Ever Stolen a VCR and Other Thoughts on Crime...

 I used to get the news each morning while driving to work by listening to NPR.I find it to be a good source and unlike some they do try to get the news right. On retirement I don't spend much morning time in the car anymore so I fell from that habit and the past couple of years the news has been all bad anyway so the three times a week delivery of The Lufkin Daily News and about three times a month of the New Yorker has been enough.  Last week though while on a morning drive I heard a couple of stories on radio that had enough contrast to mention. 

Seems in New York City the lead prosecutor in an investigation of Trump, the man and his finances resigned because he thought there was enough of a case to bring felony charges. Others thought not, but the case continues, just at a slower pace. I wish Trump a fair trial just as I would like if I sat before a jury of my pears here in Angelina County where everyone knows me just like everyone in New York knows Trump. When it comes to rich people I am kind of a camel through the eye of a needle guy. They say that's an easier thing to imagine than a rich guy getting into Heaven because on the way to amassing billions of dollars sometimes shady things are made to happen. They think that's what Trump, his people or his business might have done.

The second story was on the problem of catalytic converter theft in Shreveport, La. This had become so prevalent that a law was passed to license businesses that accept the converters for recycling the valuable  metals used in the manufacture because the owners acted "naïve" when people sold them ten converters a week. They also made it illegal for an individual to own or sell more than one converter that does not belong to the individual. Apparently you can make as much as $700 off a catalytic converter sale.   

I'm glad this law is pretty well spelled out because of the fact that I own two cars that are 9 and 11 years old respectively and my experiences with vehicles of this age tells me that it's possible that they could turn to slag in my driveway at anytime and with the purchase of a replacement could leave me owning three converters if I could not move the slag from the driveway. First violation $500 or 5 days in jail, second is $1000 nd 60 days. Apparently the expect you to go straight after two offenses.   

My other experience is that I could get less than $700 for a car that's turned to slag. 

All this, white collar crime and catalytic converter theft leads me to a song on an old Steve James album. I've seen Steve play, I own a how to play jug band mandolin VHS tape by him (probably turned to slag by now) and I attended a blues fingerpicking class he taught once.  My fingerpicking still does not sound like his. Someone told me the internet is down to tiktok attention spans so the song is about a rich guy that gets off light and a poor guy that goes to the pen for stealing a VCR. 

Both these things in the news stories are problems. Theft is theft whether a billion or $700 but I do know that singer songwriter Todd Snider has said that having nothing is almost like having it all. 

 Not my yard but a photo I made in New York City, 2019. Make what you will of it all. There are things to think about. 

 

            

Spring Catfish Slip Cork Bite is On...

If you are a regular reader of these blog fishing reports you know that we love to slip cork catfish in the shallows. The slip cork season is off to a slow start because of low lake levels leaving our favorite places too shallow. Not that catfish won't get up in the shallow water but they just like the added shade a couple of feet more gives them and they feel a bit more secure making it easier for our floating circus to sneak up on them. Lake is rising so things looking good. 

Just what we need, another picture of Cathy holding a catfish. Final total was 13 fish during a couple of hours fishing. She says she quit counting after number six, Ezra caught two and I guess I can claim at least a couple of the other five. 

I mentioned our circus. I guess 13 fish is pretty good considering this 22 month old howler monkey was on board. He really is a good child. He's obedient, does not really get into stuff like some children, learns very quickly and will eat food dropped on the ground so there is nothing wasted with him around. He does want to do whatever everybody else does so if his brother sat on the ice chest, touched a catfish, got a snack, turned the steering wheel of the boat he has to do it also. If he doesn't that's when the howler monkeyisms begin but I guess the catfish which were holding 4' deep and caught on punch bait don't mind.  

Note this photo. Eyes are not on the fish but Luca watches his brother to see what he does so he can do it. It's hard to be so little but he tries to keep up as best he can. 

There is something about your own fishing pole. Ezra has adopted this reel, which was on a different rod which got broken last spring but he still recognizes it as the one for him. He would not reel in a fish hooked on our poles saying things like, "My fish gone night night" or "my fish dead" till I finally hooked a couple for him on this rig and then he was ready to get in on the action.    

Fisherman with his catch says, "cheese." 

Thirteen channel cats, big spawning females. 

I mentioned he would eat anything that fell on the ground. Fry fish, dump it on the picnic table. He will get busy. 

 

Rig Run Down, a Romping Stomping 5 Watts of Bass Amp...

 If you are a guitar gear head you are probably familiar with the youtube series called rig run down. They look at equipment and talk to a guy about how he gets his guitar sound. One of my favorites was Oliver Wood of the Wood Brothers, who I have seen play live. Oliver said when he listened to records he said to himself "how does that guy get that sound, OK, I'm gonna do something else so I don't sound like that."

See, I have a formula. Take an expensive thing like a guitar, an amp, a pedal, a mic, whatever, they have stuff these days that I don't even know what it is, but you know, things that sound really good and combine it with some cheap thing. The cheap thing could be, guitar, amp or be any part of the sound chain and if you use more that one cheap thing well you suddenly are on the way to not sounding like anybody else. 

Of course you run the danger of sounding like ol mudbelly but if you sign up to cooking with formulas like this you are entering the realm of the righteous, the true believer and probably don't really care about how you sound. 

Here's the cheap thing I have used lately with my Fender acoustic bass guitar. It's a Blackstar Fly 3 mini amp. I have the guitar and bass version and use both for bass. It's about 5watts of bsttery powered amp and when used under the overhead choir mics at church I am very pleased with the sound.  

I think when I bought these they were about $60 bucks each. They have gone up to $75 so maybe not cheap anymore and $75 bucks worth of amp at the local pawn shop can be enough to get the sheriff out after a certain hour of the evening, at least that's what friends tell me. 

The guitar version has  distortion and delay. The delay sounds nice with the acoustic bass pizo pickups. I use the electric with passive pickups for practice around the house but haven't tried them live. Seems like they might not have the punch to carry as much. 

The features on the bass version. I know rule of thumb is if a guitar has a 25-50 watt amp a bass needs 100 to 500 watts. Overhead mic and accompanying acoustic guitars these babies work fine. There are extension cabs available. 

Here's a link if you are on facebook to how they sounded this weekend:

Link. 

There are lots of portable amps out there and some are quite expensive and some will pack some watts. I like these, cheap, different and works for me. 

As a coincidence to writing this blog it popped up in my memories that I had seen Oliver Wood and his brother Chris seven years ago today.   

Don't sound like anyone else. Make up a formula and make it work. 

  

Soundmen and Mixers Make Us Sound Loud...

"Soundmen and mixers make us sound loud, two girls dancing make us a crowd, sometimes we make money, sometimes we don't know..." is a line from a song by famous Tulsa songwriter J.J. Cale. I almost said old song but then some would say "mudbelly, you listening to that music from back in 2005 again?" and it might not be the best song example but we have a new soundboard at church and I'm scheduled to spend time this evening learning to work it.  

The old sound board was a big analog made in Mississippi Peavey and I'm gonna miss it even though there were those times that I spent an hour before Mass doing a sound check and then as the entrance song began little green gremlins began dancing on speaker main cables with poop stained feet and making unusual gain adjustments with little stinking hands and the whole system resounded in noises noises that could have brought down the walls of Jericho but instead caused the congregation to suspect that the operator was a total idiot. Fortunately the gremlins were excised or we just learned to get along. Hopefully I won't miss the analog layout as this new made in China board, while it has a good reputation contains a lot of multi function buttons where you have several actions for each fader depending on the button pushed.  

If you don't know about Catholic Liturgy it's a bit different from the praise band set up you might encounter at other churches. Songs you play have to go with the Readings for the day. Just because they liked "Yellow Rose of Texas" last time you played it does not make it acceptable and "Amazing Grace" is not Liturgical but nobody will gripe if it's played as a Recessional at a funeral. Without these big productions you are pretty much left with organ, piano, and acoustic (which came to wide use in the 60s when Latin was out and English was in because they were the easiest way to get the singing going) guitars. Most of the time when doing sound I run two or three mics for speakers and overhead choir micing. The old board and the new board for that matter are much overkill for this situation but it is time for some upgrades.   

Maybe I'll be up to speed by Friday as we play for a funeral Mass that day. I can recall years ago getting up to speed on the old board when there was a funeral and Cathy was unable to be there. I played guitar accompanying singers. I mean I play guitar but at church I play bass so am a bit unfamiliar with the guitar parts as I never play them. I used my hollow body electric because I felt comfortable on that instrument and went straight through the board. It was a small family gathering of people I did not know and afterwards I realized I only had the guitar through the monitors. I though, "bet that sounded great" but years later I met the family and without knowing it was me playing guitar that day they remarked how good the music had been for their loved one's funeral. Things have a way of working out.     

The other thing new at church is a camera to livestream on YouTube the Masses. During Covid things had been live on Facebook but it was just one view and this makes it able to follow the Mass as if present. I have been tutored on this and am the administrator of the youtube channel but I have yet to operate the broadcast. Here's a stream from the St. Patrick's Celebration Mass. Our choir is playing the music (overheard choir mics) and we are still using the old sound board. I was happy with the choir mix but there could be some adjustment to the speakers on individual mics if they begin to sing along with the group for balance. Maybe the new board will address this. Surly it's made for livestreaming which had not been invented when the old board was made. 

 

About that "sometimes we make money, sometimes we don't know..." line in the J.J. Cale song if you hit subscribe on this channel we might one day make another revenue stream for the church. 

I can make money if you read this blog and venmo me. 

 

I'm sure there is a spare tube around here somewhere or how do you like my tube....

 Rock musician Neil Young is said to own 489 1950s Fender Tweed Deluxe Amps. I'm not making this up. I read it somewhere. There is one particular Deluxe that he acquired sometime in the 1960s that has the voice of God. When Neil plays it the mountains crumble to dust, hippie chicks wearing long skirts, halter tops and ankle bells levitate, those with over active imaginations feel a tingle in their private parts and old Loup-Garou crosses the Sabine River into Texas looking for barbeque. 

Neil always plays that one Deluxe, reportedly no other has that sound he wants but he bought the other 488 just in case backup was required. These are all tube amps and with the war in Ukraine tube amp supplies are affected since most instrument amp tubes are made in Russia and under sanction, China where a factory burned, or Slovakia which as far as I know is still on our side. There are a few audio gear tubes still made in the USA but making tubes is a messy business environmentally and our laws are stricter than elsewhere. I'm sure Neil has a stock of tubes but I don't. 

I own three amps with tubes. Here you see the backside of a 1984 Champ II. It was a couple of years old when I bought it for $85 bucks and it's really not a typical Fender but more in the Marshall or Mesa camp. Clean ones go for $500. A few years ago a friend scavenged tubes from cheap ebay military gear and fixed me up with the 4 tubes this little hot head takes that are late 50s early 60s military spec vintage and tested brand new at the time. It's a little more raucous than I like but that's ok. I'll work with it.   

    

    

Here's a 1978 Fender Bassman 70. I scored it and the matching cabinet in a Nacogdoches pawn shop for $250-$300 (I forget) and excellent examples of this head now go for $700. It has 6 tubes and some years ago I installed a set of Groove Tubes. Fender owns GT and puts them in all amps these days but GT does not make tubes. Most tubes come from the Russian and Chinese plants and just have a famous name stamped on them.   

I had this amp out on the porch recently and stepped into the house for a moment leaving it and a four year old unsupervised. I returned to find it upended. No harm done but don't try this with your modeling amp with digital simulations. 

And here's the big boy. A 1968 Fender Bandmaster Reverb that I purchased in 1982 with original cab  for $400. Looks like these days the head only will set you back about $675 but prices are all over place on gear like this. It's old, it's big, it's heavy, you got to really want it. There are 8 tubes in this head. Looks like mostly RCAs and they might be pretty old. Seems I can recall an occasional but never a whole set.  

Since Covid I have not loaded a big tube amp and taken it anywhere. I load up the little old Texas Red Fender guitar amp and paired with a Sans Amp Bass Drive use it for acoustic bass accompanying acoustic guitars at church. Catch the sound of it on our livestream. I do own a Peavy bass amp that lives up at church for all to use and Morgan has my Fender solid state Ultra Chorus. That is an under sung amp that might become popular with a tube shortage.  

Chances are at this stage of the game I'll limp along with this old gear as long as I can. Western Electric, an American manufacturer of audio tubes is examining the guitar tube market due to current events and you can take a survey here so they have some feed back for business decisions. 

I might have a few odd tubes laying around. Like other things new ones are expensive and NOS still available is for the cork snifters. If I see Neil I'll ask for spares, made in USA please.  

Toughest Guy I Know...

It was a big weekend with Miguel's sister Crystal marrying Herbey. It was a great wedding, we played the music and a fine celebration of uniting the two families. The most outstanding event of the weekend to me was that Miguel Sr. walked his daughter down the isle and then danced with her at the reception afterwards. He's the toughest guy I know. 

If you are a long time blog reader or know the families involved you are familiar with the story. In 2013 Miguel Sr. had a minor stroke, spent a bit of time in rehab recovering and was almost ready to go home when he had a major stroke. When I say major I mean the kind that people do not recover from. 

After almost a year in hospitals and rehab facilities he came home. He's limited in mobility but has kept working and exercising each day. Most of you know I retired as a physical therapist assistant with experience in the neuro rehab field and I have seen steady incremental improvements that he has been able to achieve through his never quit, give up or lose faith attitude. Don Miguel described his daily routine to me this weekend and I doubt most of you do as much.    

Cathy says she is glad we were at the wedding rehearsal and found out he planned on walking his daughter down the isle. She said "I might have not been able to play the guitar for crying so hard at seeing this." As you see his wife Alejandra and family has stood by him the whole way. Miguel Sr. can even pitch in with some grandkid babysitting if everyone is fed and changed to set things up good.  

Father/Daughter dance makes it all worth it. 

Next time you think it's too hard, you want to quit and can't go on remind yourself to be like Don Miguel and get tough. You can make it.  

 

A Slow Fish Day But Fun for All Trip...

Fishing was not all that great today but a great time was had by all on this spring break lake trip. Joining me, Cathy, the grandkids Ezra and Luca were our old friend Janet and her granddaughter Journee. It's been awhile since Janet fished with us. It's not our first rodeo out of Hanks Creek as I think I have a photo album of a camping trip from the late 80s or early 90s that shows us and some big catfish.  

Sometimes when we take folks fishing it's occasionally us that does all the catching. Janet put it on the home team today with two fish including big fish. Nice for a guest to have the best luck. Me and Cathy were not skunked as we caught one each and Journee allowed how I had smallest fish honors.  

Two catfish were all they needed to make a good supper for themselves. Janet sent photos of the fish being fried up in her kitchen. I sent photos of the weenies I was grilling. 

I do know how to fix up a nice fishing lunch. 

I only caught one more fish than Journee but I think she had a good time. 

The lake is a bit low for our shallow water slip corking catfishing game. Spots that are usually holding fish at 6' are about 2' deep right now. I checked the fishing log from this time last year and about the same thing was going on. In 2021 the week after this brought rain and a rise that kept on until our spots were soon 15' deep. 

I'll probably hold on catfish till the water is up a bit.  

 

If It's Broke Fix It Because It Will Break Again and How to Pick a Guitar Color...

Have you ever got stuck on a author and just read every book he had ever written? Then one day you read something and thought to yourself, "he or she has written this idea before." Usually I took that as a signal that the writer was finished with what there was to say and that only the same old ground was left to cover. 

I have re-evaluated those thoughts and decided that really with any story there is always more to tell. Something always left to be opened up and examined. This was the case with my old Fender Precision bass guitar. The best I could establish is that the last time this guitar made a public appearance was 2015. I had not played in an electric band since then and mostly use my acoustic bass when back up acoustic guitar players. I set it on a stand and Cathy began working up new songs for an upcoming wedding. When it came time to join in I noticed the plug in jack had an intermittent connection.    

A quick check and the last time I blogged about this guitar was 2005. It's a 1983 model. That was told to me by a fellow who sold a 1963 Telecaster to an L.A. record producer for $25,000. It's safe to say he knows a good bit about Fender guitars. I'm a bit hazy about what year I got it as it was delivered by UPS and the guy stuck it in the backseat of a 1984 Rocket 88 I owned at the time because I was not at home. They call that NOS (new old stock) and 84-85 is a good area to ballpark my ownership. It's on about the third pickguard as I have played this guitar in churches, on flatbed trailers in the woods, at the VFW, and I think at your crawfish boil one time. Stuff gets broken with that kind of action.  

See the green and white wires? Like I say stuff gets broken and those wires had become shorter and crackly with a previous repairs. I spliced in to them and soldered everything back. Did not even loose a screw of all I took apart.  

Note the fading. My advice when buying Fender guitar is always buy a light color. They will age to a beautiful darker hue. It will help if you smoke and play a lot of places where BBQ or fried chicken is served. If it comes with the standard white pickguard replace with something you like better. With a light body finish almost anything will look good.   

Ok, so like a guitar to repair I have opened up this story again. Might not be much more to tell but I'd like to play in a greasy little band jamming on three chord Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins songs once more before I die. Which when you look at it like that would be another story that there is more of to tell. 

 

Another Good Show for Our Town...

I had a thought the other day. Probably not really original but something I picked up along the way while thinking about divisiveness in the world. I thought that every person in the world is in a room. Sometimes the rooms are full of people that think like you, look like you and have the same concerns you do. That's a pretty small room. There are bigger rooms though where the people don't all look alike, rooms where people might be concerned about people that they don't even know or situations that don't directly effect them.  

These thoughts were brought back to my mind after seeing the Bella Gaia performance brought to Lufkin and the Temple Theater by the Angelina Arts Alliance. Bella Gaia (Beautiful Earth) is a multi media show documenting the thoughts of astronauts on the interconnectedness of everything after viewing the Earth from space.       

The group, directed by the violinist and composer Kenji Williams combines NASA satellite imagery with his delayed violin sounds, soaring wordless vocals and keyboard by Kristin Hoffman, a 20 string Japanese harp called the koto played by Yumi Kurosawa, prerecorded music loops with percussion sounds, Sufi twirling and belly dancing. Anything with belly dancing is a hit with me. Extra points for ancient Egypt, the pyramids and India.     

If you have been gripping about the price of gas lately this is probably not the show for you. If you live in a big room and realize that what you do makes a difference and that you should care about things and people even though you might not have a horse it a particular race I think you will like this 

The video presentation includes space scenes and quotes by the astronauts about how viewing our blue green planet changed the way they thought about it and the people living there. On the big screen there were computer generated patterns of wind, water, air travel and smoke movements around the world. Many say it aint so but things are connected in ways we don't even understand well. The presentation mentioned that many species have gone extinct but man is the only one that can voluntary choose not to.      

Thanks again to the Angelina Arts Alliance for a great show. This is big world/big room stuff and it came to our hometown for the price of $11 a ticket.

 

 

The Great Sand Bass Round Up...

We called it the Great Sand Bass Round Up because after all shouldn't we use social media to make life grander than it is? You don't have to answer that question but in the words of one of the fishing guides based out of River Ridge Campground and Guide Service after viewing our catch "that's nine more than you had." 

Matt was the big winner with six fish, Cathy had two and you see the photo of my one. The sandbar at for bank fishing at River Ridge is kind of a feast or famine type spot. They will be there or not. Boat fisherman are reporting 25 fish limits for every person in the boat chasing up and down the river and when I ask the guide if his clients were catching them well he said, "oh yeah." 

Cathy holds up a big sand bass. Using light tackle and roadrunner jigs it's fun fishing. All but two fish we caught were spawning females full of eggs. 

The san bar is a good place to set up a lawn chair and sit was the river flows past. Being this is a privately owned guide operation, campground and boat launch there is what they call a day camper fee which increased from $10 to $15 (I don't think you can blame this on Joe Biden) since our last visit. Ice is still $2 if you need it and while the guides were hanging around this day it's an honor system for payments. Fill out your permit, get ice from the freezer, drop your money through a slot in the office door. There is a fish cleaning station available, bathrooms, cabins for rent and a few trailer hook ups 

I think it's worth it. The only other bank fisherman showed up as we were leaving, there were maybe a dozen boat launchers and we saw only occasional traffic on the river and the area is clean and trash free. The guides reported that there were 47 cars at a nearby public fishing access point.  

The river is low, which is generally good for the sand bass run but with the currents it's an ever changing environment of sand as the Sabine flows to Toledo Bend Reservoir. This is the sand piles that are cleared to keep the boat ramp open. 

If you operate a private boat ramp on the Sabine River I think you should consider investing in a dragline.  

We fried a few fillets but the highlight of the evening meal was fillets on the grill topped with Cajun Power Spaghetti Sauce, a few popcorn shrimp, diced Zummo's sausage, lime, Cajun seasoning and butter. I served mine on a bed of seasoned home fries.  

A guide trip out of River Ridge will run $350 for two people. Of course that's limits of fish. White bass of which I have eaten plenty of is kind of a course fish when compared to catfish or crappie but tasty when well seasoned and grilled or blackened and depending on the body of water may have a consumption advisory I don't really need a freezer full of these things. Nothing screams fish like frozen sand bass you caught in March thawed out for a July 4th fish fry which of course, I have done just trying to make life grander than it is.

 

State Park Fun...

One of my retirement hobbies has become math. I bought a brisket the other day and slow cooked it till it was falling apart. Delicious and an expensive cut of meat at $39 but I fed 10 people so by my calculations, I am after all a tuba player so make of that what you will, that was $3.90 a plate. I didn't figure in the cabbage and beans for side dishes but maybe I can take that huge expense off the taxes.

So I did the math on a State Park Yearly Pass, bought one, and at $70 I need to visit parks 17.2 times this year. Number one is in the book. This should not be a chore.     

One of my favorite state parks is Martin Dies Jr and it's Walnut Slough Paddling trail. Good fishing for pan fish but it was kind of slow on this trip. I caught 5 bass and 1 bream. I suspect the water temperatures are just below 60 degrees and once it rises a bit the crappie and bream will be willing to bite.  

Always scenic on the paddling trail. The bass hit plastics and that's always a thrill as I have never been much of a worm fisherman.  

I would guess it's been a fine bass spawn the past couple of years on B.A. Steinhagen or as my dad's generation called it "Dam B." Lots of small aggressive bass but they did run a bit bigger than our last trip.  

The canoeist makes a selfie. The water was up a bit from what I usually find on this lake despite the fact that Lake Sam Rayburn, just about 20 or so miles upstream is reporting 4' low. That meant that much of the visible cover I had been casting too was under water so there was a good bit of hanging up that I don't normally have.  

I'm not one of those internet influencers or anything but simple is good and I had a couple of new small Zebco reels, one of them with 4lb test and I did not hang and loose a lure. That light line was stout. Most fish were caught on a Charlie Brewer Crappie Slider product of some sort. There's lots of baits in the store but I have been using crappie sliders for about 35 years. Like the reliable Roadrunner it's a do nothing bait. You throw it out and reel it in and the only way you can fish it wrong is to not fish it slow. 

With temps predicted mild I expect this fishing to pick up soon.

So answer this question, why is there not a State Park on Sam Rayburn? It would be nice.