Witness protection program

When I moved into my new place This year I met a few of the neighbors early on. One such time I was at the "super mailbox" (you know, those big multi-mailboxes they have on the corner so they don't have to deliver to your door anymore?) and I ran into a nice lady who introduced herself. She asked something like:

"What brings you to our lovely neighborhood?" and I said:
"Witness protection program!" as a joke. I thought it was funny because, well.. If you were IN the WPP you wouldn't go around advertising it because Tony Soprano-esque types in waste management would be looking to manage your being wasted.. , but.. I guess it wasn't obvious.

So yesterday I'm, at the grocery store, pushing a cart across the road and a car stopped at the crosswalk beeps at me. I peer into the car suspiciously. It's my neighbor! She said Hi.

I said:

"Gee I'm glad it's just you. For a second there I though 'My GOD THEY FOUND ME'! }"!!

And went on my way..

The plot thickens.

Cannington Guitar Weekend 2009 Don Ross & Thomas Leeb

This is a close-up of Thomas Leeb's Lowden guitar. He has a custom "scratch pad" stuck on to the front of the lower bout with double-sided tape that allows him to get some interesting scratch sounds and not dig massive furrowed grooves into his topwood (which seems to happen anyway).

He was the reason I went to this year's edition of the weekend, and to see why exactly, check this vid out!



We were actually talking about him at the last weekend workshop I attended and I was thrilled to hear that Don had gotten him for this one. He's yet another amazing acoustic fingerstyle guitarist doing the body percussion thing and taking it in a whole new direction by hitting the guitar body with the heel of his hand or single fingers while playing intricate fingerstyle patterns. His concert portion of the weekend with Don was one of the most amazing I'd ever seen and he even surprised us with a vocal tune at the end.

On the first day of seminars we locked ourselves out of the hall we were using (Don had left to go rent a spot light) so we set up on his front lawn and learned a fingerstyle version of "JUMP" by "Van Halen" in DADGAD tuning. I may work out a fingerstyle solo one day!

As usual there were some great players in attendance and we jammed till the wee hours both nights although I turned in a bit earlier than previous years, being like, older and all. I stayed at the wonderful "Winds of Erin" B&B again, it's comfort and quiet and shower being a big plus! The food was great. I don't have any food pictures this time around, too busy eating I guess.

Thomas is an Austrian living in California, and this was his first visit to Canada so it was great to talk about the differences between the three countries. Public nudity, guns and politics like you've never heard. I also now know several German swear words, for which I am thankful.

As I mentioned before the concert portion was a gas. Don was experimenting with his Boss floorboard effects units. He's getting into ending some of his songs with a triplet delay thingie so it goes "Gadank, gadank gadank...." He's also coming up with many great guitar faces whenever he used the wha or distortion pedal which is kinda new as well.

I had a great time but appeared to have caught some kind of bug on the last day, which made me feel a bit like death warmed over (as you can see in this photo), it got worse the next day but these things are such a hoot that it's easy to forget about being a bit under the weather. I hope I didn't infect anyone.

Unfortunately, this will probably be my last time in good old Cannington, as Don and Brooke are moving to Nova Scotia this year, which is kind of cool in and of itself. I love that province. It just means when the guitar weekends get going again, I'll have a hell of a bigger drive.

When I got back home I checked my facebook stuff and noticed that Don's wife Brooke was updating her status during the weekend. At this time I'd like to apologize for leading the jams on "Blackbird" and participating on the demolition of Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah which may have caused her to be sick to her stomach. We just didn't know! Thank god for Facebook!

P.S. I'll learn Danny Boy for next time.

Muhahahahahahaha

They say it's your birthday!

This is cute. It was my 40th birthday on Sunday. I was away for the weekend 450km from home near Toronto visiting freinds and taking part in a weekend guitar workshop I booked 6 months ago (here are some photos!). I knew then that it would fall on my birthday, and made it known that I was not going to be around for it, that we'd do a rain check and all that.

So at 11:50 or so Saturday, after a wicked concert and during a lull in the after party guitar playing I plunked myself down in an empty room and I was checking my email on my Itouch from the previous two days, totally oblivious to the date about to click over.

I had a happy birthday email from my wife with a link to a video of Sir Paul McCartney (my favorite Beatle, my wife likes John Lennon more). So I sat there and watched the vid and truly got a big kick out of it. You're never too far from home with all this electronic gadgetry you can pack these days.

Someone walked in just as it was ending and saw the funny look on my face and asked what was up.
"It's an email from my wife. I forgot something important" I said.
"You didn't forget your wife's birthday or something like that did you?"
"Nope.. it's mine I forgot!" Muhahahahahahaha

I love my wife!

Creepy abondoned house - a movie set in the making!

Check this creepy place out! An old abandoned farmhouse out by my brother's in-laws. He took me out to take a peek and man, was it everything I'd thought it'd be and more!

Even the surrounding trees are creepy! It lies at the end of a long bumpy lane way that you'd need a Sherman tank to navigate and as you walk up you can't help but get the feeling flying blue monkeys wearing fez caps could arrive at any second and disembowel you.

Once inside there's pentagrams everywhere, chalk body outlines, only on the wall instead of on the ground, and a huge collection of raccoon poop! (or ghost raccoon poop, this being haunted and all).

It is very much open concept now, the second floor offering quick and immediate access to the first floor if you step in the wrong place. This is definitely a fixer upper opportunity for someone with a few years on their hands.

The basement is stone walled with huge timber supports and has a few live-in birds. There's a chair or two, one's even stuffed and looks like it's providing some wee animal with shelter.

This is definitely going to be a movie set in the far future.

More photos here.

Hanging out on the roof! Gutter blockage.

I finally climbed up on my roof to see why one of my rain gutters was full of water and overflowing down the side of my new place all spring.

My roof is very steep in the back so I pulled a shoeless Joe and shimmied out to the edge barefoot to check it out. Turns out there was a blockage in the downspout. I came back armed with that most useful bastion of Canadian home repair, the "Easton aluminum Hockey Stick" and golfed the thing out of there off the second story and into my neighbors back-yard. I thought it was one of those wee little liquor bottles and that the kids of the previous owner (or the previous owner themselves) had climbed out here to have a secret sip and enjoy the view.

Turns out it is some kind of suntan lotion. So they were just catching some rays! (I'd nail the window shut now before my kids think of this but I think that's goes against some fire safety code. )

Now that it's clear I can have delusions of buying this gutter cleaning robot to clean it. Cool!!!

When 4 year olds get PO'd.

"No. You can't eat chocolate Kinder surprise eggs for breakfast..."

A conversation that has taken place on more than one occasion (replace the words "Kinder surprise egg" with any sugary, chocolaty, ADHD-enhancing substance).

This came about from a Boston Pizza advertising display that read "Life's uncertain, eat dessert first!!!" that I made the mistake of reading aloud once in the restaurant.

At least it makes for great pictures! (collage to follow one day).

Why is the fire so big? Victoria day 2009

I'm not sure why we celebrate it, but Victoria day was fun! It's amazing what you can find at your local Kwick-E Mart in the way of fireworks. Here's a small movie clip at the bonfire. Every time fireworks go off I turn around to film it and when I turn back parts of me are catching on fire. You only get that with GOOD bonfires of adequate size made by city folk who don't know any better!








We went out to my brother's in-laws, made a big bonfire and watched things explode when it got dark! (more photos here!)

GPS system could crash next year

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I know I use it for free but REALLY!!!

How will I be able to find tupperware in the woods! How can I find my way back to old toilets and broken monitors and car parts in the middle of nowhere that I've marked?

The US Air Force is warning that the system could fail next year if steps are not taken to correct the situation. I hope it's a ploy for more cash (and I hope it works). We (I) rely way too much on this system to have it go bye bye. No wonder the Europeans are building their own GPS System.

Maybe they'll let me use theirs!

(thanks to Tripper for the news bit via RLSLOG)

I gotta get me one of these #47 - Jason Voorhees action figure

www.newburycomics.com

Why don't I have one of these already? (maybe because they're sold out!)

Great for the kids! They got a Freddy Kruger too!

Stupid t-shirts I buy on the Internet

I finally ordered my "MORE COWBELL" t-shirt. It's been a long time coming. You can get this and many more stupid t-shirts at www.noisebot.com.

Including other favorites like..