Today, my first group of auctions went from $7 to $27 at the last minute. Not too great, but the ones tomorrow are currently at $166, so if they follow that percentage (doubtful, but possible), I'll have all my Contata expenses covered, and then some. I expect to have to do more eBay work to get to where I want to be. At least I've gotten it started.
I have a return ticket from NY to Denver now, so this thing is a go. My flight leaves Denver 11:59 on Thursday night and arrives at Kennedy at 6:00 A.M. The return flight is out of LGA at 10 PM Monday, which deliberately gives me a day to hang out in the city. I'm planning to travel extra light (daypack and uke) so I can deal with things like eating at restaurants. I don't know - maybe just the daypack. My return flight is on the dreaded Frontier, the most luggage-unfriendly of all the airlines.
This week has been generally slow and non-productive. I have a few things I need to do to get everything together for the reverse mortgage application. I have June 20 on my calendar as the date to have the application ready and submitted.
I've had a lot of fun reading all the "kovfefe" memes. What an idiot we have for a president! And now the official line is, he meant to say what he said, even though the tweet was deleted. Perhaps he did. Excellent distraction from the many crimes he's committed.
Tomorrow: foot doctor, hootenanny, and some eBay work.
I have a return ticket from NY to Denver now, so this thing is a go. My flight leaves Denver 11:59 on Thursday night and arrives at Kennedy at 6:00 A.M. The return flight is out of LGA at 10 PM Monday, which deliberately gives me a day to hang out in the city. I'm planning to travel extra light (daypack and uke) so I can deal with things like eating at restaurants. I don't know - maybe just the daypack. My return flight is on the dreaded Frontier, the most luggage-unfriendly of all the airlines.
This week has been generally slow and non-productive. I have a few things I need to do to get everything together for the reverse mortgage application. I have June 20 on my calendar as the date to have the application ready and submitted.
I've had a lot of fun reading all the "kovfefe" memes. What an idiot we have for a president! And now the official line is, he meant to say what he said, even though the tweet was deleted. Perhaps he did. Excellent distraction from the many crimes he's committed.
Tomorrow: foot doctor, hootenanny, and some eBay work.
Things went a bit slower than I thought these last 3 days. I did get 3 boxes of stuff put up for auction. I have a lot of time to do a lot of auctions to end before I go to Contata on the 23rd. My phone is dinging bids at me as I write. $30 in the last 5 minutes. Another 10. Early bids are always a good sign.
In an emergency, I do have some bills I can delay. And I can probably expect some money from the housemates in June.
However, I think things will be great.
Some of the other things that have taken some time: I've been talking to people about reverse mortgages. I think I have a company I like, and I'm hoping I overshoot enough on my fundraising for Contata to pay for an hour of a certain attorney's time to advise me on things. The number one reason I like the one company I've talked to: they don't flip their reverse mortgages to other banks for quick money. I hear there's one called Champion that is pretty horrible. I've set June 20th as my date to apply so I can get things going when I turn 62 in August. There are apparently 3 options of what to do with the available leftover cash. A line of credit, payments, or cash. My situation is a little different because I'm on a reduced payment plan with my bank and my credit isn't exactly perfect. I get a line of credit but I can only take out 8k the first year. As I understand things, they charge interest on those "loans" to the estate which gets paid when the house changes hands.
Here's how I plan to hedge my bet:
High on my list of plans for September: Look into insurance that covers me for home care should I require nursing care or assisted living at some point, to decrease my chances of losing my home due to non-occupancy. Buy a nice suit so I can perhaps make use of that MBA degree I got last year to find myself a decent job for a few years. Invest some time and money into making myself healthier so I'll live longer than expected and fool them. And/or find ways of making substantial income using my musical & writing talents. A Patreon, well handled, steadily builds income - it's something I really want to pursue seriously. Another hedge is to fix up a guest room in my house, that can also be used as a rental. Right now, I have two people living in that space, but they will not be there forever. A room like that, along with use of common areas, is probably worth around $1200 a month in today's market, and rentals tend to keep up with inflation.
So - I've thought of most of the bad stuff that could happen. One thing that actually works in my favor: because of my credit, the bank also takes over insurance and taxes. Which means even if those go up, nothing changes for me. Which gives me income of just over 2k a month between SS and my pension, with zero mortgage payment, even if I take nothing out of what's left and let it earn interest. Considering what house payments would be on a house worth 460k, with taxes and insurance, around $2500 a month, I'll be living like someone making 54k. The most I made working was 40k. If I sold my house and tried to live off the equity, I'd be much worse off.
On to more pleasant things: I've been staying up until 2 AM lately, which gives me another 3-4 hours tonight to work on a project. The first step of this Patreon project is to figure out how to use dropbox to share music, put all the music from my cds there, use it to fulfill the last of the obligations from the indiegogo project over 3 years ago, so I can start fresh. Next is to learn how to use the selfie stick I bought at Walgreens to turn the video camera on my phone on and off, if I can. If it doesn't work, I'll adapt. The idea is to shoot some practice videos, and fiddle around with the editing software if I must. Then, I want to shoot a week's worth of daily videos in advance. Then, I set up the Patreon.
In an emergency, I do have some bills I can delay. And I can probably expect some money from the housemates in June.
However, I think things will be great.
Some of the other things that have taken some time: I've been talking to people about reverse mortgages. I think I have a company I like, and I'm hoping I overshoot enough on my fundraising for Contata to pay for an hour of a certain attorney's time to advise me on things. The number one reason I like the one company I've talked to: they don't flip their reverse mortgages to other banks for quick money. I hear there's one called Champion that is pretty horrible. I've set June 20th as my date to apply so I can get things going when I turn 62 in August. There are apparently 3 options of what to do with the available leftover cash. A line of credit, payments, or cash. My situation is a little different because I'm on a reduced payment plan with my bank and my credit isn't exactly perfect. I get a line of credit but I can only take out 8k the first year. As I understand things, they charge interest on those "loans" to the estate which gets paid when the house changes hands.
Here's how I plan to hedge my bet:
High on my list of plans for September: Look into insurance that covers me for home care should I require nursing care or assisted living at some point, to decrease my chances of losing my home due to non-occupancy. Buy a nice suit so I can perhaps make use of that MBA degree I got last year to find myself a decent job for a few years. Invest some time and money into making myself healthier so I'll live longer than expected and fool them. And/or find ways of making substantial income using my musical & writing talents. A Patreon, well handled, steadily builds income - it's something I really want to pursue seriously. Another hedge is to fix up a guest room in my house, that can also be used as a rental. Right now, I have two people living in that space, but they will not be there forever. A room like that, along with use of common areas, is probably worth around $1200 a month in today's market, and rentals tend to keep up with inflation.
So - I've thought of most of the bad stuff that could happen. One thing that actually works in my favor: because of my credit, the bank also takes over insurance and taxes. Which means even if those go up, nothing changes for me. Which gives me income of just over 2k a month between SS and my pension, with zero mortgage payment, even if I take nothing out of what's left and let it earn interest. Considering what house payments would be on a house worth 460k, with taxes and insurance, around $2500 a month, I'll be living like someone making 54k. The most I made working was 40k. If I sold my house and tried to live off the equity, I'd be much worse off.
On to more pleasant things: I've been staying up until 2 AM lately, which gives me another 3-4 hours tonight to work on a project. The first step of this Patreon project is to figure out how to use dropbox to share music, put all the music from my cds there, use it to fulfill the last of the obligations from the indiegogo project over 3 years ago, so I can start fresh. Next is to learn how to use the selfie stick I bought at Walgreens to turn the video camera on my phone on and off, if I can. If it doesn't work, I'll adapt. The idea is to shoot some practice videos, and fiddle around with the editing software if I must. Then, I want to shoot a week's worth of daily videos in advance. Then, I set up the Patreon.
Positive: I tried to "friend" a noted SF author who already had reached his friends limit on Facebook. We were having a conversation in a group. It didn't work. About 10 minutes later, I got a friend request from that same author.
Negative: I got a call from Social Security. Turns out I'm impacted by an offset intended to harm double-dipping government employees. For 13 years I had a private retirement account in place of SS. My money nearly vanished just after the economy crashed in 2001. Because I then switched everything to safe money market funds, the recovery didn't do much. I had to cash in what was left in 2011, and that's gone. But because I get a 1700 a month pension, and didn't contribute to SS for 13 years, my SS is cut just about in half. So instead of a neasly 600-something I will get a measly 300 something.
I need to get to work on my upcoming Patreon. And eBay.
Negative: I got a call from Social Security. Turns out I'm impacted by an offset intended to harm double-dipping government employees. For 13 years I had a private retirement account in place of SS. My money nearly vanished just after the economy crashed in 2001. Because I then switched everything to safe money market funds, the recovery didn't do much. I had to cash in what was left in 2011, and that's gone. But because I get a 1700 a month pension, and didn't contribute to SS for 13 years, my SS is cut just about in half. So instead of a neasly 600-something I will get a measly 300 something.
I need to get to work on my upcoming Patreon. And eBay.
I'm hoping to make it to Contata, a filk con in New Jersey. There are several problems:
1. The hotel is completely full. If anyone has space in their room, I am looking.
2. I will have some expenses, if I go, that will require more money than I have right now.
On the bright side, I used the 13,000 Delta points I'd forgotten about (most fares are more points than that, I no longer have the Delta card, and I thought they were useless) to get a one way red-eye flight to JFK, leaving 11:59 PM from Denver on Thursday the 22nd, and arriving at JFK 4 hours later, at 6:00 AM. Giving me time to get a subway to Penn, and a train to Morristown, NJ. Cost out of pocket: $5.60. So, if I can't raise the money to go or find a place to stay, I'll be out $5.60. Worth the gamble.
Return flights, last I checked, were around $285, and a Greyhound is maybe $100-150. The convention itself is $75 -80, then, adding on hotels, trains, etc., I'm figuring I'll need about another $6-700 to do it. Not impossible. I just need to enter a bunch of eBay auctions I've been putting off. And perhaps get started with some other fundraising projects I have in mind.
1. The hotel is completely full. If anyone has space in their room, I am looking.
2. I will have some expenses, if I go, that will require more money than I have right now.
On the bright side, I used the 13,000 Delta points I'd forgotten about (most fares are more points than that, I no longer have the Delta card, and I thought they were useless) to get a one way red-eye flight to JFK, leaving 11:59 PM from Denver on Thursday the 22nd, and arriving at JFK 4 hours later, at 6:00 AM. Giving me time to get a subway to Penn, and a train to Morristown, NJ. Cost out of pocket: $5.60. So, if I can't raise the money to go or find a place to stay, I'll be out $5.60. Worth the gamble.
Return flights, last I checked, were around $285, and a Greyhound is maybe $100-150. The convention itself is $75 -80, then, adding on hotels, trains, etc., I'm figuring I'll need about another $6-700 to do it. Not impossible. I just need to enter a bunch of eBay auctions I've been putting off. And perhaps get started with some other fundraising projects I have in mind.
And what a month. Tax appointment. I owe about $180. Instead of a bill, they requested a form. Long story. I will send the form. They will send the bill.
I went to a house concert. I had a housefilk.
I had friend over to do plumbing and hvac. My shower no longer leaks. And other stuff. Yay! The pump for the a/c is clean. The fancy filter gadget needs a $200 part plus installation - put that off til later. Next day, we had snow & the heat didn't come on. "Oh no!" I was thinking about calling again, then I had a thought walking to the grocery store, came back, checked, and the switch was off. Turned it on. All good. Then, 3 days later, hot day, I was having people over, A/C not working. I couldn't reach Steve, had people coming, decided to do a service call. Weekend rates. Turned out to be a loose wire from taking the pump out to clean it. Probably my fault, for being a distraction. I can be very distracting. Housemate generously paid for the service call. While I was outside looking at the a/c to see if the fan was spinning, I dropped my iPhone on the flagstone & spiderwebbed the screen. On the advice of a friend, I then packed the phone in its otter box to keep the crack from getting worse. (This story to be continued.)
I had my first appointment with my new Kaiser doc. Seems great. Did annual. A few tests. Been dieting. Weight down a little. Tests OK. Replaced my inhaler that was lost in the liquids bag in the airport in Canada.
Got a referral to the foot doctor. Various problems with feet. Morton's neuroma, the heel thing, maybe my orthotics need some attention, maybe a new problem starting. That's June 2.
Went to one of those free dinner sales pitch things. Laser treatment for neuropathy & a host of other ailments. Very interesting, but I read up on it, and it appears to be very expensive quackery. No thanks.
Thursday night of Denver Ukefest I had great fun, and am hoping to see the video of my song one day. When I left, I walked to the bus stop, and - no pass. I walked back to the venue, looked around. Nothing. Got a ride with a friend. Called next day, not turned in to lost & found, had to get in touch with the issuing source to fill out a form to get a replacement. Meanwhile, that evening, got to see Jake Shimabukuro for about the 6th time. Great as always.
Saturday of ukefest was pure fun. The evening concert was outstanding.
I happened to run into one of the headliners, Aldrine Guerrero, in the hallway, and handed him my SpongeBob uke so I could get a photo of him with it. Then this happened.
https://youtu.be/coDyC7q2FdU
Anyhow, this past week, I applied for early Social Security, got the bus pass replaced ($10.00), and spent most of Friday afternoon dealing with the cracked iPhone. I had no warranty. I went to the Apple Store, and they ended up replacing the phone because the diagnostic failed on the screen replacement. For the $129 screen replacement price. Which was kind of an awesome thing for them to do.
Yesterday was the John Denver theme meeting at the uke group. Confession: I've never been a fan of his music. At all.
I volunteered for a concert last night.
Oh, and I found out I had 13,000 Delta miles I'd never used. But that's a whole 'nother thing.
I think I lost the bus pass because it somehow hooked onto the edge of the otter box, which makes that related to the phone breaking and all the other stuff. So the cost of the plumbing/hvac work:
$200 for about 4 hours and some small parts
$175 to reconnect pump wire
$140 with tax to replace cracked phone
$10 for bus pass
$2.60 for bus fare because I didn't have pass
$6.00 for priority mail to get the papers I needed for the bus pass.
total: 533.60
ouch.
I went to a house concert. I had a housefilk.
I had friend over to do plumbing and hvac. My shower no longer leaks. And other stuff. Yay! The pump for the a/c is clean. The fancy filter gadget needs a $200 part plus installation - put that off til later. Next day, we had snow & the heat didn't come on. "Oh no!" I was thinking about calling again, then I had a thought walking to the grocery store, came back, checked, and the switch was off. Turned it on. All good. Then, 3 days later, hot day, I was having people over, A/C not working. I couldn't reach Steve, had people coming, decided to do a service call. Weekend rates. Turned out to be a loose wire from taking the pump out to clean it. Probably my fault, for being a distraction. I can be very distracting. Housemate generously paid for the service call. While I was outside looking at the a/c to see if the fan was spinning, I dropped my iPhone on the flagstone & spiderwebbed the screen. On the advice of a friend, I then packed the phone in its otter box to keep the crack from getting worse. (This story to be continued.)
I had my first appointment with my new Kaiser doc. Seems great. Did annual. A few tests. Been dieting. Weight down a little. Tests OK. Replaced my inhaler that was lost in the liquids bag in the airport in Canada.
Got a referral to the foot doctor. Various problems with feet. Morton's neuroma, the heel thing, maybe my orthotics need some attention, maybe a new problem starting. That's June 2.
Went to one of those free dinner sales pitch things. Laser treatment for neuropathy & a host of other ailments. Very interesting, but I read up on it, and it appears to be very expensive quackery. No thanks.
Thursday night of Denver Ukefest I had great fun, and am hoping to see the video of my song one day. When I left, I walked to the bus stop, and - no pass. I walked back to the venue, looked around. Nothing. Got a ride with a friend. Called next day, not turned in to lost & found, had to get in touch with the issuing source to fill out a form to get a replacement. Meanwhile, that evening, got to see Jake Shimabukuro for about the 6th time. Great as always.
Saturday of ukefest was pure fun. The evening concert was outstanding.
I happened to run into one of the headliners, Aldrine Guerrero, in the hallway, and handed him my SpongeBob uke so I could get a photo of him with it. Then this happened.
https://youtu.be/coDyC7q2FdU
Anyhow, this past week, I applied for early Social Security, got the bus pass replaced ($10.00), and spent most of Friday afternoon dealing with the cracked iPhone. I had no warranty. I went to the Apple Store, and they ended up replacing the phone because the diagnostic failed on the screen replacement. For the $129 screen replacement price. Which was kind of an awesome thing for them to do.
Yesterday was the John Denver theme meeting at the uke group. Confession: I've never been a fan of his music. At all.
I volunteered for a concert last night.
Oh, and I found out I had 13,000 Delta miles I'd never used. But that's a whole 'nother thing.
I think I lost the bus pass because it somehow hooked onto the edge of the otter box, which makes that related to the phone breaking and all the other stuff. So the cost of the plumbing/hvac work:
$200 for about 4 hours and some small parts
$175 to reconnect pump wire
$140 with tax to replace cracked phone
$10 for bus pass
$2.60 for bus fare because I didn't have pass
$6.00 for priority mail to get the papers I needed for the bus pass.
total: 533.60
ouch.
I think I lost a day in there somewhere. I was without sleep for 31 hours, traveling for 14 hours, slept 14 hours, but let's go back to Friday.
FilkOntario 27 con report: I've been to 13 out of 27 FilkOntarios now. If I go next year (and I certainly intend to), I will be up to the 50% point for attendance. 🍭I just threw in a random lollipop to see if DW supports lollipops.
I know, I've talked about the con already, but now, post-blur, the highlights may have changed.
Saturday, I stayed up until about 2:00 on
minimal sleep. I recall performing one song in circle. I think it was a space theme of some kind. I played "Pluto Song," to the tune of "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie," which I learned long ago from Steve Goodman, and got chords, as I recall, from either Harry Reser's "Let's Play the Uke," or possibly from the sheet music in Ian Whitcomb's Tin Pan Alley. A parody I wrote about 42 years ago. I feel so OLD!
I got in 8 hours of sleep, enjoyed the wonderful food and people in the con suite for lunch, and stopped in the dealer's room, where I ordered a shirt made of cloth featuring Elvis playing a uke. It may be a little bit before I get the shirt, due to a broken finger on the person who's making it. When I found out I said, "Make sure you heal first and work on my shirt second. I'm not going to bother you about it."
When I get it in the mail, I will be wonderfully surprised.
Friday night, I bought both acoustic and electric versions of Eric and Lizzie's new CD. I notice I didn't say anything about the concerts. I remember everything was wonderful, and I was there for nearly all of it, but I didn't take notes, and details are gone from my addled brain.
I was there for nearly all the concerts Saturday. I stopped in the dealers room to say hello to Peter Cox, and watched him selling a beautiful-sounding antique banjo he'd built a neck for. Seeing how happy his customers are when they buy is a joyful thing. When he told me he's thinking about getting out of the luthier business, it made me sad. The cittern he built for me is - well, it's perfect. I think I bought it in 2009.
The interfilk guest concert was amazing. The GoH concert was amazing. They were all amazing.
The filk hall of fame banquet - I was sitting between Larry Kirby and Juanita Coulson. I apologized to Larry for practically ignoring him - Juanita is a fascinating person. She has done so much. She knows so much. There was some table discussion about guessing who would be honored. I pointed out that the Bohnhoffs were far from home, and didn't have a concert scheduled. I think it was Juanita who guessed Gary Hanak. We agreed that it was difficult to guess when the recipient is either not present or attends FKO regularly.
So, between us, we guessed 2 out of 3. The third was Judi Miller. I am extremely pleased with all three honorees. Gary has singlehandedly kept filk alive in St. Louis. He was also kind enough, even though we had never met, to include me in the round robin at the 2007 NASFiC. That was the one where someone reviewed the concert online and said I had a crummy voice and shouldn't sing. Luckily for me, I didn't believe them. But I remember how kind Gary was to me, and his professionalism as a musician.
Judi Miller has been an inspiration to me, and to a lot of other people. She is just one of the best overall people I know. When she signs, it's way more than just signing. It's acting. It's pantomime. And it's clowning. Judi has the rare comic talent of, perhaps, a Lucille Ball or a Harpo Marx.
And Jeff and Maya, also kind people, in addition to writing some of the most finely crafted parodies I've heard, and bringing some seriously over-the-top professional music skills to filk, have also been helpful to people who needed to get their recordings produced.
Yes!
I had a comment about the awards guessing game that I posted to the FKO group, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. I'd thought I detected some negativity concerning playing the guessing game, and wanted to set people straight. There are two possibilities for a guess: right or wrong. Right, well, yeah, you won the game. Wrong is even better than right, because if you guessed wrong, you need to get nominions in for those people.
I had a one shot after the banquet. I decided to play "Please Laugh At Me." I don't think I quite have the performance right yet, but I sense it's getting better. I got one very nice compliment on it though. My goal, if I have one, is to get the audience to be sad, and not laugh.
I went to the cd release, and then the acapella circle. Loved what I heard. On my turn, I tried "Home Again," which is Gilligan's Island reset to Mary Ellen Carter, with additional words. Sadly, my voice chose to die out mid-song due to allergies. I did more stuff, and again was off to sleep around 2:00.
Sunday I was expecting to meet a friend who lives in the area. His kid ran off with his car and phone. It didn't work out. The onion rings at a&w burned the roof of my mouth.
Sunday concerts included Juanita Coulson and the FHOF concert. I was headed to find my fingerpicks for the jam when Larry K. invited me to dinner. Montana's. Steak. Yum.
Got to the dead penguin early, and enjoyed doing a bit of playing instrumental music with Cat Faber. Also did a brief mandolin teaching session. Talked about downstrokes and upstrokes with the flat pick. Normal is mostly alternating down and up. Bill Monroe style is all down. Cross picking (McReynolds style) is down up up down up up down up. I didn't get into triplets. The only mandolin song I ever hear much in triplets is The Irish Washerwoman, aka Starving to Death on my Government Claim.
I think I did two songs in the circle. One was one of my older songs, I think. The other was my parody of "These Foolish Things." Judi signed it. I mostly didn't watch, but I had to, a little bit. I gave away some CDs.
Said goodnight to a few people. Back to room. Packed. Shower. More packing. No sleep. Left at 3:00 am for airport.
Josh and Lisa were on my flight to JFK. I enjoyed spending time with them.
I think security at YYZ is where I lost my ziploc bag of travel liquids. I have a reason why I suspect that. I didn't notice they were missing until I was on my 3rd plane.
Missed connection, but they got me on a flight to Detroit right away, with just enough time to grab a quick lunch in Detroit before my flight to Denver. I should have read the place on my boarding class where it said "meal" before I bought lunch at McD's. I was upgraded to first because coach was full. I also got an exit row seat from JFK to Detroit. Classy.
This morning, I was up at 6:30. I called my plumber/hvac friend Steve and he had to reschedule me. Next Tuesday. Did a bit of cleaning up anyhow, went downtown to check my box mail, stopped at Walgreens for 3 vitamins/supplements I needed, and also to replace the items from my lost liquids baggie. 4 empty travel bottles for shampoo. A smaller empty spray bottle because I couldn't find travel size glasses cleaner. Saline nasal spray in travel size. I have tons of travel toothpaste. I have extra bottles of flonase. I'm now on my backup inhaler, which expires in a few months, and I can get another before then.
Then I treated myself to Thai food from a cart on the mall, which is just incredible.
I spent some time beginning to clean my gigantic 6x8 upstairs shower. Big job. Got tired. Typed this. And now it's 4.00 pm and I'm caught up.
FilkOntario 27 con report: I've been to 13 out of 27 FilkOntarios now. If I go next year (and I certainly intend to), I will be up to the 50% point for attendance. 🍭I just threw in a random lollipop to see if DW supports lollipops.
I know, I've talked about the con already, but now, post-blur, the highlights may have changed.
Saturday, I stayed up until about 2:00 on
minimal sleep. I recall performing one song in circle. I think it was a space theme of some kind. I played "Pluto Song," to the tune of "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie," which I learned long ago from Steve Goodman, and got chords, as I recall, from either Harry Reser's "Let's Play the Uke," or possibly from the sheet music in Ian Whitcomb's Tin Pan Alley. A parody I wrote about 42 years ago. I feel so OLD!
I got in 8 hours of sleep, enjoyed the wonderful food and people in the con suite for lunch, and stopped in the dealer's room, where I ordered a shirt made of cloth featuring Elvis playing a uke. It may be a little bit before I get the shirt, due to a broken finger on the person who's making it. When I found out I said, "Make sure you heal first and work on my shirt second. I'm not going to bother you about it."
When I get it in the mail, I will be wonderfully surprised.
Friday night, I bought both acoustic and electric versions of Eric and Lizzie's new CD. I notice I didn't say anything about the concerts. I remember everything was wonderful, and I was there for nearly all of it, but I didn't take notes, and details are gone from my addled brain.
I was there for nearly all the concerts Saturday. I stopped in the dealers room to say hello to Peter Cox, and watched him selling a beautiful-sounding antique banjo he'd built a neck for. Seeing how happy his customers are when they buy is a joyful thing. When he told me he's thinking about getting out of the luthier business, it made me sad. The cittern he built for me is - well, it's perfect. I think I bought it in 2009.
The interfilk guest concert was amazing. The GoH concert was amazing. They were all amazing.
The filk hall of fame banquet - I was sitting between Larry Kirby and Juanita Coulson. I apologized to Larry for practically ignoring him - Juanita is a fascinating person. She has done so much. She knows so much. There was some table discussion about guessing who would be honored. I pointed out that the Bohnhoffs were far from home, and didn't have a concert scheduled. I think it was Juanita who guessed Gary Hanak. We agreed that it was difficult to guess when the recipient is either not present or attends FKO regularly.
So, between us, we guessed 2 out of 3. The third was Judi Miller. I am extremely pleased with all three honorees. Gary has singlehandedly kept filk alive in St. Louis. He was also kind enough, even though we had never met, to include me in the round robin at the 2007 NASFiC. That was the one where someone reviewed the concert online and said I had a crummy voice and shouldn't sing. Luckily for me, I didn't believe them. But I remember how kind Gary was to me, and his professionalism as a musician.
Judi Miller has been an inspiration to me, and to a lot of other people. She is just one of the best overall people I know. When she signs, it's way more than just signing. It's acting. It's pantomime. And it's clowning. Judi has the rare comic talent of, perhaps, a Lucille Ball or a Harpo Marx.
And Jeff and Maya, also kind people, in addition to writing some of the most finely crafted parodies I've heard, and bringing some seriously over-the-top professional music skills to filk, have also been helpful to people who needed to get their recordings produced.
Yes!
I had a comment about the awards guessing game that I posted to the FKO group, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. I'd thought I detected some negativity concerning playing the guessing game, and wanted to set people straight. There are two possibilities for a guess: right or wrong. Right, well, yeah, you won the game. Wrong is even better than right, because if you guessed wrong, you need to get nominions in for those people.
I had a one shot after the banquet. I decided to play "Please Laugh At Me." I don't think I quite have the performance right yet, but I sense it's getting better. I got one very nice compliment on it though. My goal, if I have one, is to get the audience to be sad, and not laugh.
I went to the cd release, and then the acapella circle. Loved what I heard. On my turn, I tried "Home Again," which is Gilligan's Island reset to Mary Ellen Carter, with additional words. Sadly, my voice chose to die out mid-song due to allergies. I did more stuff, and again was off to sleep around 2:00.
Sunday I was expecting to meet a friend who lives in the area. His kid ran off with his car and phone. It didn't work out. The onion rings at a&w burned the roof of my mouth.
Sunday concerts included Juanita Coulson and the FHOF concert. I was headed to find my fingerpicks for the jam when Larry K. invited me to dinner. Montana's. Steak. Yum.
Got to the dead penguin early, and enjoyed doing a bit of playing instrumental music with Cat Faber. Also did a brief mandolin teaching session. Talked about downstrokes and upstrokes with the flat pick. Normal is mostly alternating down and up. Bill Monroe style is all down. Cross picking (McReynolds style) is down up up down up up down up. I didn't get into triplets. The only mandolin song I ever hear much in triplets is The Irish Washerwoman, aka Starving to Death on my Government Claim.
I think I did two songs in the circle. One was one of my older songs, I think. The other was my parody of "These Foolish Things." Judi signed it. I mostly didn't watch, but I had to, a little bit. I gave away some CDs.
Said goodnight to a few people. Back to room. Packed. Shower. More packing. No sleep. Left at 3:00 am for airport.
Josh and Lisa were on my flight to JFK. I enjoyed spending time with them.
I think security at YYZ is where I lost my ziploc bag of travel liquids. I have a reason why I suspect that. I didn't notice they were missing until I was on my 3rd plane.
Missed connection, but they got me on a flight to Detroit right away, with just enough time to grab a quick lunch in Detroit before my flight to Denver. I should have read the place on my boarding class where it said "meal" before I bought lunch at McD's. I was upgraded to first because coach was full. I also got an exit row seat from JFK to Detroit. Classy.
This morning, I was up at 6:30. I called my plumber/hvac friend Steve and he had to reschedule me. Next Tuesday. Did a bit of cleaning up anyhow, went downtown to check my box mail, stopped at Walgreens for 3 vitamins/supplements I needed, and also to replace the items from my lost liquids baggie. 4 empty travel bottles for shampoo. A smaller empty spray bottle because I couldn't find travel size glasses cleaner. Saline nasal spray in travel size. I have tons of travel toothpaste. I have extra bottles of flonase. I'm now on my backup inhaler, which expires in a few months, and I can get another before then.
Then I treated myself to Thai food from a cart on the mall, which is just incredible.
I spent some time beginning to clean my gigantic 6x8 upstairs shower. Big job. Got tired. Typed this. And now it's 4.00 pm and I'm caught up.
In an hour and a half, I have to get up, leave this room, and catch a shuttle to the airport. Technically, it's Monday already, but I haven't been to sleep yet. And don't feel up to sleeping for such a short time. I did set my alarm in case I drift off.
Sunday I was supposed to meet a local friend for lunch. Never showed up. No message. No answer to phone call. Maybe lost his phone or something. I went across the street for a mouth burning burger (probably the onion rings). Juanita Coulson did a wonderful concert, then the Filk Hall of Fame concert happened. The logistic of taking turns when there were multiple people on stage with various plugins were handled seamlessly. The music was great as well.
I was planning to join the jam, but instead had an opportunity to go to dinner with Larry and Deborah, two of my favorite people. Got to the circle early. Listened to many songs. Sang a couple or three myself. Judi Miller signed my parody of "These Foolish Things." So great. I am very pleased to know these people and be a part of this community.
Left the circle on the early side to get packed and ready to travel.
Sunday I was supposed to meet a local friend for lunch. Never showed up. No message. No answer to phone call. Maybe lost his phone or something. I went across the street for a mouth burning burger (probably the onion rings). Juanita Coulson did a wonderful concert, then the Filk Hall of Fame concert happened. The logistic of taking turns when there were multiple people on stage with various plugins were handled seamlessly. The music was great as well.
I was planning to join the jam, but instead had an opportunity to go to dinner with Larry and Deborah, two of my favorite people. Got to the circle early. Listened to many songs. Sang a couple or three myself. Judi Miller signed my parody of "These Foolish Things." So great. I am very pleased to know these people and be a part of this community.
Left the circle on the early side to get packed and ready to travel.
So. The plane was delayed. 20 minutes. Hahahahaha. I spent 3 hours, after getting 3 hours sleep, right by a speaker, and sitting next to a very polite fellow who was apparently hyperactive, and reading a book by Bill O'Reilly. Sleep on the flight amounted to around 4 minutes total in 30 second increments.
Customs wasn't bad. Not a lot of questions this time.
The shuttle had just left when I called. Half an hour waiting for a shuttle.
Got to the convention, checked into the hotel, and was sent to room 328. Next time I went to the room, my key didn't work. Turns out they'd previously sent my roommate to 238.
That led to a debacle. Suffice it to say, 2 unhappy people.
The new lighting in the hotel, at registration and around all the room doors, is blinding strobe lights that are triggering a whole lot of migraines and causing misery. I don't get migraines, but they're causing me discomfort.
The convention itself has been wonderful. The guests, the concerts, the hall of fame honorees - everything was great.
There are a whole lot of things about this hotel that have changed for the worse. It has served the convention well, but it's time to go hunting for someplace else.
I got a decent amount of sleep after staying up until 2:00, and have felt OK today.
More tomorrow.
Customs wasn't bad. Not a lot of questions this time.
The shuttle had just left when I called. Half an hour waiting for a shuttle.
Got to the convention, checked into the hotel, and was sent to room 328. Next time I went to the room, my key didn't work. Turns out they'd previously sent my roommate to 238.
That led to a debacle. Suffice it to say, 2 unhappy people.
The new lighting in the hotel, at registration and around all the room doors, is blinding strobe lights that are triggering a whole lot of migraines and causing misery. I don't get migraines, but they're causing me discomfort.
The convention itself has been wonderful. The guests, the concerts, the hall of fame honorees - everything was great.
There are a whole lot of things about this hotel that have changed for the worse. It has served the convention well, but it's time to go hunting for someplace else.
I got a decent amount of sleep after staying up until 2:00, and have felt OK today.
More tomorrow.
I left things at dinner yesterday.
I think I may stop going to Irish Rover for half price burger night. If I do, I will not get fries. They were giving me tummy upset most of the evening. Even this AM, not hungry at airport. Good. Saving $$$ on bad airport food. There was an earlier flight on United I could have made, but my ticket is actually "united" via Air Canada so they couldn't do it.
So I'm on maybe 3 hours sleep.
Next year, I'll have extra $$$, and I think I'll start going to cons a day early, flying out in afternoon or evening so I can sleep before the trip.
Happy to say other than lack of sleep and feeling like a truck ran me over, the morning has been uneventful. Boarding should start in 10 and my flight seems to be on time. Hooray for that.
I think I may stop going to Irish Rover for half price burger night. If I do, I will not get fries. They were giving me tummy upset most of the evening. Even this AM, not hungry at airport. Good. Saving $$$ on bad airport food. There was an earlier flight on United I could have made, but my ticket is actually "united" via Air Canada so they couldn't do it.
So I'm on maybe 3 hours sleep.
Next year, I'll have extra $$$, and I think I'll start going to cons a day early, flying out in afternoon or evening so I can sleep before the trip.
Happy to say other than lack of sleep and feeling like a truck ran me over, the morning has been uneventful. Boarding should start in 10 and my flight seems to be on time. Hooray for that.
"My ascent into madness" could be a good new title for my journal. Some awkwardness on FB trying to convince my left-leaning friends and centrist-democrat friends to (excuse me) shut up for a minute and listen to each other. And listen to themselves. Yeah, I want most of the things they want. But none of them will happen if we continue to squabble internally and let the extreme right take over everything. Which is kind of where we are.
…Sigh…
Spent the morning today finishing packing for FKO. Not wanting to do my usual last minute stay up late get no sleep thing this time. I never WANT to.
Right now I'm in a much too loud bar waiting with my housemates for Thursday night half price burgers.
I leave the house about 7:30 tomorrow morning. Flight is at 11:10. I opted to pay extra for direct. My flight home has an extreme short connection at JFK. I have about 15 minutes to get from terminal 4 to 2 before boarding time. Yikes!
I think those burgers are coming now.
…Sigh…
Spent the morning today finishing packing for FKO. Not wanting to do my usual last minute stay up late get no sleep thing this time. I never WANT to.
Right now I'm in a much too loud bar waiting with my housemates for Thursday night half price burgers.
I leave the house about 7:30 tomorrow morning. Flight is at 11:10. I opted to pay extra for direct. My flight home has an extreme short connection at JFK. I have about 15 minutes to get from terminal 4 to 2 before boarding time. Yikes!
I think those burgers are coming now.