What have I been up to? I promised my 4 year old granddaughter a swing set. So, this week she got it.
Now the important stuff. I’ve hardly played any this week. It is turning hot and humid again so I’m in doors the remaining afternoons this week picking.
Wow. I thought I was the only one to do this trick (working up to a faster speed & then slowing down to performance tempo). It does work!
My area of Oregon has been kinda in a drought. Our newly planted Christmas Trees began suffering. I along with my Wife and one neighbor took on the emergency task of saving them. Hand watered well over 19,000 trees in just under 5 days!
But in the meantime my focus has been on perfecting “Reuben”. Been playing it on YouTube along with Kristin Scott Benson . I’m so thrilled I can play her opening perfectly at 75% speed on the gear box! But not nearly as cleanly. 
Also since I’ve been in D tuning I always save time for my favorite Banjo Ben lesson. “Whiskey Before Breakfast”
I almost always do this accidentally, because I prefer to play most tunes fairly briskly and when I finally get around to using the backing tracks they seem slow
My ego loves this. 
Thanks Gunnar, and I never knew emperor Ashoka played fiddle… 
You’ll master it in no time!
Thanks @5-StringPilgrim! Yes, got to practice a bit more at even slower speed to get it clean to fall back to this speed. I thought tempo was like 65% but it appears close 80%. On re-reading, maybe version is not the appropriate term, I meant to say my recording or play, as it is Ben’s version and notes, but in my attempt to play Ben’s, I ended up with a slightly different sounding stuff/whatever if it did.
Thanks Dan & Butch as well.
Where in NY?
I was in Olean, NY. There was a ski spot near by in Elicottsville.
I’ve got shorts like that @butch. I call them my “bankin’ shorts.” I love the looks I get when I walk into the bank wearing them. Also great for running errands around town. When I get panhandled I ask them, “Do I look like I have money to give away?!” The looks I get are priceless. Of course, my shirt isn’t as nice as what you’ve got.
I started the day at sunrise on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, then explored the wilderness of Dan, then to Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13+), then to the forts atop Mt. Bental on the Syrian border. Awesome day!
Cool…know it well. I’m between Binghamton and Elmira, when I go up there.
OK I have traveled on the road quite a few times on trips to New Jersey. Nice scenic drive, hilly areas. Summer very nice, winter very cold.
Heck of a show right behind my house last night…upright bike engulfed in flames, held in the front of the truck…couple of “smaller” explosions…
Whoa! I’m glad to hear the biker lived!
Well, I was gonna record pike county breakdown tonight, but when I set my studio up, I couldn’t hear anything I recorded, almost at all, and I couldn’t figure it out, until I removed the mattresses from the walls (first time I’ve tried room dampers) and suddenly everything I recorded after that was audible! But it was too late already. I’ll try again tomorrow, lesson learned. Room damping can work too well
I was also. We watched the fire rescue guys work on him in the ditch for about 20 minutes until the ambulance came.
Hey Dave. I notice that you’re from Michigan. Linda, Meli and I have a farm near Owosso, MI. We’ll be moving back there from Waterloo, Iowa in the not too distant future. We need to get a band going, eh?
It would be nice to have someone to pick with regularly…hasn’t been the case or me much in the last ten years or so.
Now ice that cake with a break from Reno’s “Missile Ride.”
Well, my dad and I just had a bicycle wheelie contest, he beat me by about 7.5 feet. His best was 84 feet, and mine was either 76 or 77, we didn’t measure it immediately, so it’s a little bit of guesswork. Also, it’s not flat level smooth ground, it’s rough bumpy dirt. I’m kind of shocked he beat me, cuz I ride my bike everyday, he almost never rides, my bike is better than his, etc. But I guess it’s like riding a bicycle…
