I made chicken drumsticks and baked potatoes in the oven. Easy and cheap.

_________________

Trying to get my rear in gear and go to a doctor appointment.

_________________
Marky

Remember the music is not in the guitar

Probably not much, since it's been raining outside again.

_________________

Well, today I took the car in for a complete check up, plus winter tire changeover. Got the bill for little work and thought, “Gee Willikers There goes another guitar or amp.”
Oh well, we had to wait for a few hours and decided to take a pretty good walk for lunch. It was -9°C/15°F., but with the wind chill it was very cold.

Got home with a clean car and I decided to touch up the paint with a paint pen. Did it work in the cold weather? Nope! Just rolled off. Maybe, a warm day will come along.

Here’s a tip I learned. When the fingers freeze like they feel like needles and pins, forget the cold to warm water thaw (that can be really excruciating, so much so it could bring Superman to tears). Today was such a day. I’ve used this approach first found by trial. Use the hair dryer! Don’t start on the hottest setting, instead use low and then add the heat. It works very well and fast without adding pain. I haven’t tried It for the ears, but I haven’t tried the water thaw for the ears either. Warm weather statesiders need not apply.
FSB

_________________
Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.

Well life gets in the way of good plans sometimes. So now I am resting and watching the tube.
This past weekend my garage door opener finally gave up, logic board failure, its a 1995 model and they don't make the replacement board any longer. So I've been replacing the entire old setup, it was a tuff one man job. You really never know how convenient some things are until they don't work any longer. Also, several buttons on the TV remote went kaput; one complete circuit, its never just one thing anymore it seems. Needless to say, I have only had time for one more coat of shellac on the LP project and it needs maybe two more before attaching the neck.

FSB, try the old tried and true way of reheating the to cold parts(body to body contact, armpits for hands & fingers and more importantly time) forget that water and dry heat concoction and more importantly prevent staying out to long unprotected. You can do some severe nerve damage w/ those methods if not extremely careful. I'm grateful I don't see those weather extremes in my neck of the beaches, but it is still a brisk 37F tonight w/ strong gusty winds way down here. We do get big swings of maybe 30-40 degrees which is almost as shocking as prolonged exposure to really cold weather.
I can also say my visit to the auto repairman this year was excrutiating, a guitar and an amp. I miss the days when I were more tailored to fixing it all myself.

Sorry to hear about the garage door, Eric. That’s always a problem as things age and one then loses access to parts. It also seems that were I to buy a spare part it never gets used. Either because it’s not needed, or the rest of the unit stops functioning or breaks. I know how multiple unrelated things can take a hike in the operational sense. It seems that things bought of an era have their way of failing just before, during, or just after the failure of another gadget from or close to the same time of purchase. It’s some sort of conspiracy I figure.
Good to hear the project is soon to be completed. It’s always a bit of a nail biter getting to and finishing that last coat to complete the job. I’m sure it will be just fine.

I too miss the days when I could get to be the grease monkey. It sure saved a lot when I was able to take on the job. Still, there are advantages to not having to put in the time, and with the old cars there was always something to do. The repair cost today is creeping ever higher with technology and frills though. Some of this migrates to higher labor costs too,

As for the cold hands and ears, I’m no stranger there. Lots of 40 below experience on and off the job. I used to work outdoors at 2 in the morning following a hockey game, and before getting frozen cars up and running even during a snowstorm. Often this happened when visiting across town.

I froze the cartilage at the top of my ears back in ‘66 and that stopped me from 2 weeks of wearing headsets which was part of my job. I was lucky, but a little less cold can now give warning signs. Yes, you are right about the arm pits and body parts; but, as long as you don’t use the hair dryer like a heat gun with constant heat, it works very well with moderation and waving it back and forth. It works much like a hand dryer only you move your hands. It’s my belief the hair dryer warmth heats the blood in your better part of the hand, and that circulates to and from the fingers. It does depend how much you have frozen the fingers though. Frostbite is frosbite and there’s no going back.

Experience helps to send out an alarm. Weathercasts give us an estimated how long it takes before getting frostbite on a given day. Mitts work better so you can move your fingers for circulation or make a fist inside the mitts, but they are not great to work with. Gloves tend to have less insulation at the tips or will develop to making the fingertip more vulnerable. Fingers in a glove are more likely to sweat and then get cold, depending on the gloves. Heat packs are good - when they work. You can do many things, but cold is cold, and sometimes Murphy’s Law takes over. Especially on your nose which often isn’t found to be frozen until you touch it. Ouch!
A good toque and scarf is important on those bitter outings. So is a plane ticket.
FSB

_________________
Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.

Going to attempt a walk, depending on how cold and windy it's going to get, then go to the store, and play some bass when I get back, and catch up on some more movies that were recorded.

_________________

My 1st year at Ft. Drum, I swore at the cold to no avail. each morning during PT I'd be covered by ice from eyebrows to chin. By the 4th year winter was a welcome sight but the snow shoveling wore me out most days before I could accomplish to much of anything. I was happy to leave the cold behind when given the chance. I used to use a heated towel(hung over the radiator heater) over my head after long stints outdoors to alleviate those issues, it worked pretty well.

I'll say this for the new garage door opener, it was easier to install it than to remove the old system. Much better engineered, less bolts and easier to program. Hopefully it lasts as long as the last one! Although the parts problem will surely rare its head if Sears has to make many more cuts.

Congrats on the removal and install. I know how difficult that can be. The garages in this neck of the woods tend to take a beating with the extreme weather here.

As for cold, I’ve adapted. While I’m not one for extreme heat, being wet and cold like it can be on the Atlantic coast gives me the shivers. On a ship it isn’t a lot of fun either.

Yep. Being warm is cool. Wearing a toque is warm. Cool? Not so much. Unless you're a ski bunny.

FSB

_________________
Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.

Did some errands, went for a small walk and got some ice cream. We got our first snow around here about a 1/2 hour ago.

_________________

Going to try to go for a walk tonight. I actually saw some sunshine today, after all of the crappy weather the past couple of days.

_________________

Here comes the sun la la lal! That's good, Paul. I understand you northeasters have been taking a beating lately. Nice to have a break, huh?

Me? Toasty cleaning out the filing cabinets, still whittling down the stuff I've collected over the years.

Gosh! I had good junk. Too bad it either ain't useful or it's obsolete; but, dang it all, it sure is purty. Purty good at taking up valuable space in my office / post- recording area. Boy am I glad I didn't store anything in the attic. I'm forcing myself to say goodbye to some friends that others think are junk; but, just like smartly having kept the turntable, I have this phobia knowing I'm gonna need all those Hi-Fi and Guitar magazines and all those DOS/ Windows books by the Floppies after they go. I have a scanner. Phew! Too bad I can't scan the video tapes. Transfers with the Internet in the background isn't what it used to be. Actually, in Canada, because of tape levies, they are legal recordings depending on how the courts see it . . . until you make them digital . . .blah, blah.

Well, time to get back to the junk pile. Never know what good junk will turn up.

How's that song go? "You don't know what you've got until you lose it?" I got a feeling . . .

FSB
Eureka! I know. I'll just have get some new junk. More than likely I'll still find some old junk in cubby holes. Life's a beach.

_________________
Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.

You know, it could be worse, you could have even more random junk stashed around, like a drawer from a refrigerator that you had in 1974 laying around. That's some serious pack ratting there.

_________________

Does an Ice tray from the old fridge now in the newer fridge count? At least it says, “Ice”. Hahaha.
See? I told ya old junk is good.

FSB

_________________
Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.

I'm going to have a late breakfast and get in some Strat time. Then, I have to get some things together for my son and visit him in the hospital.

_________________
Marky

Remember the music is not in the guitar