Bear's Log

I’m sitting here watching the cats watch the birds and squirrels in the yard, enjoying a nice cool overcast morning while catching up on my blog reading, and I remember “hey - don’t you have a blog silly person?” hmm, it has been a while since I posted - but in my defense I have been rather busy. Now I realize that for the blog-entry-a-day crowd that seems odd because if I have been that busy then I should have tons of journal items - no? No. I have no desire to turn this into a rant-fest or a my-world-sucks journal so I tend to not create entries of that type. Recently my boss decided he wanted to go on vacation – this fact I learn from a Friday evening phone call telling me he won’t be in next week and I have to help cover the Tech Support calls – so my energy level has been really low because of work. I mention this only to reinforce the fact that if I really wanted to post frustration and/or rants, last week would have been a rather full week for journal entries. :) So, what I have been doing is sitting here trying to walk back thru the month and pull out bits that I could journal :) Earlier in the month I decided to act on an urge that has been running around my brain for almost a year now: learning to play the banjo. I have been listening to more and more bluegrass and folk music and I have realized that I really enjoy hearing the banjo. Cross that info-nugget with the fact that I have also been looking for a creative but non-computer related hobby and with the fact that I’ve played the clarinet, drums and sousaphone in the past, you get a rather strong urge to get a banjo :) I went around to the various music shops in the area, Philadelphia is a major music city so there are plenty to choose from, and priced banjos. Needless to say I don’t want to spend $500 or more on something I may not be using in six months. Wow, there are some expensive banjos out there and as I was sitting in the truck telling myself “hey, so how about the harmonica?” I realized that I should check out eBay! Sure enough, on eBay you can buy almost anything, and after a couple evenings of hunting around I found a music store in Florida that was auctioning a beginner banjo (actually they were selling around 20 of them) and picked one up for $80 – excellant dude! So for the past couple of weeks I’ve been practicing and learning what I hope are good basic skills in banjo playing. What I have realized, and anyone who has met me in person probably will understand, is that chubby fingers do not make for easy chord formation ! ;) Status updates on the banjo and some exciting news on Tellbot (Grant and I have been progressing very well :) to follow. When? who knows, but I sure would think I can remember to update before Labor Day.