knee update

Saw the doctor today and I am finally able to get out of my knee immobilizer. Its nice to not have to have that thing on, but I do feel vulnerable with all these kids around. He tapped my knee to drain off some fluid and got out 30 mls.
I get to start physical therapy next week. I have mixed feelings about that. It is painful and costs $30 so where is the fun in that.
Still have about 3 to 4 weeks until I go back to work. I have to build up my stamina in standing. I can only stand for about 45 minutes to an hour now. At work I stand for 13-14 hours a day.

I practiced my chords today but my finger tips were getting sore so I had to stop after about only 20 minutes.

Guitar practice

I have been practicing the guitar and of course it is so slow going. I have been doing the guitar secrets website lessons for the past several days. I like it because it tells about how to hold the guitar and more of the fundamentals that I just would have taken for granted if I was just doing the book that I have. I know from karate that bad habits can be hard to break in terms of posture and positioning in the long run, so even if something seems uncomfortable now, just let yourself get used to it.
The lessons have you go through and play each and every chord, major, minor, power, barre, and 7th. It seemed like such a waste of time at first because, "like I was going to remember any of them". But my next lesson (which I put off until tomorrow) is Learn how to swap between chords quickly and easily. That basically means, now that you have the chords memorized, practice switching back and forth until you can do it in your sleep. I think I'll be on this lesson for awhile.
I also got a couple podcasts on guitar lessons so eventually I can check these out and compare.

Surprise!

Saturday was my 12th anniversary. My wife bought me 20 or so individually wrapped gifts and I get to open one a day until they are all gone. Yesterday I opened some coffee which is great, then this morning I opened up ... guitar picks and a note for 1 month of lessons! She was so excited when I picked up the guitar the other day to start again, and I was so excited to be supported by her. I hear so many wives at work complaining about there husbands hobbies. I practiced today for about an hour just playing around with the chords, switching back and forth between the G, D7, and C. Mel also mentioned about a website that she had about lessons so I plan to really look at that tomorrow while the kids are at school. I can't wait to check it out tomorrow.

been awhile

I have been away from blogging for a bit, but I have just started to play guitar so I thought I would blog about it. Starting guitar because I am once again out on disablity due to knee surgery. So for now karate, and any type of physical activity is out.

I had originally picked up a guitar in the summer (back when I was heathy) but I had so much going on with karate, camp, activities with the kids, work, so on and so forth, that I just stopped playing. I had actually asked for money for either a guitar or a bass for my birthday back in August, got none, but haven't played anyway. I would like to think that if I had bought one I would have been practicing. Who knows? I'll play with my wifes old axe for now or maybe try to steal the record nerd's guitar that just collects dust.

Didn't do much as far as practicing today, because it is Thanksgiving and all the kids were all over me and we were trying to come up with cute catch phrases to put on our christmas cards. I just practiced a couple chords, g and d7. Just to get my fingers used to the feel and to try to switch back and forth between the chords. I only lasted about 10-15 minutes, but it was cool because Jaren got Reese's guitar and strummed along also. We'll make a noisy guitar duo.