Hi @Azjoetrucker  We haven't heard anything from you in a while so thought I would checkin. Hope everything is well.   ... View more

Recently, I made the difficult decision to relocate my family to the mountains from the city. I have more time to spend jogging the trails in addition to having access to better schools and spending more time with family. ... View more

Hi @sch, How is your wife? I hope she has recovered well after her bout of Covid, & not suffering any long term side effects. Budgie ... View more

Patches, I’m so sorry for everything your going thru, but please know you are not alone. I can’t believe your husbands family would treat you this way, but then again I just lost my mom 1-14-21 to Covid and that same day we found out my husbands cancer has gotten worse and they are stopping his Chemo. My brother and his wife who are alcoholics, have started. I’ll explain in private message. I know we can’t pick family but I wish we could. Those who should be there for each other seem to drift apart. Isn’t there enough pain in this world. I can say from the bottom of my heart you are not alone, and you absolutely don’t deserve this treatment. I’m sending you a great big hug...I hope to hear back from you soon my friend. Xo ... View more

Hello Jamo  Cats love running water. Give it a water fountain. Check online at pet places or you can make one with a small flower pot with no hole and a small pump and some pipe or tube. Put some rocks around the pump to hold it in place. You both win, it looks pretty plus the sound of running water can be very soothing. Maybe it will keep your kitty off your counters. Let me know if you try it. Hope it works for you. Wish you and your family well.                                                                                                                cemo-queen ... View more

Hi Cap   Sorry. I had to follow-up your long, long post with something really short. Succeeded. But ditto... same learning curve as me and I guess the majority of people learning to play an instrument.    I shall impart some important tips to help you on your journey.    1. Warm up before you play. Massage, stretch and wiggle your wrists, hand and fingers. Athletes warm up before performing, practice and exercise. Musicians should do the same. Let your mind warm up and get in the zone. Warm up your instrument before you try anything serious. You will perform better when your mind, hands and instrument are zoned in as a unit. Once warmed up you must Exercise, Practice and Play. In that order.   2. Tune your instrument. Continuous tune it as you play. Tune in your voice to match the guitar. When your instrument sounds good, you are more inspired than when it sounds out of tune. When you sing along, it will help improve your singing in key. if either sound bad, you will be less enthusiastic about playing.   3. Music has rules. Timing, tuning, harmony, playing in key, sitting position, holding position, hand position, fingering position, etc. When you practice, keep a strong discipline. Stick to the rules... ALWAYS.    4. Rules were made to be broken. When you are playing music, break any rule that makes it sound right. But never break rules for practice or exercise. Practice with your mind. Play with your soul.   5. ALWAYS tap your foot when you play. Tommy Emanuel's #1 rule.   6. Learn your fret board. This is hard, but learning to count or the alphabet is harder. It seems hard at first and difficult to remember. Practice 5 minutes every day to memorise where notes are. Test yourself daily. Before too long, muscle memory will find the locations before you consciousness tells you where the notes are. A good tip... it's a number of repeating patterns. You learn how to find it, not where to find it.   7. Practice scales and chord structure 5 minutes every day. understand where to find notes in key by a pattern. Learn the different keys, their origin and where they are used. Learn basic chord structures and understand what makes different chords such as 6s, 7s, add 9, 9s, 11s etc. Understand when chords are in certain keys.   8. Practice techniques. Playing in tempo, finger picking, up and down pick methods, forming chords, chord changes, coordinating left and right hands, numbing strings, playing scales, etc. Practice techniques very slowly and accurately. Focus on achieving the desired goal without mistakes. Try to learn the right way only. Try to not learn the mistakes. Speed will increase naturally.   9. When practising playing in tempo, keep temp always. if you make a mistake, don't break tempo. Just keep playing. the mistake is in the past. focus on getting the next part in the correct timing. Use a metronome or backing track when you practice. it will vastly increase you ability. keep tapping your foot the whole time to zone your body into the tempo.   10. Leaning to play a song is not practice. but treat it like practice. take it slow and stick to the rules. Focus on playing well before fast. speed will come naturally. Always learn to play music you like which you enjoy playing. When you can play it, break the rules and make it your own.   11. When playing, find a song that matches your mood. It will resonate. If you don't like the mood you're in. Play something in the mood you want to be in.   12. People who make fun of you or criticise your sound. Ask them to be constructive and not make fun. if it doesn't work, play and sing louder and don't let anyone silence you. Sing and play with confidence. Catch 22. If you play without confidence, you won't sound as good. People won't enjoy hearing you. Play with confidence, you may be embarrassed but you will sound better. You should be embarrassed to play without confidence.   You will never stop learning, but one day you'll know you are not a student. You've become a musician. I am currently learning blues techniques played by Robert Johnson and Johnny Shines. I'm struggling and I've felt like a musician for twenty years. There is always something new to learn. Practice every day and the learning will happen quickly. Practice once a week and it will take much longer.   Cheers    Portly Phil     ... View more

Hi Jubbly, How are you going now? Is it getting better now? Sounds like it was a bit rough before. Hope it's improved a bit for you. Let us know.   -s ... View more

Hi Aia, I am so sorry to here you’re mom has passed.  My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family during this difficult time.  May you all find peace and comfort in good friends and family.  Remember she left her love and tenderness and all her good qualities and mostly all those beautiful memories embedded in you and your families hearts. ❤️   I won’t lie, it does hurt to lose someone so damn close to your heart, but it does get better.  Never forgotten, but you don’t have to watch her in pain anymore.  I still have days when I need my dad and cry and talk to him.  My dad passed away December 15th, 2007.  So you will get stronger, that I promise.  But you will always have your days of just needing them or advice.  I forget how old you are, or maybe we never talked about age.  Do you have siblings other than your sister.  Are you close to your Dad.  Listen I will say this, there is no right or wrong way of grieving.  It’s what’s best for Aia.  If you need to cry you cry.  You need to scream then scream.  If you want to be left alone, then take a day or two to yourself, the only thing I will say is I don’t want you to stay alone more than a day or two.  Because being with your family, friends or partner that supports you during this time is best.  I would only be with people I could be happy with and when I got flooded with tears, I could just release without saying I’m sorry.  You are one amazing lady.  Your mom was lucky to have such a beautiful soul as a daughter.  As you sound pretty damn lucky to have such a loving mom.  Your mom is watching over you, with clarity and no pain.  She absolutely had her wings and in a loving place.  Yes God of course brought her home in his arms to love her, but he put her in your family because he knew how much she would be loved in the arms of her family.  If you need to talk Aia I don’t know where you live, I’m in Boston area.  But please keep checking in with me.  Bc even tho we’ve only known each other a short time my heart tells me you are such an amazing person, and I am hear you listen and talk anytime.  Xoxo please know I am thinking and praying for you and your family. ❤️🌹 Traci-Rene’e   ... View more

You are right. Once time has mitigated some of the pain I will be able to look back and be grateful to know I was with her when she passed.  I am so sorry you could not be there with her. Your sadness is justified.    I know you are going though the same thing as my sister who couldn't come because she is a nurse and was infected with the COVID virus. The only thing I could comfort her with was that our mom was not alone. I'm not sure if it helped her to know that or if she was just saying that to make me feel better. But, I hope it give her some comfort.    I want to say you shouldn't blame yourself. But I can't. I blame myself for not doing more.  My mom and I were never close in the conventional sense. It was only the last few years that we became closer. I whish I called her more; visited her more. But life gets in the way of such things and then you feel regrets. And I think that's O.K. This isn't the only regret I have and I have leaned from them so I don't repeat them.    It's O.K. to feel sad. We should feel sad. But we can't stay in sadness forever.  I don't know you mother, but I know my mom would want me to linger in grief too long. She would want me to remember the good days we had. If your mom was like my mom, she would want the same for you.  When you're ready.      ... View more

Sending hugs @Isatracey, how have you been doing over the past week or so?   -Kate ... View more