10 Days Left

10. The number of fingers on the normal pair of hands. That's how many days we have to tick off till we get rid of the nastiest President of the United States within anyone's living memory.

You could put up 10 pieces of toilet paper and it wouldn't stretch very far. That's a short amount.

10 days can be long, like if you're suffering severe pain that long. And I guess we are. But, like they say on Seinfeld, you're sleeping a third of it, today's about over with, and Obama will be inaugurated at noon. So it's practically over with, four days or so to go.

Even Cheney today (or yesterday) said he was excited to see Obama come into office.

The biggest downer is that we still have the obstructionist Republicans in Congress. Two or three of those monkeys can diminish a good thing fast. They're already cranked up to thwart Obama's desires for good government and economic progress. It's funny, they bent over backwards for Bush to perpetrate crime after crime, but they're already lockstep against Obama doing anything positive. Creeps.

Remember just a few years ago it was unpatriotic to even criticize the President. But how things change when it's someone from the opposite party!

Elmer Gantry

I saw a guy sitting in his vehicle reading an old copy of Elmer Gantry, the Dell cover with Burt Lancaster.

You don't see that everyday. This book in particular, and especially an old copy of it.

It made me think of the Kindle, whether 45 years you'll walk by and see someone still using a functional Kindle. I doubt it.

This happened in the Goodwill parking lot, so perhaps he just got done buying the book. They have some nice vintage books once in a while.

I Could Practically Fall Over

That's how tired I am. I need some way of winding myself back up, without having to sleep seven or eight hours. Because I can't lay down now. I have things to do.

Yesterday was a busy day, and I couldn't lay down. No napping allowed.

Feel Like A Nap

I'm both a little wired feeling and feeling like a nap. It wasn't a restful night's sleep last night for various reasons. One big reason is the dog was in my room, which she isn't usually. She has a nagging itch somewhere, plus long toenails on a hardwood floor can be noisy.

Plus I knew I had a lot of work to do today, and that getting up and getting to it was going to be important. Some of it requires well-timed bursts of creativity, which I usually manage but often times doubt in advance. When I got started it was no problem, next next next. Got numerous things done.

Now I have a meeting coming up, with certain unknown aspects, 45 minutes from now, and I'd rather doze off. But must not show up bleary-eyed! It's possible I'll take a nap afterward.

A Note From 30 Years Ago

At my mom's house there's a full attic. In the attic corners, there are little rooms behind them, with the walls built out. There is access to them only through a narrow, tiny little crawlspace that goes out at the sides of the house.

Twice in our lives, I and my brother, and the same day, we crawled through there and went into one of the little rooms. I remember it clearly but forgot how long ago it was. We left a note back there on the wall.

Today, in doing some work of insulation, workmen went through the wall. I had told my Mom of the note some time back and she asked them to look for it. They said they didn't see any note. But later she went up, and of course there was the note right there on the wall.

It was in February 1978, a long time back. She's very sentimental and appreciative of stuff like this, so she left the note, except to take a picture of it. I haven't seen the picture yet. And she left a note of her own!

Now That's What I Call Music

I'm on a never ending, slow motion quest to get all the "Now That's What I Call Music" CDs at Goodwill.

My insistence on CD condition changes day by day. Today I was very lenient and picked up a beat copy of 20 and a beat copy of 21. The other day I wasn't so lenient and missed getting one, I can't think of its number. It was beat. But you know, if you smear toothpaste on them you can get them to rip. I did it with a couple other CDs.

I just checked my shelf and it looks like I only have three others so far, but I thought I had more. 11, 13, 16. The big problem is I never remember which ones I have, and it seems like I had two copies of one once. Who knows?

I was a little more lenient with 20 and 21 because I was keeping track of current music when these songs were popular. I drift in and out, and right now I'm out of it, not interested in what's going on. So, the way it works is most of the others, 1 to probably 18, I wasn't tuned in. A very narrow window.

It's funny that these CDs tend to be beat up. You figure the main audience is under 17, they must use them to ice skate on. The weird thing is they manage to get them in the right CD case before they dump them off at Goodwill.

7,488 Guitar Chords

I bought a used book a few days ago with a very extraordinary title, 7,488 Guitar Chords. I have a guitar and know a few chords, let me think what:

A, A7, Am, B (not very well), Bb, B7, Bm (not very well), C, C7, D, D7, Dm, E, E7, Em, F, G, G7, Gm. Mostly those, though I have known others when I've needed them, then have promptly forgot them. So that's under 20. That leaves me 7,400 some to learn!

I can barely believe there are so many chords, but the author says, "The chord possibilities of the guitar are almost endless." The author's name was Jay Arnold. But when you actually look in the book, as an example, you see he has listed 28 ways to do the C chord. There's another 28 ways to play Cm.

Some of the chords look so hard I would need nine inch fingers to do, like some of the variations of the Eb thirteenth minor ninth diminished fifth chord. Just the name of it's a killer. It's on page 69 and maybe should be in an appendix by itself with a "Caution" sign next to it. One of the variations has the first finger on the sixth string (lowest E) at the fifth fret, the second and third finger as though playing an E chord starting at the sixth fret, then the fourth finger covering string one and two on the eighth fret. Tough looking

I'm getting to be an old dog who's finding it hard to learn new tricks. I bought the book more for reference and the ability to look up any weird chord I hear of than the desire to learn 7000 ways of doing eight chords. But it's a cool book to see.

Desert Island Discs

Whenever I listen to Electric Ladyland (Jimi Hendrix), I think of a time I was at a bookstore and was reading through a record collectors magazine. They had a feature called 'Desert Island Discs,' a title like that. And one of the guys said Electric Ladyland would be his number one pick.

It seems like a good choice to me, if worse came to worse and you were on an actual desert island with a limited number of albums. Which I hope doesn't happen. Because, really, listening to it over and over for however long I were to live wouldn't be that great.

Anyway, how am I to have electricity out there? I don't know anything about generating electricity. Or batteries. Even if you had a whole hut full of brand new batteries they don't last forever. You'd go to the hut for another set eight, ten years later and they'd be all corroded or otherwise non functional.

Danger

I'd like to say, "You're a dangerous person to be around." All in good fun, of course, but actually meaning it.

First Things First

There's always multiple ways of looking at things and putting your own spin on it.

We all want to be first. No standing in line. Pet me, stroke me, me me me, first. I want to be first.

But what if you're not satisfied, generally speaking. They say, "I addressed you first." And you can look at it from the negative angle. Yes, you addressed me first, in the same way that an appetizer is inferior to the main course.

You really can't win -- which is funny.