July 7, 2019 – It has been a surprisingly busy July 4th long weekend for me. Thursday I had my guitar lesson. I have to say, I really look forward to it. It’s only the second one, but I really do love it. It’s a good thing to do too because no matter how much I’ve tried to teach myself, there’s no substitute for having someone’s help. I appreciate it so very much, and I think I’m going to actually get somewhere now. With only two lessons in, I don’t think I’m in any place to call myself good yet, or even to comment about what I’m learning, but I’m excited. And I even really look forward to practicing. Plus, my teacher is the sweetest human being on the planet, it makes it less intimidating to play in front of someone, which doesn’t come that easy to me.
After my lesson on the 4th, which was in the morning (poor rocker guitar teacher having to get up that early, but I am grateful that he did), I spent the afternoon placing boxes onto the shelves I built last weekend. The shelves still have tons of room too, so this project is going to work. I have a table full of papers to make into files, and then my house should be fully clean. I think that will lead to even more guitar playing, which is a total bonus.
Then came two days of working on this series of papers for literally the most ungrateful person I’ve ever worked for. Those papers will be followed up with comments, which is the technical term for people’s requested changes and edits, but at least the initial drafting part is out of the way. The ungrateful person texted each day at times between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. I don’t know what it is, but there are some people who simply can’t leave me be on a holiday. Then came today.
It’s Sunday, so that means I check the music charts – something I’ve done pretty much every week since I was a teenager when checking the charts meant you had to listen to a countdown show. Now, with the Internet, I just check the Billboard site. I’ve been watching two charts and positions. One is the number one pop song; I want to see what blows Old Town Road out of the spot. But I have to wait because it’s still number 1, for the 13th week now, out of its 17 weeks on the chart. That song is unstoppable! The second thing I’m watching, and I’ve been doing it for three weeks since I first heard the other song I’m watching on alternative radio. And it’s my girl, Lana Del Rey, with her cover of Sublime’s song, Doin’ Time. The song has steadily climbed from 20-something when I first saw it on the alternative chart to 19 last week, and this week (drum roll please), Lana is now 16! I so want her to get into the top 10. Mind you, this is the alternative singles chart, not the Hot 100 (pop singles) chart, but other than the remix of Summertime Sadness from something like 2012, Lana hasn’t been on the radio or the charts. I get so happy when I hear her on the radio! And I’m super happy to see her on the charts. Plus, I think her going the alternative rock route is a good thing too.
My other Sunday activity was my 7-hour introductory welding class. There were nine people in it, and like elementary school’s what did you do over the summer question, the class started with us introducing ourselves and saying why we are taking welding class. There were three engineers, and I think I’m starting to learn why engineers bother my brother so much; out of everyone there, nobody said what their job was or what their school was, just the engineers. The reason for each of them being there was that they wanted to learn how to build things. Honestly, I can’t wait to tell my brother I finally understand, my brother being a person who knows innately how to build things has trouble with people who are paid to design things that those people can’t build. Now I think I see his point.
I was teamed with one of them, an engineer about my age, and when I got the first weld that was correctly done, the task being to weld in a line on one sheet of thin steel, he was surprised. What? You think I can’t build it because I can’t design it?
Our task after the welded lines was to take two sheets of the metal and construct a pillow. That took hours of instruction, and for this we had our own station – no partner.
When each of our metal welded pillows turned out, even mine, the engineer partner I had at the start of the class approached me to ask about my “metal houses”. You see, when we introduced ourselves, and said “why welding”, most people had a very normal reason for being there, wanting to build art, or tables, and of course, the engineers all wanting to learn how to building something. Then there was me. Placed in the middle of everyone, I said my name, and a very simple sentence: “I started buying equipment in 2010; one of those is a welder, and I want to be able to use it, plus I have land and I want to build fences and metal houses there.” After the class, and after the test to see if the pillow would inflate when pressure was applied to a screw we welded onto a plate in the middle, he asked what my metal houses will be like. I said metal beams, some concrete in the structure and metal. He said “no drywall”. I said no, not structural drywall. No drywall. I said the words like a robot, no drywall. I told him I can see them in my mind; I just want to be able to build them, which will take some time, given my beginning skill level. I could see this quizzical look in his face. I don’t know what it meant.
What does any of this welding stuff have to do with music? I’m sure you’re wondering. So I’ll tell you.
The welding masks supplied by the place each had a sticker of a particular rock band on them. AC-DC was one, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, those were left when I chose mine. And then off to the side was a helmet with many stickers on it, all based on the band Ratt. I thought that helmet seemed particularly funny. I wanted the helmet with a rat and with the words Ratt on the front. I thought a person who wants to build fences and metal houses needed a helmet with a rat.
One of the two instructors, who was the one from my initial phone call, commented about the Ratt helmet. He asked what songs Ratt does. Yeah, he was pretty young… I said Lay it Down, Round and Round, then I couldn’t think of any more. He got out his trusty millennial phone and looked up Ratt songs. There were a few more of Ratt’s hits that popped up, prompting me to say oh yeah, and then, surprising me, he took his phone over to the sound system and plugged it in. Then, for the rest of the class session, we heard Ratt songs over and over. Turns out that really was a good helmet choice.