Hello August
Friday, August 1st, 2025 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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74F and partly cloudy today, going up to 78F.
I was up by 11AM, like a normal workday today, so there's been plenty of time this morning to square things away before I get over to Studio C at 3PM.
All the August bills have been paid!.. except for Home Depot... only because they've been failing to text me an authentication code.
But other than that I'm good to go for August, which will be four solid, 5-day work weeks in a row, with Labor Day being MON SEP 01, this year.
I'm just gonna have to grind through it.
Kevin & Sheila are now planning to be here on that 4-day wekend in mid-September, along with Colleen, so it's turning into a real family reunion!
So, I think now it's a guarantee that we'll bring an end to the storage unit next month, after which the cargo hold of my van will be filled with boxes of old journals.
Today will be the vocals for, Archeology the song.
My idea for a DIY condenser mike didn't fly.
I thought I could just wire one up to a plug and it would be powered by the MOTU's phantom power, but the MOTU refused to apply phantom power to it, or allow any signal through.
Apparently even a DIY electret mike requires some kind of preamp, in the modern day.
So I'll just have to do all the vocals with the SM58, and apply lofi filters to the verse parts later.
But that's fine.
My original experiment with that, last March, sounded fine.
Saturday, March 1st was the day I recorded vocals for, Archeology, the song, here in the apartment, only to be mocked and laughed at by the young neighbors on the other side of the south wall, in 1105!
Back then I was still holding out hope of getting into a 1BR, but knew by then that it might take some time, which is why, on Friday, March 7th, I booked an orientation with Elgym Studios...for Friday, March 28th.
I was hoping Elgym would only be a fallback plan.
But here we are, five months later, and today things come full circle, as I record, Archeology again!
Today is also the one year anniversary of the house closing!
One year ago today, I went inside that house one last time to run the hot water and leave food for Prowly, before heading over to Chicago Title, where I ended up handing off my keys to DelToro's Agents, and then got the surprise check for 13K nobody could explain.
I was still very broken up about everything... vowing to buy it back in October... driving by the house every day... sneaking around the property on Friday nights... for quite a while after that.
Now, a year later, I haven't driven past the place since mid March.
And I've been doing my weekly vocal sessions in Studio C for three solid months!
Still, as touched on so often lately (and above), full closure is still six weeks away... when we reckon with the contents of the storage unit.
The last records and heirlooms of the family, which have been sitting undisturbed, in a cold, dark locker for a year now.
But by September 15th, it'll all have been resolved.
September 29th, last year, was the day I brought home the new mattress... which, in my mind, has come to be seen as the day I truly accepted this studio apartment as my new home... for the time being!
I didn't accept this place as my new home for the long haul until just this past May.
So, I guess the theme of 2025 has been about tying up loose ends, on the one hand, and establishing new routines, on the other hand.
Claiming that final 5K last April, for example... and making remote vocal sessions a weekly event, as another example.
The white blinds I bought last July were replaced by woodgrain a few months ago.
The printer and flatbed scanner on the desk were replaced by a turn table and a new laptop.
I threw out the cursed full-length mirror I had hanging on the closet door... which was falling apart, and replaced it with a nicer one, with a dark wood frame, that hangs on the wall next to the closet, to prevent feedbacking with the bathroom mirror... which is directly opposite the closet door.
It's these little things that make it feel more like a home now. The wood grains of the blinds and the new mirror, matching the rest of the decor... the handsome little turn table and laptop on the desk, both getting use... with the ugly printer and scanner now hiding in a drawer.
Yesterday's transformation of the kitchenette really improved things too!
It always felt so awkward and stupid to have that klunky air fryer sitting on top of the burners, and that useless microwave sitting on the shelf.
Yes, this place is still essentially a bedroom with a kitchenette and a bathroom, but it's a lot more comfortable, functional, and visually appealing than a year ago.
And I am finally embracing the mindset of... why do I need more than a room?
Elgym's kinda proved that I don't!
After 13 months here, the only thing I've really missed is having my old journals with me.
Not that I ever read them before!.. for decades now they've always been just in a closet or a basement.
But I am getting old enough now, those youthful days are becoming a bit foggy, and I foresee a desire to go through them coming soon.
Still, that's been the only regret about this place... that I can't store them on site.
But now I've got a solution for it.
Short term: get them into the van, so they're closeby.
Long term: get them all digitized, and ditch the hard copies.
I'm back at home, and I just finished a bowl of beef stew, as heated up on the range!
Today's session was a little touch and go!
Once again, it was difficult to sing the low parts right!
I had no problem with the high parts, but I had a kind of frog in my throat that had me struggling with the low parts.
A kind of mucusy-phlegm thing going on that was canceling out the vocal fry in the lows, leaving them sounding raspy.
As with, Miss Fortune, last week, I only got six full takes worth of vocals.
So, I guess we'll see, when I get around to comping it, whether or not I need to do a re-sing... at least of the low parts.
But re-sings do begin next week, now with, Reavis 309.
Tonight, and tomorrow I'll be comping, Live It Fast.
If I'm lucky I might get most of, Clue Phone comped by Sunday night.
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