The Adventures of an Intrepid Guitar Student

July 30^th - In the midst of unprecedented straining of my guitar strings, I was interrupted by my beautiful wife who wanted me to bring a box in from the garage and then peel a pot of potatoes. No problem; 10 – 15 minutes and I’ll be back to my stringed rhapsody; or not!

I picked up some garbage on the way to the garage and dropped it into one of the two garbage cans beside the garage. Then I noticed that the cans were almost half full of water from the heavy rain showers over the past few days. Obviously, I had to dump them out. Along with the water came stuff that had been sitting in the water for days, including a bag of dog droppings; all landing on the alley.

Unfortunately, there was a hole in the bag that allowed lots of water to seep in. I had forgotten about the dog poop, and so picked up the bag to throw it back in the can when liquid manure began pouring out all over the alley. I quickly put it down and found another bag to put it in before sealing it and depositing it back in the can.

Fortunately, the other can was empty except for the water, so I used it for washing the poop down the alley to the storm sewer. I washed my hands and took the box into the house then went upstairs to peel potatoes.

However, Pat had noticed something had leaked out of the garbage bag by the sink and spread a sticky mess over the floor. I quickly looked for another garbage bag under the sink to put the first one into but couldn’t find one. In process of looking, I knocked over a full bottle of dish-washer liquid and cracked the bottle which proceeded to leak all over the floor.

“Great” I thought, “it’s just what I need to help clean up the sticky stuff.” (Note: this is absurdly positive for the glass half empty kind of guy.) So I cleaned up both messes together, found another bag to put the leaky garbage in and finally went to the fridge to get the potatoes out. However, when I pulled out the crisper I smelled and saw something that shouldn’t be there; another sticky mess. On Pat’s advice I sprayed it with a cleanser, left it while I peeled potatoes, then cleaned it out.

More than an hour, and several hand-washings later, I finally got back to my guitar practice. Just another day in the life of the intrepid guitar student.

July 28th - The intrepid (and somewhat beleaguered) guitar student on the back deck braving mosquitoes. Is it just me, or do the neighbours really wait for me to start practicing before starting their lawn mowers?



July 25th - The intrepid guitar student on a very blustery back deck. But I'm used to blustery; I have been married for 32 years.