Oh! I forgot to mention something. My friend Anthony was shopping for a ukelele. Now, I have always had the idea that the uke was little more than a toy. I remember Tiny Tim strumming his and I've know one or two people who play them as little more than for comic effect.

Well, Anthony bought his new uke. He paid $225 for a used uke with a plastic back. Man! Does it sound nice! I have had to rewrite some of my head software on instruments since I took up folk music but this is a major rewrite. He was playing it and I picked out a few notes on it. It has such a sweet happy sound. he told me of some guys who flat pick their ukes, other have different fingerpicking styles and others strum with a variety of styles. I guess I have some learning to do.

Anthony's goal is to be good enough to be able to justify buying a uke for $1,000! I wonder what the equivalent is in guitar dollars?

Amos, you'd be interested to note that I went to a "Holiday Drop-In" today. That is a military thing. You open your house for co-workers to drop in for some food and conversation and to share in the spirit of the season. It is as informal as they can get. So there we were, a bunch of people, the women sitting together talking woman things (babies, clothes, jewelry, etc.) and the guys sitting together talking shop and me in the middle bored out of my mind. But that is life inside the bubble.

All I could think is that these people needed to get out of the bubble and get a life. Don't get me wrong. They are, each and every one of them, good people. But they are in a corporate mind set that keeps them in a single track. They cannot break free and go out on their own. They cannnot rebel beyond a certain set of criteria. And they expect the white civilian employees to join in the game! Not me, buddy!

I am happy with my lot in life. I can go out with my Chamorro friends and harvest fallen trees and learn to carve with an adze and eat BBQ and drink cheap beer and tell dirty jokes and generally enjoy life. Next July, when I go to FesPac I will have an in with the festival because I will be there in connection with one of the island representative organizations. One of the guys owns a cruising sailboat and has suggested we take her out on a cruise with Manny as our navigator to teach us about the stars and how he gets around on the water. That will be a fun trip.