Set My Alarm For Christmas

I could definitely sleep for a few weeks at least.

The Televators show went well enough. Played my new bass the whole night, and loved it. I had been afraid that it's big body would overwhelm me in my emaciated condition, but it doesn't look too bad:

But jeez--I'm swimming in that shirt and my jeans are baggy, too. Need a tailor badly.

Early Voting is a wonderful thing. No crowds, and you can choose the most convenient location. Highly recommended!

This post is coming from my old computer while the new one is in the shop. Hopefully it's just the video card that needs replacing--if it's the motherboard going bad I'll be building a new machine and it won't be cheap.

My truck had been acting up for the past month--stalling at red lights and sometimes in the middle of rush hour traffic, which tends to add stress to your life as it flashes before your eyes. Took it to Bring Your Own Parts on Bandera and they drove it around town for two days and never could get it to act up, which is the way these things always go. After checking for water in the gas tank, fuel pressure, spark, and a few other things they apologized profusely for not fixing it and charged me $80. So far I'm happy with the deal, because in 3 days of heavy driving it hasn't acted up once--not even a hint. Feels like it used to, so it looks like they fixed it much like I fix sound gear. Open things up, push and prod, then re-tighten the nuts. Crossing my fingers...

Did I mention the new camera? Since dropping my Alpha 300 it was never the same. The sensor shifted so far that composing a shot was mostly guesswork and the sharper center of the lens was sending it's info way off to one corner. I got fed-up and ordered a used Alpha 200 body from KEH and it's been great, at a price that's lower than repairing mine would have cost. I'm having some doubts about how the exposure looks on the LCD, but will get it ironed out soon.

Can't believe that the new NBA season starts for the SPURS in less than 24 hours. Going to sit quietly in a dark house and watch the game. Unplugging the doorbell. Yes--I'm bailing on Halloween this year. As much as I love scaring the kids (and parents) there's just no way I can put up the show in time tomorrow. The above list of things plus working 6 days/7 shifts a week killed any chance of it. Despite amazing early tests, I never was able to finalize the design and implementation of my newest scene, either. Oh well, there's always next year... GO SPURS GO!!!

Impulse Buy?

On a Saturday afternoon way back in early March, we were doing our usual wander around town and stopped in at the pawnshop where I found my 8-string bass. Spotted a rare instrument, this mid-90s Ibanez Iceman Bass:

Always loved the pure RAWK! look of this design so I gave it a quick tumble and was amazed by it's (unplugged) response and sustain. Coincidentally, 43 minutes later I found another one at a funky little shop on N. St. Mary's:

A sign? The 2nd one didn't have any of the pawnshop Iceman's mojo, so it's much higher price wasn't a factor--I couldn't have afforded either one at the time. In late August while on lunch break from work I happened to go back to the same pawn broker and spotted bass #1 again and per standard practice for any item on the shelves for very long, the discount was deep:

Still hadn't caught on... It took another five weeks for me to realize that not only was the deal way too good to pass up, but that constantly looking at these photos for most of 2012 was a sign that part of my brain at least was in love--I just wasn't paying attention. Iceman Bass is on lay-away and I hope to bring it home in time for Televator's next show.

This will be our last live performance of 2012, so if you have nothing better to do, etc.