been cold around here past few days

It's been way too cold here lately for me to ride the bicycle and play guitar. It's not good for the wood of the guitar when it's this cold, and not good for my fingers or hands either!

I charged the battery of my 1965 Ford Falcon Ranchero yesterday. Tomorrow I will get a couple gallons of gasoline into it and try to start the engine again. If it doesn't work, then I'll ask for help from people who know more about mechanics than I do.

A few days ago I recorded yet another version of my cover of the Beatles song Help! and posted it to my web site. I've been practicing this song literally thousands of times the past few years, and my playing is getting smoother and smoother. My latest insight about the song came about a week ago and involves the spiraling arpeggio riff played by George Harrison at the end of the intro, each chorus, and the outro.

There are many groups of three in this song, three evenly spaced bass notes between chord changes, three verses, etc. However, that spiraling arpeggio riff consists of sixteen evenly-spaced evenly-stressed notes. It is played by picking four strings of a hand position then moving that same hand position down three more times one fret at a time, in other words, four groups of four notes! Not only that, but that riff is played four times during the song. How much more "fourness" can you get? Well, okay, I see that a riff of four groups of four notes being played four times only references the number four three times! But then, that reinforces the "threeness" in this song.

Upgrades to my Schwinn in 2009

On October 6, 2009 my Schwinn ten-speed was greatly improved by the replacement of its steel wheels, handlebar and stem with aluminum parts. It is now a "Super Sportabout" (read that page for an explanation of that name).

The new wheels deserved their own page, as did the better handlebar. These and other changes this year are summarized on Upgrades to my Schwinn in 2009.

I am sad that my 1965 Ford Falcon Ranchero is still sitting out of commission in the driveway. It hasn't moved since the summer of 2007. The improvements to my bicycle are nice, but I can't ride it in wet or cold conditions (not good for the guitar, the bicycle or ME!). Even when the weather permits bicycle riding, I can't carry very many groceries on it, especially heavy things like kitty litter or pet food.

The new bass player Rocky and I haven't rehearsed as much the past couple weeks, but last night's session was quite good. He learned some more of my Evolution song, and I learned more of what he calls his "G Boogie" song. So far we have neither recorded together nor performed any live shows for the public, but some of my guitar playing the past couple weeks has been the best I have ever played.

What's going on

It's been more than a month since my last posting. In mid-April I received a series of emails from a bicycle enthusiast who offered more information about the history of Schwinn lightweight bicycles and suggestions for how to improve my ride. With his permission, I edited and posted his content on my web site. The new pages are

Schwinn lightweight bicycles history

Suggestions to upgrade my Schwinn Sportabout

My 1965 Ford Falcon Ranchero is still sitting in the driveway with a bent driveshaft as it has since the summer of 2007, but last month I got a replacement tailgate skin for it (not yet installed) and this month I got a spare hood. Both parts were very reasonably priced from a local man who had them left over from his own ranchero restoration project.

Namaste TBG