Flying home

Last night I returned to New York from a short trip to the South. Coming to LaGuardia airport from the south seems to have two potential flight paths, both of which I'm familiar with from the ground. (I'm strangely aware of airplanes, which are one of my obsessions). One path comes over Sandy Hook, NJ and then across Brooklyn, directly over the botanical gardens. On my previous trip I flew this way. But last night, we took the other path which is a little west, in line with the Hudson River which goes over Staten Island. Flying over my hometown like this at sunset was almost a religious experience. Actually, I wondered to myself whether this was a sign I was going to die shortly in a plane crash because of the complete catalog of remembrances shown to me from above, all in a matter of minutes. Place after place, association after association. Halloweens, adventures, car rides, summer nights, sledding, kisses in the park, it was all there.

It should be mentioned that every time I get on an airplane I wonder whether it's going to crash but that's not material to this.

String or nothing

I'm excited because I restrung my guitar. I have a Steinberger, which is an unusual guitar from the 80's that looks like a large black lollipop, and sounds even better. Or at least it has the potential to sound better than a gooey wad of sugar. A key factor is the f-ing strings. One thing I haven't mentioned is that a distinguishing feature of this guitar is that it's easy to string. You'd think this would encourage me to restring it more often but I don't. I have a good excuse: the strings for it are hard to find. That is, if you can't use the internet. After putting on these punchy new strings, I'm motivated to rock harder than ever before, but actually I'm home sick now typing on a laptop atop an improvised iLap, that is to say on a cookie sheet. It actually works really well. My lap is, that is to say my nads are cool and the fan doesn't sound like a 747 on takeoff. Friends, no more excuses, I am now committed to the proper care an maintenance of my guitar, as soon as I can hold my head up for more than ten minutes.