Absolutely No Pictures

So, I retired the beginning of January and have spent the last two months re-landscaping 6000 square feet of sod in my front and back yards, (8 tons of sod) -pictures to come- I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The grass is gone, we have ground cover out of great wood chips and pine hay, my buddy provided and some rubber fake chips for dramatic effect. We're almost ready to submit the results to the DWP program. I had thought afterward to pour concrete over half of my back yard to create one of these rich man's patios, but am beginning to change my mind. (Maybe I'm tired) I want to create drama out of the space- I am a painter after all. I told my wife that we had to create the structure of the painting first, the over all planes of color, then began to orchestrate it with plants etc. What if we only did cement in the dramatic structural areas I dreamed of- I have a notion of a great catty-cornered place with a flying shade structure over a four post frame with the cement only there and leave the rest as organic ground cover. Ah, creation, design, what else is there in life? (I've lost ten pounds, and I'm in best shape I've been in, in a while. What a great way to transition to retirement- get rid of all your guilt in three months.)

Thousand Oaks

The last of the paying gigs at The Oaks in Thousand Oaks tonight. They are discontinuing the series. I told them to keep me in mind. I let it all hang out there, and its being Valentine's Day, they paid me extra, and I guess I sang things that touched people. One guy wants me to record with his group, had my picture taken 5-6 times- I can't remember. One kid recorded a whole number on his phone. The tips were incredible. There were people sitting just to listen to me and the applause was also something else. A young teenage girl came over to ask me to play some happy songs, which I did- I do have happy songs, but then did my saddest ones to make up for it later.

What's Coming Up

Upcoming Places

Where I'll Be

Where I'll be

What to do?

So I have a friend, actually an old banjo teacher, that is really a good guy. The only reason I left to look elsewhere for lessons was because I didn't want to do tab. And he couldn't teach me to read music. He really is a gifted banjo player. So, every day I visit Craig's List for musicians ads. Mostly its all crap, but occasionally there's real cool stuff. I got my first big time pay to play at The House of Blues, I played at the Viper Room through Craig's list, found some other occasional gigs there, met my banjo friend from Maryland there. Got a part in an upcoming Documentary there. So there's this picture, accompanying an ad that has been on there for about a month. Banjo player auditions for a national touring band looking for a new banjo player. Contact so and so. I look because I play a banjo and there are very few specific ads for the banjo on there. Its way out of my league. I'm not ready at all to play that this level. Then my friend I mentioned above changes his Facebook page to include the same picture, of his national touring band playing the same venue back east. Does he know? Should I tell him? My buddy the drummer says send him an email asking him. My wife says no, don't say anything. What to do?