The World Begins to Come Alive Once Again

Hey.. so I actually managed a second post. It only took me 6 months to do it though.  Sorry been busy.  I've been in a new position at work since then and it has kept me more than busy.  Even spent some time in Moncton for work.

So it's almost May and the way the weather has been looking it might be a nice summer.  I don't really have any recent exciting adventures to talk about this time although I did see a very inspirational performance of Classic Albums Live - The Doors - L.A. Woman the weekend just past.  This was my third CAL performance, I've also seen their renditions of "Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon" and "Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced".  They've never done any less than amaze me with the performances they put on.  If you've never had the chance to see them I highly recommend it!

I've always been heavily interested in playing and listening to various styles of music.  I bought my first guitar back in 1991 and half self-taught myself to play it some.  I don't call myself a good guitar player, but some do.  Anyway, I was getting a bit bored with guitar and decided to try a new instrument.  At first I was going to look at getting a cello, but then decided against it.  Finally last June I bought a digital piano.  Now I have this level of practicality about me where I don't like to spend money without thinking it through first.  So, I've never played piano seriously before (besides the odd "Chopsticks" messing around whenever I was around one), and I figured that I didn't want to spend a lot of money on what might become a large doorstop/flat surface/cat bed whatever, so I researched for a bit and found the cheapest full-size (88 keys) digital piano I could find on Ebay.  Basically I didn't want to pay a lot for something that I didn't know if I'd enjoy.

I was wrong.  It happens once in a while (just ask my wife... on second thought, don't).  Within the first week that I had it, I learned what the keys were and how chords worked and I haven't left it alone since.  I also have hardly picked up my guitar again since.  The guitar just doesn't sound as good to me any more.  I've been trying to teach myself to read music and I'm getting better, but I'm finding it hard.  I find that when I'm trying to learn something I'm able to read a bit of the music to tell me where to start, and then the rest I figure out by what I know of whatever I'm trying to learn.  But after this weekend my new goal is to focus on learning some of the surprisingly easy but genius works of Ray Manzarek and the Doors.  I remember when I bought the piano, I tried all the different 'voices' it had (there aren't many honestly).  There were a few that I figured I'd never use until now.  They're perfect for playing The Doors' style.

So.. summer.  Right.  I'm hoping this summer will be different than last.  Last summer was mostly crappy due to the weather (or lack thereof); but work schedules also were a factor.  This year I don't think work schedules will be an issue.  It's going to be a good summer.  Friends coming down from Ontario that we haven't seen in a while, the Air Show is coming back to PEI in August, and I'm sure there will be other things to do.  We're hoping to do some camping, but we'll see how that works out.

So that last paragraph brings to mind something that I thought I would have wrote about in my last (first?)post but did not.  The air show.  Last year they had the Atlantic Air Show  at Slemon Park just outside of Summerside here on PEI.  They haven't had an air show here that I can recall since old CFB Summerside shut down (which is now Slemon Park).  Much of my time growing up in Summerside was in the "Hillcrest" area back in the 80's and early 90's.  At that time many of the townhouses in that area were military families.  This meant that a lot of my friends were from military families.  At this time, the air shows were annual and we almost always made it out as far as I can remember.  They had various aircraft and other vehicles on display on the grounds that you were allowed to walk through, get in and climb on, and then of course there were the air displays.  Various exhibition pilots/teams were brought in, and of course the highlight of every year would be a performance by the Snowbirds.

So as I was driving up the road to Slemon Park (arriving slightly later than I wanted to due to crazy traffic that day).  I see an F-18 Hornet taking off and I almost had tears in my eyes from memories of years past.  To make a long story short, the show last year was everything and more than I expected, and they are having it again this year, so I will be attending again.  This time I'll make sure to bring a better camera though.


Something else that happened last year was that my wife and I went to Halifax in November for Hal-con.  Hal-con (for those that don't know) is an ever-growing Sci-fi/Comic/Gaming convention that takes place in Halifax, NS.  Christine has been to the big "Fan Expo" in Toronto once before, but this was my first "con" experience.  The drive over was scary enough, it was torrential downpour the whole way and there were parts of the high-way where I was using the flashers and going about 60 (in a 110 zone).  Either way, we made it and had a good time in Halifax.  We had some friends there that we met up with and browsed the interesting booths and displays.  Chris got to meet the actor Nicholas Brendon and get his autograph, and we got some fun pictures and trinkets.  We didn't dress up for this one; we were going to, but the time just slipped away from us and we didn't get a chance to do the costumes we wanted to.  This year we're going to try and attend again, and maybe dress up.  No, I'm not telling what our ideas are as we didn't see anyone else with our idea last year, and we'd like to be somewhat unique.

The Dalek kept trying to pick her up.  It was talking about its "other attachments".

That's all I can think of to spill out for now. I'll try and make another post sooner, but it's much easier to write when one has something to write about eh?

TTFN