Rainy Daze

Like this submerged leaf, our bicycle riding dreams are drowning here in Iowa.

I have a co-worker named Joe who was disgusted with the wet weather a while back. He said something to the effect of the following,"Yeah, well the rest of the Fall will probably be like that and we'll be flooded and everything will suck."

I think Joe must be a wizard or something. We got over 2 inches of rain on Tuesday and it rained again on Wednesday too. Mountain bike or off road? fageddaboudit. Not happening anytime soon, that's for sure. Dang it Joe! I wish you weren't right!

Of course, I just started the "Guitar Ted Lube-Off" with the "dry" styled lubes because, well, when I started the idea it had been dry. Ever since then it has been rainy. Great timing!

Maybe it's all my fault........Nah!

It's just weather. It is what it is. And what it is doesn't make for good bicycling weather. So, I have found a couple of other things to keep myself occupied in these trying times. One of those things has been the study of electronics. Not just any ol' electronics, but vacuum tube technology. You know.....guitars need amplifiers, and the best sounding ones are still using vacuum tubes. (British folk call 'em "valves". )

I happen to own three tube amps for guitar and two of them need servicing. So, instead of taking them into the local tech, (whom I haven't had the best of luck with), I am learning how to do this stuff myself. You Tube is a wonderful thing, and there is even a podcast I listen to called "The Truth About Vintage Amps with Skip Simmons". It's all pretty informative, and I highly recommend the podcast. It's humorous, and Skip doles out recipes, musical artist stories, music listening recommendations, and even family advice.

It's been fun to learn something new, and now I am getting down to getting down here soon. I've got one major piece of equipment to procure yet, and I need to make one other one, and then I'll be off soldering, measuring voltages, and hopefully making my amps sing again.

Stay tuned.......