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I've been cleaning the house and doing some organizing. I'm maybe 5% of the way there..... 😮 Karen would always call me a hoarder....and she's right, for certain things (like audio gear). But today I gave the second of two sets of wicker baskets away. Twenty-seven baskets given. Twenty-fucking-seven! I have a long road ahead of me. But it's feeling good to clean, and lots of goodies being given away. I've had 8 visitors collecting things between yesterday and today. I think one, maybe two more tomorrow; and one Monday. That's if I don't add any more stuff, which will likely happen. Twenty-seven fucking wicker baskets....🤣 EDIT: pics of 21 of the 27 (a few look the same, but not repeats), the others I had in another area and brought them over when one person came by

Today I became an official 'Old Fart'. In reality that happened on my Birthday in February, but since my local SS office was too backed up to do my Medicare application at that time, it became official today with a Medicare phone application. I'm now the proud recipient of Medicare part A. Since I'm still employed with medical insurance, I don't need to apply for Medicare part B until I retire or stop receiving outside medical insurance. I believe at that time I can have the part B cost pulled directly from my Social Security payments. I do believe full heartedly that I've absolutely earned said 'Old Fart' title. My Doctorate in wood remains 'til the time of my demise, so it's Dr Wood Old Fart from hense forward. Can I get that official title posted under my avatar please?

Watched the OKC Comets (AAA Club of Dodgers) lose 3 - 2 to the Tacoma Rainiers. Have not been to a Baseball game in ages. It was a lot of fun.

It was a good day, a touch breezy at times, a very good engaged crowd. Some of the board members, {and my beard and belly} Many thanks all... cheers - Mikey

James Taylor in Lake Tahoe. He sings the songs he wrote as a young man, only now with an old man’s voice. He has still got it.

Spring is the perfect time to get out on long rides before the staggering summer heat comes my way. LOVING the 40mm tires. They are maybe a little sluggish on accelerations but they ride so smooth and are ace on descents. I'm also starting to love climbing on this thing. You really have no choice but to put down the power once the grade gets to be over 8-9% and you are already in the little cog.

Having delivered Margaritas, yesterday to our Brit Mother and daughter neighbors, Today I made good on our offer of the previous owners TV and mount, starting at a civilized time. So out with their previous owners old TV and mount (not shown). It was so old it was small, thicc, 1080, and had composite inputs on the back. So off it came Lasing ... Ok Time for lunch, a local Mexican take away plus Usual, and bubbles for the ladies. It all went well until disaster struck The previous occupants when making room for their TV had cut through the wall and studs to run the cables and just replaced / patched the dry wall - the brown area. So no studs / adhesion for any of the top right anchor bolts. 💩 🤬 I couldn't really abandon them, or rebuild the wall that day. What to do? Apparently there were still studs higher up in the wall. Maybe just maybe, A trip to Pini Hardware, and a conversation with some very helpful staff later ... It's like it was meant to be! You can't really tell in the up position. Watching position, just watch the TV, OK Ok, set up Wifi, Xfinity, etc. What's on Telly? WAT? At least I got some cadburys mini eggs and endless cups of tea out of the deal. They seem happy with it.

And of course, Wagner's work with Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny was the peak of his career 🤣

Random Access Memories by Daft Punk (2013) https://open.qobuz.com/album/0886443927087 Example: Some testing - so I might as well have fun.

A little gem I bought in London

Goddamn size queens.

I have a (not so) secret soft spot for yacht rock. That one blonde backup singer looks familiar, it's almost like she has... TV appearances that aren't lip syncs are a treasure.

I always feel like somebody is watching me...

My very grown up kids (41 and 37) describe me as the old fart who shouts at clouds. I tell them that I once was a young fart who still shouted at clouds.

More STAX testing. Sibelius: Violin Concerto - Lemminkäinen Suite by Ava Bahari (2026) https://open.qobuz.com/album/eipd34vton1nt example: Nice recording - performer I didn't know. And a leftover from listening to MTT (rip) Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 & Contredanses, WoO 14 by Orchestra of St. Luke's, Michael Tilson Thomas (1989) https://open.qobuz.com/album/g8dw9cvvp4q0a Example: Also a good recording it has been a long time since I have listened to it (all owned by Sony now).

Wagner orchestral excerpts were one of my favorites to play when I was in an orchestra. But yeah, he was pretty abominable from all accounts. My handle comes from his last opera, Parsifal. The overture from that was a study in my music theory class. Sounds nice and demur, but was actually atonal as hell.

https://archive.org/details/mbroussard2026-04-29 https://archive.org/details/swaywild-20260429 Marc Broussard Sway Wild opening Bijou Theater, Knoxville TN 4/29/2026 dpa 4015gs->dpa d:vice balcony center front row

Not the worst Doors cover. Not the worst vampire movie. Call it even.

🐠 🌮 🌮

Signed up for my first (metric) century! I am a little worried about all the climbing, but it is split up into four climbs and a bunch of rollers, none of which are beyond my ability. Should be fun to train for. @Voltron want to come join? https://marincentury.com

https://altonbrown.com/recipes/homemade-granola-bars/

This contrast between a person and the music is often true. Wagner was a truly awful person, an antisemite, racist and overall shit. He put it about that Brahms' music was based on the screams of birds that he shot with "A Tyrolean bow". An outright lie just to discredit a rival composer. Somewhat interestingly he was a cross-dresser; even the usually staid and formal Wagner Society accepts this. He was also Hiter's favourite composer. 'Nuff said. If you could bring him back from the mid 1800's and interview him today, I'm sure he would be found to be an abominable person in many ways. In spite of all that, Wagners music, particularly the operas, is utterly marvellous. In addition to the epic 15 hour Ring Cycle (took him 25 years to complete it), there is Die Meistersingers, Tristan und Isolde, Tanhauser, Lohengrin just for starters. Seen them all. Awesome.

And nobody made a "from Head-Case to Basket-Case" joke? Yer slippin', HC! 🧺

Rhapsodies by Léopold Stokowski (1961) https://open.qobuz.com/album/qy7npo4bfqa9b Example: Not the version I am listening to - but it is fun.

Even further back.

Fireside dinner, Comrades!

I hope you didn't mix in any valuable antique Shaker baskets with the dime store ones. 🤓

Did I say twenty (fucking) seven wicker baskets? I MEANT thirty-fucking-one! Three more pictured here, and one that is being used as a base for a fake house plant. 🙄🤣

Controversial for certain, and an utter moron in every interview I've seen of him. A racist, a redneck and a convicted felon, but I'll argue the "decent songwriter" comment. The man could paint a picture like few others. How you can be so idiotic in interviews yet write such poignant lyrics is beyond me. Listen to "If That Ain't Country" and tell me if it set a vivid mood.

These guys are punks but Chloe schooled them like newbs: A few months later...

Jeremy Dutcher - Tiny Desk "Jeremy Dutcher came to the Tiny Desk with sparkling, purple streams of glitter draped around his shoulders. Then he set his iPad on our Yamaha upright piano, not to read his score as pianists do these days, but to play a centuries-old wax cylinder recording of a song sung in the incredibly rare language of Wolastoq."

I love Charles Bradley! One of the many great finds from Daptone Records.

Got the Cervelo back out on the road on one of our few sunny spring days so far. It was windy, but still a nice rip around town.

Highs and lows.....sorry if TL;DR The highs: I love my neighborhood, and the people within. I maintain a website for the "Bunco Babes" here, a group of women who would get together monthly to socialize, play bunco...and drink. Since Karen passed, much of the organizing has dropped off. But the OG's of the babes invited me to a get-together; little did I know if was partially to thank me for the web site and congratulate my retirement. Pics below. A low with a little bit of high: we have a local "Buy Nothing" FB group, for free things. I have refurbed and donated computers perhaps a dozen times now. Gave two laptops away this weekend, one to a gent who has been out of work for almost 4 years because he was in an accident where a Mack truck blew a red light and slammed into him. He is now in somewhat constant discomfort or pain, and can't do much physically; insurance fights every step of the way. He even gets PTSD driving long trips.... Yet still, he does a lot of nice small things for others, and we shared our stories about that. Oh, yes: we had one FB friend in common, a wonderful woman with whom I used to work. She passed away from cancer and pneumonia complications recently; it turns out this is her distant cousin, and he didn't even know of her passing. The lower low: another laptop I gave to a woman who has an autistic son (two other kids too, one of whom has pretty high functioning autism). I volunteered to bring the laptop and a full docking station with monitor setup I had over. This amazing woman and her husband spend almost 24x7 watching her youngest, as he has non-verbal autism and also has a potentially deadly condition where his digestive tract will get blocked. Constant monitoring and care, advocating for him at hospital and doctor visits, etc. Hugs and tears resulted. They don't even have a place right now to set up the full monitor, so I told her I will come and help when they do find the space. You can see the strain, yet the strength all at once. Humans are such amazing creatures. But the two situations above point out how much the system works against so many, though!

It should work, the ratio is a bit higher than the Stax ones. Ultimately it's not about power but voltage in the system or voltage swing rather.

2-3W or so? That is very much on the low side but it always depends on overall system gain and how loud you listen. A Stax SRD-7 Mk2 should work as the ratio on those is on the high side.

I love that album, it won 5 Grammys including Best Album. I remember Nile Rodgers commenting that it was the first dance album to win a Grammy since "Saturday Night Fever."

It closed as a hotel in the 1930's, and was essentially derelict. It came perilously close to being demolished, but after a massive campaign in the 60's it was saved. Alhough it was only in the early 2000's it was restored to the tune of £800m. The station behind it is the Eurostar London Terminus. It is quite an experience getting on a train at St Pancras and getting off at Gare du Nord in Paris. The superb front of Euston station even after massive protest - demolished and now a bland and functional frontage and appearance. Euston demolition https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/nov/07/euston-arch-rail-london-demolished-1961 What it looks like now

Good walking Mikey!

Thanks again everyone. I have the Falcon all loaded up for the long drive to Northern Seattle tomorrow. So just one last post for any last minute supporters. https://givebutter.com/WalkforBelonging2026/michaels-walking-team Hey look, I found some spring... cheers and thanks - Mikey

Yes, Dear.

Whenever I visit London, I always end up taking photos of these three places. The colors really catch my eye: blue, red... I'm posting some of the many photos I took, although I haven't looked at them all yet. In my defense, it's hard to concentrate while chasing after your pre-teen son... although I did manage to sneak a nod to Wings.

I am smitten -- this is gorgeous, right up there with Ólafur Arnalds. Thank you for sharing.

A very exciting Sunday in Hell. No spoilers this time! Apropos of Roubaix, I put some 40mm slicks on to try out. I am very interested to see how they feel.

"The speakers ARE the room treatment."

Well, buying used is always an option, but you then run the risk of parts may need replacing, depending on age use, etc.. A new amp should give you more peace of mind. What does the BHSE offer over the KGST? I have listened to a couple of headphones on a BHSE, and I can say it is a great amp. I have also listened to the Carbon CC, which is an outstanding amp as well. I have yet to listen to any of the KG series and would love to compare them to some of the others I have listened to.

Listened to the CRBN again this year, but with a Mjolnir Audio amp this time instead of whatever they were using last year. It's mostly the same but better and the improvements are what one would expect from an amp upgrade. Dynamics are better, bass is filled in and hits harder, and it pretty much sounds like my home setup with the LCD-XC. Take my LCD-XC, remove the last traces of the closed headphone sound, move the perspective back a row or so, add more resolution, and that's the CRBN.