Yesterday was great until Rick got here. When our dear friend pulled up in his miniature rental car it was sixty degrees outside and the sun was shining brightly. Life was good for about one hour and a half—then the sky suddenly clouded up, the winds became stronger and the temperature outside dropped eight degrees within five minutes, causing my smile to turn upside down. Not a pretty sight.
As the outside temperature continued to steadily drop outside, Rick, Tony and I had fun, inside The Cabin, catching up with each other's news. While Rick was telling us a funny story about Leisa and him, in Nicaragua, our dogs started barking, because of an incoming FedEx delivery truck. "Are you expecting a delivery?" Tony asked me.
"Yeah, but not until March 2nd," I said. Then Tony went outside to go greet the friendly driver. "Rick, this past Sunday I went on eBay and bought a mini-portable amp similar to one of Chet's many amps. It's a Roland Micro Cube and it is AC/DC and it has two watts of power. Chet's portable Roland AC/DC amp has 5 watts of power. His is much cooler and more expensive than mine. Mine is supposed to be delivered on Monday and I can't wait."
Then Tony came back inside, The Cabin, carrying an overly taped up package. "It's for you, Nancy." I looked at the label and I didn't know what it could be or who it was from. Then I grabbed our kitchen scissors and started trying to open the box and I was having trouble trying to cut through the many layers of tape.
"Hey, Cousin Nancy," Rick said, as he pulled out his pocketknife. "Let me open it up for you. It will take you all day to open it with those dull scissors." I stood back and watched Rick quickly cut through all of the red tape.
When Rick pulled it, out of the box, it was covered with layers and layers of bubble-wrap and it was also overly taped, to secure the protective bubble-wrap. As we laughed and made jokes about whoever had packed and shipped it, Rick cut away at the "stress relieving bubbles" that made popping sounds.
When Rick finally removed the last layer of bubble-wrap, he said, "It's your amp, Nancy! Plug it in and play something for us." And that put a smile back on my face.
As I was plugging in my new/used mini, portable amp, into B.B. King, my telecaster guitar, I said, "Rick, two days ago, while I was listening to Pandora I heard this great, live version of one of my most favorite songs, so I immediately went to iTunes and purchased the song. You'll recognize it immediately and you'll love it, too. I'm going to play it on my sound dock with me playing my guitar, in the background."
Then I found the song on my iPod and tapped the play button. Then I cranked up the volume on my Roland Micro Cube amp to match the Bose's volume and I started playing, For What It's Worth, on my electric guitar, with the Buffalo Springfield band.
This jazzed-up version of For What It's Worth was recorded live, at the 1967 Monterrey Pop Festival. And according to Pandora's notes, it was also the very first time that David Crosby sang this famous song, because he had just joined Buffalo Springfield, that very day, after leaving The Byrds, earlier that day, at the music festival.
Anyway it made Rick's jaw drop when he heard the first few notes and that made me smile even more. "Nancy, you sound fantastic!" Rick said. "I never knew there was a live version of this song. I like the live version better than the...."
Today has been great. Early this morning I cooked breakfast for the three of us, before Tony went outside to do our chores. While Tony was outside working hard, Rick and I drank coffee while we watched The Weather Channel, because Rick was leaving, in an hour, to drive up to Fort Worth. And even though North Texas was being hit hard with ice, snow and twenty degree weather—Rick adios-ed us around 11:00 and took off.
This afternoon we invited Chet O'Keefe and Brian Kanof to eat lunch with us. They arrived around 1:00, ten minutes before lunch was ready to eat. When I showed Chet my new/used Roland amp he thought it was cool, so I asked him to try it out.
I handed him B.B. Then he slipped my sparkling pink guitar strap over his head and started playing some cool jazz and blues. Omg, Chet sounded so good that he immediately mesmerized Brian, Tony and me. We all quit talking and just listened to Chet make music.
After lunch, Chet picked up B.B. again and this time he sat down, next to Little Debbie, in Roy's chair and once again, he started playing some more great music for us. And it mesmerized Little Debbie, too.
Late this afternoon I walked back into the kitchen and caught Alice and Little Debbie venting, again. So, I grabbed my camera to capture the precious moment.
And this is my version of making lemonade. I hope you liked it and that it made you smile.
Y'all have a great evening!