About Lugnut -- Patrick Malone

Hi guys. Been busy with other things and not posting much.

Thanks to Swampwalker for the visit and his kind words about our system. We just upgraded from Teres 265 to 320 and that's what he heard. The improvement was far larger than we expected, about the equivalent of going from Airy 3 to UNIverse. IOW, huge! I'll post something on my system thread when I get time. We upgraded our power amp a couple of months ago also. I haven't updated that yet either. A preamp upgrade is probably next. Our little c-j PV11 is in way over its head now, :-), but it holds its own remarkably well. We've had a friend's reference quality preamp in our system and decided to upgrade the power amp first. It made a bigger difference. The PV-11 is a remarkable performer, especially since used ones go for $700 or less.

We visited Swampwalker and heard the Airy 2 with our BentAudio stepups in his system. I've never heard a happier cartridge. It just sang and sang. Some kinda magic going on there with his SOTA, OL Silver, Merlins and Joule I guess. It doesn't match a UNIverse, but there was zero sense of that while listening. The music just flowed naturally into the room with a transparent grace and delicacy that was pure pleasure to hear.

Swampwalker was kind enough to lend us his Denon DVD-3910 with full Underwood mods so we could A/B/C against our stock 3910 and our Arcam FMJ CD23. Differences between them? Sure. Worth $2K+ to mod our Denon? Doubtful. The turntable upgrade was 50 times more significant for about the same money.

Cheers to all!

Hi Pat,
I know you get tiered and it’s hard at times to go through all this. It’s no fun not being yourself because the drugs make you crazy, but believe me, your role in Barb’s life along with so many of your friends is huge! I have been seeing a psychologist since we last talked, and I’m beginning to remember how my life affects so many. I complain that living for the sake of others is too hard some times, and that l can’t live my life so unselfishly. Well I have done just that for the past eight years and I do have a lot of people who still need me.
As I have told you, I can not make it much over five hours without a nap, which is both due to my heart and the drugs. I hate it that I’m not me, yet my kids and wife would take this every day over being left alone. I know you get tired, and some days the fight is overwhelming, but we need you around. I personally can not tell you how much your emails have meant to me, you’re a gift that God has provided for me. Your role is great, and I love you. I was very depressed when I wrote you for your help, and that response gave me the strength I needed to make the changes I need to make. Thus the shrink! Keep the spirit as you go through this next treatment, we’re all pulling for you and selfishly I need you.
J.D.

Mornin' everyone,

Barb and I returned home late yesterday afternoon from our Portland, Oregon trip. We had a lot of fun and made some really good memories as well as friends. Varidian and his wife (Marty and Liz) joined us for dinner twice during our stay and one night we went on an adventure together in search of live blues but ended up listening to jazz. I shopped hard for some hardware and harder for software being successful in each department. Of note is how much fun I had at Echo Audio. Kurt, the owner, is very accomodating and a lot of fun to work with. He didn't hesitate a moment to hook up several speakers for me to audition on two separate visits. I ended up buying some Tannoy monitors, stands and a used equipment rack for a system I'm building for a friend. I recommend this store for anyone that wants to be treated well not to mention the very fair prices for quality used audio gear. The record stores, which are many, are a mixed bag. I ended up buying twentyone records and one old Vogue 78 rpm picture disk. A couple of the records I purchased were ones I'd been looking for for some time. One was still sealed and the other was in mint condition.

The trip kicked my puny ass and I'm dog tired. Still, it was fun. Portland is really pretty and a very vibrant town. It struck me as very interesting how casual everyone dressed. More so than any other place I've ever been. It rained a lot during our stay and just about nobody bothers with umbrella's, except visitors. Public transportation is free and very organized as well as clean. With only a little planning it's easy to organize a day and find all the stops. The food is great and the place is Emerald City/Wizard Of Oz green. I sure understand the attraction it has for young folks. There is so much to do and the area definitely has a young persons cultural attitude. It was nice to come home to dry, warm weather and a slower pace though.

Paul's travel plans are being modified as I write this. He has had a number of things come up within the last week making it impossible to arrive today. I hate to see him pay dearly for last minute flight changes but am anxious to see him. We'll just have to see how this works out.

This is my scheduled week off of the chemo schedule and I'm glad. I do have a CT scan on Wednesday morning. Dunno if it will tell any more than what my body is telling me. I'm without any cancer symptoms at the moment and willing to stop the treatments. No, that's not exactly correct. I'm anxious to stop the chemo. I'm tired of being tired and maybe if I get some time off now I'll have more energy when Steve and I go to Albert Porter's June 3-6.

Gotta run. The day is getting hectic already. My buddy's turntable and amps arrived so I need to clean off a work area and take an inventory of all the bits and pieces and check for shipping damage. Peace to all.

Pat

Pat write me if you plan to visit dirty NY with overpriced public transportation that in addition has a terrible service(don't even bother to use it unless you plan to finish some new Dan Brown's book right there:-). Although our mayor urgently advises to use public trasportation that gets you where you want to be upto one and half hour later...

Despite above...

There are so many great names comming this season there that I realy have to run for it every weekday and weekend, but I certainly can't have that luxury. The great concert season will last until November as far as I know the names are: Nick Cave, David Torn, U2, Oregon(band), Art Enseble of Chicago, Carla Bley and many many more... I gotta have some very vast reason to arrange some one of the great concert ticket...

Marakanetz,

No matter what the state of public transportation in NY I'll always wish I could have gone there for a visit. It must be a very exciting place to be. At least for a visit. Buy some of those tickets and enjoy.

Well, Paul arrived yesterday afternoon. The poor guy has a lot of stuff on his plate right now and looked very tired when I picked him up at the airport. We grabbed a bite of lunch on the way to my house and fired up the system when we arrived. A local friend of mine for nearly 40 years stopped by and we talked music, records, cleaning vinyl and equipment for a few hours while listening to some tunes. He too is a lawyer, actually a judge, and he and Paul talked a little shop too. Lugnut, the welder, mechanic, and general handyman hanging with a couple of legal eagles is funny to contemplate. Hopefully a bunch of other friends will join us as we invade Steve's music room some evening this week.

Yesterday I was drafted into the SA rugby team. I received my new jersey courtesy of Springbok10 (aka Denis) with the offical player name and number on the back of "Lugnut 1". Now all I need is an honorary doctorate from Harvard, Yale or Princeton! Thanks Denis.

Earlier this week Jeff (jdodmead) forwarded a Jay McShann album. Great music. I love being introduced to music that's new to me. The Big Apple Bash has a lot of heavy hitters sitting in on the sessions. Of particular note is Herbie Mann playing not only his flute but clarinet and tenor sax. I'd never heard Mann playing any instrument other than the flute. Now whenever I see one of his albums I'll think of Jeff and Jay McShann.

I hope to get today organized quickly so that I can take Paul out to show off some of Idaho's geography. We'll be heading out to look at the Snake River plain south of Nampa and get a good look at the Owyhee Mountain range. Maybe we'll get lucky and run into a real cowboy or something. Yep, real ones still make a living here doing what cowboys do; riding the range, roppin' those little doggies and saving the reputations of pretty maidens. I'll never forget the first one I met when I moved here in the 80's. When I shook his hand it was like grabbing onto a rock. His deeply lined and leathery face looked to belong to a man in his late fifties cursed with "get old quick" genes but I discovered he was only in his mid thrities. Six gun on his hip no less, in town. I'm not kidding you one bit either. The guy came to town twice a year whether he needed to or not I guess. Supplies and "dudes" were flown into the ranch he cared for on a regular basis as the last three or four miles driving there was an eight hour trip. We be talkin' remote; snowed in all winter with no expectation of getting out for any emergency whatsoever. It's a hard thing to comtemplate for the uninitiated.

Gotta run and get this day movin' along. Yeehaa.