The
Squamidian Report – July 28 / 12
Issue #531
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Its getting so hard for me to come up with anything of interest these days that I’m starting to think it might be time to call for a summer break. But, then I remember that ‘anything of interest’ is relative and decide to keep trying a bit longer. We shall see….
There was something that interested me this week, I had the house to myself for several hours last Tuesday. And we all know what that means, silence, quiet, no noise, no disruptions. So, I was able to lay down the vocal tracks for another (yes, don’t groan) song. I’ve been at a lose as to what to record next and some quiet time to myself gave me the opportunity to record ‘something’. I remembered watching a couple of old guys on that ‘Austin City Limits’ TV show doing a song I liked, written by Towns Van Zandt that has been sung by Emmylou Harris, as well as Willie Nelson. I pulled it up on YouTube in order to refresh my mind as to how it went, and then went to work arranging and recording it. You might remember hearing it, its called “Poncho and Lefty” and is about one old bandit shooting another old bandit down in Mexico and how the ‘Federales’ let him slip away.
The reason I needed the house to be quiet is because the vocal tracks are obviously recorded through a microphone and that mic will also pick up any and all noise in the house. And this house seems to have more than its fair share, fans running, dogs snoring, fridges running and on an on. I managed to get the lead track as well as two harmony tracks and an acoustic rhythm track down before I ran out of time. Next day I was able to lay in the lead guitar and base guitar. Both are done through pickups instead of mics and therefore background noise isn’t as much of a problem. I could also do the mixing without worrying too much about noise. What was a problem is the fact that it had been a while since I did those last recordings and I had to remember how to hook up the external sound card and mic pre-amp that is sitting here beside my computer. It even took me a few minutes to get back up to speed on my recording software. It all came back but I’m sure not as sharp as I once thought I was. Anyway, if you are interested in listening to my cover of this song, click the link and it should play on your computer. This song could end up being on my next CD, IF there will be a next CD but that would mean I’ve got to come up with another ten numbers so like I’ve said before, it could be quite a while before there IS a next CD.
http://www.thedougsite.net/Songs/Pancho%20and%20Lefty.mp3
Like I said, its been a pretty quiet news week around here. Oh there was also the bear that sauntered onto our driveway right behind us as we headed out for our morning walk on Friday. I turned around just in time to see him (or her, no way of knowing for sure) lumber across the street and onto the drive. He then checked out the neighbours yard and then headed back across the street.
Then there is the RCMP officer who hit and killed a motorcyclist a couple of years ago while off duty. He had left the scene, went home and drank some more to ‘cover up’ his drinking, now there was no way of proving he had been drunk when he killed the kid on the bike. There was hope that he would get at least a token sentence for the stuff that the cops could prove, assuming they even wanted to prove anything, like running a stop sign, leaving the scene of the crash etc, but then the defense lawyer pulled out his ace card, the ABORIGINAL angle. You see, this cop has some aboriginal blood in him and therefore is not to be judged the same as the rest of us. His sentencing was this week. He got 10 months house arrest. That’s it, that’s all a kids life is worth, that’s all drinking and leaving the crime scene is worth. These kind of things just keep happening over and over. No wonder we have zero respect for the justice system and the RCMP out here. They are beyond contempt.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello Everyone!
Well, we finally got some moisture from above to water our lawns and gardens but I’m afraid it’s too late to expect a recovery of our front lawn. The portion of the lawn that is shaded by our twin trunked Birch tree is relatively green but about a third of the lawn that’s exposed to the sun is brown and crispy! I doubt it’ll recover this year so we’ll have to wait and see if things improve and the brown section springs back to life for next spring and summer. We are thinking of expanding our front garden to encompass the “brown” section of the lawn and that would take care of worrying about it’s re-greening altogether. I’m sure if we leave it till next spring and just do our usual late summer/fall fertilizing the grass will be ok next spring so we’ve got a decision to make before the winter sets in or in the early spring of 2013.
Speaking of things growing, I took a rip up to the St Jacob’s Farmer’s Market this afternoon and picked up some beautiful field tomatoes. This time of year we love to eat toasted tomato sandwiches. Even though it was mid afternoon by the time I got home, we both figured it wouldn’t hurt to have a sample toasted tomato sandwich and we’d still be ok come supper time to eat a full meal. Well, one sandwich led to two and come suppertime neither of us felt like eating. We managed to hold off having anything for supper and when 7pm rolled around, those tomatoes were calling us once again so supper was also a couple more delicious tomato sandwiches. Easy to make and easy going down! It’s nice that Carole didn’t have to stand and cook a big meal for a change and clean up was a 5 minute job! MMMm mmm ….. I love those summer tomato crops! In fact, I love the trip up to the market as well! The fresh vegetables at the market can’t be beat! The one thing that is a tad disappointing is the fact that their beautiful strawberries are an imported product of California! I guess maybe it’s not the season to grow them up here yet but seeing that “Product of USA” on the sticker takes the wind out of my strawberry sails and I can’t bring myself to buy them or eat them when I read that! Other than that, the market is an amazing display of beautiful fruits and vegetables and it’s so much more appealing than the produce in the grocery stores. When I see the tomatoes in a store, it brings to mind a video I watched one time of a company blasting green tomatoes on a conveyor belt with Co2 to make them turn red so they can appeal to buyers in the grocery stores! It’s just too synthetic in my mind when they do that kind of thing. It’s like they’re artificial or grown in a lab or something and that turns me off! I like Ontario “field grown” fruits and veggies so unless the people selling all this beautiful stuff at the Farmer’s Market are a bunch of sneaks and liars about where their products come from, I’ll keep buying our produce up there, at least during the summer months!
Guess that’s it for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now … GREG
PS: Something To Think About>
When cannibals eat missionaries, they get a taste of religion!
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Have a good one..
the doug
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