Most of the best times of my early years were spent in the woods. Camping and backpacking treks were where I found myself, where I felt most at ease and at “home”. Then in my late teens I traded that all in for band practices, night clubs and recording studios. A stark contrast, I assure you.
I managed to get back out there every now and again but nothing like when I was young and gung-ho about it. Then came marriage and a young’en, getting involved in her school stuff, coaching soccer, trying to establish a career… All the adult stuff that nobody warns you about. And my time in the woods became a distant memory.
I’d been grousing over the last few years to the Mrs., that we needed to go camping “one of these days” and I even started gearing up for it since right before “the Plague” hit, but still we never made it out.
Well, finally, FINALLY it happened! As a Christmas gift, the Mrs. made arrangements for a stay in Big Sur, one of my favorite places in California.
A lot of people talk crap about California and Californians (and rightfully so, in most regards), but we have some AWESOME wilderness out here folks.
A perfect little waterfall 10 feet from our tent!
Now, full disclosure, this was more “glamping” than camping. Our accommodations was an “outfitters” tent, about 10′ x 12′, on a wooden deck, with a 10′ x 10′ porch with an awning. We had some minimal power and running water, and most exciting for these old bones, an actual bed! Super swanky digs for out in the woods, let me tell ya!
The sweet life right here!
Otherwise, it was like an actual “car camping” excursion. We brought in our food, cooked over wood fires, and just chilled out in the woods next to a quickly moving creek with a couple nice falls. It was HEAVEN!
Our time there was short, just Saturday afternoon through late Monday morning, but we ate like royalty, slept like babies and had the most relaxing 48ish hours we’ve had in a long, long time. It was absolutely glorious.
Our living room and kitchen…
While I fully comprehend that this was not a “real” campout, it was an awesome way to dip our toes back into the outdoors without sending ourselves into shock. And it was a great shakeout run to prep us for an actual real camping trip we have scheduled with the kids at the end of April. We did pretty great staying comfortable and well fed, but we learned a few lessons too that will make the next trip even better!
Now that I’ve gotten a taste for it again, I hope this becomes a regular part of our adventures, as I haven’t felt this good in years!
Special thanks to the Mrs. for getting outside her comfort zone and planning a trip that made this Boring Old Man feel like a kid again!
I know it’s still only February, but we woke up to shining sun and nice, mild temps so we changed up our Sunday morning routine and went for a nice long walk OUTSIDE, rather than going to the gym. (We did hit the gym yesterday, but Sunday gym time is usually “written in stone” unless we’re traveling.)
Today we hit the Los Gatos Creek Trail, which was a little crowded, but it was glorious to be outdoors, hearing the birds chirppin’ away, the sounds of the rushing water, feeling the sun on our skin… 10,000X better than the best day at the gym!
Two of my goals for this year were to get outdoors more and to improve my overall health, so doing both at the same time was a real nice change of pace.
Sometimes a change will do you good!
Looking forward to Spring, it feels like it’s right around the corner. This Winter hasn’t been particularly cold, but we’ve had wet, dreary weather more often than not and I’m ready to move on to some sun and fresh air!
This trip marks a very special occasion, our “baby” is celebrating her 30th birthday this week! Hard to believe…
We’ve always been a “beach” family, as you might have gathered if you’ve read any of my earlier posts, but Monterey has ALWAYS been our daughter’s favorite. While my wife and I grew up haunting the Santa Cruz Soquel and Capitola areas, if we ever asked the kid where she wanted to go, it was always Monterey.
This time around we stayed at the Portola Hotel and Spa, and it was really nice. Beyond expectations even. We had booked weeks ago and much to our surprise and delight, they gave us an unexpected “upgrade” to one of the Presidential Suites. No kidding. The room was bonkers.
I haven’t stayed in a room this nice since the 90’s when I was lucky enough to be on the road crew with Dogstar in Australia and New Zealand. It was off the charts for a hotel room, certainly bigger than our apartment!!
The trip was pretty mild and rather uneventful, in a good way. Mostly, we ate really fancy foods in nice restaurants (Jack’s & Schooner’s amongst others) and just hung out. We also hit the touristy spots – Fisherman’s Wharf and the Monterey Bay Aquarium – too. They were nothing new as we’ve been to both more times than we can count, but it was a good time nonetheless. The Aquarium is truly spectacular. If you’ve never been and you enjoy wildlife, you should definitely check it out once in your life.
All in all, it was a really nice time. The forecast had called for rain, all day, every day for the time we were there, but luckily the weather people were waaay off and we had really mild weather. Very little rain and even a touch of sun. As a bonus, the weather kept the crowds down to a level that didn’t drive me out of my skin!
Still coming to grips with our daughter turning 30, but this nice, mellow weekend sure helped keep smiles on our faces! And we can’t help be feel grateful that our kid still likes to hang out with us! We must have done something right along the way…
So much sweetness!!The night view from our room.A fine lunch was had here!
Today was a very sad day at the ol’ J.O.B. One of my favorite employees of all time, heck one of my favorite PEOPLE, has resigned and today was his last day.
It’s hitting me right in the feelz..
I’ve been managing buildings and running maintenance crews for over 20 years now. I’ve had maybe 3 dozen different employees working for me over the years. Out of that 3 dozen, I’d say 5 were outstanding. Guys I’d take with me to the ends of the earth. My guy leaving today is in the Top 3 of that 5. The kind of employee you wish you could clone, so you could have a dozen just like him. It’s a big, no, HUGE loss. In a way, and I could never say this, lest the HR Harpies make my life a living hell, he’s kind of like the son I never had and he’s ready to leave the nest.
I’m 100% behind his decision to leave, and I actually think he’s doing the right thing in doing so. It’s absolutely the best thing for his family and himself, so I hold no ill will or bitterness toward him. In fact, I wish him nothing but the best. It’s only for purely selfish reasons that I wish he weren’t leaving us. But life is funny that way… those you never want to be without go, and those you wish would go, stay forever…
I’m gonna miss you Mr. Z, but I wish you continued success and a happily ever after! These last 6 years working with you have been a real pleasure. You’re one in a million, don’t let your new employer forget that!
I may be a little quiet for a bit while I process all this… but I’ll be back soon.
Today is the last day at my music studio, and I’m taking it a little harder than I thought I would.
It was always a dream of mine to have “my own” place to play, whenever I wanted, as loud as I wanted and for as long as I wanted, and finally I got to make that dream a reality a little over a year ago. Fourteen months, to be precise.
As a drummer, it’s a lot more difficult to practice, than say for a guitarist or pianist. When I lived in my childhood home, I got pushed out of my bedroom into the garage because it was just too loud for my mom to deal with. But even in the garage – and I’m talking old-school garage, no insulation, no drywall, nothing – I could only go about half an hour before Mom had had enough… Plus you’d freeze in the winter and have a heat stroke in the summer. Not a great situation. When I played in bands through my teens and 20’s, I was always at somebody else’s house or an hourly rental rehearsal space, where you spent half your (paid for) time setting up and tearing down your gear. Then we finally got a house, but also had a baby. Then we had to move into an upstairs apartment, the drums went into storage, and were unfortunately stolen shortly thereafter. So, it’s been a tough run as a drummer.
But as it turned out, the dream was better than the reality. Sort of. I mean, yes, I got to keep my gear in one place, completely set up so I could just walk in and be playing in less than 60 seconds. THAT was awesome! And if it was 6am or 10pm, it didn’t matter. Having no one to complain is a gift that you cannot understand if you’ve not had the cops pounding down your door cuz the neighbors complained.
ALL the toys!
Don’t get me wrong, I had some good times there, but there was a little aggravation too. There were 40-50 studio spots in the building, the insulation was poor at best, so when 3 or 4 bands would be crankin’ it out simultaneously, the cacaphony would drive me nuts. For a while there was a Tejano group across the hall, with non-stop AMPLIFIED accordian playing. I hated the accordian BEFORE then, now the sound of it completely puts me on edge. A bunch of times the heat or A/C wasn’t working, there would be NO parking for blocks around (and it’s not the kind of neighborhood you wanna walk half a dozen blocks in the middle of the night, if you catch my drift), then the roof started leaking…though thankfully none of my gear got soaked.
But honestly, the worst part of the whole thing is I simply couldn’t find other musicians to join in the fun. I had a writing partner when I first got the space, but his other project took off, he went on tour for 6 months or so, and I spent the last 8 months trying to recruit other players, to no avail. I don’t care what anyone says, finding like-minded musicians to play with in middle age is 110% harder than when you’re a teen or young adult just starting out. Everyone has “real” jobs, spouses, kids, responsibilities… and the middle-aged folks that don’t have that? They’re worse! You find out very quickly why they don’t have any adult stuff in their life…
Bought a sweet bass rig to make life easy…too bad I never found a bassist!It’s no Marshall, but boy can she sing!
Now, I LOVE playing the drums – as part of an ensemble. Playing drums with no other musicians gets stale and boring after a while. (I’ve always HATED drum solos!) Boredom led to a lack of motivation. Lack of motivation got me making excuses to not go as my savings account burned to the ground paying for a space I was barely using.
And here we are…
On the bright side, I got my MOJO back as a drummer. I’m not at 100% of where I was when I was say, early 20’s, but I was playing about 20-30 hours a week back then, and had essentially no other real responsibilities so my skill level was off the charts. But I do feel like a real drummer again, and that has been good for the soul. I was also able to do a lot of experimenting with different set ups of my kit, which is something I’d never do when I’m paying by the hour for a rehearsal spot. And it’s not like I’m gonna stop playing altogether, I’ll just be going back to my alternate methods for a while. I got my first snare drum at 7 years old. Now I’m 55, and while there have certainly been ebbs and flows over the years, I’ve never stopped playing. I see no reason to stop now. It’s part of my DNA I suppose…
Back to Basics
I still have “The Dream” of my own space. I just know now that this wasn’t the right place for me at this time. I’m grateful I took the leap, I’m grateful for the lessons learned and I’m grateful for this not becoming yet another “I wish I would have…” event in my life. Yes, it’s been a very expensive lesson, but I consider it worthwhile. You don’t know what you don’t know, right? Now I know.
So now I’ll be retreating to the spare bedroom, and setting up shop in there to see what, if any, new things I can learn with all the gear I’ve acquired over the last couple years. I’ve got electric drum stuff, samplers and keyboards, guitars and basses that have not been getting much love. Now the amps and the PA and the giant acoustic drum kit are stuffed back into a storage unit (NOT the same place that was burglarized all those years ago!) and it’s time to move on outside of my comfort zone to see what kind of magic I can pull outta my hat! Honestly, even after all these years, I’m intimidated by electronics – back in the 80’s when all that stuff was new and thrilling I tried my hand at programming sequencers and drum machines and…well, let’s just say there is a reason why drums, good old fashioned acoustic drums, are still my main instrument! Hopefully, like with computers, the machines are more intuitive and user friendly than when they were new, cutting edge technology. We shall see. Either I figure it all out and make some cool new music, or I’m gonna have one hell of a yard sale!!
A kit like this ain’t for everyone, but I do love having that many different voices to choose from!That’s all she wrote…One last walk…
NYE was a busy day! Got up and hit the gym, came home and whipped up some healthy smoothies, then set about doing some chorin’ around the house, including taking down the Christmas tree. Then it was packing bags, feeding the critters, gassing up the ride and hitting the road 2 hours north to Napa.
Our first stop was the hotel. We stayed at the Westin Verasa this time around. Swanky place, let me tell ya! Check-in was super smooth and afterwards we met up with our daughter and her fiance, who’d arrived about an hour prior, to grab a bite. We stumbled into a place called Gott’s Roadside and had a great dinner – the gents dined on bacon cheeseburgers, while the ladies went for the poke tacos, and we split some sweet potato fries and onion rings. Healthy eating? Not today, my friends!
Gott’s Roadside. Delicious!
We then walked back to the hotel and split up to our different rooms so the ladies could get ready for the night’s festivities.
The main event took place at the Uptown Theater – a NYE celebration with Dogstar. Yes, I know, this is the 5th Dogstar show in 13 months, it may seem I’m a bit obsessed. But this was a chance to spend NYE with my lovely wife, and the kids and my best friend AND it’s the last show of the tour and who knows when/if they’ll ever play a live show in these parts again? Get while the gettin’s good as my Pops likes to say.
Archer Oh was the opening act- you may remember my raving about them in my review of the Menlo Park show this past summer. Well, once again, the band brought their A-game and left it all on stage! I’m still incredibly impressed with these guys, particularly their lead guitarist. He’s a stellar talent with a very unique style. Which is not to diminish the rest of the band, far from it! They are one of those bands that I believe is far greater than the sum of their parts. Their chemistry as a BAND just works and it’s delightful to experience them live!
Dogstar hit the stage to a nearly sold-out audience and played a longer then normal set, which included a couple older songs from previous records that I hadn’t heard them play on the tour, as well as a couple cover tunes – something they don’t usually do. When they charged into “Just like Heaven”, the mid 90’s gem by The Cure, the crowd was on their feet and going wild!
The band’s signature beer, with the Mrs’ “formal sneakers” in the background!
A little later in the set they tackled the Ramones classic “I Wanna be Sedated” which was a super fun flashback for many of us old geezers in the crowd!
Bret’s playing was on fire – even better than just a few weeks ago in SF. It just goes to show how much practice and playing shows can improve one’s craft. It was really a standout performance, no question. I cant help but to think back on the days in his mother’s living room when we were all of 14-15 years old, trying to figure all this rock band stuff out. To see how far he’s come as an artist is really special and inspiring.
Bret, delivering the performance of a lifetime!
The other thing that really grabbed my attention was that Keanu actually seemed to be HAVING FUN on stage! Generally he looks very serious and he’s “all business”, but that night, his sense of joy was palpable. It was an absolutely perfect way to end the tour and I’m grateful that I got to experience it with my family in tow.
Keanu, loving every minute of it!
After the show there was quite the gathering backstage, all friends and family of the band(s) and crew(s) and we had a really. nice time chatting with folks. We shared a New Year’s toast with Keanu, and I got to talk to 3 of the 4 members of Archer Oh, which was cool. Very nice young men. Humble and grateful for the opportunity to do this tour. I wish them nothing but continued success!
After the After Show party, it was back to the hotel around 2am… A couple light snacks and it was lights out for the Mrs. and I.
Before we knew it, the next morning was upon us. Time for showering, packing up, checking out and meeting up with the kids for brunch a few miles away at Olive & Hay.
This place? WOW!!!
Brunch was terrific. I ordered French Toast with berries which was delicious, and everyone else was equally pleased with their selections. This is most definitely a place to return to!
After brunch it was back on the road to home. Talk about a whirlwind trip! Less than 24 hours and we combined outstanding food, excellent entertainment, catching up with old friends AND celebrating the rolling in of the New Year!
As I look back on 2023, mostly I see a dark and grim year, but for all it’s doom and gloom, Dogstar stands out as a shining point of brightness. They had a great year in 2023, and I hope they can keep that train rolling throughout 2024 and into their European summer tour that is already in the works.
All in all, this was an exceptional New Year celebration for us and I’m thrilled that the new year is off to a great start.
Yes, I’m old fashioned and I still celebrate and appreciate a traditional Christmas. To the rest of you that only acknowledge “the holidays” well Happy Holidays to y’all as well.
I wish my readers well, and appreciate you spending your time with me here. Gonna be winding down over the next few days, spending time with the family and just enjoying some calm and quiet.
I’ll be honest, I’ve been having a real struggle trying to get myself into the Christmas Spirit this year. I fully recognize that my life is pretty darn good generally speaking, but that doesn’t alleviate the worry/concern/incredulity that has been running non-stop through my head since early 2020 and has frankly, just been getting worse – seemingly by the hour – for the last 18 months. And I know I’m not the only one feeling this way.
Nevertheless, there is more than likely someone you know, maybe someone right in your inner-circle, that is having a rougher time than you. Keep that in mind, and try to keep kindness in your heart. I’m not saying you need to go out of your way to make their lives better or take on some other burden to get it off their shoulders…just don’t make things worse for ’em. Sometimes the smallest gesture can make the biggest change in a person’s day.
Ok. I’ll get off my soapbox now.
Wishing you all the best, and please know that I appreciate y’all.
Taking a moment to stop and be grateful today. Yes, the world is on fire and it appears as though the lunatics are running the asylum, but today I’ll be with my loved ones and we’ll be eating well. That alone is more than many have, and I consider myself lucky for that, and much more.
I’m also thankful for all of you that have stopped by for a quick read. I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving and a nice start to the holiday season.
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.
The Haunted Mansion, Halloween Style…
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…
Before…After.
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!
The Boring Old Man 