I’ve been adding to our music collection by purchasing a variety of recordings on compact disc (CD). I like the CD format – they’re fairly rugged, easy to store and with a good, modern digital to analog converter (DAC), they sound great.

I’m really enjoying the sound of the Elekit TU-8200R single-ended vacuum tube stereo integrated amp I built from a kit. In fact, I like my entire set-up right now. When I posted about the Klipsch speakers I’m using, my friend Peter Swingle commented that he couldn’t get used to the sound of the Klipsch speakers – he much preferred soft-dome tweeters in his speakers.

I thought about this a bit and wondered if he ever listened to Klipsch speakers driven by a vacuum tube amplifier or was his experience with solid state? About 20 years ago, I put together an expensive sound system based on Pioneer Elite series components (solid state) and used expensive Infinity floor standing speakers with soft dome tweeters. I remember being somewhat annoyed by the amount of sibilance that was apparent in some recordings with that set-up.

I recalled how the sibilance was pronounced when I played back Talk of the Town by the Pretenders. As Chrissy Hynde sang, when the lyrics had certain words like “such” and “shots” the “ess” sound came out almost like a hiss. I broke out my Pretenders CD and gave it a listen on my current system. No sibilance, just nicely balanced sound. I know, it’s not a scientific comparison, just my memory of the sound of two different systems in completely different surroundings.

Since I started this music buying spree, every time I open YouTube, I see performances by different artists. This has influenced my choices in new music. One of the YT suggestions was for an American jazz singer named Melody Gardot. She has an excellent voice that’s very pleasant to listen to. When I read her back story, I had to order her CD.

In 2003, when Melody was 19 years old, she was hit by a SUV while bicycling in Philadelphia. She sustained head, spinal and pelvic injuries that were serious enough for her to be hospitalized for a year. One of her physicians thought music would help her recover from the brain injury. After a period of time, she could hum along with different songs. Slowly she began singing along. Finally she could really sing and started writing songs. It’s quite a story and she advocates for music therapy.

Our calendars had some social events this past week. On Sunday, we had the annual Viewpoint Pickleball Club general membership meeting and dinner. It’s always fun to get together with the people we usually see only at the pickleball courts. It’s kind of funny – a few times I’ve run into fellow pickleballers at the grocery store or somewhere offsite and hardly recognize them in street clothes.

On Monday, we had a block party for Viewpoint residents of the 2500 row. It was a potluck and BYOB at the southpoint recreation area. Viewpoint has three recreation areas – the main pool area which has two swimming pools, hot tubs and shuffleboard. The northpoint recreation area has a swimming pool, hot tub, gym and a clubhouse with an upper patio deck. It’s adjacent to the softball field which has bleachers and a kitchen area. The southpoint recreation area has a swimming pool, hot tub, gym and a large patio area with gas barbeque grills. It’s directly across from Fat Willy’s bar and restaurant and the golf pro shop. It was a fun little party and a chance to meet some of our neighbors.

On Wednesday Donna went to northpoint for an end-of-season party for her tennis team. Donna was one of the organizers – she’s really involved with the tennis club. She’s also a Residents of Viewpoint Association (ROVA) street captain. ROVA advocates for the residents here and raises issues with the Viewpoint management and parent corporation – they generally keep the management on their toes and make sure any maintenance or safety concerns are voiced and documented.

We recieved another party invitation on Wednesday. Our neighbor and fellow pickleball enthusiasts from Washington, Kay and Jay, are having an early happy hour with appetizers and BYOB at their place on Tuesday. However, today we found a notice left at our door saying they had to cancel the party as they both tested positive for Covid-19. I hope they’re okay and recover quickly.

With all of the parties and eating out, I only have a couple of dinner plates for this post. Both plates happen to be chicken dishes. On Saturday, Donna made turmeric chicken and she reserved some of the turmeric sauce to put over some leftover champ potatoes.

Yesterday I broke down a whole chicken and Donna used the breasts to make chicken Lombardy. This is a favorite dish for sure.

Yesterday I trimmed and cut a London broil for jerky. I marinated it overnight in a soy-based pepper marinade. It’s on the Traeger now – it usually takes about four to five hours of smoker time. I started with two pounds of beef cut into strips. After smoking and dehydrating, I should end up with more than a pound of jerky. The London broil was on sale and I got it for $7. The soy sauce, worcestershire, brown sugar and spices don’t amount to much cost. All in all, it’s way better than paying eight to 10 dollars for a 1/4 pound of jerky at the market.

The weather held pretty much to the forecast with the exceptions of a few raindrops Sunday afternoon. We’ve been seeing low to mid 80s since then and will be over 90 degrees today and tomorrow. The forecast for the week ahead shows mostly the same with one anomaly on Tuesday – they say it’ll only get up to 64 degrees on Tuesday and we’ll have rain.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!