Day 216: Flooding & Fishman Solo Amp

So it has been about a week since I last posted something here. I have been suffering from the common cold. The first one I have had in about two years. Now that is not why I have been inactive here, because I have been very active in other arenas. But the cold has dragged me down enough to lower my level of ambition. Add to that a crazy schedule that reduced my required amount of sleep. Something must give, so I guess I let this go.
Last Wednesday I had a guitar gig at the Clipper Inn in Clayton NY. The restaurant has two dining rooms and a bar / lounge room. I was hoping to play in the dining room(s), but it didn't work out. So I was in the lounge. The event was a dinner to raise funds for the North Country Arts Council . The place was packed.
By all accounts the evening was a success for the arts council. The only problem I had was that the folks in the dining rooms could not hear me play. It's just the way the restaurant is laid out. Now, where I was in the lounge the playing was great. Many people there from about 5:30 to 7:30. Some people dined in the lounges, a great many relaxed and had a few drinks while waiting for a table in one of the dining room. At times it was so crowded and noisy I almost couldn't hear myself play. In these situations I use a Fishman Solo Amp for amplification. It has 220 watts of power in a compact, extremely portable, user friendly design. I cannot praise this thing enough. I highly recommend it. It was unfortunate that the dining room folks could not hear me. In fact, a friend of mine was there and never heard me play, never even knew I was there until I told her a couple of days later.



The next day, Thursday, we had rain. Lots of rain. I am and have been sick of rain. I forget just now how I spent the day, but I remember how the evening went. My cold was peaking. I was tired. I had to get up at 5:00am the next morning, so I went to bed by 10:00. Well, I began to cough. So I got up and read for awhile. Tried to go to sleep and began to cough again. Lom story short: I eneded up getting about four hours of fitful sleep. In the morning I managed to get to my first photo job at 6:30AM. From there I went in search of weather photos. There had been reports of flooding and roads getting washed out. The photo below was taken in Altmar, NY.
Other flooding photos can be viewed at The Post-Standard web site by clicking on www.syracuse.com .