Nobody told me there would be days like this... (Thank you, John Lennon for the title.)

I won't dump too much on the ol' blog, but people talk about Mondays being a bad day.  For WHATEVER unknown reason, today was my Monday...

I awoke to my ankle trying to see how many nerves it could activate, pain wise.  Deciding that sleep was a waste of effort I just got up.  Stumbled on the bedcovers.  Managed to get into the bathroom, without breaking me, or any thing else.  Gained a blinkin' pound!  And I was a good kid this week!  As the LOLcats say "DO. NOT. WANT." 

I walked, and it was SO cold.  I think Husband said it was 17 degrees F, (I gather that is about -8, for you C people, either measure translates to BRRR!!!), and I was actually having a hard time getting my walking done, I guess I didn't realize that when it's that cold, it can hurt to breathe when you aren't used to it.  Plus the added attraction of ice on the path, oh, joy... 

So, I get myself together, and get ready to go into the substation, and I get down the road about 2 miles, have to turn around and go home to get my purse!  I ended up calling, to let my "boss" know I was going to be late, she was worried it was because of the ice.  I told her no, it was because today was... interesting.  She did even offer to let me skip, but I figured I was packed and ready to go, so I went. 

So, here I am at the substation, I haven't destroyed anything, I only labelled one envelope upside down, and I am starting to figure out how Pandora works, so I am getting music that is to my taste.   And the wather is warming up, so the day is sort of improving. 

I guess...

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Yesterday I made a deputy blush, it was cool! 

I don't think they realized I'd arrived, and were discussing Thanksgiving.  One asked the other, "You have duty on Thanksgiving?"
"No, I'm off."
"You have any plans?"
"Not yet."
" Oh, your wife hasn't decided what you're doing over Thanksgiving?"

For some reason this cracked me up, and I burst out laughing.  Next thing I know, there is a very, VERY pink deputy peeking around the barrier, with a sheepish grin.  I waved him away, and went back to what I was doing.

Amazing how the topic suddenly turned to snow tires and an upcoming meeting...

; D

(Husband found a bunch of new-to-me guitar books while we were cleaning out the closet.  Is that a sign I better start again, or what?)

Whatever. I C the light! What the...?

I have been watching Llama, she doesn't enjoy the fog anymore than I do. I think we are BOTH glad it's gone.

That being said, the two of them have been high-tailing it to breakfast in the morning. This part of winter, our fields aren't producing a whole lot, so they get grain, and hay. Soon, they go back to hay, then when things start coming up in late spring, they can forage again.

It was so funny today, however, Lorenzo was doing his usual round and round, I am soooooo hungry... Llama looked in the window of the hen house, sighed, then put her nose on the ledge. Yeah. Breakfast. Am I awake yet? I am at the right feeding area, I think... I swear if I'd taken longer than a few seconds, she might have dozed off, right there! (I have a little sympathy for her today, I slept like a landed trout, and am not to jazzed about the day either.)

FINALLY, after reading through all the guitar books I have, and watching several different videos online, I am making something that sounds like a buzzy, but acceptable C. Part of it was misunderstanding the way I was supposed to hold my fingers, the other I was playing an E that wasn't supposed to be in there. Added up to a nasty sound.

I still haven't quite figured out how to hold the guitar in a completely comfortable way. I guess I compare learning to play the guitar to learning to drive. Going from trying to understand break, gas, clutch, gears, (then, much later, on an automatic, NOT using the clutch... GAH...) , to trying to keep fingers in these calisthenic positions that change every 4 to 8 bars (right now), while the other is just twangin' away... I am sure that I will start to get the hang of it, I already feel more comfortable with it than when I started, and can usually change chords with not too much problem. (But using the driving comparison, I still 'grind gears' on occasion.) So, there is some vague hope that I will indeed be able to play a song by Christmas 2010.

I think.

Maybe.

Heh...

Now then. That scale. That annoying, evil, nasty... rotten... (censored) scale. I know I've lost weight. I have pants on that I couldn't zip, that I now can, fairly easily. I have been keeping out of the goodies for the most part, exercised daily (to the point I had a stitch in my side one day, so I know I am doing something...), and so I hopped on the old scale, figuring I had to be down.

Gained .2 pounds.

I am going to trust that I am actually doing something right, because I don't think I can be GAINING weight, and wearing SMALLER pants, right???

Unless the pants are made out of some of the same material as Dr. Who's call box... Pants with a black hole in them? It was suggested by Husband that I weigh myself tomorrow and see if it's still up.

I don't think I want to. I think the stupid scale would do some dumb thing just to lead me on.

In fact, I am beginning to suspect that that scale is a second cousin of Christine. Maybe I should have some large implement of destruction nearby, just in case.

No. Better not. I would be tempted to use it pre-emptively...

G whiz. Bummer.

I started praticing my G on the little guitar I have. (And I mean little, it's a 'student' guitar, about half size of a standard acoustic-y one.) I started, and it actually sounded good, the first time, YAY ME.

TWANG!

Um. What? I look at the string. One of the nice steel strings is now a unravelling mess. I am still practicing for placement, but trust me, the sound? Ding, ding, TWANK, ding, ding, ding... And it makes the chord sound hideous. But the idea right now is for me to be able to even place the fingers REMOTELY in the right spot. Sooo, I guess perhaps my reward for 1o pounds down might be a new set 'o strings. Hey, good sound is good sound, right?

But, hey, I do see where I am with the fingering for G. So, a string, a string, my kingdom for a string.

(And she of the puns was thinking G string and G spot, but I will just let them sit quietly for now... Heh...)

Oh. My. Word. WHAT have I gotten myself into???

I have gotten the bright idea that I want to learn to play the guitar. (Yes, I need another hobby like a hole in the head, hush...) :)

So. I went and dug about for the guitar I used (ahem) years ago in college, (I took one college music class to save my, uh, you know...) and stole borrowed Husband's old guitar manuals, (he gave up on learning, and sold his guitar to a friend who was a collector of Martins), and sat down with one the other evening to read the first chapter, so I could re-acquaint myself with the stringy thing.

GAH!

I took guitar in college, and have forgotten...

Yes, wait for it...

EVERYTHING.

I was looking at the stuff, didn't make sicum from sideways even about what I was supposed to do! So, Bless the Innernets, for it has lots o' stuff, I looked on YouTube, and found some real, real basic stuff for guitar. And so I can now maybe start looking at the idea of where all of my fingers are supposed to go. Where they actually land might be open to interpretation, but I can at least have a fighting chance of doing something close to right. I hope to be able to do a basic chord soon.

We shall see.

The thing that amuses me, I have used books for years to learn things, in the area I live, there aren't classes for x thing nearby, (unless it has to do with horses or farming, in that order), and even then it's usually at night. For various reasons, I just figure, if I wanna learn it, I have to teach myself. Rarely have I had a problem. But man, I would probably have killed to get the Internet when I was younger, and trying to learn some hobbies and skills that I now have. When you can look up anything from spinning yarn, knitting, archery, flint knapping, and playing guitar (all hobbies I have, or want to take up), it makes it much easier to see why you are doing something and screwing it up not getting the result you want, and how to correct it.

So, hopefully I can do the stringy thing with at least one chord by next week. Maybe even two... Do I hear three?

Let's see. G,G,G,G,G,G,G,G... Hmmm. That might be a bit on the annoying side after a while. But, it will be more chords than I could do!

LAAAAAAAAAAA! Uh, or more accurately, TWAAAAAANG!