8.8.8

It’s just fun to type 8.8.8.

I am alive.  I spent a few days in Tennessee visiting with my family and some of my wife’s family who invaded from the Lone Star State. 

I drove home this morning, and I was going to mow the yard, but it was too wet.  I drove to the office and finished my grades.  Before I submitted Fs for students who deserved them, I wanted to make certain that none had dropped the course, and I did not have my folders with me.  I got my grades in and had to submit a silly report that my college requires about three times every semester. 

I came home and worked in the yard.  I mowed, edged and blew.  Gosh, it was wonderfully delightful outside.  It was in the high 80s, and there was the nicest breeze blowing.  It almost reminded me of California weather. 

Tonight, I am eating brown rice and some pinto beans and watching the Olympics.

It appears that John Edwards is, in fact, the weasel I always suspected he was.  It’s so nice to be proven right.

Been Busy

It’s been a while since my last post.  What a busy summer.  There is this mythical concept of summer, a vestige of childhood, that it is a time that is slower, easier.  How misleading.  I always end up working twice as hard in the summer;  of course, teaching four composition sections is not helping. 

 

Tired

What a week . . . it was a long week for me here.  I spent Monday – Thursday grading papers.  I also had to review the manuscript of our department’s customized composition text and get that back to the publisher.  I spent today working on the dissertation, and I actually had a pretty good day with that.  I think I have twenty-five pages done on this chapter;  I should squeeze out another fifteen or so before this chapter is done.  Then I can turn it over to my colleague for his comments;  he is a crack editor.  Then, I will submit it to my director, hopefully toward the end of August.  I swear I’ll be glad when that is done. 

I did manage to work out this week.  I lifted three days and did some cardio on Monday and today.  The weights, surprisingly, felt good.  I am no where near where I used to be, but it feels good to be pushing my body again.  My diet has been really bad;  I guess I have not gotten serious enough/disgusted enough yet.  The way for me to lose weight is steady exercise and weight watchers;  I am about the same weight I was when I began weight watchers several years ago and was successful.  To be honest, I have not gotten on the scale for more than a week.  I have not been brave enough.

In the morning, I will get up early and treadmill.  Then I will drive to Tennessee and join everyone at my mom’s house.  Two of the kids are doing a swim meet in Chattanooga, and my nephew Benjamin is being Christened Sunday. 

I posted an announcement to my online students stating that I would not be online until Monday.  Imagine that!   

One Week: Two Pounds

I’m at 221.5.  I lost two pounds this week.   

I am surprised at this weight, considering the way I gorged myself last night on low-grade Hamburger Helper Cheeseburger mix.  Crap if I did not eat the whole thing.  The reason, though, is that I had not eaten all day song sans two pieces of dry toast in the morning.   I exercised a few times this week, too, but I can do better, and after yesterday’s lapse, I feel better today and have my focus back.

Today I have had the following:

2 pieces of dry wheat toast and coffee for breaksfast
1 cheese sandwich, red grapes, and raisens for lunch

I am going to work out in the morning real hard — some cardio and strength training.  I am going to need to do better and stay with it to get to 219.5 next week. 

On a different front, it appears I have a fungus attacking my “lawn” in the front yard.  Large dry brown spots surrounded by green spots.  At first, I unabashedly turned my wrath on the often misunderstood and maligned grub.  But I swung by the Co-Op today on the way to the office and got steered toward some product that should help combat the plague.  I will take pictures before and after.  I am not holding my breath; it always seems that a “bag of this” is always twenty dollars and “guaranteed” to be what you nedd to get the job done. 

I worked a little on my next chapter of my dissertation today, and I think I am going to be off to a good start.  I sent my director an e-mail last night announcing that the focus of this chapter was going to shift a little.  I have not heard anything back from him yet, but he should be okay with it. 

A Few Days of Relaxing

I have been off for a few days, and I have been trying to relax a little.  Graduation was last Friday night, and summer session starts the 28th.

Travelled to my mother’s house Sunday night to pick up our latest addition — the 1962 Kay upright bass.  It worked out beautifully.  My mom was on the way home from Myrtle Beach, where she was vacationing, and she was driving right by where the bass seller was located.  The transaction went smoothly, and she carted it from East Tennessee to Middle Tennesee.  Spent Sunday night noodling with the bass and got up and made the trek home Monday morning.

When I got home, the kids were all outside eager to see the bass.  When we got in the house, I was pleasantly surprised to see the living room had been rearranged to accommodate the bass.   All the kids tried it out, and I was shocked to see how into it they were.  They each got the hang of it quickly, and so did my wife.  Our youngest told her, “Welcome to the band, Mom.”  Tears were in her eyes.  We ran through a bunch of songs together, and it was great to have that bottom end rounded out for us. 

Yesterday afternoon, the kids’ swim clinic kicked off, so we hung out at the pool registering new swimmers and getting caught up with old friends. 

Today, I had intended on going to the office and working on the dissertation — revising my first chapter — but it was so nice just relaxing that I just hung around the house, played music, and did some odd chores, ones that I have been putting off.   I uploaded some pics from the clinic to the website, too.  I had a good workout on the treadmill and second son worked out on the Orbitrek to keep me company.

I ran the two little ones to swim this afternoon and will run by the city pool this afternoon to check on the swim clinic there.

Other big news is that I pulled the trigger on a stratocastertoday, too.  I found a 1996 American Standard in Sonic Blue with a rosewood fretboard, OHSC, and some case candy.   It’s located in the southern part of the state, so hopefully it will not take too long to get here.  It’s an original axe, although the seller e-mailed today to tell me that the saddles had been upgraded, but he is sendiningthe originals along, too.  I am not sure why anyone would upgrade the saddles on an electric guitar.  I may have them switched back and sell the “upgrades.”  Tell me this is not the coolest of colors Fender ever came up with: 

 I will do a whole review of this stratocaster as soon as I get it and put it through the paces.   I am looking forward to getting back to adding some strat tones to my recording.  I’ll dig out the amp, pedals, and Line 6 pod, too.  The 13 and 12 year old boys are pretty stoked about this, too.  I may upgrade cases in a bit.  I really like the vintage tweed HSC that Fender puts out.  Nothing sweeter than seeing a clean strat lying in a tweed case.   I seriously considered a Gibson Les Paul Studio in the faded cherry/mahogany finish, but when it came down to it, I could not see myself living without that signature scooped out strat tone!

That’s all for now;  I am going to weigh in this afternoon.  Hopefully, it will be a good one, despite the ice cream sundae I ate last night . . .

Bad weight in — 224.5 . . . no more ice cream.

 

 

Long Weekend

The weekend came and went quickly.  The kids had a swim meet that spanned Saturday and Sunday; however, my youngest did not swim long course, so we went Saturday and watched the morning session and then went north to my mom’s house.

A family friend that I have not seen in twenty-five years came to visit my mom, so the youngest and I went up and hung out Saturday afternoon.  We spent the night and headed back to the pool around noon, so we could watch the afternoon session.  

It was great to see our old friend.  She is on the faculty at Tulane, and it was so nice to sit and talk with her about her teaching experience there and her research.  It was satisfying to renew that friendship.  I am glad I went.

I did not do so well watching my food intake this weekend;  we had dinner at a friend’s Saturday night, and Sunday it just got worse;  I overate pizza at the swim meet and feel pretty bad right now.  I am trying to drink lots of water to flush my system.  

I did not play any music this weekend.

Pushing Away From the Table

So this all new to me — a tabula rasa;  it’s the first day of a new month, and I feel spring stirring in me.  I need to re-invent/re-create myself.  That’s what we Americans do.

I stepped on the scale today and had a rude, flabby awakening.  I am about twenty-five pounds too heavy.  I stand 6′6″ (in the morning) and today I weighed in at 224.5 pounds of rippling manhood.  The only problem is that the ripples are not muscle.  I am 42 and I just don’t feel well.  I am tired all of the time.

So today I am re-commiting myself to pushing away from the table and taking more control of my eating/drinking habits.  Wish me luck.  

May Day

My first blog.  I will keep it short. 

I suppose I will start with explaining the name of my blog: woodnbone.  As a guitar player, I am obsessed (perhaps to an unhealthy extent) with acoustic guitars.  I love everything about them:  their feel, their sound, their appearance.  It amazes me that these things made of wood and bone (the nut and saddle are often made of bone) can create sound — music — that the human ear finds so pleasing. 

My obsession is not limited to guitars.  I feel the same toward other acoustic instruments — mandolins, fiddles, dobros, banjos, cellos, bass fiddles, ukes, etc. 

Currently, I am the steward of several fine instruments:  Martin D-28 (2003), Martin D-18 (2005), Gibson J-45 (1959), Guild G-37 (1983), Gallagher G-45 (1983), and a Baby Tyalor (2001).  I also have a Deering Good Time Banjo II, a Gibson A-9 mandolin, a Gibson Hounddog Dobro Squareneck, and a fiddle.

I hope to post pictures at a later date if I can figure out how to do so.   Wish me luck;  I’m not at all confident that any live person will ever read this blog, let alone comment on its content.  Can you prove me wrong?