Recent Thoughts

I wanted to reflect upon my 41st birthday, which I observed one week ago today.  That is so hard to believe for me personally, as it hardly seems like I am that old!  Then, I look at my expanding gut, my graying hair, and feel my aching bones, and I am quickly reminded.  Any of you know what I mean?

Any rate, I overall had a nice birthday, as I got a very interesting present.  My mother doesn't know how to shop for me, so when we go over to visit her at her place in Lakeland she just gives me some cash and tells me to buy it myself.  That is becoming more challenging too, as I buy almost everything on-line and don't really see much I need from an actual store anymore.  But, there is a new thrift store a couple of miles from the house, and although I have a semi-moratorium on buying vinyl for my music collection (with 860 LP's it is getting a little hard to keep up with vinyl now) nonetheless some patron of this store was either Polish by heritage or a polka music fan, and the store had a lot of rare finds as far as polka records go - I found about 7 LP's from the late 1970's of Jimmy Sturr's for instance, which are hard to come by - so I indulged myself a little with about a dozen new albums.  Along with the LP's, I also stumbled across some very vintage 78 RPM records, and although most of them had chips and cracks in them (for the young'uns under 30 that think CD's have existed forever, a 78 RPM record was made out of thick shellac, the same material many dishes are made from.  Therefore, they are very fragile and easily broken in the wrong hands. They stopped making those I believe in the late 1950's) one did make its way into my collection this weekend.  The record was pressed, according to my copy of Brian Rust's Dance Band Discography (this 2-volume work is essential to big band record collectors, but is hard to find) on December 29, 1920, and was released to market in February 1921.  It didn't have a scratch on it, and was a find.  On top of that, the orchestra was Paul Whiteman's, and the dates indicate this was one of his earliest records, recorded on the Victor label.  Therefore, upon finding out the date, I was very excited about it, as that is something you don't come across everyday!  There was also a Ted Lewis Columbia disc (Johnny Hamp's Kentucky Serenaders, another early big band, was on the B side of the disc) which disappointed me because it had a nick on the edge rendering it unplayable.  I would have loved to have gotten that one too, as it was a "Blue Label" Columbia, meaning it was recorded sometime between 1917 and 1922.  But, can't win them all, so life goes on. 

On Thursday, the day after my birthday, we visited my mother as she wanted to get us a baby potbellied piglet, but upon seeing them and the challenges they would potentially entail, we decided against that - they were cute little devils though, but when the lady caught one and it let out an ear-piercing squeal, Barb and I looked at each other and could see our hungover neighbor across the street really appreciating that!   Maybe when we get a bigger place one day with a bigger yard, a potbellied pig could be a possibility, but not now.  So, being we went to see the little piglets in Bartow, on the way back to Mom's I got to have a good birthday dinner of some fried shrimp and alligator at a neat little "Florida Cracker" restaurant between Lakeland and Bartow, on US 98, called Catfish Country.  Catfish Country used to have another location in Tampa that closed some years back, and I thought it had totally ceased to exist.  However, much to my pleasant surprise, there it was still open and busy, and it was a great treat to eat there again.  If you ever visit Florida and want some good "Cracker cuisine" in the Tampa Bay area, this is the place to go!

Deep-fried gator tail, a Florida Cracker classic and GOOD!!

Barb also made me the most delicious orange cake with lemon icing, and still eating on it a week later, as there is only the two of us.  She does get creative with cakes, which is another thing that endears me to her.

Well, I don't want to just spend all this time chit-chatting about my 41st birthday, so let's think about some other stuff now.  One thing I have been doing is entering this contest on Amazon.com where you can win $100,000 in Mastercard gift cards, and definitely have plans for that if I win!  One thing I would love to do is finally buy my contrabass saxophone.   I love the sound of that beast, and being a guy, I also like it because it is big!!  If you remember Tim Allen's character from the old Home Improvement sitcom, I am a lot like he was with heavy machines - seeing that big saxophone makes me go "Arrr-arr-arr!" like he used to do.  Can you imagine the neighbors hearing that sound resonating from our house??  Take a nice look at the picture, and it will give you an idea of how big the monster is:

Pioneering saxophonist Sigurd Rascher playing the Contrabass sax

That would be a major wish come true to get one of these, although Barb had a look of dread when she saw it! (you think it looks imposing, you should hear how it sounds!).  Anyway, if my prayers get answered and my fingers can stay crossed, in about 4 weeks I will find out if that dream can come true. 

Anyway, that is enough sharing for this week, but hopefully will be back in the near future, and hopefully with a soundclip of me playing a contrabass sax with a bellyfull of deepfried gatortail.  Take care all!