I'll be back. My small guitar is an Austin, made in China.

Now I'm off to Des Moines to visit friends and go to the opera. (They know I won't go if an opera has rapes, abuse or stranglings, and they accept my bizarre ways.)

As for the pastor who starts at the wrong time, I realize that I need to explain to him that I do a little preliminary strumming in order to figure out the first note of the song. (He is used to doing services with organists who have had years of training and are very precise in everything they do.)

But no matter what happens, people tell me that the singing is better with some kind of accompaniment. It gives the group a referent and keeps them in tune.