Stick With It!
I was working in the yard and listening to 24 Hour Jazz on my phone/headphones. This Ray Bryant song came up "Stick With It". It was true medicine for the pandemic soul. The song and especially the title was right on. Listen: https://youtu.be/k-PL6Xe8rxU
While we have all developed a pandemic routine by now, the August and September crises around the US and the planet certainly add to the angst, California wildfires, Hurricane Ida, , floods, before, during and after Ida ( all driven by climate change), Afghanistan withdrawal, Earthquakes in Haiti and elsewhere, political upheaval domestic and around the world, and the devastating effects of the Delta Covid variant. Geeze! Immigration crises in several countries, At no time in any history can I imagine a greater need for humanity to come together as one to solve the crises that is so prevalent in every single humans lives, yet here in the USA we are more divided than ever.
The perfect time to rely on our strengths and do our part to make our communities a contributing body to the pressing solutions of our cities, state, nation, and planet. No one person can even solve the pressing issues of a neighborhood, but one person can participate in positive solutions. Just being nice, considerate and compassionate for other will go a long way toward solutions for all of us.
Old School Philosophy but it still applies today, Stick with it! Don't give up and if you can't help just get out of the way of others.
Big D and I made this emoji, Move forward with love and compassion.
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| Shelby Ann Allman, who is the Volunteer Coordinator at the Center For Wooden Boats on Lake Union in Seattle, built her own vessel and entered the Salish 100. See https://nwmaritime.org/salish100/ |
2/3 of the way to Port Townsend, Lots of Rowing and some incredible sailing! Shelby is a true example of the Pacific Northwest women.
As most of the garden winds down in the Texas summer heat, the Okra is in its prime.
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| Pan full of okra, tomatoes, onions, and Jalapano's |
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| It has been a competition between us and the squirrels, I think they are winning this game. |
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| Preparing for a 70th celebration |
Liv, our almost 17 year old Granddaughter has excellent freehand.
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| Sporting Birthday gifts, Go Austin Verde FC! Sounders till we Die but we Love having a Home Team to support! See: https://youtu.be/y0bY01f149k |
Big D has mastered the Big Bubbles.
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| Another gift, a Crockett Student of mine reconnected, Chris was a Happy kid every day! He now has some incredible High Scholl aged children. |
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| Using up the last of the pallets. |
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| Two more tables, one for our patio and one for our nephew Josh! |
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| Wood projects are always welcome, Lucky to have just enough spare wood to make a new door for the right side. |
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| Nothing is better than Large Brush collection! It's almost Free! |
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| We have all seen the commercials, but the first time to actually see it being installed, our neighborhood is in the throws of remodels on every street. |
This machine takes that wide roll of tin and shpes it into exact lengths of Leaf Guard rain gutters.
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| During our daily walks around our neighborhood we noticed so many homes getting new roofs. We did have a March hail storm. |
So we called our insurance company and sure nuff' Hail damage. So the old homestead got a new hat.
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| Never looked this good! |
Big D and Clara raised a bunch of Monarchs so it was time for release, a Big Event!
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| So due to the music gods shining down on me yet another guitar was gifted an Ibanez hollow body on the left, my old 1970's J45 Gibson acoustic, and the main squeeze Marshall hollow body on loan from my son. |
For the last year and 9 months I have completed practice after practice on GuitarTricks.com. I have learned a few songs during the fundamental courses but the last 9 months have all been Blues study. I just wanted to learn a song so they just happened to have one of mu favorite blues artist songs, John Lee Hookers Boom Boom. So I took a couple of weeks to learn that one, It stretched my abilities a bit but it also made the more advanced sections of the blues course a little more doable. The real fun is beginning.
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| I needed a couple of pedals to complement the sounds I needed to achieve and thanks to my musician nephew Zack, he helped guide me to the right tools for the job. An Ibanez Tube Screamer on the right for the just right distortion and the Hall of Fame 2 Reverb mini on the left. These two mixed with my little Orange Crush 12 Watt Amp makes a pretty big sound possible. It will take some time to completely understand all the settings that are possible to achieve with this relatively small system. |
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| A September 2021 Austin Sunset |
