The weekend Thread

[sunvalleylaw]

Wow Deeaa, that is some beautiful country. Looks very Pacific Northwest or British Columbia in some ways too.

[Monkus]

Amazing photos guys, we should start an annual FretEvent each time in another country !!! (or state)..

On Wednesday we had an evening of music at our church for the church's 138th anniversary. Lady and Cousin Monkuses did 'You've got a friend' the Carole King and James Taylor version, and a Blues version of 'Amazing Grace', that was really well received.



Cousin on the left and Lady on the right.




I'm the mic stand on the right. The 15 y.o kid was playing Air on a G String, the test piece which won him National second place this year.

[Bloozcat]

This weekend, like the last and every one for the next month and a half or so, will be UTTER CHAOS.....

Our house is being torn apart to facilitate "re-modeling". It started out as "kitchen re-model". Then it expanded to tile all throuout the house. Next, it was "dining room" re-model. And finally, "Livingroom/greatroom" re-model. And all of these "additions" came before the first of the work began.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to post an armed guard at the door to my music room....

[deeaa*]

Wow Deeaa, that is some beautiful country. Looks very Pacific Northwest or British Columbia in some ways too.

Yeah, I never been there but I understand it is much alike. I don't think the nature in Finland much differs from that of Canada. I understand the climate is warmer here than you'd expect by the longitude due to the Gulf stream (like now it's been a few weeks already around 30C and going on), but what I've seen it must be much alike in many ways.

[Brian Krashpad]

Great pics, thanks for the info Deeaa.

Good onya Monkus for the church work. Sunday we are doing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" with the congregation singing, and the band playing along with the pipe organ. I'ma play some power chords to it, haha!

[Brian Krashpad]

Amazing photos guys, we should start an annual FretEvent each time in another country !!! (or state)..

Another, small private website I post on is doing that next weekend. This will be their ninth get-together. In the past they've always been far away from me in Florida; a couple have been in Canada, a couple in Colorado, last year I think was up in Pennsylvania.

This year, however, the "Moestock" (named for the host of the first one, who has since passed away) is up in the hills north of Atlanta. Although that's a 6 or 7 hour drive from me, I figure it's now or never, so I'm going. I have "known" some of these guys for well over 5 years on the internet and I'll not only get to finally meet them, but hang out and just play music for 3+ days straight. Room and board and drinks are all included, and a stage and PA and backline are all provided, for under $250 USD! I'm bringing a buttload of my guitars-- the rule with their gatherings is that if you bring it, anyone can play it.

I'm really looking forward to next weekend! Of course, this weekend is watching the end of the World Cup, so hopefully that'll be fun too.

[Robert****]

I am in Crowsnest Pass right now, with the whole family. We are running the Sinister 7 relay, and both my wife, daughter and I are running. Check out www.sinister7.com for an idea... it's quite brutal but fun.
7 stages, 27 hours of grit, 146 km of exhilaration. I am starting in about an hour.

[sunvalleylaw]

Looks beautiful Robert! That country looks very similar to the country in the Sawtooth Mountains around these parts. I think we are in similar climates/zones, several hours north/south of each other.

[deeaa*]

That's something I never experienced...proper mountains. I'd love to spend some time in an area like that...I've been to the fjords of Norway, that's the closest to mountaineous terrain I've seen...it must be quite a sight to behold proper mountains 'furreal'. Still, some of those fjords did make me go like 'OMS do you see that ice waterfall' etc.

World's filled with such beautiful places...me, I'd rather want to see a mountaineous area like that than superb beaches in Thailand before I die. Beautiful and nice as it can be here in the summer it's definitely also 'small' with no 'grand' features of nature like mountains or canyons or whatever. Well it's one of the oldest landmasses around with no changes, formed gazillions of years ago and no fresh volcanic etc. activity...planed smooth by ice age and mountains gone a million years ago by erosion...no wonder there are no great changes in terrain here.

[Robert****]

Well, can you imagine - we won the relay! Over 650 runners were here, and the top 2 teams both took a wrong turn on my stage 4, and when I finished my leg, were in the lead. We then kept that lead all they way in! Quite amazing. Awards tomorrow morning!

[sunvalleylaw]

Congrats Robert! We have had a very mellow weekend so far. The kids had a swim meet yesterday, and today, we are waiting to see what the weather will let us do. Big thunderstorms last night. Spud and Ms. Spud stopped by to say "hi" yesterday as they road through on a central mountains tour. Here they are:

[bcdon***]

Well, can you imagine - we won the relay! Over 650 runners were here, and the top 2 teams both took a wrong turn on my stage 4, and when I finished my leg, were in the lead. We then kept that lead all they way in! Quite amazing. Awards tomorrow morning!

Awesome! That race looks like pure hell, just how long is it anyway? Congratulations!!

[omegadot]

Well, I work weekend watch, but for my upcoming sort of weekend I picked up ti tickets to see Authority Zero. A band I love seeing in bar settings.

[Spudman***]

What a cute couple!

Lots of dark thundering rain storms, gusty winds and sunshine. A perfect Idaho day.

We even stopped for some climbing along the way to let the storms pass.


The right side of this is a 200 foot straight drop to the river. Very scary!

[Brian Krashpad]

Congrats Robert!

Glad y'all got to meet up.

[Spudman***]

I am in Crowsnest Pass right now, with the whole family.

Ahhh, the Frank Slide. What a tragedy. I used to play Crow's Nest Pass with my band back around 1980. I loved the area. I hope your race went well.

[Spudman***]

I know it's Monday but my weekend isn't completely over yet.

Did a little motorcycle day trip with Mrs Spud in south eastern Idaho.

We started the day going through this geologic area.


Saw the only lighthouse I know of in Utah.


The ever popular Bear Lake



Beautiful day all the way but the clouds were pretty awesome too



30 miles from town we noticed more smoke than should be happening on a moderately windy day so we investigated. That's me in the center with the shovel. A teenage boy, around 16, was told by his father to burn the stuff in the pit today. Bad call for sure. He went back in the house after he started the burn and it got away while he was inside. He was oblivious to what was going on outside. The fire was almost to the barn just out of frame to the right. He probably would have gotten in big trouble if the barn would have caught fire.

When we showed up he stepped outside and this volunteer fire fighter showed up at the same time too. We got it taken care of pretty quickly. Their yard had dried up because the electricity was shut off to the well for some time so they haven't been watering.

[mainestratman]

Sorry I've been away.. things have been busy... a little TOO busy..

Okay.. turn back the time machine..

June 26th we played our first gig, a "BBQ and Blues" benefit for a local family, whose daughter was severely injured when a storm brought a powerline down on her.

July 1st, amid rain squalls, we played at the local Fair.. huge outdoor venue (with someone else's sound gear getting soaked)..

July 3rd, despite another band choosing to participate in their soundcheck during our show, we kicked off the town's "Midnight Madness" festivities. Oh, as for the rude band, I sauntered over to their setup during an extended solo and told them "Look.. we're playing for 20 more minutes then we're done. Please stop interrupting our show." Then I sauntered back to where we were set up. I love wireless!

The next day my bass player quit. So we're back to square one, but our resolve to make this project work has increased tenfold. The reception so far has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive, so we're REALLY happy with it.

Hope you are are well!

[Bloozcat]

Gotta get up early tomorrow morning, drive 1-1/2 hours north to Melbourne and pick out the actual two granite slabs from the pattern we chose.

A Marshall full stack is cheaper than this stuff...
And I'm talking a 1959 SLPX Vintage series 100 watt tube head with a 1960AX & 1960BX ext. cabs each with 4X12 GB12 Greenbacks