid “the bottle” 100%. Now, I’m not much of a drinker – generally less than once a month, but dang! My old friend Mr. Jack Daniels has been calling to me repeatedly, especially in the dark of night when I couldn’t sleep.

Truth be told, I mostly hated my job. I was already looking around and putting out feelers, nonetheless getting sacked was a major shocker. I took my first “real” job (schedules and paycheck job) at 15 years old and I’m now 55 and I’ve NEVER been “fired” before. Still, I wanted it to be MY choice to leave that pressure cooker, not have it thrust upon me. I’ve been in essentially the same job, just at 3 different facilities, for 17 years and I’m BURNED. OUT. It wasn’t a career choice, it was something I fell ass-backward into all those years ago. And while I’ve learned a TON over the years, I have gained no satisfaction from it and in a way wished I’d never gotten into this line of work in the first place. I never had any love for it. No paycheck is worth the constant, unending stress my job entailed, I was just too scared to try something new – even when it was strongly suggested by my Doctor due to stress induced health issues. Yeah, that’s right. Rather than find a new career, I just stopped going to the doctor for about 8 years!

But now the choice was made for me. And all the fear aside, I’m actually relieved in a weird way.

But then, something amazing happened. I landed a new job! I start on MONDAY! The beauty of it is that the new gig is essentially doing the ONLY part of my old job(s) that I DID like! And NONE of the crap that I loathed! No more dealing with HR issues, no more accounting reports, no more dealing with City, State and Federal regulations and all that entails, no more corporate bullcrap. I almost can’t believe it! It sounds too good to be true, but it’s a company I have a long relationship with, I know the owners and they do outstanding work that I know I’ll be proud to be part of. They basically created a new position for me because they desperately need help and they know what I’m capable of. I gotta say, that feels pretty good.

So wish me luck! Things will probably be a little quiet on the ol’ blog while I get my bearings, but never fear, I’ll be back! Hopefully, better than ever now that I won’t be on-call 24/7/365 while trying to stave off an ulcer!

And the cherry on top is that the Mrs. comes home tonight!! Oh, how I’ve missed her! Six days apart is a LONG time when you’ve been with someone for 35 years!

Have a great weekend y’all. Thanks for stopping by!

Here, there and everywhere…a quick catch-up

I’m feeling a bit neglectful of the ol’ blog these days and I just got back to town, so I figured I’d re-cap the last 10 days or so…

The first week of October was not unlike a big punch in the face. Work was ridiculous and on top of the ridiculousness of the day-to-day stuff, we were also hammering out the operational budget for next year. Now, I wear many, MANY hats in this gig, and do a lot of different things, but accounting is something I simply despise. I recognize that it’s a necessary evil, but I just really loathe that part of the job. A week of eyes glazing over and constant, recurring headaches, it was unpleasant to say the least. The Polyphia show was supposed to be the highlight of the week, but that was a bit of a bust too, so the week was just grueling. There was a light at the end of the tunnel though, an impending road trip, kicking off on Sunday, October 8th.

Sunday, October 8th we hit the road to Anaheim, CA for an out of the ordinary trip. For the last 25 or so years, the Mrs. and I have wanted to experience a Disneyland Halloween, and this year we finally did it. We tried to make this trip last year but our planning started only 3 months ahead of when we wanted to go and there was NOTHING available. Seriously, nothing. So this Halloween excursion had been on the books now for 10 months – a long time to wait! And to be honest, I’ve kinda lost my appreciation for Disney over the last few years, between them gobbling up so many other companies and intellectual properties, putting out crap movies and all their “woke” nonsense, I had considerations of calling the whole thing off. Nonetheless, a Disney Halloween was a bucket-list thing since I wanted to go long before the company started going down hill…

The last time we’d been to Disneyland was for our daughter’s 5th birthday – she’ll be 30 this coming February – it’s been a while!

We were expecting long lines and exorbitant costs for everything, and we grossly underestimated both. I’m a maniac for roller coasters, but waiting 2 hours (no, I’m NOT exaggerating!) for a 2 minute ride takes a lot of the fun out of it. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about the entire thing. When we first got there I found myself grinning ear-to-ear at the “magical” aspect of the place. Part of that was nostalgia, but really if you take in the architecture and the design and the special little touches everywhere, it really is unlike anything else in the world.

But the crowds! Good grief! It was just a non-stop, undulating sea of people everywhere you turned. And let me tell you, after seeing thousands upon thousands of these folks doing their best to make it an awesome day for themselves, I started to lose what little faith I had left in humanity.

This is not to say that no fun was had, there were some fun moments…just hours of waiting in “cattle chutes” in between those moments of fun. The Mrs. and I decided upon our departure that we won’t be back unless we end up with grandkids to take. Even then, it would be a tough sell…

On the bright side, we did get to ride the “Incredicoaster” at the California Adventure park on our last day, and I just gotta say WOW!!! Hands down the best roller coaster I’ve ever ridden – by a country mile!

As for the Halloween aspect, the main reason we went, it was underwhelming. There were a lot of decorations put up for it, some pretty stunning in fact, but overall it wasn’t all that different. Maybe the 80 degrees and sunny weather kept the Fall spirit at bay, I dunno. All I can say is Halloween didn’t seem to make it any more magical than it already is, it just brought in a ton of extra people.

After roughly 48 hours in Disneyland across 3 calendar days, it was back home for a layover/re-pack/car swap and a single work day for the Mrs. (and I got to put in some volunteer time at the school too, while she was working). On the 12th we set out again for one of our favorite destinations, Pismo Beach, CA.

I’ve said before that Half Moon Bay is our “home away from home”, but Pismo is a close second. The fact that one of my oldest friends lives there AND I can always count on him to head out into the surf with me, makes Pismo a very welcoming destination indeed.

This time around we tried out a few new places – the new food destinations were awesome, the outdoor hot tubs at Sycamore Hot Springs, eh, not so much… Nonetheless, we had a really relaxing time and I got to surf two days in a row, which almost never happens!

Pablo (right) and the B.O.M. (left) heading into the Pacific!

The whole reason for this trip was in celebration of the Mrs. and I hitting our 32nd (!!!) anniversary. Still having a hard time wrapping my head around that one… Add to that another 3 years together before we got married and we’re approaching double the years together than years we’d lived up to that point. It is staggering. Heck, our daughter is nearly 10 years older then we were when we got together, how time flies, eh?!?

We got back home late Sunday afternoon and the girls had a spa appointment to go to, so I headed out to my studio for some much needed drum time. I decided before I left on this trip that I wanted to change things up with my kit, and started tearing it down before I left. Last night I got a new, much smaller configuration set up and took it for a test drive. It’s pretty close to a “standard” set up now, which kinda rubs me the wrong way, but I’ll keep messing with it ’til I find a set up I love…Or I’ll go back to the “everything but the kitchen sink” set up, cuz I’m weird that way…

Monday was back to the grind, sadly. Morning commute traffic, 444 emails waiting and back to trying to solve everybody’s problems “yesterday”. Thank goodness for the recharge!!

All in all it was a great week, in spite of the hiccups, and I’m feeling invigorated and ready to seize Fall – my favorite season!

Thanks for stopping by!

The Storm Before the Calm.

Well it’s been a while and I’ve been lagging here, so I figured I should at least do a little catch up.

The last couple weeks have off the charts ridiculous at work. Longer hours, bigger work load and fewer guys to distribute the load to. And oddly instead of commute-time traffic getting better after schools letting out for Summer, it’s been exponentially worse the last few weeks. Not that I’m not accustomed to bad traffic, its just that extra hour – hour and a half a day eats into my non-work life…

I did get a day out fishing last weekend with my brother-in-law Kaptain Karel. Unfortunately after a couple hours at sea, seasickness whipped me pretty good as the swells got a little gnarly. Nonetheless, it was still a good day overall and I’ve got a bunch of nice fish in the freezer.

On the music front, things have been slower than I’d like, but I’m still getting out and playing here and there, even posted up a few new clips in my YouTube channel.

Random beats. I record ’em so I don’t forget ’em

I’ve also got a new potential band in the works with some folks I found on BandMix.com. We’ve not yet met in person so it may be nothing, but they’ve given me a few tunes to learn over the next couple weeks while the guitarist is out of town. So who knows? Come mid-July I might finally be back in an actual band for a change. I don’t like to get my hopes up, as I’ve been down this road many, many times over the last 4 decades. Nonetheless, I’m excited about it and looking forward to jamming with some new folks.

The best news of all however is that I’m officially on vacation for the next week! And it’s shaping up to be a good one. We’ve got a concert to go to, its the Mrs.’ Birthday, and we’re heading back down to Pismo Beach for a few days. That should also allow for me getting back in the water for the FIRST SURF OF THE YEAR! Geez, how sad is that? The year is half over and I haven’t surfed a single time. Something has gone sideways if that’s the case… it HAS been a weird one, that’s for sure.

Anyhow, that’s about the size of it for now. June has been a blur thus far, but a much needed respite is in the wings. More to come…

Thanks for stopping by!

Uninspired.

Not much to talk about these days. Not without going off the rails like a loon, that is.

Work has been a drag. Not cuz it’s slow, quite the opposite. No time to reflect or plan, everything is currently “reactionary” because so much is hitting the fan simultaneously. Amongst other things, our company was hit with a “cyber attack” and 6 weeks later we STILL are using workarounds just try to keep everything from going off the rails. The residents are cranky and the staff is worn out. The last month whipped by in a flash, but I feel like it’s been non-stop hamster wheel running…no destination in sight, just go, go, go! Then go do it again tomorrow. Then the next day. And so on and so on…

Music has been slower than slow, and I’m struggling to find kindred souls to play with. This makes it kinda boring, which in turn has me making excuses for not going to the studio (as my bank account slowly dwindles to nothing) and thinking I may shut it down here shortly.

Right now I’m trying to avoid “current events” and the news in general. The level of stupid is off the charts from everything I’m seeing, and most of it just makes my blood boil. Since I’m in control of approximately 0.0000000000% of what is going on in the world, and can do about as much to change it, there is no point in me spending my time getting aggravated over it all.

You’d think you’d get used to being surrounded by crazy people and their insanity, but no… The crazy is perpetual, and yet I’m constantly shocked by the latest version that comes across the interwebs on a daily basis.

The “fun” part of life has been particularly lean lately as well. We had tickets to one show this month, but then ran into schedule issues with an event at the Mrs.’ school (plus mental exhaustion on my part) and just passed on the whole thing.

On the bright side, Spring is here! After the nearly non-stop, newsworthy winter storms we had in California this year, I’m happy for a little sunshine. I’m trying to get enough of a boost from the change in the weather to be inspired to get back to seriousness at the gym so surfing can happen. The water is currently only about 49/50 degrees – which I’ve surfed before, cuz I’m a sucker for punishment – so I’m ok with waiting for a bit better conditions. I surf for fun and for relaxing, bobbing around like an ice cube is neither. Nonetheless, I’m starting to feel a strong pull to get in the ocean.

Soon. Not now, but soon!

So there you have it, the truly boring life of The Boring Old Man on full display…

Hoping May will bring better spirits, and better living. We’ve got two concerts to attend, Mother’s Day is around the corner, beach days are a distinct possibility and it’s a lot easier to drag my butt to the gym when it’s not 35 degrees outside! I’m close to done with another book I’ll have to blab about, got a new record to review whenever I get the opportunity to sit down uninterrupted to listen to it…things are happening in the background, just nothing I felt compelled to put down here.

Generally speaking I’m an optimist, but my optimism tank has been on empty lately, hence my lack of posting. I just thought I’d put this out there so this blog doesn’t turn into another thing I stop caring about.

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Spring to you all!