Mouseslave

I started my guitar journey in junior high school back in the 60's.  I started on a Montgomery Ward Airline acoustic.  I think I read somewhere that Kay made these guitars.  My only gig was to accompany the junior high chorus at our winter recital when I was in the 9th grade. The other guitarist played a Gibson and could play circles around me and told me so.  Well, he went on to become a professional musician and I gave up the guitar when I was 20.  If only I had had a Gibson. By then I had an ES-335 clone and traded it to my wife's cousin for a stereo.  About a month later my old guitar was hanging in a pawn shop and I could not afford to get it back.

Fast forward to 2011.  Out of curiosity I stopped in the only music store in Edmond.  One of the salesmen showed me a stratocaster and I was bitten again.  I was 58 at the time but reasoned that if I lived and played until I was as old as BB, chances are I can learn to play decently.  I decided that I would somehow convince my wife that a guitar was in our future and get a strat.  I did convince my wife that a guitar was a safe habit and would keep me out of trouble.  I didn't know about GAS yet.  But in the process of looking for the right strat, I found a les Paul studio and brought it home. Since then I have set out to acquire a strat two more times and ended up with a Tele and a Larivee acoustic.  I'm not complaining but still looking for that strat.

When I gave up playing back when I was 20, it was because I had just gotten married, move to Oklahoma from South Dakota and had a baby on the way.  I worked construction for about 6 years and when the oil boom crashed in 79, I went back to college to get an architecture degree.  Architecture has brought me blessings that I will always cherish.  In 97 my wife and I moved to Florida for a couple of years while I was a consultant to Disney and Cirque du Soleil.  That was the most fun I could ever imagine having at a job and a lot of work.  From that relationship came the on-line name "mouseslave" that I have used since then.  You can probably figure out how I came up with it. 

Shortly before getting interested in music again, my wife and I had decided that our marriage had eroded to the point of divorcing.  I felt this was the lowest point in my life and after 56 years of running away from God I accepted Him.  What started out as the worst year became my best.  I am so grateful for the security and peace I get from my savior, Jesus Christ.  The joy I have known in the past 7 years is something I had never experienced before and one of the best parts is that I am still married to the woman who said she would 46 years ago.

ROCK ON!