Thanks Josh

Thanks to Josh, now my fingers hurt like HELL! And it feels so great!!!
I haven't played a guitar in so long. It's been nearly a year since the neck on my Strat got cracked, and I still haven't replaced it. That was days after the Rush concert we went to last August. In late September, I picked up a cheapy acoustic guitar at a pawn shop, just to have something to play. The sound is definitely not great, but, the intonation is good. The "playability" is better than it was, with some minor modifications I did, but it could be better. But because of the course life has taken me in the last year...since Thanksgiving I think I've played it once or maybe twice. That probably would have been in either December or maybe early January. Since then it, as well as I, have just been gathering dust.
But tonight, I read a post by my friend Josh on Myspace with the title Shine on You Crazy Diamond. It had nothing to do with that song. But that is one of my favorite Pink Floyd songs, from my favorite Pink Floyd album, " Wish You Were Here". Back in my "other life" I used to be able to play it, note for note....and I was once told by a good friend, one of my "guitar heroes", that I sounded like David Gilmour when I played it. But my favorite Pink Floyd song ever has always been the title track of that album. That same friend is the one who taught it to me, and we once played it to a group of people at the Carter Blood Center in Ft Worth. We were there to give blood after the crash of Delta Airlines flight 191, on Friday of August 2nd, 1985. My one and only "public concert", if you could call it that. We brought our acoustic guitars...Jeff brought his Yamaha six string, and I brought my Takamine 12 string. We played many songs, but it was when we started playing that song that the other people who were there to give blood really stopped to listen. Jeff was a fantastic guitarist, but not the best singer. Yet he ruled on that song. We both did. One guy even went down the street to get coffee and doughnuts for the group that had gathered. It was a magical moment for me.
But, I digress. When I started thinking about about it, I picked up the guitar, for the first time in months, and started playing along with " Wish You Were Here". It took me a couple of times through to remember the chord progression. But once I had it, I couldn't stop playing it. It was only until my fingers hurt so bad that I couldn't push the strings down that I finally stopped. They still hurt. But it's fantastic. It reminds me of those days, so many years ago when I was just learning how to play the guitar. How I would play until my fingers literally would bleed. I don't have that stamina, nor youthful conviction, anymore. But it feels so good tonight. It just reminds me how much I miss playing music. What a great part of my life I've let go by the wayside. And how I need to get it back again. So, thanks Josh!!!