Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[Relsom]

I officially entered a new era of GOF'dom yesterday with my 60th anniversary around the sun. I do not know how this happened. By all rights, a reckless child like me should have shuffled off this mortal coil long ago. Yet, I am still here.

I do not like that I am growing old and have always said that I'll go down kicking and screaming. This appears to be true. But I do like that I can challenge everything people think they know about aging by dressing funny, wearing my hair in blue pigtails, and generally behaving as age-inappropriately as I want to.

Not sure how many more trips around the sun I'll get, so I might as well yuck it up for maximum effect while I still can.

And now, in other GOF news, I have the need to lose 20 lbs and, apparently, get GERD under control again. So diet is going to be a thing now. Been waking up in the middle of the night choking, with a killer sore throat, and finally realized that it's most likely acid reflux giving me a whole new set of symptoms. I was diagnosed a few years ago with something called Barrett's esophagus, a nasty little pre-cancerous thing that happens due to GERD and was taking medications for that which were later found to increase the odds of dementia. Since dementia is in my immediate family, I stopped that medication once I learned that my pre-cancerous condition had cleared up, but it looks like I'm going to have to start that again, if I want to sleep and breathe at the same time .

Getting old is not for wimps. I choose my battles carefully, but I know that, in the end, it's a war that won't be won.

Happy belated birthday LBS-bass. I share your concerns about dementia after taking omeprazole for a couple of years to control GERD, reflux, whatever. I switched to Pepcid Complete(famotidine) on my GP's recommendation though my digestion doc now claims concerns over liver damage and dementia from omeprazole are massively overblown and that I should switch back.
My reflux seems to have started as I began taking daily meds for COPD, though I admit that I can't stay away from spicy foods. Gotta draw the line somewhere.

 

[LBS-bass]

Happy belated birthday LBS-bass. I share your concerns about dementia after taking omeprazole for a couple of years to control GERD, reflux, whatever. I switched to Pepcid Complete(famotidine) on my GP's recommendation though my digestion doc now claims concerns over liver damage and dementia from omeprazole are massively overblown and that I should switch back.
My reflux seems to have started as I began taking daily meds for COPD, though I admit that I can't stay away from spicy foods. Gotta draw the line somewhere.

Thank you for the birthday wishes. I think I'm going to take it for a few weeks to make sure this is under control and then switch to Pepcid. I woke up this morning for the first time in over a week without a sore throat. Started the omeprazole the night before last, so maybe it's working. Like you, I have certain things (coffee, mainly) that I will have a hard time giving up. Hopefully I won't have to, but we'll see.

 

[LBS-bass]

Congrats LBS-Bass. that's going to be ahead of me in a year. Hang in there!

I made it a little easier on myself by telling everyone all last year that I was "almost 60." Somehow that softened the blow because I'd been preparing for it all year.

 

[GwenOnBass]

And speaking of birthdays, GOFs and all

It is the spring of 1979 and it is love at first sight. This is the bass that stands out from all the others on display at my brick and mortar. Back before we knew anything but a brick and mortar. Going to the store in the Big City is almost too much to take in ....

Writed EBMM and ask iffin they have any infos on my Stingray. A long form birth certificate, perhaps? Short form? Any know if Leo looked at it once? Well, sorry, no records, if there are any we don't have them. Here's a handy database someone else maintains. See what others are around your serial number and that'll give you a good idea. Or take the neck off and look in there. Thanks for playing Music Man!

And there are even some basses with serial numbers quite close to mine that saw the Big Stage, but a birth date? Nada. March-April, 1979 is the best that can be determined without taking the neck off. No need to take the neck off. Took a lot of work and time but the neck is perfect, everything's perfect but, well more than aged a bit.

The finish is yellowed and fragile. Actually road-worn. That ding there is from the night I fell when I got on stage and bled all over it from the cut in the heel of my right hand .... well this is what we call the break-in phase of a lovely life with a bass.

Wiser heads at the TB string forum state the Stingray came new with GhS pressure wounds. Which I promptly threw away as junk (because factory strings are placeholder strings but GHS pressure wounds are not junk shame on me) and replaced with Roto 66s. The foam mutes were (in this frame of mind of a 20-something) useless.

Here in the future the same foam mutes are petrified nubs of what was once spongy and lively. They come off in one piece with a flick of a knife



There is some foam that came with my Elf that looks perfect, so (sticks tongue out for precision work or something like it) new mutes for My Bass here in the modern, now-a-go-go times



Of course wondering if I really like the tone of My Bass with DR Black Beauties and mutes. Thinking of meebee white tapes or even black tapes or flats, it's a fun thing to imagine.

My bass is always named My Bass, or My Ray, because that's how I think of My Bass. Wasn't until I got a new bass last year that it became My Old Bass, and not really keen on thinking of myself as The Old Bass Player named My New Bass Solstice Eve for the day she was completed.

Today is the day for My Bass as, without a firm birth date, arbitrarily decided she was born on Friday, April 20, 1979.

 

[LBS-bass]

Happy Birthday to Your Bass! Those early Rays are truly something special.

 

[rust_preacher]

At the risk of making everyone sick of seeing Sonic Blue anywhere on TB, I am posting my NBD bass of today...

NBD: 1966 Jazz Bass

 

[Relsom]

And speaking of birthdays, GOFs and all

It is the spring of 1979 and it is love at first sight. This is the bass that stands out from all the others on display at my brick and mortar. Back before we knew anything but a brick and mortar. Going to the store in the Big City is almost too much to take in ....

Writed EBMM and ask iffin they have any infos on my Stingray. A long form birth certificate, perhaps? Short form? Any know if Leo looked at it once? Well, sorry, no records, if there are any we don't have them. Here's a handy database someone else maintains. See what others are around your serial number and that'll give you a good idea. Or take the neck off and look in there. Thanks for playing Music Man!

And there are even some basses with serial numbers quite close to mine that saw the Big Stage, but a birth date? Nada. March-April, 1979 is the best that can be determined without taking the neck off. No need to take the neck off. Took a lot of work and time but the neck is perfect, everything's perfect but, well more than aged a bit.

The finish is yellowed and fragile. Actually road-worn. That ding there is from the night I fell when I got on stage and bled all over it from the cut in the heel of my right hand .... well this is what we call the break-in phase of a lovely life with a bass.

Wiser heads at the TB string forum state the Stingray came new with GhS pressure wounds. Which I promptly threw away as junk (because factory strings are placeholder strings but GHS pressure wounds are not junk shame on me) and replaced with Roto 66s. The foam mutes were (in this frame of mind of a 20-something) useless.

Here in the future the same foam mutes are petrified nubs of what was once spongy and lively. They come off in one piece with a flick of a knife

View attachment 3392153

There is some foam that came with my Elf that looks perfect, so (sticks tongue out for precision work or something like it) new mutes for My Bass here in the modern, now-a-go-go times

View attachment 3392156

Of course wondering if I really like the tone of My Bass with DR Black Beauties and mutes. Thinking of meebee white tapes or even black tapes or flats, it's a fun thing to imagine.

My bass is always named My Bass, or My Ray, because that's how I think of My Bass. Wasn't until I got a new bass last year that it became My Old Bass, and not really keen on thinking of myself as The Old Bass Player named My New Bass Solstice Eve for the day she was completed.

Today is the day for My Bass as, without a firm birth date, arbitrarily decided she was born on Friday, April 20, 1979.

Happy 40th to Your Bass. It's got a while before it reaches GOF status, unless Bass years are counted in dog years or something like that. I had a '76 nat/maple bought used in a bluegrass shop in or around '79.

 

[Passinwind]

Hey Grumps,

Checking in from my quick road trip to central and eastern Oregon. My wife and I waited a few weeks for the right weather window to present, with the coast as the other preferred option should the weather be more favorable there. So on Wed. everything looked nice for the high desert option, and off we went. A couple of hours down U.S. Route 97 and it was time to hit the rest area at the Crooked River Gorge near Redmond OR. This place means business:

We decided to live dangerously and bring along a bag of OG cheetos, which is like waving a red flag in front of the Townsend's chipmunks. But they were preoccupied with the two bus loads of high school kids, and left us alone. Here's the bridge we came in over, looking east towards Prineville:

And the view to the west:

A better view of the Three Sisters, all of which are over 10,000 feet. Only the South Sister (on left) is still considered an active volcano.

And then on to Sisters OR, with Broken Top Mtn. to the left and the Three Sisters to the right:



From there we drove into Bend and enjoyed the beautiful afternoon. I lived there for a couple of years in the mid-80s, but it's no longer a small town, with a population of over 80,000 by now.

 

[BassmanPaul]

Well I can see that the content of the thread has not improved in my absence! LOL

My best to all from over the pond.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Well I can see that the content of the thread has not improved in my absence! LOL

My best to all from over the pond.

Enjoy your vacation Paul.

Try to not overindulge in the full english breakfasts and bacon fat soaked bread....

 

[beans-on-toast]

Thank you for the birthday wishes. I think I'm going to take it for a few weeks to make sure this is under control and then switch to Pepcid. I woke up this morning for the first time in over a week without a sore throat. Started the omeprazole the night before last, so maybe it's working. Like you, I have certain things (coffee, mainly) that I will have a hard time giving up. Hopefully I won't have to, but we'll see.

The advantage of 60+ is that some places will give you a discount. Not just restaurants, but some retailers, travel, phone plans, even some bank service charges waved. You have to seek senior discount guides out on the internet.

For example, many sites like this...
https://www.dealnews.com/features/The-Best-Senior-Discounts-from-A-to-Z/987339.html

 

[GwenOnBass]

Waiting for a senior discount on healthcare ....

 

[Al Kraft]

Waiting for a senior discount on healthcare ....

...don't hold your breath!

 

[the harp unstrung]

^^What Al said...

 

[Passinwind]

Part 2 of our road trip:

We left Bend at the crack of caffeine. Destination was Burns OR., then south to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge was in the news a few years ago for the occupation of park headquarters by some disgruntled farm/ranch land use advocates. It's an exceptional place for birding and we have probably seen at least 100 species over a few trips in the past. You never really know what may be coming through though, and the recent extreme weather in the prairie states, coupled with major flooding around Burns in the last couple of weeks, made for a very unpredictable prognosis. We drove through the 125 mi. of badlands/sagebrush and set out for park HQ, knowing from past experience that there are often some outlier species to be seen just outside of town, since the farmers' fields can easily flood and be just as attractive as the huge alkali marshes in the Refuge area.

Sure enough, less than two minutes out of town:

Tens of thousands of Snow geese, like fields of cotton stretching for a mile or two. But a closer look shows...what?

Sandhill cranes, which are one of the coveted "trophy" birds that only nest in a few spots in the Pacific Northwet (sic). Even seeing a few is a pretty big deal and it often takes half a day or longer to see the first one in the park.

One:

And then several:

And then I lost count at 100+ in under a minute. I'd guess we saw close to 1000 in less than a mile of driving. Later on we found out that most of these are "Lesser" Sandhills, slightly smaller ones that nest in the Artic tundra in Alaska, Canada, and Siberia. They just happened to be coming through from Nebraska, so the window for seeing this flock would only be a few days, most likely. We only saw three "Greater" ones in the park proper, and a ranger told us that some of the bigger ones from the huge main flock would be showing up in the park over the next few days.

This guy was alone when we got to the park a bit later, waiting on his honey I guess:

He was huge, maybe 5 feet tall.

 

[Passinwind]

And Part 3:

In the park it was obvious that most of the migrants hadn't shown up yet, so we only saw a handful of the usual 40+ species of waterfowl, for instance. The park has a very complicated set of dams and other control methods to change up the viewing canal areas, and right now they are doing controlled burns and carp kill off to enhance the northern half of the park drive-through viewing area. This part was a lake the last time we were there IIRC:

The backdrop is Steens Mountain, which stretches for over 50 miles. One can drive to the top for around a month or two of the summer in a good year. The Alvord Desert is in the rain shadow of Steens, and receives a whopping 6 inches of rain a year. There are some hot springs down there that I'd really like to check out sometime, but we'd need a week or so to do it properly.

The south half of the park had the expected canals and ponds, but still very few birds. Still, at any time you might you come around some corner and find a few White-faced ibises, or possibly a few hundred or more:

And then we came back north on paved road and enjoyed some beautiful rock formations and the overall quasi-lunar nature of the place:




On the way back home we did a detour through a whole other ecosytem, with classic western ghost towns, rolling wheat fields, and verdant spring landscapes more in line with how most people think of Oregon, for hundreds of miles. Good times!

 

[Jeff Scott]

...the overall quasi-lunar nature of the place...

If you want a really quasi-lunar feeling, check out Barringer Meteor Crater in NE Arizona, especially, if you can still climb down to the bottom and walk out to the center of it. My siblings and I did so in June 1974. Truly amazing to see the rim from the bottom! Our parents were none too happy when they learned where we went. Some people on the observation platform at the top of the rim (over 500' up from the bottom) pointed us out to our parents and asked if we were their kids.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Part 2 of our road trip:

We left Bend at the crack of caffeine. Destination was Burns OR., then south to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge was in the news a few years ago for the occupation of park headquarters by some disgruntled farm/ranch land use advocates. It's an exceptional place for birding and we have probably seen at least 100 species over a few trips in the past. You never really know what may be coming through though, and the recent extreme weather in the prairie states, coupled with major flooding around Burns in the last couple of weeks, made for a very unpredictable prognosis. We drove through the 125 mi. of badlands/sagebrush and set out for park HQ, knowing from past experience that there are often some outlier species to be seen just outside of town, since the farmers' fields can easily flood and be just as attractive as the huge alkali marshes in the Refuge area.

Sure enough, less than two minutes out of town:

View attachment 3392934

Tens of thousands of Snow geese, like fields of cotton stretching for a mile or two. But a closer look shows...what?

Sandhill cranes, which are one of the coveted "trophy" birds that only nest in a few spots in the Pacific Northwet (sic). Even seeing a few is a pretty big deal and it often takes half a day or longer to see the first one in the park.

One:

View attachment 3392936

And then several:

View attachment 3392937

And then I lost count at 100+ in under a minute. I'd guess we saw close to 1000 in less than a mile of driving. Later on we found out that most of these are "Lesser" Sandhills, slightly smaller ones that nest in the Artic tundra in Alaska, Canada, and Siberia. They just happened to be coming through from Nebraska, so the window for seeing this flock would only be a few days, most likely. We only saw three "Greater" ones in the park proper, and a ranger told us that some of the bigger ones from the huge main flock would be showing up in the park over the next few days.

This guy was alone when we got to the park a bit later, waiting on his honey I guess:

View attachment 3392944

He was huge, maybe 5 feet tall.

Communing with nature is a nice way to vacation.

Snow and Canada Geese love the flooded corn fields. I rarely see them mix in the same field, they tend to keep to themselves. I saw the geese pairing off this weekend.

I see herons and similar big birds as well as ducks tending to stick to the natural waterways such as marshes, ponds, creeks, flooded ditches, and rivers. I never notice them in corn fields. Maybe they prefer the food there.

 

[SoulReflection]

Happy Soulful Sunday...

 

[beans-on-toast]

Happy Soulful Sunday...

Why can't they create music like this anymore.

In the same week in January of 1966 that this song was released, Uptight by Stevie Wonder and Going To A Go Go by the Miracles made thier debut. It was an exciting time musically. The audience in the video was up for it.

The amps on stage are interesting. I don't recognize the make. Looks like it starts with a script L.

You can see what looks like it could be a tweed Fender and a Kustom.