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Issue #1134
Including:

Russ

Nova Scotia Sus

The Ontarion

Doug

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From Russ

St. Valentine's Day

Tomorrow I'm going to visit her in a 'Long-term Care' facility in Walkerton. Last night I had a nightmare wherein she had passed away. She is my Valentine, and I've told her I loved her many times during our 14 year friendship.

I attended the 'viewing' and she was displayed in an open coffin. As I got very close to her face to tell her for the last time, that I loved her and will be her Valentine, her lips began to quiver!! As I quickly stepped away I heard her speak - I can't remember what she said as I was too shocked! Then all the other visitors in the viewing room began to laugh! They had set this up as a joke!! With a recording of her voice, and a vibrator under her chin it appeared "the dead were actually speaking to those of us who were close to her!!" SOME JOKE!!

The lady I dreamt about is just a kid (age 92) and still very much alive! When I see her tomorrow, I won't mention my nightmare. He mother placed her in this facility as it was the cheapest one she could find. Out of sight, out of mind......her mother never visits her, not even a phone call once-in-a-while. Very cruel! She was the one who thought-up the "joke"!! She is quite capable of this type of cruelty. Thank God it was just a nightmare!

Russ.

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From Nova Scotia Sus

Things are pretty snowy here. It just keeps blowing and snowing with a little sun peeking out now and then. This morning our road was plowed with only one lane open again. I don't really mind, I have lots of time off from work.

Tomorrow is my "Little brother's birthday. Zane will be turning 34! I met him through Big Brothers/Big Sisters 24 years ago. Where has the time gone?

He dropped in tonight for a visit as he always does 2 or 3 times a week just to chat. Tonight he got a call to help find a 67 year old man who is missing in Antigonish County. Zane belongs to Search and Rescue and gets these calls frequently. It will take him at least an hour to reach the search area and who knows how long it will take. The temperatures are dropping tonight to minus 9 or 10 degrees so it won't be easy. I am so proud of him and I worry too. Tomorrow I will hear about his experience. The other night he was called out to help shovel people's sidewalks for safety reasons.

Looking forward to spring!

Sus

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The Ontarion

Hello everyone

We’ve been making our pizzas on the Costco ready made crusts and they. Are ok but we had better.

I REMEMBER BACK WHEN. I WORKED AT PEPPIES PIZZA ON WATER ST BACK WHEN I WAS A TEENAGER, they make great pies but are quite expensive now! So, its more effective cost wise to make our own! We thought we’d try making our own dough but that’s a heck of a lot of work! Carole suggested we try buying the ready made dough balls from super centre so tonight I went there and bought two pizza dough balls and two packs of ready cut pepperoni slices! We’re going to give them a try tonight and see if they were the right choice! If not, we can always revert back to Costco ones!

Pizza these days are getting pretty costly but I guess if you want pizza you either pay the price or make your own! So, make our own it is!

I’ll let you know how they turn out!

Take care everyone and I’ll talk to you again next week!

I guess we can always go back to Peppies after more than 50 years!

LOL!

Greg

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From Me

How’s it going…..

It has been quite a while since I last posted one of my little bare bones music videos. There are reasons for that, one being that I didn’t have any songs ready to do. Another is that I didn’t have any opportunity to do one even if I did have a song ready to do. Of late, Sue has been spending a few hours on sunny afternoons out in the back yard and that has created a window of opportunity. I’ve been slowly working on a few new (to me) numbers but none are at the point where I can comfortably video myself playing them with the exception of one that I can almost get through without screwing up too much about once in every three or so attempts. So, to that end, I set up the iPad and the mixer etc and gave it a try while Sue was out mucking around in the flower beds. It seems to have worked after two clumsy starts that didn’t work out too well and had to be aborted. Its so nice to be able to simply hit ‘delete’ and start over again. But, I got it done for what its worth.

Most of you won’t be, but in case anyone is interested in how I video myself doing a song, well, I’ll tell you. I use my iPad. My phone would work too but the iPad is easier because its bigger and has my mixer software on it. I need a way of getting the audio and the video recorded so to that end I run the mic and the guitar into my mixer. Then, the resultant ‘mix’ needs to be fed to my iPad which is doing the visual recording via its on board camera. In other works, I’m making the video just like anyone else would when using an iPad or iPhone type device. But I’m not using the iPad’s on board mic, it is not designed for such a thing. The mixer is then piped into the port on the iPad through a gizmo that Ryan lent me quite a while ago, that way, the iPad receives the sound that goes with what the camera records. After that I must upload to my computer, trim the unwanted ends of the video and then convert the MOV file to an MP4 format. From there its a simple step to upload to my web site and share the link. Cool, eh?

Something interesting is the sound of the guitar strings. You may remember that a few weeks ago I wrote about trying different strings in hopes of reducing the overtones produced in my guitars. Well, I think the sound has improved somewhat with the strings I’m now using. The ones I’ve switched to are a none-phosphorus, coated bronze string and I do think the overtones are reduced as well as the guitar itself has a fuller, broader sound, more balanced. At least thats how it is sounding to me. Thats a good thing because for whatever reason, I’ve been having trouble staying enthused with playing this winter. Perhaps its just the weather or perhaps I’m just getting lazy, who knows, but I seem to be needing all the help I can get. Hopefully there will be a few more videos in the not too distant future as well as the audio recordings of these same songs now that Ryan has had a chance to set up the new version of Logic Pro that came with this computer. So, follow this link below to my video of the Ron Hines song, Sonny’s Dreams, should you be so inclined.

Sonny’s Dreams

the video

Doug

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Have a Good One
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