Christmas "the" day is past

Well, it’s the day after Christmas and it’s time to start the schedule again. It seems so different this year as the Day was full. I’m usually up at 4 am to take care of my India business, get my day planned and line up all my tasks. I put out a quilt that my wife saw at the quilting store. She liked it and it was an easy thing to get. Elizabeth my wife’s youngest daughter flew in on Saturday thanks to her mom’s generosity. We had an open house for our neighbors and friends that went very well. Next year we will have the same party as it was just so very nice seeing our neighbors and friends not in a rush. We will have a cleanup crew next year. It was just too much to get done and then get the place ready for Christmas day. We had meetings all week prior so I really had to scramble to get everywhere I had things held for Kathleen. Everyone got way too much, especially me. I have been wanting, (but not needing) a new amplifier. Well Mrs. Kathy Santa brought me a new Mesa Engineering 5:25

http://www.mesaboogie.com/Product_Info/Express/ExpressMAIN.htm .

Ok, my existing amps have 100 watts and 90 watts of pure tube power. This little Mesa is 5 watts or 25 watts. A tube amp only sounds good in the sweet spot. So a 90 watt amp sounds good on about 50% of its power, or window breaking, ear breaking noise. I keep it pretty quiet but it’s still pretty hard on your ears if you are not use to the pressure these amps generate. This 5 watt beauty does all the things its big brother does, except hurt your ears. It’s loud, very loud, but the pressure isn’t there. In the 25 watt mode it hurts. And of course I’ve ordered an alnico Tone Tubby 10” http://www.tonetubby.com speaker for the little beast. Tone is the most important thing for me and this little guy is running English tones out if its EL-84 power tubes, all my other sounds come straight out of California with the big 6L6 power tubes and twice as many. I’m in tone heaven. There is simply nothing like the sound of a Guitar and a good Hammond B-3 organ. (Mine is in the storage area next to the stageJ. It’s my spring project to get it all cleaned up and make some impedance changes so I can put it straight out into the fender or MK-IV. It also needs some re-finishing.

My kids came over and my Son and his wife brought me pictures of their wedding, which had my deceased wife’s picture there and I couldn’t help trying to choke down the big lump in my throat. I tried but the tears flowed. My Daughter and her husband along with my first Grand Child Shelby came over in the evening and we had Kathy’s son with all his kids and his wife, it was all very nice. Elizabeth drove into SLC and picked up June, Kathy’s granddaughter for a sleep over. It was very busy, but that’s what it’s all about.

Today I moved about a foot of snow off my driveway and my neighbors who went home to Montana for a couple of weeks. We all take care of each other around here. There is never anything wanted or needed, someone always steps up and takes care of what is needed.
Well I’m off to the music room to see what noises I can make. My work is pretty much done for the day! Woo hoo. I guess 14 hours is enough? I will take a little nap I believe ;)