Learning Guitar

So, at the delicate age of 53, I undertook to learn guitar! Ha ha. Some might say that's absurd but a very talented and musical friend of mine told me once "well, you could wait and when you are 57, you could say - hmmm I'm 57 and still can't play guitar or you could start lessons now and when you are 57 you could say, hmmm I can now play guitar much better than I would be able to do if I had never started!" :O)

Well I decided she had the right advice and so I started when I was 53 and I suspect I will be learning for a life-time. I have the best teacher in the world; Kyunghwee. He is patient and kind even when I am having a particularly thick-headed evening. Some days it clicks with me and makes sense and other days it is like slogging through molasses. Still, in moments when I am working on my practice, I find it very consoling and peaceful (despite the difficulty sometimes) and I have my beautiful wife Sheila to thank for that. I doubt I will ever be a great guitarist or perhaps even a good one but I enjoy it for what it brings to me and that is a considerable amount of joy and peace.

I am working now on what is for me, a very difficult piece of music. It is called Etude No 1 by Heitor Villa-Lobos and it is beautiful. It is also quite difficult. Some of the chords are real stretches for me but more particularly there is a right hand part that when played properly, sounds like running water! If you want to hear it played in what is probably one of the best styles you could ever find, then just listen to this performance of the song by Mr. Christopher Parkening. He is without a doubt one of the most accomplished and able guitarists in the world. His abilities are certainly in the master-class and he has of course been playing most of his life. His performance of this piece is most beautiful and gives me something to aspire to though I doubt I will ever attain to this level of performance. Still, it gives me a great stre---tch goal! :O)


Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YdPvM_xZg4



I hope you enjoy his performance of the piece. If you want some amazing music to add to your collection, I strongly recommend you pick up his two-CD album set entitled "The Great Recordings". It is without a doubt some of the best guitar music you will ever hear.

I love sharing my love for guitar with others. I have been blessed with a good friend Gregg who seems to enjoy it as much as I do. It is great to be able to discuss all the in's and out's of learning to play with him.

So, I just wanted to say thank you to the people who brought this gift into my life. Thank you first to my beautiful wife Sheila who purchased my first electric guitar for me and provided me with lessons to truly get me immersed into guitar. I am very grateful for your gift and especially your love. Thank you next to Kyunghwee - my enthusiastic teacher; a fellow who not only is very personally talented with the guitar and has the patience of a saint (esp. with me!) but also has one of the most up-beat and positive attitudes toward life I have ever seen. Thanks too to Gregg for being my friend and for keeping me going, energizing me and participating in our shared love for the pursuit of such an incredible skill and gift.

Thanks be to God too (of course) for the gift of music. Music is surely one of the most restorative and healing of blessings for our souls and an incredible outlet for expressing the thoughts of our hearts!

Until next time, kind regards!
Jerry

Our Big Doofy Dog!

(photo courtesy of Joy's blog)

So, we now have this big doofy dog! His name is Kilo. I call him doofy because as Joy says, he's a "dog's dog". That means that unlike Joy's past hound, Lady, he is anything but refined. He is clumsy (because at 5 months he's still quite a baby), he is big (now 59 pounds) and he is in most all things ..... lovable! He's that kind of dog that even if you didn't like dogs and really didn't want one next to you, if Kilo presented his furry face to you, you would soon find yourself petting on him and telling him good doggy and other stuff he just hears as "blah blah blah...." but then he wags to show you that they are good "blahs".

He's having kind of a rough week this week. This was the week he went to the vet for the surgery that prevents little Kilo's in the future. I'm not sure he's very happy with us but we are just one day into recovery. He seems kinda tired and rung out but even feeling as bad as he is and loaded up on pain killers, he still managed to wag his big fluffy tail at me last night when I came home. I know he has to be feeling terrible because he didn't even lift his head off the floor. He just laid there flat on the floor (very similarly to how a bear rug lays on the floor - limp and with very little form) and looked up at me with his big sad eyes and then flipped his tail a couple of times to show me that his message was: "even though I feel terrible Dad, I want you to know that I like you and appreciate your taking time to bend down and talk to me and pet my big noggin!"

This might all seem rather sad because he is now stuck in the "cone of shame"
for ten days but it's all for his ultimate good and our peace of mind. The necessary surgery will calm him down a bit and keep him from asserting his doggy dominion over all of us so we can assert ours over him and make him the loving pet he is meant to be. So, it will work out fine in the long run. He just has to get through this period of healing.

He certainly has wormed his little way (little? did I just say little?) into our hearts! The first few weeks with our new pup were really tough ones as he attempted to assert his own will over ours.
Joy was magnificent in her animal behavior/training best role! This was the challenge she's been training for (whether she knew it or not LOL) for quite some time. She rose to the challenge and succeeded. He is the good dog today that he is, because of her tireless (and I do mean TIRELESS) efforts to make him so. It was a battle of wills and she has definitely won. He can now perform sit, stay, down, roll-over (somewhat), wait and several other cool things. Admittedly he does them in his own doofy (there's that word again) and "Kilo" way - but at least he does them and that's more than we thought we would ever be able to say when he was a puppy. In fact in those days, he would administer some pretty serious growls and bites to try to defy our collective authority.
So, he still gets in the "bitey-bug" mode (or "crazy-eyes" mode we call it) every now and then but it only lasts for a couple of rounds and he gives in when we tell him NO! (which is a good thing at nearly 60 pounds and a much bigger head and much larger teeth!). Now it just seems to be some goodhearted fun and games in which he seems to say "let me see if I can get away with this - you know, gotta test the bounds of my habitat!". The answer is always immediate NO! So, he settles down and looks at you in this really cute way (you really can't get mad) as if to say "I was only kidding anyway..."

He's a doll and he grows on us more every day. Joy has earned her stripes with this fellow but she has done a fine job and he's improving daily. I've seen quite a few hugs and kisses bestowed by her upon his big black mug so I suspect they have established a relationship that will last for some time now if God is willing. He certainly looks at her as his "momma". He follows her all over the house. He even cries when seperated from her (nothing too bad - just kind of a "where's my mommy?" kind of thing - remember he's still a pup - hard to believe when you look at him - but still true!).

So, he's turning out to be a very good (and big) dog. (That's our refrigerator beside him! LOL)
We don't know how much bigger he will get. I'm ok with his size now. To me he looks to be average Golden Retriever size but he could exceed that as time goes on. I guess he has another seven months in which to put on some additional dimensions. We'll see. On the one hand it is nice that when Sheila and Joy take him for walks, I probably don't have to worry about them too much as most people cross to the other side of the street when they see him coming! (LOL). Course I guess I can't blame them because he is LARGE and he does indeed walk somewhat like a lion - a feature for which the breed is known.
But if he keeps growing and if he lives up to the funny interpretation of his breed name (instead of Leonberger - the correct term - it's LeanOnBerger - cause they frequently lean on you!), then I may find him squashing my legs and feet at regular intervals with some considerable weight!

On we go.... more stories as they unfold.... or check out Joy's blog and her description of his first swimming adventure ....

Kind regards to all,
Jerry