Yesterday was my birthday. I had a great day. Donna went for a bike ride in the morning while I posted to the blog. I watched the NFL pre-game shows. A little past 11am we went to Ocean Beach to meet up with my old friends, Chris and Sherry Nirschl. Chris and I were roommates, along with Jim Birditt, in Longmont, Colorado. That was back in 1976.

Chris and I went to high school together. His family moved to Colorado after we graduated. Then Jim Birditt moved to Longmont where he and Chris rented a house. I followed in the spring of 1976. We found jobs and spent most of our free time trying to become musicians. We weren’t too successful.

By late fall that year, the weather was turning cold. Chris was engaged to Sherry and they would be married soon. Jim and I decided it was time to return to San Diego. Although I’ve spoken to Chris on the phone a few times since then, I haven’t seen him or Sherry.

Chris is a contractor. He currently has jobs here in San Diego as well as back in Colorado. His schedule has him in Colorado two days a week, then back here to keep the business moving forward.

They live in Ocean Beach in a condo, right on the ocean. Chris surfs most mornings. He can walk out of his building and a few steps later, he’s paddling out.

We went to a Mexican cafe for lunch. I really like Mexican food. It’s one of the things I missed while we were living in Michigan. It’s hard to find good Mexican food in the Midwest. We sat and talked for a couple of hours. It was fun catching up and renewing our friendship. Hopefully we’ll get together again later this week.

At the Mexican cafe with Chris and Sherry Nirschl

After lunch with the Nirschls, I parked myself in front of the TV and watched football. The Cowboys and Broncos had a real shootout. The final score was 51- 48, Broncos. Yesterday the schedule was different. The Chargers – Raiders game was delayed until 8:30pm PST. That meant I had football all day until midnight. Unfortunately, the Chargers didn’t play well and the Raiders won.

During the afternoon, Donna’s sister Sheila stopped by. She had a special delivery; Donna surprised me with a birthday gift. It’s a custom-made guitar stand that’s also a 12-watt tube-driven practice amp. The amp is made in Texas by Larry Davis, his company is called Not Just Stands. We learned about this product when we visited with Charlie and Sheila Pennington in South Dakota. Charlie is a bass player and had one of these amp/stands.

Guitar stand/amp – shaped like my ES339

I’ll go for a bike ride this morning. Later I’ll plug my Gibson ES339 into the new amp.