Missing

Right now, Wolfboy is at his grandparents' house in Corsicana, watching all the TV he can stand and living on grilled cheese sandwiches.

THEGIRL misses him, or so she says. I think she just misses having someone to terrorize.

***

When I was nine or 10, my great grandmother gave me a little water-filled vial with gold flakes inside. She'd taken a vacation to someplace where you can pan for gold, and that was her souvenir for me.

I loved it. Gold! Real gold! It's not like it was technically worth much, but I was a little boy with his own gold flakes, right there in the vial.

And the vial disappeared at some point. I didn't have it long at all. I meant to take care of it, and I believe I did. I happened to have stepbrothers at the time, and the vial wasn't the only thing that went missing while they lived there.

***

MOBB's charm bracelet has been missing for months. I keep meaning to just tear the house apart some afternoon and try to find it. It's got charms that mean a lot to her on there, and it would mean the world to her if it turned up. It wouldn't surprise me if it's somewhere in THEGIRL's room. Just a hunch.

***

I'm certainly missing Wolfboy. It was odd to wake up this morning (eventually... I'll get to that) and not be subjected to his ubiquitous lectures on the finer points of Pokemon, or movies I've never seen.

I woke up with my head aching, still. I don't get many headaches, so to have one last 24 hours certainly got my attention.

It's a bit better now. I got up, dressed THEGIRL, and hit the sheets again.

***

I used to have this incredible amplifier, a mid-60s Fender Deluxe Reverb. It was a silver-face.

I got it for free. It was in the garage at a friend's house, broken. I offered to buy it on a hunch, and he just gave it to me.

So I took it to the local guitar shop to have them see what they could do. My buddy Rick was excited--until he took the chassis off. "It's pretty wrecked," he told me on the phone, preparing me for the hefty repair bill. But as he and the tech worked on it, they became more optimistic. Finally I had the speaker re-coned at Rockin' Robin, took it home, and WOW. What a great sound!

It had terrific low-end response, as well as a clear, bell-like tone that worked so well with single-coil pickups. I don't know how many times Dad came home to find me wailing away, sometimes standing on top of the amp just to feel the big sound it made.

But it's gone, and I just can't remember when, where, or why. I moved to Austin with it, recorded some demos and... I guess I sold it. Best amp I ever had, and I don't have any idea how I managed to part ways with it. Now, I wasn't always in the clearest frame of mind back then, but it really surprises me that I don't have even the slightest idea whatever happened to it. Breaks my heart really.

***

One of the guitars I sold during my early days in Austin has kind of an interesting story.

It was an Ovation Balladeer. The more I played and got to know my tone preferences, the less I liked it. So I sold it for about $400 to a nice kid who came to my apartment. We chatted a bit, and he was excited to get it.

About a month later I saw his photo in the paper. Seems he'd been walking somewhere in downtown Austin when a guy ran past him. Someone yelled, "Stop that man!"

So he did.

Turns out the man he tackled on the sidewalk had just robbed a bank. The kid subdued him until cops arrived. He was deemed a hero, and got a nice cash reward if I recall.

***

Is there anything/anyone you're missing?