So.... it's been a while

Hi all, not sure how many of you remember me, but Boogie's back. What a year or so it's been. Work and life got... well... busy. A year ago January, our company had its first ever layoff (and then we did a few more). I was not affected... well at least not directly. A significant number of old friends lost their jobs. Open positions were closed, so we had to make do with that we had and I ended up picking up my additional 'fair share'.

So I made a few decisions about where I wanted and needed to spend my time.

I was becoming very passionate about my long distance bicycling and decided to set a new goal: I was going to ride the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic (200+ miles) in one day (rather than the two days I had previously ridden) so I focused on training at the gym and on the road. Oh... I did it! We had a large group (11 of us) riding together and we could only ride as fast as the slowest rider. It took longer than I wanted (over 12 hours of actual saddle time and about 15.5 - 16 hours of total time; too many long rests), but I was proud of my accomplishment. This year, I'm am forming a small ride group (5) and we shooting for no more than 10 hours of ride time (hopefully no more than 11-ish hours end-to-end). Oh... and I'm doing about 7 other organized bicycle ride events this year which are long and/or have lots of elevation climb. Not bad for a 50 year old, huh?

With all that going on, I got more focused on using my 'other' free time for guitar practice and spent less time online. Basically gave up TV (not that I watched much anyway), various forums, etc.... I switched music schools at the first of this year and joined a 10 week 60s ensemble class. A lot of solo and group acts performed for 100+ people at a local jazz/blues club on March 9. What a blast! I was little nervous and rough at the start, but loosened up around the 3rd song (or so I remember). I am waiting for the performance DVD and then I will post. We did some fun songs!

What else? My wife and I watched our oldest leave the nest and start college. She's not far away (90 minutes), but still there was lots of planning, school visits, moving her out, etc.... I taught our second oldest how to drive (2 down and 1 to go).

Anyway... Vic Lewis and Dan Talbot found me on Facebook and friended me. I realized how much I missed the community aspect of GuitarNose, so I'll be popping in from time to time. I'm going to peruse the boards and see what's up.