My wife and my parents-in-law bought me some guitar effects pedals for Christmas. (Note: Photo is just something I grabbed off the web [http://www.kevinchilcott-luthier.co.uk/ images/ fx03-3xdod-rdcp30-01.jpg], not of the Christmas f/x pedals. Although I **do** own them...)

However, general busy-ness -- plus having two boys born a few days after Christmas, and spending all day at the hospital visiting my wife over the next week -- meant that I didn't get to actually try them out until now. And I only got to use them for about fifteen minutes, before it was time to move on to other things.

Because I haven't played electric guitar in a looong time, I had to track down guitar cables amongs my piles o' ''stuff''. When I found some, my gear wouldn't work. After some diagnostic work, I figured out the reason: the tips of the cables were tarnished, due to dis-use.

That's a metaphor for my life, right now.


--GG