Parking Lot Predators

Well, so much for my “free” redeeming points for flight and hotel to go to a conference tomorrow for which I had a, you guessed it, free pass.

Apparently when parking in downtown Nashville, you only have a few minutes to pay for your parking and if you have forgotten your password for the Premiere Parking app, the 4 minute delay will cost you $95 to get the boot removed.

Here’s how this went down. I parked, driving a rental, no way I know the plate number so I take a phone pic of it and walk towards the corner where the machine to get a ticket is.

Phones are real good about tome stamping things.. so with the screenshot I just took you can see that I took the picture at 2:50 PM January 18, 2020

Having to reset my password, it was 2:56 as I was selecting to pay for 3 hours of parking.

Meaning that my 3 hours would expire at 5:58
I happened to see “parking enforcement” has already locked on a boot and was taking pictures of my rental.

In the many years of coming to Nashville, these were definitely the very least friendly of the THOUSANDS of people I’ve met here over the years.

They Insisted that somehow, in like either superhero mode or at least Olympic pace speed walking, that I was across the street a block away and rushed back when I saw them without being even barely out of breath. Ha!

That last picture is me paying $95 to get the boot off from the 10 minutes that this entire exchange took place.

My receipt is exactly 3:00 we’ll and 44 seconds...

Thanks, but no thanks, there’s nothing at all on planet Earth worth seeing that costs $570/hr parking!!!!!

“Pardon my French”... but THIS SHIT SHOULD BE ILLEGAL!!!!

#NashvilleParkingEnforcement #PremiereParking #ParkMobile #GangstaPolitics

Hurricane Harvey Week Update - 9/3/17

First off,

My family and I are all OK, zero water and zero damage to our home/property and thanks be to God, not anything more than a few dozen fire ant bites on my feet and lower legs can be directly attributed to Hurricane Harvey.
Next, if you want to know where/who you can contact to offer assistance, please go through VOAD. These are all some really incredibly people with a tremendous gift for both consoling the victims and mobilizing with maximum effectiveness the volunteers.

Thursday 08/24/17

Going back to during Harvey's approach, I was put in a position that I have never been in, and I'm talking going back as far as I can remember growing up in South of I-10 Louisiana. I was up in Pittsburgh, PA for business meetings the week before Harvey hit, zero chance to do any of the normal preparations.

What that changed up for me was my approach. As I was flying in looking at the outer bands close to 200 miles from the center, I knew this would be a very long lasting event.

This was the cloud cover up around Lufkin/Nacadoches on the flight in Thursday afternoon.

I decided that without time to prepare as I would normally do, and after being stuck inside offices and airports for 3 out of the last 4 weeks, that I was going to head way out of harms way for this one. I thought I'd have a nice mini vacation a weekend away up on a lake!

Friday 08/25/17

I looked into accommodations for up around Caddo Lake. I had passed through there a few years ago and knew that it would be perfect for a video that our HR asked for of us doing what we liked to do away from work. Once I got the email that Mass would be cancelled, my only obligation to stay in Houston was relieved, so I booked my room "The Grandma Room" at Shady Glades Resort up in, of all places Uncertain, TX. I booked for Saturday and Sunday night, thinking surely things would have cleared out by Monday and I could drive home then.

Saturday 08/26/17

After I loaded up, between heavy showers;  a few changes of clothes, one decent set (Polo and khakis and loafers, in case I had to stop for some business meetings along the way back home Monday, an accordion, a guitar, my small boat and lots of camera and video gear I took off around 7:30 Saturday morning.

Beltway 8 up near IAH was already flooded about 6-8" deep near the middle of the road, that was Gut Check #1 (I'll try to keep count!). I made it through that fine, but there was puddling and ponding on the roads up 59 and just blinding torrential rain all the way through Livingston. Keep in mind Livingston is about 250 miles from where the center of Harvey hit. TWO HUNDRED FIFTY MILES!!!  That's a HUGE storm! Growing up we used to drive "only" about 80 miles to be out of harms way.

After stopping for some coffee in Lufkin, I had Gut Check #2. The Wal-Mart parking lot was half full with parked and set up camper trailers, with people glued to their screens watching for updates. Most of the drive thus far I was trying to convince myself that I couldn't take on a storm, especially one this big by myself, that all that stuff I left behind was just stuff. After seeing all those people there that most likely wouldn't have anything to come home to, I did decide and stuck with the decision to have a good weekend and not worry at all about what I couldn't control anyways. I know now that was the 2nd best decision I made all weekend, with the 1st being to leave and be well out of harms way.

I arrive at Shady Glades around mid day and that "Grandma Room" really reminded me of Maw Maw Snow White, whom we spent every hurricane with growing up whether we rode them out at her house or picked her up and went up to aunt Bonnie's in Anacoco.




I realized right away that I was among some of the nicest salt of the earth people anywhere upon learning the system for checking in (I wont get into specifics to keep it safe). When I went to ask about the boat launch fees the lady that runs the cafe was like "Are you staying here?" I replied yes. She made it seem I was crazy for asking that there were no launch fees and stated "heck, you can just leave your boat in my slip down there, 3rd one on the right, I wont need it this week."

The weather up there was gorgeous as it should be with a very strong low pressure a few hundred miles away.

I grab my camera gear and accordion and set off into the lake to scout a good spot to make some silly videos of me playing accordion with the trademark giant cypress draped with spanish moss in the background. I didn't have to go far, in fact I didn't even have to change boat lanes to find a great spot. I set up and started recording Tabasco Fisco. I noticed a party barge approaching pretty quick and kept hoping I could finish the song before they swamped me. It actually made me a little nervous as I was in the middle of the lane. 

I soon realized I was foolish to already have forgotten how "salt of the earth" these people were up here. As they pull up to me they say "We got beer! All kinds of beer, you want one? Please play us another song or two! We love Cajun music and never dreamed in all our wild adventures we'd ever stumble upon someone playing accordion on the lake!"

Let's just say we reached an agreement and I tied up to them and played them some songs for probably half an hour.

I don't remember all their names, but Jimmy is the captain, and Betsy is the gal with the hat that actually somehow in some capacity works with Richard LeBeouf selling Kubota tractors..? I found out when hanging out with them at the Lighthouse Grocery & Bar that night. Rather than ruin my video, it actually makes it better, I think. After the lake good quesadillas and a few barley pops at the Lighthouse and I was good to sleep well!

Sunday 08/27/17

About oh, 4:00 Sunday morning I woke up to a ugly grinding like sound. Gut Check #3 The power had gone out and somehow the GoPro Karma grip turns on when power is lost and it couldn't stabilize because it was resting on the counter and it kept trying. That changed my plans for being on the water at Sunrise, so I moved to plan B.. try to get more rest as it made zero difference whether my eyes were open or closed, there was ZERO light and ZERO sounds. 

When daylight arrived, I was able to "clean up" and get dressed and I decided after watching CNN all Saturday night seeing how dire the situation on the coast was, that I'd go to Mass to pray for the people in Harvey's path, and give thanks for me getting way out of his path! I found the closest Mass 13 Miles or so in Jefferson TX in the Mass Times website and headed over.

Back to that Maw Maw/Grandma theme. The parish in Jefferson is Immaculate Conception (The same as Morse where Maw Maw drug all her grandchildren to go to Mass growing up)

This was a BEAUTIFUL OLD parish! 1836, restored in 2013 and talk about nice people. I ended up having coffee and donuts with the pastor and 30 parishioners after Mass. 

The Altar:

This is a probably 40 ft x 20 ft mural on the cieling;

This is a stained glass preserved from the original building and incorporated into the remodel

How you like that 2nd Verse! 

After visiting for about an hour I decided to have local lunch then head back and get out on the lake. Man, I think Joseph's Riverport BBQ must have had the most tender super delicious brisket I've ever had in my life! 

I get back out on the lake and it was a lot less crowded, so I start working on some of my other video ideas. After all I like to go capture images of Nature a lot as well as play music. 

Here's my Flickr Gallery from the lake. Caddo Lake photos




I'm pretty exhausted physically and emotionally at this point, so I retire early thinking I'll get some more lake time in the morning then head towards home.

Monday 08/28/17

The lake was as calm and quite as I'd ever seen any lake. I went cruising around and it was so quiet I didn't even start the gas motor, just cruised around with the trolling motor. I did something else I've never done. I prayed a Rosary out there on the lake, man was that a cool experience. Then while going into some spots I hadn't yet explored, I found an awesome spot to shoot some more videos. Here's some raw footage (Pardon the restarts);

As I had some how broke one of the bunk boards, I ended up having to drive 18 or so miles to find a hardware store, get some aluminum angle iron and gorilla tape to stiffen it up enough for the trip home. As I'm patching up the trailer the owners of the resort come around the corner and offer to let me stay another night after realizing I had a Houston address. Super nice folks! 

After I fix that up I loaded up the boat and stopped in for lunch at the Cafe before heading to College station, which was as far as I knew I could maybe get with all the road closures. I had a MONSTER (HALF ORDER) Chicken Fried Steak that was "slap ya mama" delicious. 

Once I was finished The lady that runs the cafe, perhaps being extra local on purpose goes "So, Mr. Accordion Man, you gonna play us a little? I ain't never heard no real live Cajun accordion" So I play a little and the patrons really enjoyed it. They were mostly the folks that run the nearby state park and were talking about how fast the RV spots and cabins rented out with people coming North. After I played them a little, she knew I had paid attention when she mentioned earlier that she'd love to hear Amazing Grace on accordion, so I played that too! 

I ended Monday after a pretty long drive with a few detours in College Station and amazingly the rain was in all the same spots it was when I drove up Saturday, but this time most of the highway looked like a causeway as there was water water as far as the eye could see on both sides of the highway for more than half of the drive from Lufkin to College Station.

I was confident Buc-Ee's in Madisonville would have gas and they did, so I stopped there. Gut Check # 4 LOTs of boats there re-fueling or fueling up to head in. Thinking that's where I was going, some guys from Dallas come up to me "Man! That's a small boat and a small motor! Be VERY careful! We almost flipped the boat a few times and ours is much bigger! Them people are so desperate for help though! Be CAREFUL!" There was probably 30 boats and trucks, and another 20 or so horse/cattle trailers. Talk about surreal.

When I finally made it to the hotel in College Station, there was a line that never went away, in fact the same people were still checking people in the next morning when I decided to try to get home and free up the room I had. 

Tuesday 08/29/17

The drive from College Station took 2x the normal time as I had to slow down for water on the road a few times, and go almost to Katy to zig zag back up to my neighborhood. Gut Check # 5 As I approach the Little York intersection with Hwy 6 I hear a Constable honking at me. I thought I was like dragging a dog or something with how frantic she was honking. I roll down the window and she says "Are you looking to help with the rescues?!?!?!" I said maybe later, officer, I was out of town and need to make sure I still have a house, first". She gives me a "OK, Good Luck Babe" and zooms off. Little did I know half a mile further down Little York when I went to turn North to get to my neighborhood, there were some 20+ empty boat trailers, Military trucks, people galore, etc getting people out of their homes just 2 neighborhoods South of mine. 

Arriving back home

As I pulled into my dry streets neighborhood and saw zero damage anywhere, and my house had no signs at all that there was ever a bad storm. I must have said "Glory to God!" and "Thanks be to God" 150 times walking around looking for damage and finding none. 

Shifting gears, I then unloaded all of my weekend trip gear, took the gas motor off and inflated my tube, threw the Nucanoe on top and headed down the street to help.

I searched around and found this article on CNN Money on how the Cajun Navy and similar groups were organizing and communicating.

Stranded hurricane survivors use Zello app to get help

Gut Check # 6 It was really aggravating that so many people were there to help and there was zero public officials to coordinate, tell boats where to go, keep track of how many boats were in there and so forth. But there were still people looking for "rescue"

If any public official reads this;

Learn and build from the efficiency of the Cajun Navy;

• Create a registry of boat owners willing to help
• Have a list of people, a few from each area (such as HOA presidents etc) that can coordinate efforts, having most people's contact info already
• Perhaps offer free rescue training to people willing to help
• Have at least one set of road barricade stuff stored in low lying areas
• Have Zello channels set up per zones with trained dispatchers 

As the sun set, I headed home really exhausted, and still a bit aggravated at the lack of organization with so many lives at stake, but it was dinner and pass out sleeping.

Wednesday 08/30/17

It appeared that there was way more organization, with a very substantial police (Sherriff's) presence. I jumped in to help, but couldn't help but notice the Sherrifs deputies were just sort of sitting there, WITH TWO AIRBOATS! After a couple of hours of them sitting there, Sherriff Gonzalez shows up and waves, shakes hands etc thanking all the volunteers, etc which felt nice. THEN, Anderson Cooper shows up and it was very clear at that moment, that was precisely why all the deputies were there. Not to protect and serve, but to take the Sherriff and Anderson around the neighborhood for a tour/interview. Man was this deflating (Pun Intended)!

Hey, At least it's better than Jim Cantore showing up!

KHOU Crew bribing boaters with water and gas to take them into the neighborhood

.

I then get beyond aggravated when I realize that several people that were "rescued" simply walked to the store to buy snacks and drinks and were then wanting the boaters to take them back to their house in the flooded neighborhood! What AUDACITY! right! But before I could call it quits, I had to find out where the last boat, my buddies Bobby and Jason were. Everyone else had loaded up and left. I launched my NuCanoe and did what I honestly hope I never ever have the chance to do again.. Go kayaking down W. Little York and into the colonies.

Pushing boats is a pretty good workout though!

Many thanks to all the 50-60 guys that came into our area from all over Texas, Louisiana and I even saw a boat with NY numbers on it out there getting people out. It was awesomely refreshing that everyone was helping out and nobody cared at all what color anyone's skin was, or who they voted for, for a few days!

I guess I could say I saved a life, but it had nothing to do with water. Some young naive guy bought a survival pack/tool on Amazon, I assume and was walking around with the axe end facing his neck, zip tied to the left shoulder strap. We actually had to convince him to let me cut them zip ties so that if he slipped and fell he wouldn't cut his own head off, slice a jugular or break his neck and paralyze himself.

Thursday 08/31/17

Almost half back to normal in our neighborhood, despite most of Houston being in chaos, and those poor good folks over in Port Arthur and Beaumont getting flooded deeper and faster and yet Houston is getting all the attention. I drove up to Waco to get Baby Bear Kib and bring her back for her Dr Appt Friday. 

I packed a marine cooler and filled it with groceries in College Station on the way back. There were already long lines at the gas pumps there and many of the shelves at the HEB even in College Station were bare.

End of blog.. for now.. things are 3/4 normal and relatively calm.

Stay safe, be prepared, and show love, have patience and help someone!

TK

Do lyrics need to be accurate?

I've been listening really close to lyrics lately and I can't help but wonder.. doesn't anybody check lyrics for accuracy these days?

We get PLENTY of feedback when a word seems out of place or a line doesn't quite add up, is out of sequence, etc. at NSAI or similar songwriter meetings for critique/feedback.

Here's a couple of examples;

Rodney Atkins "Take a Back Road" "..A little George Strait 1982" uh.. yeah.. that was Randy Travis that sang  "1982"

And then.. there's "Farmer's Daughter" I know.. it seems I'm picking on Rodney or the great writers Marv Green, Rhett Akins, Ben Hayslip and Luke Laird but I'm not.. it's just the two best examples from really popular songs right now.

Have a listen.. "Sweatin like a dog" Dog's don't really sweat.. they pant. I know they sweat some through the glands in their feet, but if you are "sweating like a dog" you ain't doing much at all. It would be just as easy to say hog, Hogs do indeed sweat and hogs are on farms.. etc... so why "dog".

Anyways, my point is if all songwriters get beat up so bad by peers all along the way, how is it possible that songs with ridiculously incorrect statements get major cuts without getting caught in the process?

Bueller?

STS-135 Quick Facts

I was just thinking about a 1 paragraph mission summary for STS-135 in layman's terms.

If I was a commander.. I'd be like OK, let me see if I got this correct (rough and probably incorrect math)You want me to take this 122 ft long brick with an 80 ft wingspan, strapped to 1 MILLION lbs of rocket fuel providing 5.2 MILLION lbs of thrust.. and fly it at 17,000 miles per hour for 3 days, then do back flip and park it at a moving airport gate, that is oh.. 200 miles above the earth drop off some supplies and a year's worth of food....? Sure! no problem!

http://www.frontiernet.net/~docbob/shuttle.htm

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/135_flash/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacecraft_Docking_and_Berthing_Mechanisms

http://www.spaceflight101.com/sts-135-flight-day-3-photos.html

Shelter Me - a "Psalm" by Tab Benoit

UPDATE: Nobody corrected me, but in the mood of copyrighting, registering songs with ASCAP, etc... I searched for the writers/composers and discovered this song incredibly stuck in my head.. still was the creative work of Buddy and Julie Miller Check them out and follow them for some good stuff!

Preach it brother Tab!

This post is dedicated to all in the flood path even tougher than Tab Benoit's Tele Tone! Stay Dry, Y'all!

If you never listened to the lyrics.. you can read them in this note. It almost reads like a Psalm if you as me.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqzD92tUowY


Shelter Me – Tab Benoit

The Earth can shake, the sky come down, The mountains all fall to the ground.
But I will fear, none of these things. Shelter me, Lord underneath Your wings

Dark Waters rise, and thunder pounds, the wheels of war are going round,
And all the walls are crumbling
Shelter me Lord, underneath Your Wings. Shelter me Lord underneath Your wings

Hide me underneath Your wings. Hide me deep inside Your heart.
In Your refuge – cover me
The world can shake, but Lord I’m making You my hiding place.

The wind can blow, the rain can pour. The deluge breaks, the tempest roars, but in the storm my spirit sings oh shelter me Lord underneath Your wing. Shelter me Lord underneath Your wing.

Hide me underneath Your wings. Hide me deep inside Your heart.
In Your refuge, cover me.
The world can shake, but Lord I’m making You my hiding place.

Now on the day, You call for me. Someday when time, no more shall be.
I’ll say death, where is your sting? Shelter me Lord underneath Your wing
Shelter me Lord, underneath Your wing.

New life to old instrument friend the Tele-P-Rail Project

So after having my ole Tele Plus since oh.. 1992/1993 ish.. (I remember the fight with my new bride back then, but can't pin down the month and year I picked it up from Guitar and Banjo Studio in Beaumont.) I decided rather than start from scratch with a new project or search the world over for what I really wanted to try.. I'd modify the ole pal and see what I could get.

Here's the shopping list

Seymour Duncan P-Rails

Seymour Duncan Triple Shot

D'Addario /Planet Waves - Auto-Trim Locking Tuners

Mighty Mite Telecaster Bridge for Humbucker

An On-Off-On 3 way to replace the ON-ON-ON mini toggle

And a WHOLE BUNCH of Patience!

Here's how it ended up going;

I first thought I'd just change the Red-Dually in the bridge to a P-Rail.. and the neck pup to a Vintage Rail. I loved the tone of both and thought it might work..? HA! Nowhere near balance-able.. and MAN that P-Rail really whooped the V-Rail in tone. That project was really rough. I ended up spending oh.. $60 in mounting hardware parts.. Aluminum Flat bar, Wall Receptacle cover plates.. you name it.. I'm convinced that there is NOT on the market any mounting plate for a Tele-Plus to accept a standard humbucker. But the tone of the P-Rail was so inspiring, I set off on this quest.

I get all the stuff in.. check it out quickly and get started by pulling of the fairly brand new strings that I know I'll never get back through the body holes so I get over wasting brand new Elixirs and proceed.

Tuners 1st. - What..? I have to drill into the head....? They don't have the little posts that go into the drilled holes..? argh.. OK.. I get over that, measure twice, twice..and mount them. Some are bigger than others..? Or the tuner holes in the neck are smaller as the strings get smaller..?

So next I start removing the bridge.. It seems like it was almost ready to fall off.. it came off so easily. I set the new one on there and hardly a hole lines up.. Uh.. D'Oh...? UHM...? After some thinking.. I come up with "well, stupid is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.. right..?" swallow a few lumps.. and mark and drill... I get it mounted and split the difference on the string holes, keeping the assembly centered. This takes WAY WAY longer than I expected, but overall not to bad thinking all along.. 5 bridge screws are better than 3..? Right..?

I go to mount the Bridge P-Rail in the bridge plate.. Uh.. Oh Oh.. it bottoms out in the routed hole... HMM... and drilling holes for the Triple Shot in the bridge plate looks way trickier than I'm in the mood for.. I trim springs and mounting screws, get it all mounted and move on to the pick guard. I went cheap on this (like $12 delivered cheap on EBay) because I'm not real sure I'll keep the set up, etc.. it's about 75% hit or miss on the pick guard as far as hole lining up. The Volume/Tone curved out notch is about 1/4" off and the bridge notch out isn't even close for this particular bridge.. so it's Dremel time; cutting wheel, sanding drum and straight bit.. (I've since determined in a few to 6 months when I'll be due to change the strings.. I'll "Splurge" on a $25 Warmoth cut to specs pickguard!)

I get all that to fit, then the mounting screws for the Triple Shot extend out over the body routing..? Uhm..? HMM.. trim, hot melt glue.. and Voila..

Time to solder.. the triple shot is extremely easy once mounted.. and the 3 way saved the day since the triple shot on the bridge plate might be another 4 hour project.. maybe when I change that pickguard, so I can series/Parallel it as well..?

About 7 hours.. after starting this adventure.. I start to string her up MAN! These auto-Trim tuners are SWEET! Snip Snip as you tighten up the 1st half round.. I just put the Big E and thought.. let me make sure this works electronically before wasting a set.. so I plug it in..

WHOAH NELLIE! Amazing P-90 and single coil tones galore.. SWEET! It WORKED! haha..

I string the rest up dial in the intonation and height, etc.. and buzz buzz buzz... Uh Oh... (Crickets sounding).. Then I realize if I loosen the tuners and make them coil down instead of up.. I get the right action on the nut to end the buzzing.. Finish up the set up using the strobe tuner in Presonus StudioOne.. CHA CHING!!! I jam on it for almost an hour. Talk about some Blues Funk bite and grind.. and chime for weeks! It's like my old friend got a new voice! Plays the same as it has for 20 years.. but sings so much better!

And I have effectively eliminated probably all excuses for not having any tone I could dream I want for a project..

Sounds Great! Don't you agree..?

P-Rails Tele Testin' by TommyKib

If you are about to embark on a similar adventure.. I hop this blog post helps save you time and money.. but I could write 3 more blogs on what I learned through this project.. so hit me up if you want to chat about it.

Happy pickin' and God Bless!

TK

Amplitube Fender vs 64Bit DAW

I was hooked on the Amplitube Fender sound the night the iPad app came out. This thing does sound like some killer Fender amps for a mere $15! Provided you already have the $39.99 iRig. I knew right then that these guys know what Fender is supposed to sound like, and Fender didn't just license anyone. It was a bit of a no brainer for me when I got emailed a coupon code for Amplitube Fender for less than Half Price

Now I'm not hesitant at all to say I REALLY LOVE Presonus Studio One Pro DAW after spending more $$ than I care to admit, on Cubase, Sonar, Ableton, Roland, various I/O Devices.. etc.. The one window idea and straight upload to SoundCloud were pretty much a dream come true for my efficiency wishes.

So I buy the Amplitube Fender, install it.. open up StudioOne Pro 64 Bit.. and Nothing! NADA, ZILCH.. not a single hint of the Amplitube Fender VST, despite pointing at the folders more than once. HMM...? I open up Sonar 8.5 for the 1st time in several months, and shabang.. it's right there and sounds GREAT.. DARNIT! I think.. I really want to use it in StudioOne... HMM.. Standalone..? Do I want to be bouncing around to get this PERFECT SWEET TONE!?!?!

So I read up on the forums and sure enough. I have to used StudioOne in the 32 Bit variety if I want to have Amplitube as a plug in.

A quick install and one activation code less.. Voila! Works great.. and WHOAH.. now all these Sonar Producer edition plugins will work as well..? Really...? COOL!

So Here's the difference... with a pretty boring Chord variation I just pulled out of a song I'm working on.

Guitar Rig LE's Clean Twang

and here's the Amplitube Fender Clean Twin version

Those are both presets I just picked.. so I'm feeling pretty excited about having all the Fender Amp and Effects Pedals and Cabinets in my arsenal now.

Happy picking, or strummin' or pluckin...

Tommy