January 2020 Guitar Resurrection (and Year of the Rat)

January 2020 Guitar Resurrection (and Year of the Rat) 

49 + 1/12

We arrived back in Seattle on New Years Eve near midnight, it was a little bit rainy and so windy they had to cancel the New Years fireworks.  The next morning we woke to a beautiful sunny day as you can see from the reflection the Admiral captured from a puddle on the sidewalk.

Wow, is this how January will be?

While very nice for the natives, not so nice for the planet, it is not supposed to be sunny and this warm in the PNW winter. 

We were pleased to find that the trail had reopened after a long closure on the North end. 

Expedia moved their headquarters to this corner of Seattle, along with construction of two huge office buildings they upgraded this end of the hike and bike trail. 

Those that use the trail will certainly enjoy the upgrade.

One of the Expedia buildings is still under construction but the other one is already filling up with employees.

You can see the completed building in the background.

They planted these trees about a year or so ago, they are beginning to make their contribution to the trail

Free Thursday at the SAM. We have been several times since we can just walk downtown and see what's on exhibit. You never stop at every piece, there are to many but after several repeated visits you begin to notice things that you previously just walked by. 

It is Fun to see an artist that you have seen in other museums far away, We recently saw another Jason Plollock in a New York Museum

There were a whole series of these photos lining the wall, it defined a time and a culture that has morphed into new forms but the genes still exist today.

So Fitting for 2020!
What will the Year of the Rat mean for your year?

OH NO! please not another SNOWMEGEDDON

The Forecast were sort of all over the place. Due to last years experience no one wanted to get caught short handed, there was a major run on all the hardware and grocery stores just in case everyone was confined to their homes for several days or even weeks like last year.
Fortunately it was just a four day event that never isolated anyone for more than a day.

I like to get the most from our anodes, this one could have stayed in the heat exchanger for another month, but now I know that I only have to change it out every 6 months

We found 1 day to sneak the boat out on the Sound and at least run the engine, Diesels do not like to sit idle, So a quick run North and then back to the marina

This is a typical January Sunset, You get a sun break in between the storm systems. You can literally see one system leaving and the next one coming in from over the Olympics. 

Here is a list of Lanforms of the Olympic Mountain range:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Landforms_of_Olympic_National_Park

One day when I have some time I am going to go through the list and try to determine the name of the Dome shaped land form you see in the center of this picture. 

January would see the most precipitation in recorded History including the first half of February, but the temps were very moderate. This is the first winter since we have been here that I did not buy a new pair of heavy wool socks. They were just to warm to wear!
The warm rains flow all the way up from Hawaii in what they call an atmospheric river. These are nicknamed the Pineapple express since they  originate near Hawaii. 

The Crazy thing about this years event is the amount of water falling over the Pacific Northwest has been equated to the same amount of water that enters the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River!!! As the air temperature aloft rises, the air can hold increasing amounts of moisture, hence the record floods, snowfall  and other crazy weather events planet Earth is experiencing.
So it is not hard to expect that as long as the temperatures are rising we will see ever increasing related weather disaster events. Hint: if you live in a low lying area you might want to move to higher ground tomorrow.

I have kept these songbooks since the 70's. At one time I tought I might want to be a High School Band teacher and I spent about two years in the UT school of music before I changed directions. Guitar was a Hobby. Family, Teaching, and Soccer took all the time and these books just sat in the Piano Bench. I kept these books thinking one day I may just restart my guitar hobby.

So in December I was explaining to my son Graeme my plans to buy a electric guitar and showed him some of the ones I was considering. He Said Why do you want to do that? Then he brought out this Washburn you see pictured here. Wow that is exactly the body type of guitar I was interested in, THANK YOU GRAEME! So I brought it home on the plane and have been Resurrecting my skills ever since. My nephew Zack suggested the Orange Crush Amplifier which has been a perfect fit, 

After working through parts of my old song books I realized I would need more help to restart. After a through Google search I found GuitarTricks.com. Everything right there on an iPad. I use bluetooth  headphones to hear the instructor and the Jam tracks from the iPad and then Graeme also gave me a mini headphone guitar amp that I can plug the headphones in to hear what I am playing without disturbing anyone else. GuitarTricks is great since after practicing and learning the lesson you can then play along with a bass guitar, drums and a singer on the backing track AKA Jam tracks. I never had this advantage before the computer age. If you had a live person providing the lesson you might have them to play along a rhythm or lead but you never had a singer and full band to play along with for practice. I really love that part as you virtually become a band member and thereby have to stay in time and perfect the practice. 

When Big D heard I had a Guitar then....

And you CAN't stop Clara at all. 

Ain't Jimi Yet!