About this blog title

I cannot tell you how many times I have shown up at events with a couple of cameras around my neck, a gadget bag full of odds & ends and a lighting kit and have been asked that question. If it happened once every few years, that would be one thing. But it happens a LOT. It's like getting pulled over by the police and he's standing there with uniform, gun, flashing lights and asking him "Are you a cop?" I would love to come back with a witty reply, such as "No, I am Jesus. Don't you recognize my beard?" However, I cannot be that rude.


Thursday, January 31, 2019

Polar vortex weather in Northern NY: Zero degrees, snow,



Overnight snow lay in a picturesque manner in Chaumont NY. The van in the photo is a 2011 Kia Sedona. Gary Walts photo January 31, 2019

Awoke to more snow and cold this morning in Chaumont, NY. It was zero degrees and overnight snow lay upon the landscape in a picturesque manner. I cancelled my guitar lessons which I don't think I have ever done before. Spent a couple of hours shoveling snow from the driveway and sidewalks. This was at noon and the temperature had risen to 11 degrees.

View from our front porch in Chaumont, NY. this morning, January 31, 2019



View from kitchen window, Chaumont, NY, January 31, 2019.

Monday, January 28, 2019

Monday Jan 28, 2019 working on an apartment between tenants

Today started out at 4 below zero here in Chaumont NY. Got up later than I like, 7:00 am, put some time in on the guitar. I mostly worked on a nice arrangement of La Paloma that was made by Francisco Tarrega. Beautiful, long time favorite for many people. By 10:00 I was out of the house, did some banking and got back to one of our vacant apartments on Franklin St in Watertown. I am installing new carpet in 3 of the rooms. I have2 of them cut in. One is completed. My celebrity brother will finish up the bedroom for me. That will be a big help. The unit has been vacant since October. So much other stuff going on (the Better Half in the hospital on 2 occasions, planning a surprise birthday for the Better Half, and ongoing things with my mother) I have been dragging my feet getting it ready to rent since the last tenant vacated.  Beside the carpet I painted some baseboards and other little odds and ends. Hopefully I get a reliable tenant in there in a week or so.

Friday, January 18, 2019

Target shooting ice blocks & grilling wings January 17, 2019 slow motion video

Jerk chicken wings on the grill in 16 degree weather at our home in Chaumont, NY. 
The last couple of nights the temperature has been going down below zero. Perfect for freezing some blocks of ice for target practicing with my Gamo air rifle. I filled some balloons and some zip lock sandwich bags with water & placed them outdoors over night to make the targets. Meanwhile I've had some chicken wings marinating for 3 days in some Jamaican jerk sauce. So The Better Half's son in law D & his son J came over with their air rifles and we had some great amusement shooting the ice targets while the wings roasted on the grill. It was a Wednesday and D had the day off. J had to go to work at 4:00 that afternoon. So they got here about 11:30, left about 3:00.  The weather was sunny and no wind. The temperature about 16 degrees. All together it made for a beautiful Winter afternoon.
Winter afternoon target shooting blocks of ice with air rifles.

Winter afternoon target shooting blocks of ice with air rifles..

Here is a slow motion video of some of the ice exploding as it is stuck by the air rifle pellets. It's great fun, better than shooting bottles because there is no glass to clean up. Also, the extreme low temperature mad for some dense and brittle ice that intensified the shattering effect.



Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Christmas Eve 2018 classical guitar video: Christmas Time Is Here

In recent years I have made guitar videos of myself playing a Christmas song and posting it on Facebook on Christmas Eve. This year I played Christmas Time Is Here by Vince Guaraldi. The song was written for a Charlie Brown Christmas TV special. The special has been aired on TV every year since it's 1965 debut. So this is me playing the song:



This arrangement is from Christmas Songs For Easy Classical Guitar by Mark Phillips. Not only are the arrangements easy to play but the also SOUND GOOD. They are perfect for capturing and sharing some Christmas spirit without investing many hours, days, or even weeks mastering more fully harmonized performance pieces.

Cover of Christmas Songs for Easy Classical Guitar by Mark Pillips.
A great little book of arrangements that truly are easy and sound good.

Back cover of Christmas Songs for Easy Classical Guitar by Mark Pillips showing song list.

An inside peek of Christmas Songs for Easy Classical Guitar by Mark Pillips.
For copyrite reasons I have not shown full pages.

Monday, January 14, 2019

New business card with quilt art by Julie Dugas

I have just designed a new business card with background art by Julie Dugas of Asheville North Carolina. Julie is a very creative quilter. She utilizes her own hand dyed fabrics in her creations.
Original quilt art featuring hand dyed fabrics by
Julie Dugas, Asheville, NC. 

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The card I designed utilizing quilt art created by Julie Dugas of Asheville, NC. 

Friday, January 4, 2019

Friday January 4 2019: Grilling Jamaican Jerk chicken wings

Basting chicken wings with additional jerk sauce in January, Chaumont NY 

It was a sunny and warm day, hitting a high of 40 degrees, here in Chaumont NY. Pleasant for January 4. My brothers A & R came by in the evening and we grilled some chicken wings. The wings had been marinating in a Jamaican Jerk sauce for 3 days. The main ingredient being scotch bonnet peppers, or more properly, Habanero peppers. We also had some guacamole from my own recipe. The avocados were of high quality and the perfect degree of ripeness which made for a most delicious result. We washed it all down with Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA which is probably my all time favorite beer. Brother R, the carpenter, however chose Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. The jerk sauce recipe came from a book by Dunstan Harris titled Island Barbecue with illustrations by Brooke Scudder. Published by Chronicle Books. It is a great little cookbook. Click the link for a good article by the Baltimore Sun about Jerk cooking that includes a jerk marinade recipe.

Brother R the carpenter at left, and myself in Chaumont NY. The Brinkman smoker/grill
is loaded with jerk chicken wings


My celebrity brother A, left, me in the middle, and the carpenter R enjoying wings in beer, Chaumont NY. 

Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA beer, jerked chicken wings and guacamole made for a nice little munch out at our home
inChaumnt NY on a rather mild January evening. 

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Sunset photos on the St. Lawrence River, Cape Vincent, NY December 29, 2018 Sony a6000 camera

Saturday, December 29, 2018, I take a drive to Cape Vincent, NY, a picturesque village on The St. Lawrence River, about 12 miles from our home in Chaumont. The tree photo was snapped with my iPhone 6 and then cropped and filtered with the Instagram app. The giant su setting on the water with some birds was taken with the Sony a6000 camera and a Minolta 500mm f8 auto focus reflex lens. The LAEA4 lens adapter was used to mount the lens to the camera.
Sunset on the St. Lawrence River, Cape Vincent, NY.                     iPhone 6 photo by Gary Walts
Sunset on the St. Lawrence River, Cape Vincent, NY.  Sony a6000 camera with Minola 500mm f8 lens.   photo by Gary Walts

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Gary Walts log: New Years Day 2019

My whole life I hate to go to bed at night and hate to sleep in in the morning. As I have gotten older I have tempered that and realize the importance of proper rest for ones physical health and creativity. So last night, New Years Eve, I didn't get to bed until 12:30. We watched TV coverage of the ball dropping in Times Square, NY City. BTW, The Better Half's daughter B & her husband M were at Times Square. We saw no glimpses of them on TV. In bed I fall asleep reading. I awoke at6:00 and know that I need more sleep. I doze back off and experience a lot of weird dreams. The next thing I know it is 9:00 so I bounce out of bed. I rarely ever sleep that late. But I really needed it. I practice guitar for an hour or so. I have some fried eggs, sausage rolls and potato salad for breakfast. Then I fritter away my time trying to come up with and ad for guitar lessons. I have two vacant apartments that need to be spruced up so I cab get them rented. They have been unoccupied since September. My fault for procrastinating. As the day progresses I become very antsy. Finally I get outdoors for a couple of hours and tend to some odds & ends around the house. I did some target shooting with my air rifle ( a Gammo break barrel, 1000 foot per second) which is a most satisfying distraction. I enjoy shooting a lot, but do not often indulge in it. I found a block of ice about 4 inches thick in the bottem of a 5 gallon pail and set that up as a target. What fun it was to see the ice shatter and chip away bit by bit with every shot from the Gammo. By evening we have a dinner of pork chops and play a game of Trivial Pursuit. I ended the night watching a documentary on Netflix about Polish sculptor/artist Stanislaw Szukalski. Never heard of him before. Most interesting. I highly recommend learning about him. Amazing, weird, and strange. It's now 11:30. Good night.

Friday, December 14, 2018

September 11, 2018 guitar gig at Clayton Yacht Club, Clayton NY

Had a wonderful evening last night playing guitar at a private birthday party. The event took place in the upper cub house of the Caytn YachtClub, Clayton NY. It is situated on th St. Lawrence Over. The upper club house is a rustic old cottage with green shutters. The party was hosted by ET. This is the 2nd time she has hired me for her birthday. Among the guests this evening was famed underwater photographer David Doubilet. evidently my playing made an impression upon him. It turns out that he isa guitar and banjo player. We had a nice chat afterward.

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photos by Gary Walts

The village of Clayton NY hosted their annual Christmas parade Saturday, December 1st. Local TV celebrity Mel Busler emcee'd the event. Below are some photos I snapped of the event.
Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

TV celebrity Mel Busler, emcee of the Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Clayton NY Christmas Parade 2018 photo by Gary Walts

Thursday, November 22, 2018

The Day Before Thanksgiving, November 21, 2018 (Better Half Goes to the Hospital)

Our plan for Thanksgiving was to cook an early turkey dinner, eat it, then go visit her daughter's families. We would start by making some of the side dishes the day before. Here is how the day went. I got up and had coffee with some guitar practice for bit an hour. I gather some kindling wood and get the wood stove fired up. I worked for a bit on a jigsaw puzzle Copely House. Then I get a call from brother R. He needs to work on his truck, changing the water pump, and would not be able to feed our mother lunch. "Can you go up there?", he asked. Of course I can, but that wasn't part of my plan for the day. (I don't tell him that) The Better Half and I go to visit my mother at Hospice of Jefferson County. We get there at noon and find the staff fed Mom lunch a little early. No problem. We try to initiate some conversation and just sit with her for an hour or so.
Jig saw puzzle in progress at our home in Chaumont, NY. 
while waiting for the stove fire to get going strong. I was also eating bologna sandwich.  At 10:00 I have a guitar lesson with a 9 year old boy at the
My mother and The Better Half at Hospice of Jefferson County, Watertown, NY.  iPhone 6 photo by Gary Walts
On the way home we stop at Dollar General story for a couple items we had forgotten to get earlier in the week. One of those items were Klondike Bars, those really delicious chocolate covered ice cream squares. Now let me back up a bit. The Better Half has had some problems for the last couple weeks with diverticulitis, an infection in her colon. She has had problems eating because most foods irritate her and cause her discomfort. Ice cream has been quite agreeable with her. We each have a Klondike Bar. Then she begins making stuffing for Thanksgiving. However, she has started feeling uncomfortable. I should note that she had also taken some Milk of Magnesia. She's not sure what is causing the discomfort.As she wrks in the kitchen it gets worse so she lies down to relax a bit. I start make a Cole Slaw for tomorrow. Then a I cut in half some acorn squashes and slather them maple syrup, salt & pepper, pop them in the oven. Next, I put some sweet potatoes into a pot of boiling water. Soon the Better Half says she thinks we nee to go to the emergency room. She is getting a serious diverticulitis attack. So off we go. My sweet potatoes are only half cooked. I drain them. We leave. At the hospital she has a number of tests, and different things and before you know it, it's 1:00am. She will be admitted to the hospital. By the time I get home it is 2:00am and all I've had to eat was that bologna sandwich back in the morning. I take care f a few things in the kitchen and hit the sack. What a long day it turned into.

Thursday, November 1, 2018

Halloween 2018

Well, we had nice Halloween at our home in Chaumont, NY. The weather lately has been cool and rainy. Last evening however was mild, and a little bit of rain. Temperature was about 53 degrees. Very pleasant for these parts. We had 107 trick or treaters. We keep tally every year. One year we had 134.It's always over 100.
Self portrait with a Dogfish Punkin Ale at our home n Chaumnt, NY.
I like to have a Halloween themed beer on hand for Halloween. Just to add a festive touch. Most of the pumpkin beers I try I find are mediocre. This year I picked u a 6 pack of Dogfish Punkin Ale. It was smooth and pretty good. Son in law D however took one sip and declared it horrible!  Our group was a bitt small this year. For food we had pizza, Croghan bologna, various cheeses, spinach artichoke dip, and a chili cheese dip.