Ukulele Torture, Of Sorts

So, Like I said a few days ago I’ve purchased a Ukulele.  Just a cheep starter Kohala.  Not known for their quality.  Cosmetic flaws and such.  I had to reduce the action on it also.  (For those that don’t know and care.  That means making the strings closer to the neck so you don’t have to push so hard to make the chords.)

But I do have to say that the one I got has good sound and excellent resonance.  Meaning it doesn’t sound all that bad.  Fairly good really for a cheep Ukulele.

So I dressed her up.  (Still deciding on a name for her.)  I got out my markers and did a little scroll work on the front.  Added a few stickers numbering the frets, (those little bars across the neck) and under the strings reminding me of the keys the strings are tuned to.  G C E A  My dog has fleas.  (What ever that is suppose to mean.)  Now I had a good learning instrument.

And off I went.  Contorting my hands into the odd assortment of positions meant to make music from a stringed instrument.

The first few days were nothing less than torture.  In a good way of course.  But still, I do have to replace the cotton wool used up in the ears of all those in hearing distance.

And two months later I’m playing my favorites along with the obligatory Uke standards in a reasonable manor and having way too much fun doing it.

Now the torture is only one way.  As my song preference is not popular with the neighbors, they will just have to keep on closing their windows for an hour a day until colder weather hits.  

What started this Ukulele Mania is a bit complicated.  First off my grandmother had and played a Ukulele.  (Not strange for her generation.)  and I loved hearing her play it as a kid.

Second is my eclectic tastes in music.  Few things I don’t like there.  Thou they do run to the dark and odd side of things.

Third is my sense of humor.  Enter the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.  I’ve enjoyed them for years.

http://youtu.be/dKpzCCuHDVY?list=PLy-nEelStADPlE9Bl76hHieQzedJv9yOE

I’ll just let you go and watch them while I get back to playing the Masochism Tango on my Uke.
Link to Tom Lehrer doing it here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TytGOeiW0aE

Life: I Love It!

I guess it was my post title that made people think I was not doing well.

I am doing great!  Health is good.  Attitude fantastic!

In most all aspects of my life I'm having a gothy great time!

Nothing is perfect of course.  It wouldn't be life if it was.  But I'm not complaining.  Its just a fact.  You know that as soon as you turn around a flec of dust will fall, the dishes won't wash themselves and something will need to be put away, straightened, or fixed.

Life: the moving river of stuff one deals with at any given moment.  I love it.

There are challenges, quiet peace, laughter, pain, contentment, frustration and enlightenment all open to our experience.

And than there is creativity!

Crafting, writing, sewing, knitting, crochet, cooking, singing, playing an instrument, dancing, designing, decorating...

You get the idea.  Everything from adding your own special touches to making something completely new.  It just adds a richness and texture to living.

Its just a part of what I look forward to each day.

So here I sit.  Rose colored glasses firmly in place.  And although much is black in my vision.  That is just the color of things, not my attitude.

On Not Dead Yet

Its been a long time.  I don’t know if anyone is still out there that cares, but here goes.

I'm not sure if I'm back to a daily, or even a weekly blogging experiance, but I have decided that I do need to update here on occasion.

My sign language skills are coming along.  I can converse with a toddler.

We won.  The Compressor Station was stopped.  We breath free semi-clean country air.

After my third heart attack: I have lost some extra weight.  (Need to continue to loose more.)  But I am living much healthier lifestyle over all.

My crafts have turned mostly to toys for the grandkids.

I’m into reading mysteries of late.

I bought myself a Ukulele two months ago and I have given myself a strict hour a day of practicing schedule.  I love it and have gotten fairly good at it already.  The list of songs I can play to grows daily.

My camera broke so pictures will be limited here.  I can still take pictures with it, but the focus is messed up.  So most of the pictures I take wind up unusable.  (Picture above is of Mary Picford not one of mine.)

All in all, life is a good thing.  I try to:  Forgive and forget.  Learn something new.  Live, love and laugh... each day.

I do hope all my blogging friends, readers and bloggers, are doing well also.

On The Color of Words:

Well it is the first day of Autumn.  It has been feeling and looking a bit like autumn for a few weeks now, but only in a preparation type of way.

The trees are turning now in full, all their bright fury of color.  Loose leaves fly and dance across the grass on the wind.  The woods are opening up and you can see further into them.  Showing their secret places.

I fancy that fairies are having leaf flying races and making the best of it all before winter quiets things down for its season of sleep.

I’ve been busy.  I’m learning a new language.  Well not totally new to me, but I haven’t practiced it in many years.  I am not a multi-language type of person.  I find it very hard.  My mind doesn’t want to change direction in its way of thinking.  Putting subject first, finding a new way to say the same old things, words I know to mean one thing now meaning another.

Autumn is simple.  The preparation of plants transitioning, dieing off or going dormant until the warmth and waters of springtime can start the renewal process once again.  Cycles and circles of life.

I love words in the language I am a custom to.  I like to play with them.  Feel them tripping over me tongue.  Listening to the sounds that they make.  Finding an old word little used.  Discovering new words to add to my vocabulary.

Maybe it is feeling so limited at the start of a new language that makes me so frustrated.  Leaving me unable to get my point across.

No, that is only a part of it.  My brain has enough trouble finding the words I want in the language I’ve been using daily all my life.  I stop and stumble over them by the hour, even thought I love them so.

But love has prompted me to learn this new language.  A fairly new family member should have communication available to them too.  And since I do love how words connect us I am totally committed to learn this new language for her.  I want to talk to her about the colors and my feelings about Autumn.

My new grandbaby is deaf.

On Not Without Good Reason:

Yes, I am sorry that I haven’t been around.

But life is like that.  You get to a place that you feel comfortable and then BANG!

Back in May I learned that a company was trying to put up a gas compressor station within a mile of my house.

The sneaky buggers were trying to get a variance for a “cell tower for a storage shed.”  When asked by the neighbors ‘Why do you need a cell tower for a storage shed in the woods?’  We found out that is was really a highly toxic compressor station that they planed to build and release the same toxins that you may remember from the Erin Brockavich movie into the air 24-7.  But this was in my real life.  Right over my organic garden, my house, my lungs.

This was big, bad, high industry trying to sneak into a agricultural area and poison us.

There is a video on YouTube about one just like it that the same company was trying to put up just outside our local school complex.  All school ages right through high school having toxins dumped on them day in and day out.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gW4zSayf9O4 

Well anyway we fought hard to get the word out about it in every one of our available waking moments.  And we won a battle.  The zoning board voted ‘No’ to their back door plans to sneak a compressor station on us.

I can breath a bit easier for the moment.  We will still have to be on our guard.  They can appeal and also go through proper channels to try to place that monster anyway.  But the local community leaders know were we stand and that in a short time we can and did become a force to be reckoned with.  

So, I am sorry that I haven’t been around to read your blogs, commenting, and or just plain entertaining you.

For now I’m going back to my old life of blogging and knitting toys for the grandkids.  And leaning new and interesting things to do with my hands.  But I’m also keeping an eye out for real monsters.  They do exist.

On TV NCIS Viewing: (No real Spoilers.)

First I have to say that I hate the cliff hanger ending to any TV season.  What if they don’t come back for some reason?  And so what if the show has been renewed for next year.  That doesn’t mean that all the people I like will be back.

I’m still in shock.  NCIS did me a turn.  The season finale was too much of a shocker.  Who will be left for next season?

True there were some clues about one of the characters.  But all of the others?

Yes its true that they have a history of almost killing or even out right killing people off on that show.

I have the fist seven seasons on DVD.  And as a favorite I watch them often enough.  So I think I do know a thing or two about it.

But to risk most all of them?  And then make us wait until next September.  Four whole months of pure mind and heart investment being tortured.

Who will be left and how will the show change now?  Don’t they know not to mess with a junkies fix.  My NCIS fix has been messed with.  And I don’t like it.

If they change it too much for next year I’ll leave them cold.  I go there because they are light and funny without being dumb or goofy.  If it gets too serious for too long, I’m out of there.

I’ve had a hard life.  I don’t need it in my entertainment.

Please don’t screw with me NCIS writers.  You’ll only get so many chances and you’re looking like your getting pretty close to the edge with me.

On Jumping the Gun:

Its another Wednesday. Not the one I had in mind when I started back to blogging. I guess I jumped the gun on this wellness stuff. I had the flu and then a nasty sinus infection. But I’m trying to get back on the wellness wagon and stay there.

Sir Handsome is still a blur in picture and ever on the go.

The wisteria is starting to bloom and I just love it.

And Mountain Man is still playing with rocks.