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What I haven't mentioned yet is the other big change in my life. That's a career change. The company that I've worked for the last 7 years has had less and less work for me. And the last job I did for them had 137 stair steps from the street to the job site. And there was rarely parking anywhere near the stairs leading to the job. On top of that, the homeowners insisted that we load our tools up daily, because they were afraid the tools would cause a break-in, which they were worried would lead to vandalism. So I was lugging many, many tools up and down those miserable stairs every day. Some tools quite large and heavy. I was having dizzy spells that I assumed at the time was related to the ascending climb as well as my ascending age. I've since discovered that my Hypertension meds needed to be adjusted, and I'm feeling better now. However, I've decided to try a career change. This old dog is trying to learn a new trick. I turned in my Resume to the local Fairfax Lumber store about a month ago, and was surprised when the cashier rushed myself and my resume back to the President of the company immediately. As it happened, they were looking for a new hand at the lumber desk. They needed someone to revive the tanking contractor sales. The President got a bit excited as he read my resume, then offered me the job on the spot. I accepted. I started a few days later, but on my first real day of work, I started having really bad dizzy spells after simply stocking shelves. I thought I was going to pass out, and my vision was getting blurry as well. It shook me up, and I had to tell the President that I couldn't complete the day. The good news was that the next day I went to see my Doctor, at the insistence of Al and Dorothy, for which I'm very grateful. The Dr. was pretty sure immediately that the issue was low blood pressure. That was caused by the 3 meds I was taking for Hypertension working too well. Partly due to an over 20 lb. recent weight loss. Anyway it was a relatively easy fix, except she told me that I needed to be as inactive as possible for two weeks while the deletion of one of the meds cleared my system. Not the best timing, with a brand new job and a big move happening. But I'm the guy that has the most incredible friends imaginable! Al, Dorothy, Dorothy's friend Gavin and Dorothy's Mom Rini moved my entire apartment to my new place. Cleaned my old apartment (no small feat), and insisted that I chill and do as little as possible. I can tend to freak out a bit when things come at me hard. Al has this incredible way of calming me down and making me see what's possible, instead of what's impossible. And I don't usually make that easy! After my session with Dr. Al, I went and talked to the President of Fairfax Lumber, explained my medical situation and the two weeks off that I needed. He agreed to give me that time and a bit more to complete the move. I just completed my first week on the job yesterday. It's going great! My experience as a carpenter is definitely crossing over. I've been able to solve customer's project questions, am learning my way around the myriad of goods that we sell and above all the boss is impressed. At closing yesterday he pulled me aside and told me how happy he was that my health issue has improved, and how happy he is with my knowledge and customer service. The last guy they hired in my position was there only a few weeks, then died of a heart attack. So I understand his relief. Well it seems I've created another marathon post, but just wanted to fill you in and express my gratitude for friendships I clearly don't deserve, but will do my utmost to repay!

Thanks! It's a bit strange, because I'm used to being the guy that's 100% confident in his abilities on the job. But it's good to shake things up now and then. Also, there's a local carpenter named Jack that has done lots of work on Al's Fairfax house. In 2013 I worked with him on a bathroom remodel above the garage (Frank's old place). And he also saw me building some stuff for Al and Claire. Well on Friday he came into Fairfax Lumber, saw me working there and inquired about that. Augie (the president) started to introduce him to me, and Jack told him that we had worked together several years back. He also said that I could build anything and that I was the best carpenter he'd ever worked with. Not only did that make me feel great, it seemed to impress the boss even more. There's a guy who rents space from Fairfax Lumber who builds furniture on site. His name is Dean. Dean was also standing there, and told Augie to be careful or he'd steal me away from him. Just nice to be recognized for something I put decades of passion into.

Beautiful day. I've had my best times in the toughest sections and I have stayed right behind the car that opens the race all the time even in the toughest stages...so I'm happy. This year has been a real piece of shit

Saw a few lights….🙂

Job done. Great day, some hurtful winds but survived.

Just got home from work. I've got pasta cooking on the stove and Aretha cookin' on the stereo. Life's good!

In Vik, Iceland. Stopped at Black Crust Pizza and had….Black Crust Pizza! It’s not burnt….that’s the color and it was decent tasting. Karen agreed it was very good, but not NY (or CT?) good. Glad we went

Sincere thanks again to everyone was able to offer support this year. Between you, family, and some other friends I successfully exceeded my fundraising goal again this year. I’m headed up to Vermont now and the ride is tomorrow. I’ll post some pictures at some point, but the weather is looking good and everyone is healthy so here’s hoping for a grade ride.

Sorry but i have weakness for the Western Electric horns

Got my latest COVID booster (Pfizer) today. With Karen in treatments and us doing some travelling soon we wanted to be caught up. We got the latest version, didn't think it was coming out until later September or October; so feel good about that.

I had some things to drop off at Goodwill, so I perused the $1.99 CD shelf...

I got the team hat logo designed and two prototypes of the hats made the other night. Pretty pleased with the results from the little laser. Maybe there will be d-_-b hats in the future.

Realizing a fire pit can be fun.. ❤️‍🔥

Got to work to hear that the employee toilet was leaking. It's a hardware store, but nobody seemed to know what to do. I grabbed a wax ring, wrench and caulk. Had it fixed in about an hour. Was offered 2 hours off at the end of my shift. Seems fair to me. Paid of course.

Our Labor Day weekend plans are pretty chill this year, but did make it to the Stanford Cantor Museum today, screwing around with the new/old Canon 6D Classic and seeing among other things @Voltrons long lost Serra.

No more Olympics to watch so back to snake catching. The best I can tell it is just under a meter in length. I will take him for a one-way canyon ride tomorrow and toss him into the bush.

So I finally received my 5m RCA cable so I got the KEF subwoofer hooked up to the LSX ii's It took a bit of moving stuff around as well as doing other shit like updating software on my two NAS. But this seems like a good initial location. I will definitely be moving it around over the next few weeks. I am also very much more impressed with the KEF Connect app. It made setting up the sub very good and provided initial crossover points and the crossover curve. All it required was the name of the specific KEF sub I was using. It does allow for changing all of those which I may end up doing later. Definitely makes the miniDSP less important at this point. The only thing I do not have is the measurement ability in my specific room. I guess I will use my ears for tweaking for a bit. EDIT: Actually the hardest part of the setup was finding a place to store the shipping box.

Prototype complete.

I've been lurking in /r/largeformat again. As I've mentioned, that subreddit has cured me (mostly) of ever wanting to buy a view camera. The time, money and effort most of the users put into what are frankly mediocre to bad results is staggering. The other side of this coin is that the photographers who are good with large format are really good at what they do. The larger the format, the bigger the delta. Most of the following are 4x5 Some are scanned negatives, others are contact prints. Most people don't seem to bother with enlargers anymore. Bork. An accident, but an interesting one. Potential album cover right there.

Snow in Tahoe this early in the year? In this economy!? I haven’t been up here in a while but it sure is nice.

A bowl of tonkatsu from one of my favorite ramen joints here, Tamashi... HS

Ready for this weekend!!!!

The better half wanted fish and why would I get in the way? Redfish on the half shell. My favorite fish dish in town is this one…. HS

Got to see (again) my favorite band, The Chameleons. My son joined me for this one. Two of the original members, plus an extremely talented 3 other musicians. This was the best I think I've seen them since the full group reunion in 2000/2001. Just an amazing show, my son agreed. They had incorporated some keyboards into some of their music, and usually didn't tour with a keyboard player. This time they did, and it added a great extra layer of sound/ambience to many of the songs. Interesting tidbit more for local music fans: the second opener was a band called Lovina Falls. The singer was the lead singer of a 90's dream-pop type band in Boston called Mistle Thrush; I have a couple of their CD's. I was today years old when I found out the current Chameleons drummer was the drummer for Mistle Thrush! Spoke to the lead singer about it after the show, she couldn't stop praising him; and was so happy to open for the Chameleons - she's apparently a good fan. Lovina Falls and Chameleons

there was a lime in the marinade to prevent scurvy...

I’m sure just like all of you, yogurt.

I had the pleasure of driving this little gem in Colorado earlier this week. What a treat! HS

Hydrating.

As it’s not on any U.S. streaming services… https://archive.org/details/ry-cooder-1985-paris-texas-motion-picture-soundtrack/RyCooder.1985.Paris%2CTexasMotionPictureSoundtrack.01.Paris%2CTexas.mp3

Two bans that had a big impact on me when I wasn't even a snotty teenager yet: Propaganda: And Daryl Hall # John Oates: Don't laugh at me 🤣 butI remember watching this video over and over again, I thought Daryl in that leopard skin suit was super cool... (yes, I also freaked out about Sonny Crockett and Miami Vice)

Emmet Cohen - Vibe Provider Great straight ahead jazz. This guy is so good that even my wife says so Available almost anywhere and Qobuz too.

Dinner out in Maine with Karen and her sister Jill. We had a nice outside spot that looked out over a water inlet in Kennebunkport (a beautiful coastal and tourist town; the Bush family has an estate there)....

The meats

Some Kumamoto and Pacific

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Wild God. Jury still out after one listen through, but it's certainly got that majesty that he's delivered before. A little more positive vibes as well. Will need some more plays to see how it catches on, but I'd say very good so far.

Clam chowder and crab sandwich From Together with halibut fish and chips (and not shown, garlic bread) From In Bodega Bay, where the weather is ... so the obvious solution is, (A nice cup of) tea and a slice (of lemon berry cake)

Not to disparage your other friends and family, but I noticed that all but one name on the donor list is a HC member. Plus beelee. 😎 #NFLO

Blackstar by David Bowie (2016) https://album.link/i/1676286487 Example: It was so easy to overlook that this was the legendary Bowie, in his late 60's, dying of cancer. I got lost very quickly in it just being a really good album. Thanks David.

Minnesota hot dish -- taco casserole, specifically -- to honor the nomination of Tim Walz tonight.

That one hits close to home. ☹️ Greg Kihn was a fixture in the Bay Area club scene and then Rock Kihn Roll came out and MTV played Jeopardy on rotation and he was a brief national celebrity. I mean, when Weird Al parodies your song, you know you've made it! RIP to a Bay Area legend.

pretty close to production now.

One of my coworkers brought in some heirloom tomatoes to share, so pasta was on the dinner menu.

Bill Evans Trio, at Ilkka Kuusisto's home, Lauttasaari, Helsinki, Finland, October 1970 (colorized)

And I'm auditioning this with...

A practice session for a gig I've got coming up in 5 days. I drove it a bit too hard and it gets muddy at times, but you get the point.

Al's Sister Rini gave me a gift card to a cool record shop in Petaluma for my Birthday, back in February. Today Maki and I took the scenic back road and I decided on some used CDs to maximize my yield. I was excited to find that Nitty Gritty Dirt Band CD.