Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon.......

Here's a picture of me that Tiina snapped a few Sunday's ago. It was a warm and muggy day and I went out on the balcony to get some fresh air. I couldn't resist taking up Niki's new classical guitar and strumming on it while I sat outside. Not that I can actually play anything useful but it helps to relax and to keep my fingers exercised. Tiina was sitting on the sofa and thought the image was cool looking with me sitting in front of the insect screen we have in the doorway. She snapped this photo using her Nokia N73 phone's camera. She always has this way of seeing things that are interesting and if she can she manages to snap a few pictures to try and capture that same moment. Niki's guitar has such a beautiful sound to it that from time to time I just enjoy playing it. When Niki plays it sounds so much better. I am proud that he decided to stick with the guitar. I always wanted to learn but when I was his age I really wasn't given the opportunity.

I got my first guitar in the summer of 1978. This guitar was probably one of my Dad's first guitars. I don't even recall the name of it but it was an acoustic with a wide body. I believe it had been refinished to a deep Burgundy red color. His name of Bob was painted on the head stock. It sat on a guitar stand in the corner of the Grandparent's room for as long as I could remember. I used to pick on it whenever I visited them during the summers out of school. In 1978 I was presented this guitar by the Grandparents after I had moved in with them. They said my father wanted me to have it and that they saved it for me until I was a certain age. I was 16 then. I got new strings for it and the neighbor man, Wayno Rintala, strung it up and tuned it for me. Sometimes Grandma would try to teach me some chords and have me strum along while she played Little Brown Jug on the piano. I was never any good it seems. Another neighbor man, Dennis Harrison, who lived up on the hill behind us, drew up some chords for me to practice. Practice those chords I did. They are probably the only ones I know! Sadly I do not know what has happened to this guitar. It never had a case for it so I couldn't take it with me on the airplane to Alaska or here to Finland. I am still trying to find out if it still exists or not. I do have a Grammer Guitar that my Dad gave to me in the early 1980's. He used to work at the Grammer Guitar Factory in Nashville, Tennessee. It needs to have some work done on the it but other than that it still sounds good for as long as it stays in tune.