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05/21/2005: "Lazy, hazy days of summer"

I know it isn't technically summer yet, but I it sure feels like it. We've had sun through most of April and into May so far (at least by Juneau standards). I've been spending my free time planting flowers in my yard, sailing, and sitting on my porch practicing guitar and sippin ice tea. I'm reading "Guitar for Dummies" and I really recommend it for people who want to learn guitar, or for people like me who already know how to play but never took lessons.

I have learned so many interesting things from this book. For example, my finger position on two of the most used chords, has been off and by using the correct finger positions, I can make transitions to other chords 100 times faster.

Another interesting tid bit I learned is called the Oldies Progression, either C-Am-F-G or G-Em-C-D, depending on your vocal range...but I'm not kidding, if you just keep playing those 4 chords in that order you can play a ton of different oldies, like Blue Moon, Duke of Earl, Earth Angle, etc. I'm also learning about playing in the open position, and how to play fingerstyle as opposed to just strumming chords. It's a lot of fun...

But I'll tell you what I'm *not* doing...I'm not painting at all. I haven't for, close to 2 weeks now. I've been doing other creative stuff, web and graphic design mostly, but it's not the same. I'm having ideas, looking at a lot of other people's art, taking notes, letting things sort of gestate and trying not to fret about it (no pun intended).

I had a bit of a health scare recently. Nothing I want to go into, but it was very scary there for almost a month and I just got the "all clear" on Thursday, (not dying after all, perfectly healthy...just like my teeth)...but I did a lot of soul searching when I thought otherwise and what I've come to is this: I'm going to try and not get stressed out about how often and how much art I'm producing...and everything I do is going to be based soley on what I enjoy, what makes me happy...not what I think will be seen as important by some phantom "art world" if that means giving up my art business, well that is something I'm considering doing. I'm putting an awful lot of time and energy into the business end of things and not enough into producing good work. I'll get back to that later though, right now I'm late for sailing. Sat. morning is bouy racing day...even though it is a bit rainy and overcast at the moment, the wind in the channel looks perfect.

LATER THAT DAY: Update

Just got back from the bouy racing and it was tons of fun. There were 7 of us out on the water at one point, all different sized sailboats. The wind was excellent, after sailing for awhile though my friend Jen and I decided to stop as there was mist, rain, and white caps. It was good sailing but I was afraid if the seas got any bigger we might get into trouble, especially since Jen and I haven't sailed much together. Below are some pictures I took of the other boats from the comfort of the Hangar on the Warf where we went for beers and blackened salmon afterwards. The wind died down significantly right after we pulled back into the harbor.

:(

The big colorful sails are called spinnakers. I don't have one, but I really *want* one. Right now I have the highest rated boat in the fleet (meaning the biggest handicap) but a spinnaker would change that.