Greetings, whoever-reads-this! Today's cover pic is of a painting that now resides in my upstairs bathroom. A guy I used to work with, back in the days of daygig, dropped this off. Just out of the blue, there was a knock on the door, and there was my old buddy from IDES days, bearing this gift.
I worked for the Illinois Department of Employment Security from April 16th,1991, to June 30th of 2013. The unemployment office, at least for most of my tenure with State of Illinois. A big, noisy room full of people. The agency kept closing offices, due to budget constraints, which meant we'd absorb another community, another population of claimants. Plus we kept losing staff ourselves. It was a sinking ship.
My official retirement date was actually supposed to be September of the following year, but I'd had enough. All those things, plus the cumulative effect of all those years in a big noisy room, finally got to me. I finally had that Special Day, where, like Popeye the Sailor, I'd had all I could stands and couldn't stands no more.
But there was a pretty good camaraderie among us worker bees. We needed it! Amid all the shit(which just kept getting piled higher and deeper toward the end),there are a few folks in there whom I think helped me get through some of those years, the bearer of this painting being one of them.
It took a minute to find a wall with enough space to accommodate it, but ended up as a place of honor in my upstairs bathroom. I don't have all that many visitors here, and when I do, they usually use the downstairs john. So it will likely remain something for my eyes only---well, and that of my two cats. I'm sure they'll notice the bright colors, plus whatever it is that cats see. They seem to have their own apparitions, phenomena visible only to felines..
Music news. A gig coming up in a couple weeks. November 5th, at The Pharmacy, downtown Springfield. Looking forward to it. And looking forward to seeing a couple familiar faces. Guitar, bass and vibraphone. 2 sets. Details here on the site, under Shows. Been awhile since I've had something to put up. Boone's should be coming around again, as far as my place in the rotation. Those I usually book for the Spring, if I can. I try and avoid Winter altogether, if possible.
I'm still playing most every day here in the Music Laboratory. Working on some picking exercises I got from a guitarist named Jens Larsen, who has a site on YouTube. They're arpeggios, and have some different melodic shapes to work with. Picking across on the guitar has always been like Castor Oil. Any way to make it easier. So I'm working on it. I want to play more arpeggiated things, like I hear from Jonathan Kriesberg and Adam Rogers, among others.
My YouTube page is still alive and well, with a whopping 350 subscribers. Still trying to keep it well-stocked, with a post every couple days. And with that, I should probably ring off here. Thanks as ever for stopping in and wading through all this verbiage. Happy Saturday to you! Ich bin outa here. More later.
