Some Bugs

We have leaf cutter ants here and they are fascinating. They cut pieces of leaves and carry them to their nest, where they use them to grow fungus which is their food. I watched them, and they are very organized. Some will be up in the plant or tree cutting pieces, and others will be below collecting the pieces and carrying them off. They can carry pieces bigger than themselves, and often for what seems like great distances if you are the size of an ant. They are capable of destroying a plant overnight, or a fair size tree in a few days. If they have been working for a while you will find ant “highways” in your yard, pathways that have been cleared to make their work easier. We have them here, but they have been eating our mani lately (perineal peanut) and we have plenty to share, so not a problem. I took a couple videos when we saw a neighbor’s flowers and plants crossing the road and disappearing into a vacant lot across the street.

Technology is great but also frustrating. WordPress “improves” things, so I got to spend time trying to figure out how to order the photos in this gallery, or find out how many words are in the post. YouTube now has “shorts”. I could not find the second video anywhere on my channel, but it had a red splotch on the lower right corner of the thumbnail. I finally discovered that it was a short. If your video is less than 60 seconds YouTube makes it into a short, no matter if you want that or not, and there is no undoing it. At least, this is what yesterday’s research led me to believe. At least the videos seem to look ok in this blog post. This is what I get when I don’t come here often enough. I get to learn new things!

We had two band gigs a couple weeks ago after quite a few weeks off. I think it really pointed out how much time, effort, and energy it takes to play. It had been a while, so we started planning and practicing daily a couple weeks ahead of time. Thursday, we played at Hops where there is a PA, sound man, and young guys with muscles which is a great help. But we still had to bring our own personal equipment, be “on” for 3 hours, and then reload our equipment and bring it home. Getting out of the car at the end of the night reminded me of how we felt every week when we got back from Boquete. Friday we had another smaller gig at a restaurant, but we had to bring the PA as well as our own equipment. Saturday we were totally worthless! We were tired and didn’t have enough energy to do anything. Thank goodness we had until Wednesday to get our act together for our upcoming trip (more about this soon!)

I don’t know what will happen in the future. The restaurant was a special occasion. They mentioned having us back occasionally but we’ll see what happens. Hops begged us for ages to play there, but once we ended our commitment in Boquete I had to ask repeatedly if we had a date. So we’re going to let that go. If they want us they can contact us, but we’re not asking any more.

So bottom line, we are realizing how much it takes out of us to play, and maybe it is time to hang up the guitars. If someone wants us they can ask but we are not going to pursue opportunities. This frees us up to go out and relax, and watch other people work. We can hear other music, and make friends with other musicians that we didn’t know before because we had little energy to go out while doing our own gigs. I didn’t realize either how much band work cut into time and energy for other things, like riding my bike and walking. At our age exercise is a critically important priority.

I’ve also had a great time painting. I think I mentioned that my granddaughters created art for my bass speakers, but I don’t think I shared the final results. Here they are on stage ready for the gig.

How cool is that! I liked the process and the final results much more than I imagined. When I look at them I remember sitting at the table with the girls while they created the art, and I feel like they are with me in spirit when I’m next to the speakers. And now, I have other ideas and the time to implement them 😁

Life is good, and we are happy. I’ll even have more time to write in the blog now and then.

I hope you all out there are doing ok. We see news of bad weather is much of the US, and so many other problems around the world. We wake up every day with thanks for our chill life here, and with hopes that the rest of you are well.