and, exactly as i suspected, there was absolutely NO free street parking anywhere close to fisher pavilion. I was able to secure parking next to the bagley-wright theatre, approximately 3 blocks away, because of my state-issued handicapped placard, but most of the other band members i talked to had to walk a half-mile or more from their free, street parking, or had to pay $30 to $40 for two hours of parking in a garage somewhere… i noticed the parking garage i used to park in (30 years ago, or so), two blocks from the fisher pavilion, which used to be $25 for all day, now has a sign that says “EVENT PARKING — $50” which is outrageous! 🤬 NOBODY should have to pay that much for parking! 😒
but the performance went really well, and we didn’t have the usual problems with the tempo slowing down (like we usually do), because, even though we played an almost entirely DIFFERENT set-list, we actually PLAYED YESTERDAY, which makes a whole bunch of difference. 😉👍👍
the sousa band had a performance, today, at the 100th anniversary celebration of the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe, which started and ended at sand point naval air station, now magnuson park. being held at what is now an official NOAA facility, they have a list of “officially prohibited items” which includes “All noisemakers” — which makes me wonder whether ANY of the band are going to be allowed on the property — but, because i am somewhat familiar with the location, i went up there on thursday, to scout out the best place to park, so that i could leave my vest full of “officially prohibited items” (😈) outside the purview of the people who would prohibit such things… and, in spite of the fact that the gates WEREN’T open on thursday it turns out that BOTH of the gates were open, this morning, so i was able to park where i thought i was going to be able to anyway… BUT…
😒
liz sent out an email after i left — ALMOST EXACTLY the same time that we were supposed to be ON THE STAGE — with “NOAA parking instructions!” which said that we actually COULD park in the “federal no parking zone” without having to worry about “officially prohibited items. 😒
so, in spite of the fact that i was able to park where i wanted to, i COULD HAVE parked A LOT closer, and i wouldn’t have had to worry about getting past the armed guard at the gate.
in the same way, the sousa band has a performance tomorrow at Festa Italiana, at the fisher pavilion at the seattle centergrounds… but, because of the fact that it’s happening on sunday, we have been encouraged to “park on the street, because street parking is free on sundays”…
i have been parking at the seattle center for a VERY LONG TIME, and i have NEVER found reliable street parking ANYWHERE CLOSE to the fisher pavilion, on a sunday. it JUST. DOESN’T. HAPPEN.
period.
MY PLAN is to get there around 10:00 and park at the parking lot at 3rd and harrison… but even then, 10:00 is well after the huge crowds of people usually arrive at the center, and, because of the fact that they’re not giving out parking passes this year, i’ll probably have to pay through the nose for 4 hours of parking.
today i got an email from valley medical center that said they had refunded a payment of $146.21…
they don’t tell me WHAT the payment was for, or WHY it was made in the first place, and the only way to ask questions about it is to login to my valley medical “MyChart”, type out the question(s) i have, and wait for up to 48 hours for a reply that is USUALLY an automated reply, prompting more questions than it does provide answers.
if they REFUNDED almost $150, they must have charged it for something, but going through my medical expenses for the past year doesn’t give me the first clue, which makes me wonder why it was paid in the first place? and, of course, the answer would be that if i did NOT pay it, they would have sent my account to collections because of non-payment. 😒
but, because i can “afford” it, i guess i should be happy that i am getting a refund, because if i wasn’t, it would already be paid and i would never know the difference.
moe ordered a flatpack headboard online. it was delivered in a big, heavy box, with “all*” the parts, tools, hardware, and instructions for putting it together.
the instructions included a list of parts and quantities. the LIST said that it contained two parts labeled “G”. in reality, there was only one part labeled “G” in the box, a fact that i discovered after having already assembled approximately half of the headboard… because… who EVER checks the quantity list to make sure ALL the parts are there, when assembling a flatpack ANYTHING??? 😒
moe wrote to the manufacturer, and arranged for a second part “G” to be shipped, which they said would take about a week.
two and a half weeks later, after we got used to having our bedroom taken over by a partially assembled headboard, we got ANOTHER big, heavy box, with an entirely new, complete, flatpack headboard…
the new box also contained only one part labeled “G”… 🤬
now, we are left with a new, assembled headboard, PLUS an entire flatpack headboard, MINUS two parts labeled “G”, which are integral to the assembly of the headboard. 🤦
this is another instance where the frank zappa song “Flakes” is VERY appropriate. 😒
*for extremely limited definitions of the word “all”. 😒
yeah, it hasn’t changed much, but motivation is a major obstacle with this project… i really didn’t want to start it, in spite of the fact that it needed to be done, and has for a very long time, now (upwards of two years)… the big problem is that what i REALLY need is a bigger mixer — which is the thing to the right of the computer monitor, on top of the stack of stereo components, in the white box, in the picture above. if i don’t get a new mixer, the next alternative is a specialised, custom-built patch bay, so that i can unplug and re-configure the studio without having to pull out the individual components, and root around behind them to re-configure everything. basically, the mixer is big enough to give me playing capability for my piano and synthesizer OR to give me recording capability for my record player and tape recorder… but not both. and to switch from recording to playing involves completely reconfiguring the mixer and the pre-amp (the bottom on the stack of stereo components, in the black box) before any actual “tinkering” can be done…
and, for that matter, i don’t even have that set up, because i have to decide where the speakers (currently on the right margin of the photo above, about in the middle) are going to go, and mount them, before i can even think about getting started with anything else, and, what with the aforementioned reconfiguring rigamarole, plus the fact that i haven’t actually produced any original music since about 2015, my motivation for setting up the stereo is minimal… at this point i’ve got the music player on my tablet talking to two battery-powered, bluetooth “speakers” (which double as “party lights”), and that’s about all i can get motivated to do.
and there are some things that i would swear i would have been able to put my hands on almost immediately, before i started this whole miasma, which are now nowhere to be found. they’re not REALLY important (my folder of music i wrote in high school, a couple of books (both found shortly after posting this), the box of CDs that i am selling, etc., etc.), but it’s really almost enough to make me wish i hadn’t started this reorganisation project to begin with. 😒
the thing about depression
well you just can’t let it get you down
you have to see the world for what it is
a circus full of freaks and clowns
and you’ll never please everybody
it’s a well established fact, he said
i recommend a fifth of jack and a bottle of prozac
this is the new office configuration. the “closet” is now a sitting desk, which (eventually) will have mostly things like the stereo amp, tape recorder, turntable, and mixer on it, with the first shelf for things like the printer. the sit/stand desk is in the standing configuration, now, but it won’t accept the old monitor riser that i used to use (it’s too thick, plus the glass surface wouldn’t hold up to the heavy duty clamp that secures it to the desk), and i’m not sure how to raise the monitor, because PHONE BOOKS DON’T EXIST ANY LONGER 😒 i’m thinking of re-purposing the two smaller shelves that are currently on the main part of the desk, putting them on the, wider, first shelf, and adding stuff that used to be on top of the bookcase (which is out of the shot, behind me)…
because, well, i read “Earth to Moon” recently, which is Moon Unit Zappa’s reminiscences of growing up with Frank Zappa as a father, and what i read gave me a whole new outlook on Frank: i still like his music, and i still think he was a musical genius, and he said a lot of things that i will still quote at the end of my emails, but (and i’m definitely going to sound like my parents, here) — DAMN!! — he was an AWFUL parent!! 🤬 and a questionable role model, at best… which means that the bookcase covers up a lot of space where my frank zappa posters were, and i’m not sure how (or if) i want to replace them.
but everything is not moved back in, yet, and i still don’t have a functioning stereo, and, in spite of the newly created shelf space, and newly created shelves in a couple of different places in the office, i’m STILL wondering where i’m going to put stuff.
i feel a lot better than i did a week ago, but it’s still not over, yet, and i’m getting really tired of it.
the time has definitely come to re-arrange my office to make the music gear more accessible, and to make the existing computer gear less of a tangle of wires in an almost inaccessible (except for the cat) part of my office.
what this entails, so far, is purchasing an actual desk — a sit/stand desk, no less, with a wireless/bluetooth charging area, and a built-in two port USB hub 😉
240907 – sit/stand desk at discount liquidation depot in north bend
plus clearing out the “closet” where my piano and synthesizer used to live, in preparation for transforming the “closet” into a “desk”, and re-designing the shelves, above, to make use of the entire 8-foot width, rather than the staggered 4-foot shelves that i cobbled together when we were moving in… which will also mean that i can get rid of the pile of 8′-to-10′ shelves that have been taking up floor space in the garage! 👍
ultimately, the plan is to have the sit/stand desk with my computer(s) on the wall opposite where i am sitting now, and my piano and synthesizer opposite that, with an 8-foot “desk-made-out-of-a-closet” bridging the gap. the bookcase where the desk is going to go, allegedly, will fit between the wall and the door when it is fully opened… and i’m not sure what’s going to happen with the snake or the storage under the snake… it’s possible that the storage under the snake could go under the desk, but that’s still up in the air, at this point…
HOWEVER…
we’re at that “middle” stage, where everything (well, ALMOST everything) is taken apart and chaotic, and we’re still on the uphill track of “taken-apart-and-chaotic-ness”, and i HATE that part…i guess, mostly, because i lack the ability to imagine what it will be like when it’s finished in a more-than-just-imagination type of way — i’m stuck in the middle of chaos, and it sucks! 😠
and it doesn’t help that, when i went to home depot to scout out countertop for the 8-foot desk, the only piece of countertop they had that was 8 feet long was about twice as wide as i need it to be, DESPITE THE FACT that THEIR WEB SITE, FOR THAT, SPECIFIC STORE said that there were a variety of width and colour options available, and in stock. 😒
