How Much Fun Can One Man Have?

How Much Fun Can One Man Have?

I believe in having fun. Unfortunately my wife and I live in a very small house. We also have two dogs and one cat. As a result we have to live in pretty close quarters. To keep each other's sane we have to have times when one of us goes out and the other one has the house to themselves. Last night was my turn to have the house to myself [except for the animals]. The dogs I had to put outside for a while because they would knock my guitar over. Plus it is hard to concentrate on what you're playing when a dog is trying to sit in your lap. Both our dogs love to go to the dog park. Yesterday the weather was not nice enough to take them. This always means there'll be a price to pay when my dogs don't get a good run. It means that they will try to pester me all evening with their excess energy.

 Fortunately, I only planned on practicing my guitar in about 20 min. segments. I seem to have a difficult time concentrating on any one activity for an extended length of time. I think I was trying to get as many fun activities into the four-hour window that I had available. My wife was out of the house as she had to work a four hour shift. This meant that I could crank up my amplifier just up to the level where the neighbors would not call the police. Actually my neighbors wouldn't call the police. They would just knock on the door and tell me to turn the damn thing down.

I have found that many of my hobbies are of a youthful nature. This is because I couldn't afford most of these things when I was a kid. I could never have afforded a Crate 120 W amplifier when I was 15 years old. In the 90s the Crate amplifier was used by several heavy metal bands. Now the amplifier of preference seems to be the Marshall. Actually I would've bought a Marshall amplifier if the salesperson wasn't rude to me. Because of his rudeness I ended up going to one of his competitors and buying an amplifier there.

I have always enjoyed rock music but I have never been able to play it well. Most of the reason is that I don't have great finger dexterity. The other reason is that to be good at playing guitar you have to practice consistently and for long periods of time. I don't think there's any other way of getting good at it. Still what I play sounds good to me. It's just fun to play power chords with a really good amp. For a few minutes you can imagine you are Pete Townsend or Jimmy Page. After you are finished you can put your guitar and amp away and go back to real life.

After practicing some Led Zeppelin guitar riffs I decided it was time to switch to my PlayStation 3. Yesterday I bought Madden 12. This is an awesome game. I get to match my favorite team the Oakland Raiders against various NFL opponents. Occasionally I win the game which brings me great joy. Video games is another juvenile pastime that I enjoy. Even if I could've afforded a video game system when I was a youth they weren't invented yet. I am just as mediocre as a video game player as I am as a musician but I have fun so what the heck.