Hey the good news is that the dreaded drought has been at least temporarily beaten into submission. Other than that, it hasn’t been a great winter for me.
Supposedly, I come from hardy stock. I grew up in a place where early on I learned the meaning of the term “lake effect”. I was ” borned” as Ralph would say just a few miles north of Buffalo and only a fewer miles east (that’s right east) of Canada in a burg you may of heard of, Niagara Falls. We knew what winter was. Chains heck, we had studded snow tires on the family station wagon from November through April. We counted on a week of snow days every winter so we could throw snowballs at cars and trucks.
So you think with that kind of conditioning, I could handle a little rain and temperatures in the 40’s that we got this year in the Bay Area. Back then, we’d a thought it was spring if it got to 40 degrees. I don’t know when it happened but somewhere, sometime along the way I got soft.
Truth be told, the supposed hardy stock I came from and our Canadian neighbors all would flee or dream of fleeing to Florida for as much of the winter as you could manage. It was kind of a status symbol; the longer you stayed in Florida the more status you had.
Anyhow this softness of my formerly hardy stock played into a month of literally no music for me. I missed every event and all my jams.
Now, did a few pretty good size rainstorms and a little cold temperature cause all that? Well it did along with the many viral and bacterial afflictions that winter and particularly this winter brought. Shoot, I even had all my shots. Call it what you like, I’m just blaming winter
.
There were many bluegrass or old time events this January that I am betting that many of you attended. Can you say Great 48? Well I had been planning all fall to attend most of the ones you are thinking of but let me tell you how many I got to…….nada. I didn’t even have a shot of tequila all month. I’m still blaming winter.
Another causality of this goodness forsaken winter were my calluses. Not playing or practicing (don’t get me started, woodshedding, rehearsals, practice, whatever) will disappear your calluses in no time flat. I’m telling you it is winter.
Thankfully it is February now and in theory, I should being doing some better. I know it is still winter but the days are longer and the sun (if there is any) doesn’t set until 5:30. By President’s Day it will be close to 6:00 before it gets dark. Longer days and wonder drugs are changing my disposition.
This Sunday, I’m planning to go jam at the Santa Clara Valley Fiddlers Association in San Jose. I hope all you winter lovers will be there too. Don’t worry I’m not contagious.
Catch you next month.
