I did return from Phoenix... Just in case you were wondering why you hadn't heard from me. I returned with a new guitar -
a Taylor 714ce - which I hadn't meant to purchase, but there you go. It spoke to me. Of course, I'm sure it had something to do with spending an afternoon in several of those 'humidor' rooms that guitar stores have for their good guitars. I think they add something to the air that makes you want to buy... Or maybe I just like guitars?
Now you may notice that there's a page 'missing' here. I go from 73 to 77. It's actually not a missing page, it's just me goofing up numbering the pages. What can I say? Shit happens...
And just to further prove I make tons of mistakes in my journals, page 79 should've been cut out. It's one of those waste sheets I sew in to the journal... But in the darkness of the
Jester Room, I didn't notice that. Or maybe it had something to do with the two shots of Maker's Mark I had?
Here I am, playing the Taylor at the Jester Room! It was a fine gig and thanks to Zonal Rick and all the fine staff at Pranksters Too. The food was great and the music was fine!
I'll get caught up in the next few days...
Funny thing about getting the Taylor home. I flew US Airways there and back. I flew there with a big suitcase, which I checked for $25. I had to fly home with two things to check, the suitcase and the guitar, which would be $25 for the first and $35 for the second. I wanted to insure the guitar against theft. You used to do that at the counter, but not any longer, no. Now you have to do it at the US Airways website... 24 hours in advance! Of course, I didn't know that. There was no way I was going to put my new guitar into the baggage system uninsured! It's insured against breakage, but not theft - a policy from the place I bought it does that much. The US Airways counter people were as surprised by the 24 hour advance policy as I was, and thought about as much of it as I did. They suggested I 'gate check' it, which meant I carried it through security and then down to the gate and down the ramp thingy and then handed it over to be put into the bowels of the tiny CanadaAir jet. That was fine with me. It took awhile for them to uncharge my credit card for the second bag, so I had to run down to the gate, but everyone at US Airways was nice! Nice! Nice! They put a first class baggage check on the guitar so it would come off first and away we went.
Extremely helpful folks!