UP EARLY to get my weekly sourdough in the oven. While it cooks – and cools – I drink coffee in bed and deal with emails, socials and stuff.
After breakfast I have two online guitar students. In between I put out a reminder that there’s no Wildcats’ livestream this evening.
I do a few more material tests using the new machine in the office and things look promising.
After lunch I spend some time on the initial development phase of the Black Bull website then go for a quick walk before my late afternoon guitar student arrives.
Margaret’s away to get some wood trim for the space the new stove is going in.She’s still got one stone veneer tile to cut but doesn’t want to burn out my wee re-chargeable Dremel. I have another mains powered Dremel that is stuck one high speed – and even at it’s slowest speed was still to aggressive for the jobs I needed it for – and the collet lock doesn’t engage so it’s pretty much useless. I dig it out a box, take it to bits and manage to fix the collet lock/release button.
When Margaret comes back we try it on the tile and bingo. Hot knife through butter 🙂
We go to pick up Betty and go along to the village hall AGM then back home for dinner.
Another rummage in the attic throws up some more old cassettes!
OFFICE tidy up and clear out is top of my list for today. I started months ago then got too busy dealign with stuff to finish he job!
Margaret’s tackling the remaining stone veneer tiles int he wee nook the new stove is going into. Mikey did a power of work getting the space sorted but for reasons only known to himself abandoned the tiles halfway through…he did say he’d come and sort it by Christmas but (hopefully) the new stove is going in on Wednesday so we need it finished now.
I get a fair bit of clearing out in the office then help Margaret before heading to the studio.
I found some old Summerfield Blues cassettes in the attic earlier and I’m keen to see if they’ll play – and if they do, digitise them.
There’s two cassette EPs from 1994 (Let’s Scare the Posh People and Little Miss Behavin’) and, more interestingly, our first recording/demo Line & Track from 1988. Ten tracks recorded live direct to Foster X15 cassette recorder in a rather boomy classroom at Balwearie High School in Kirkcaldy.
Considering the limited recording facilities (or lack of them) the sound quality isn’t bad…but the song arrangement (mostly covers) and playing/performance leaves a bit to be desired! It was, however, the version of Prince’s Purple Rain on the cassette that generated the media coverage that got us off to a pretty good start.
I get the cassette digitised just int ’em for us to head along to Betty’s to get her curtains put up and enjoy pizza and a blether.
Margaret puts the wee plaques I made into the new ELLCT noticeboards…and, of course, posters for my next local show
FIRST task of the day is to try and put together the rotary accessory for the new machine in the office.
The box has a zillion bits and this is new territory so takes me a while to figure things out.
Margaret’s going out to put the wee plaques I made up int he community trust noticeboards…and I have some posters for a local show to go up. I need a walk, so abandon the rotary mid-assembly and get a run to the village from where I walk home.
Back home I have a secret Santa gift to make then I get back to the rotary and do a few test runs. I wanna make up some thermal coffee/travel cups for nest week’s stall at the Christmas lights switch on and also to put on my website as a new ‘Dave Arcari’ merch item.If it all works out I’ll maybe include a coffee cup in my goodie bag for folks attending the guitar workshop in January.
MARGARET’S asked me to do some info panels for the new community trust noticeboards.
I mess with some ideas and knock up some prototypes…then spend some time working out how I can vent the new machine outside via the existing system.
Looks like I’ll need a couple blast gates, more ducting, couplings and splitters – plus an inline fan to cope with the extra load. I get onto Amazon…
I have a Zoom meeting with the folks at the Black Bull to go over web and online stuff then I set about a software update for the Quad Cortex. Some cool new things in there like a sub-harmonic synth…while they’re not of much use for my live performance, these options are not only fun to mess with but also useful for some instrumental and production music that I get busy with from time to time.
My 6pm guitar student arrives at the studio and we have a good wee session then I spend some time trying out the new sounds courtesy of the Quad Cortex.
MIKEY’S off to Betty’s after breakfast…I hit the studio and get some work done.
I’ve hit a snag setting up/calibrating the new machine in the office and, after searching forums and help dox, still can;t resolve so I post in a couple user groups then go out for a quick paddle.
It’s cold – minus five out on the loch – and I don’t have much time…but after half an hour out there I can’t feel my hands, let alone fingers, so time to get home!
A quick and early lunch then I hit the road to the school in Balloch for my last session of the year then on to get the shopping.
Back home I check the support groups and and a little frustrated at the comments/replies/suggestions re my problem..folks have clearly neither read my post nor looked at the image/screenshot I posted. It amuses me slightly too – folks seem to react to problems with a stock answer regardless of the problem…kinda like the doctor who makes a diagnosis before hearing what the patient has to say
‘Spose folks are well-intentioned but the answers are useless so I try everything again. No luck, so I raise a support ticket.
Meantime, I swap out the laptop and…the problem is solved. Kinda weird as the same software nd version is running on both laptops. Anyway, I get the damn thing calibrated and working!
HEATING not working so the house is bloody freezing.
Margaret calls the Greener Energy folks and the lady says she’ll see if she can get an engineer. An hour and a half later there’s no return call so Margaret calls again and reads the riot act.
Eventually get a call saying someone will be this afternoon. I started off really believing in this company but my remaining faith is being pushed to the limit now.
I get busy developing the Black Bull website and take a break for lunch and try to clear some space in the office for the new machine before returning to the web development stuff.
Mikey arrives – he’s gonna be doing some work for Betty over the next few days – and goes off to start the job.
An engineer from the Greener Energy Group arrive – the same guy who came out and spoke to Margaret pre-install. Seems he’s not as friendly this time round…but it’s not our problem they either fucked up or supplied a duff component.
I head for a walk up the loch side and when I get back the engineer has figured something out and looks like we should be working soon. We chat through some of the concerns I have about the supply and lack of choice as well as the movement of goalposts incurring more cost for us – he says we’ll have to talk to his boss. There’s been so much conflicting info/answers that I need to understand the facts here.
Anyway, we get up and running and the engineer heads off. I hit the office and start prepping the new machine setup then go back into the house and make sausage pasta for dinner.
The heating seems to have gone off though. I investigate a little and see that the hot water has been set to ‘on’ 24/7 when it should, I suspect, only be on and hour or two each day. I change the schedule and the heating starts to come to life.
I’m not convinced the heating should go off when the water’s getting heated but at least it’s working.
UP EARLY again for day two of the air pump instal. As well as the two heating guys another van arrives with electricians.
The house is bloody freezing, not helped by the fact that all the doors are constantly left open. Margaret’s unhappy that a couple of the radiators have seemingly been ‘prescribed’ and no choice or alternatives given The engineers agree so she calls Greener Energy and tries to get things rectified…she’s also told that we need a kick heater inn the kitchen – we’ve had three folks out previously, including the pre-install engineer and this has never been mentioned.
I have a couple of online guitar students which keeps me out the way until lunchtime.
After lunch I go back to the studio and do some prep for my part in this evening local hydro society AGM then make a little progress on the Black Bull web development.
There’s only time for a quick walk. The loch is calm and it’s a nice, albeit cold, evening. No paddling for a few days tho’ – doctor’s orders. My arm feels OK but I’ll try and comply!
I’m meeting my fellow hydro society directors for something to eat before the meeting. Just before I have to leave DPD delivers’ another laser to add to my production capabilities in the office.
We have nice meal and pre-AGM chat then head to the hall. Margaret doesn’t make it , for although he installers have finished, the electricians are still there trying to get the heat pump commissioned.
They’re still at it when I get home and have managed to get things running, although Laim is unhappy with one of the valves/controllers. He’s found a workaround and the hot waters working…the radiators seem to be starting to heat a little. He makes a note on the report and they head off.
Soon after, tho’, we’re not feeling any heat…seems whatever the faulty part is it’s not working 🙁
THE ALARM goes off at 6.30am – not only do we have the heat pump guys coming to start the install today, but I have a 9am appointment at the hospital in Glasgow.
I get to the hospital in good time for my ‘ultrasound-guided biopsy’. The surgeon and nurse are fantastic and make the process as ‘comfortable’ as I can reasonably expect given that the tumour they’re sampling is on a nerve sheath.
Twenty-minutes or so later and I’m done, patched up and pick up plenty painkillers and some shopping on the way home.
There’s radiators, pipes and cylinders everywhere when I get back and the fitters seem to be making reasonable progress. Margaret’s unhappy with a couple of the radiators – looks like the installation engineer was pretty prescriptive in what we could get and we’re not sure he gave Margaret the correct options. In fact, he didn’t give her any options! We’ll deal with that later.
I have a couple of online guitar students, and one in-person then I get some work done in the studio. Too cold in the house with no heating or hot water.
The WIldcats’ livestream on Facebook is a banjo fest tonight with three songs I haven’t played in a long, long time. A bit rusty but fun.
I’m back home for dinner soon after 9pm then we have an early night – there’s no heating or hot water!
WHILE Margaret’s sorting breakfast I put some stuff up in the attic – and take a notion to see if I can find an old demo cassette mentioned by someone on Facebook in response to some old studio pix I posted last week.
In a storage box I find it! The Denim Elliots. A three song demo recorded in 1992 in my Kirkcaldy studio with Dave Sinclair on drums, Ronnie Bookless – who had written the songs – on bass and vocals…and yours truly on guitar.
Finding the cassette is one thing, but playing it is another. Now I need to find my 40-year-old cassette deck to see if (a) it might still work and (b) the cassette itself is playable.
I decide the procedure might make a fun livestream and I’m like an over excited kid when I find the deck works…and the cassette plays.
Sadly my pal – and the drummer – Dave Sinclair died a number of years ago…and I lost touch with Ronnie a year or two after we made the demo. I search for him on socials and it’s a goose egg. A bit more online research and I find a tenuous link and fire of an email…I hope it works.
I’d like to put the tracks on Bandcamp or something but only if I can find Ronnie and he’s in agreement. Otherwise I guess they’ll be for private sharing only.
All this discovery, excitement and resulting detective work has taken over a lot of the day and I still have some things on my to-do list.
First, I need to create some slide to go in a presentation for next week’s local hydro society AGM, Then I need to make some notes to aid my part in the presentation.
There’s some information to be added to the poster art for March’s show at The Muse in Brecon and some ticket links to be added to various listings.
Been good to have busy day and take my mind off tomorrow’s early morning trip to hospital for a ‘ultrasound guided biopsy’….
WE WAKE to to a nice layer of snow…but stay in bed and drink coffee!
After a (very) late breakfast I go outside and clear some of the snow fm the deck and front path then sort out the pizza oven and stuff that’s been ‘cooling down’ since last night.
I’d hoped for a paddle later once the wind dies down but it’s showing no sign and it’s really misty out on the loch.
Instead I do another edit of the guitar workshop promo video – a square format this time – and post it around my socials. I also send a link to a folder with all the assets (videos, photo and news release) to the Oak Tree Inn, the venue for the workshop.
Next job is finalising poster art for the Mid-Wales Rhythm & Blues Club show on 1 March and send it, align with a news release, to the promoter.
With poster art now at the forefront of my mind I pull together artwork for some other shows and put in a folder to send to the printers. I tried printing some A4s for a local show in the office but the quality isn’t up to it!
