Strings and Things

Elderly Instruments (www.elderly.com) was a blast, as always. It is only an hour and a half away from my house but I limit my travel there since I tend to giggle like a schoolgirl when I go. They only had a few Alvarez guitars in stock. It seems that everyone is trying to order them but they just can't ship enough of them. The cheaper ones are available, but the Yairi and Artist Series are backordered. I ordered one anyway. It may or may not be here by Christmas. I have a 28year old Alvarez Yairi 12 string and love it dearly so I am fairly confident this new guitar will do well. I would have liked to have sat around with it in the shop for awhile -- ordering without playing is risky -- but there is a 30 day no cost return policy so I think I'm safe. The model I ordered is the AD60CK Dao Dreadnought.
It should be deep enough to sound good. If it isn't... back it goes. The only guitars I played that sounded as good as my old Alvarez and Yamaha (fair is fair -- they had nearly 30 years to mellow) were a $1000 Yamaha -- the Celtic series, and a Taylor that was tagged at $3150 after a hefty discount. They had the Taylor T5 -- and incredible guitar that plays fairly well unplugged and outstanding when plugged into an acoustic amp. The plain black went for $1515 and the incredible Koa T5 went for just over $2850. That puts them out of my reach, but I am going to dream about those guitars for a good long time. Here's a photo...
And it doesn't do it justice. Excuse me... I have to go wipe up some drool.... Okay, I'm back. Since I don't play the lottery and since we have quite a few mission commitments, the T5s will have to sit on the shelf for now. The Alvarez is discounted to $450 but the reviews I've read from owners have it playing as well as guitars two and threes times as expensive. We'll see....

I'll celebrate my wife's birthday with her on Sunday. She flies off to Texas on Tuesday to be with her family at her cousin's wedding. That means I'll be here without her on my 50th birthday (the 16th, since you asked. Only nine more shopping days!). I may drive down to see my parents for a few hours. That would get me out of the State and away from possible surprise parties or other birthday ambushes. The kids (aged 23 and almost 18) ask me what I want for my birthday. Of course, I could send them the photo of the T5 but that wouldn't be fair. Fact is, if I want something I find a way to get it. Birthdays were fun back when I had no money and gifts supplied stuff I could never get on my own. Now the whole fun in birthdays and Christmas is in giving stuff away and buying extravagant presents for other people. I can remember being frustrated when I'd ask my parents what they wanted and they said nothing. They just wanted me to be there with them. I couldn't believe it then. I do now.

Home at last. A couple of inches of snow lays on our lawn and roof. Our blow up Santa has fallen over and looks like he might be drunk. My parrot sat on my shoulder and made comments as I wrapped the gifts I brought home from Indiana. My wife and I went to Joe's Crab Shack for a quick dinner and now we're back, surrounded by four Christmas trees. My son is doing his homework having just returned from a kenpo karate workout.

It's good to be home.