Freewheelers Cello Band Blog

It is Tuesday, February 4 already, January went by in a teaspoon. Meanwhile our lovely little camper has past Smog, and we're working on getting her ready for little tours. Unfortunately, the last time I drove her (to Discovery Bay, about 20mi from here) on the way back, the stick shift linkage to the gearbox failed, so I had to drive home going no faster then 20mph. Luckily, I was in 2nd gear, so I could stop and drive off, which was necessary a couple of times. Back home, I discovered there was a loose bolt, but before tightening it, I got those blocking sims to prevent this from happening again! It really isn't very hard, but you need handy, experienced fingers to get to the bolt positions, find the thread on feel since there is no way you can see what you're doing. Eventually, we'll need a new linkage, as it is made of the dreaded Plastic. In all my experience with oldtimers, it's always the plastic and rubber components that need to be replaced.

Anyway. I also installed the roof window, and after taking off all of the old fiberglass from the roof, painted it with a layer of special roof paint, which has rubber in it. After a couple of layers, it was done, and the rain couldn't get through. One of the roof windows over our bed had a bit of a leak, so I took that out, cleaned it, cleaned the window seat, and sealed it again with special glue.

The Band currently is non active. We've participated in various contests and apparently, other players are doing better in serving the audience what they want to hear. It's pretty hard always being a pioneer. Especially when you're kind of poor, unable to hire a studio or promo firm. Being nice is all we can do, and practice, compose, record, improve. We hope to fly to Europe this year, as my father will be 85 year old, and his health is deteriorating. With a bit of luck, we'll be able to live in Spain, on our own land, in a home we've repaired, growing organic vegetables fruit and herbs in our own garden. A revival of the Red House Parties will happen then!

Meanwhile, Bas published a book he worked on a few years ago, about how to build your own webshop using free Zen Card software. It's in Dutch, on Amazon, check it out if you understand Dutch!