Winter Time Blues

Aloha!

It has been a while since I sat down to write a few words and now the winter of 2025 is in full swing here in Southern West Virginia. The late summer’s excellent fishing is a distant memory and even the world famous Bridge Day at the New River Gorge has come and gone. The rivers run wild but without boaters; the New and the Gauley are here in my back yard, but so is a foot of snow and only the few and the brave go paddling on days like this.

I have been spending my time clearing snow from the driveway and making some snow sculptures. It started with ‘the Eggman’, then we added ‘the Walrus’ and when we got a foot more they merged into one and now we are working on an ‘Alien Used Pod Lot’. The mercury has been in the single digits and there is not much else to do. I think back to my days on Maui and try not to shed a tear.

I am the Eggman, you are the Walrus. Koo Koo Ka Chew!

I should be down in my shop making some instruments, but I have a small case of the blues. The short days do that to me sometimes, and after shoveling out from daily snows, I take some time to relax my lower back for a while then get my shorts out and go to the gym for some aerobic exercise . That doesn’t leave much time or energy for wood working. I throw in the daily walk for the dog’s sake, and the sculpture, and at least I am sleeping good! I keep up with my music playing, usually with a few friends, and the time keeps rolling by.

The New River Gorge Bridge is only a couple miles away… a very handsome, rugged landmark

My woodworking calls to me, but every time I go down to the shop and turn on the heat a little, all I do is fiddle about and idly look through the mandolin parts on the bench. I haven’t glued anything together in a month or more. I think I want to, then after an hour or so I turn off the lights and go back upstairs. The juice is simply not flowing. That’s okay. It’s not the first time. And I know better than to push it when it’s in idle mode. It’s okay to just go with the flow, and when it isn’t flowing just be glad that it will soon again be! I am not one to be idle for long. Soon I will wake up and the fire will be full strength. I will be wild eyed and ready to go… a 12 hour day will feel good and then another the next day. Off to the races.

It might be different if I had a special order to energize me. I know it would. But since creating this new site, that hasn’t yet happened. I am now networking with a young lady to help me get the site back on the map, an SEO specialist. My old site, Archtop Ukuleles .com got 40 hits a day and usually I made 2-3 special orders each year from it. This new one is slow to catch on, but it will work out. Until then, I keep the dog exercised and make snow sculptures in the front yard. What can be better than that?

YOU bought ME a GALACTAGORBINI ???

The website is less of a mystery every time I try to enhance it. When we created it, I was a bystander… five feet away and there to answer all of those technical questions and provide some text. My friend did ninety percent of it. I was truly amazed at his skill and adaptive nature. His hand was grabbing, clicking, going from one box to another with remarkable speed and dexterity. He was kind enough to explain one thing; that he didn’t know what he was doing. He had no familiarity with the site we were using and that everything was brand new to him too. He just searched for his desires, clicked on them and if it didn’t pan out he would move on, clicking, grabbing, knowing that he could always go back and make corrections later.

I take that to heart now that we are up and running, and it’s up to me to carry on. Yesterday I did my best to imitate his efforts to display two more instruments and get them on the site. I put up two dialogue boxes on my computer screen, both the website and my photo album. And I persevered. I clicked at half speed, then dragged and dropped as best I could, and made my way somehow. I even found a way to add some video to enhance the pictures. I liked that so much I went back and did the same for the existing older entries. My shyness has dissolved and I feel a bit empowered, even though I had to work my way through a few oddities along the way. It’s a funny thing… that creating an instrument from scratch is my pure pleasure, but as I sit here in front of the computer I am totally out of my element. Well, not as bad as it used to be. I can now manipulate pictures, and edit raw video to a finished form. I am getting better every time I get brave enough to try.

And it’s a RED ONE? Just like my eyes !

I can’t wait for the weather to break. West Virginia rarely has extended periods of sub freezing temps and we have had our fair share. As January moves towards Easter, my mood is guaranteed to improve. The blues of yesterday will fade into a bright and cheerful morning. Until then, I try to laugh at my energy levels as I re-direct them towards trivial endeavors. My wife tells me that I can’t run at full speed endlessly, and that R and R is a big part of life. I do my best and try to accept her wisdom, but know in my heart that the blues are a real thing. It’s how you deal with them that makes a difference.

Will they take the Edsel in for trade?