This and That

It’s raining right now.  We haven’t had much rain for the past few weeks. So this is much needed rain.  I keep telling myself that as I hope it stops by the weekend.

My guitar lessons are coming along nicely.  My teacher is awesome.  He’s just a cool, relaxed dude with great playing skills and a lot of patience.  He is classically trained but has studied and enjoys blues.  My main interest is blues, so this is a good match.  I had a double lesson last week, the second part making up for a missed lesson the preceding week.  We spent the first 30 minutes on simple one-note-at-a-time melodies and the second part on chord progressions found in most blues songs.  Awesome!  My fingers hurt at the end, which he said was a good thing.

My practice session at home tonight was very encouraging.  I played through the songs I’ve learned so far with very few mistakes and I successfully played most of the chords in Stormy Monday.  Slowly.  With long pauses between chords while repositioning my fingers.  But it is starting to make sense.

As a further inspiration, I saw blues legend Buddy Guy last night.  He is 77 years old and can still play well, he’s funny and he’s a little raunchy. Great show! 

I’ve been in my apartment for nearly a year and it’s time to renew or move.  I love the neighborhood and the apartment; I am annoyed by the neighbors who live above me.  I’ll probably stay anyway, partly because I hate moving.  I still haven’t unpacked all the boxes from the last move.  They want to raise my rent, predictably, but there are similar apartments here that are vacant and going for slightly less per month.  I need to have a conversation with the rental office.

I want a new ride so much I can taste it, but I’d be crazy to do that right now or any time soon.  I haven’t had a car payment for more than a year.  My Honda has 150,000 miles on it, making it realistically the vehicular equivalent of a 50-year old; halfway through it’s probably life.  Nothing is wrong with it, like it’s 50+ owner.

During my almost-every-morning exercise/Starbucks walk I pass by a fitness place that offers group and individual training programs and sessions.  Sometime in the next few days I will stop and get some details there.  I’ve checked out their web site and I think they could be a good fit for my fitness vision.  Depending on cost and scheduling, I think I’ll start with individual sessions; I don’t think I can keep up with the group I see every morning, at least not yet.  I don’t want to look like a body builder … I couldn’t anyway … but I do want to be regularly mistaken for a 40-something.  That’s not too much to ask, is it?