Photo of Bird Skeleton

I went up into the attic of our Chaumont house to try and find location of a roof leak and discovered a bird skeleton. It appears it has been there for a long time. I find it visually interesting and snapped a couple shots with the iPhone. The brightly colored rendition of one of the photos was created by increasing the color saturation with Photoshop.

Chicory Weed Flower

Some times, for no explicable reason something catches my eye and I am compelled to photograph. Such is the case with the Chicory Weed flower. I was taking the ladder down at my Frankin St. house when I spotted the purple bloom. (Or is it blue?) So I snapped it with the iPhone V.

Roof leaking and more painting

I use a 2"x12" pressure treated plank as a scaffold to work from. One must exercise caution when working in such a way.

Painting continues at the Franklin St. rental. I decided to rig up a scaffold to get at the side of the house where the electric service comes in. Those big electric wires make me nervous. Working off the plank I was able to get the area around those wires scraped and primed yesterday. This morning I was going to put a finish coatr on before I went to teach guitar. However, those plans were foiled because of a heavy rain and thunder storm last night. It was still raining heavily this morning. Most depressing. We have had a lot of rain this Summer. I am sick of it. On top of that a roof leak revealed itself in our Chaumont home. I know the roof is old where the leak showed up, but I inspected it earlier this year and thought it would be OK until I completed work on the Franklin St house. Now I have to do something quick about the roof.

Setting up this plank to work from made it easier to scrape and paint around electric service wires. 

Incidentally, look at the ladder in the upper photo. You can see I have laid a ten foot, 2 inch by 12 inch plank against the rungs. I then wrap a chain around the plank and ladder and pad lock it. I put it there before I leave for the day so as to deter any kids who might happen to wanna try and climb the ladder. It also makes it more difficult to steal the ladder which costs me $325.00 about 5 years or so ago. The alternative would be to take down the ladder and plank and set it up again when it's time for the next coat of paint. That ladder is heavy and cumbersome to handle. By the way, if you are interested, the plank, a ten foot 2 x 12 cost twenty bucks at White's Lumber in Watertown.

House painting continues

Yesterday I got the first coat of finish paint on the front lower section of our Franklin St. house. I also scraped and primed the side of the house with the electric meters. I spent seven hours on the job yesterday.

The Franklin St. house August 21rst at left, yesterday, September 8th on the right.

I  also scraped and primed this section that has the electric meters.

House painting continues

This morning I put in two hours if guitar practice. Then I went to my Franklin Street apartment house and put the final coat of paint on the upper front section. (All told it was scraped and caulked, some siding boards replaced then primed and two coats of paint. ) Next I took care of my mother's banking. All of that done by 12:30
Now I am off to photograph for the Post-StandArd and syracuse.com

Cazenovia high school football practice

I spent a part of the afternoon photographing high school football practice in Cazenovia, NY. These two photos were from that.

These football photos were taken Tuesday September 3rd. Yesterday, the 5th I attended a funeral for Doug Wood, musician in Watertown, NY. Doug died at home. He had health problems related to drinking. He was 57 years old. Doug leaves behind a wife and two sons. Doug was well known in the community, an excellent musician, played piano, guitar, and oboe. He taught music and was the organist at St. Anthony's church for more than 20 years. I met Doug around 1980. He and Ron Sacci founded Black River Music store. I met them both when I went there to take guitar lessons. We became friends and eventually I started teaching guitar there. Doug was always even tempered and never seemed to get rattled. He was always ready to lend a hand. When one of his sons became bed ridden with serious medical issues Doug became his full time care giver. So we gathered yesterday and paid our last respects.

House painting with Glidden Paint

For the past month or two I have been working on my rental house at 807 Franklin St., Watertown, NY. I am trying to get the exterior painted. It has really deteriorated into an aye sore in the last 3 or 4 years. The inside is pretty nice. I spet agood portion of today there replacing sections of missing wooden sideing and other odd and ends. However, it rained off and on through the day slowing things down considerably. Here are some photos of the front paint job:

It has been slow going. The upper section you see in these photos has been slow because I must be cautious working up high off a ladder. I am scraping the loose paint, priming it with Glidden Gripper primeer and finishing with Glidden exterior latex house paint. Musically I have been working up an arrangement of Neil Young's song Harvest Moon. Beautiful tune.

Busker street musician playing for tips

I do not reveal names of family members on this blog, nor friends names much either, unless they are somewhat of a celebrity, such as the artist Tom Bintz. Anyway, there is a young violin student in the family. This morning he had his mother drop him off at Musicology in Watertown. His mission was to play outside the store for tips. He is 12 years old. (or is he 13?) No matter. Anyway, he played the few melodies he knows off and on for about three hours and collected well over $10.00. I was teaching guitar inside the store today and when he hit the $10.00 mark he interrupted my lesson with the exclamation, "I hit $10.00. I am going to Burger King!" and he throws his arms out wide as he says it. Then he points a finger at me and asks,"Do you want anything?" I say no and he turns to my student (a woman that has teen age kids) and asks her the same thing. She smiles and says no. One of the guys that works at the store said to me, "That kid's got balls!"

My guitar student told me upon entering the store she gave him a dollar and said, "You can really tell he is into it." When I arrived at the store for my first lesson he had all ready been out there for 40 minutes. A woman with two little kids was passing by., stopped to talk to him. I gave a listen while pretending to be occupied with my cell phone as if ignoring them. She says, "You sound a little rusty but I knew what you are playing." The little girls asks what was he playing. The mom replied, "Amazing Grace." Then the violinist told her he hopes to teach violin at the store some time in the future. What a riot!

Guitar recital at Depauville Library

I just got home from doing a guitar show at the public library in Depauville, NY. It went well. I played two nameless etudes by Francisco Tarrega, Lagrima, and Estudio en la Forma de minuetto also by Tarrega. I have to say those last two pieces I played particularly well.
After that I played guitar studies #2 and 4 from the Segovia book followed by Romance, then Sor Study #5, two pieces by Matteo Carcassi, and some Beatles tunes. Last night I wrote up a detailed description about this event and a personal critique of my performance. Tonight I discover it never publushed and all of my work was lost. Screw it!. I am not writing all of that over again. Here is the event videoe by the library and posted on YouTube.

Elvis in Buffalo NY Concert Poster April 1, 1957

Elvis concert at Buffalo, NY April 1, 1957. Photo by Gary Walts

It is always a great pleasure when I visit my friend, the artist Tom Bintz, because I never know what visual treat I will find. A couple days ago he had this Elvis Presley poster that I had never seen before. It is from an Elvis concert at the Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, NY. He was with the Jordanaires. Ticket price was $1.75!! Bintz said he has had the poster for years, stashed under a bed.

Elvis concert at Buffalo, NY April 1, 1957. Photo by Gary Walts

Almost all of us know Elvis, but who were/are the Jordanaires? Check out Ray Walkers official Jordanaires web site.

Learn more about the Memorial Auditorium. AND, lets not forget Elvis' official web site.

Elvis during his Buffalo NY show, April 1, 1957

See a couple more photos of Elvis in Buffallo, 1957 at elvispresleymusic.com.au

Painting front porch floor of rental house

I just finished cleaning, scraping and priming the front porch floor of my Franklin St rental house in Watertown. Next I will paint it red. The primer I used was Glidden Gripper, an interior/exterior white primer/ sealer. This is an excellent product that I recommend.

Coming Soon...?

A photo I snapped a couple days ago in Syracuse. I wonder what's coming? I can't take the suspense.

Today I did some banking for my mother and then photographed Syracuse University football practice for The Post-Standard and Syracuse.com. Over all not a an eventful day.