This is mainly for Strike, Christian and Viv, but perhaps of interest to others.  It's at least as good as backgammon stories.

I spent the weekend in Key West.  Each year, they celebrate St. Patrick's day with a "Bar Stroll"  The deal is, you pay $20 a person for which you get a commemorative T shirt and a card entitling you to a minimum of 10 drinks, one each at a series of bars.  In fact, one or two of the bars always springs for some shots of something and various participants carry shots to share.  This year, I carried bannana rum, about a half gallon of it.  By the end of the day, I was carrying an empty container.  Since my birthday is the day after St. Patricks day, the event sometimes doubles as my birthday party.  A couple of years ago, the event, which is always on a Saturday, was on my bithday.  As I recall, I collected 2 for 1 and then some on the bar card.

Key West is home to some of Florida's most unusual people.  In addition to having a very high concentratiuon of gay and lesbians, it's home to a variety of artists, which is leading to the point of this story.  Each evening, as the sun begins to sink into the sea, all the street performers, artists, tourist and the like, collect at a place called Mallory Square.  The artists, etc. are there to make a living, the tourists, etc. are there to marvel at the beauty of nature and to support the artists, etc.

This year, as we wandered among the displays, we came across one welling incense holders in the center and something that did not look the same to the right.  There were these long tubular things, made of native bamboo and decorated with a variety of aboriginal type graphics.  Looking at the owner, I brilliantly commented, "These aren't incense burners, are they?"  He responded that they were not.  I then offered, "They're didgeridoos, aren't they?"  He confirmed my guess again.  The long and the short of it is, I am not the proud owner of my very own didgeridoo.  It's not authentic Australian, but it is real wood and really hand made.  It's also a lot cheaper than the "real" thing.

After only a couple of days, I can make recognizable didgeridoo sounds with it.  Like Strike, as he indicated in a previous exchange, I have not mastered the breathing technique that allows continuous sound generation.  In fact, I'm not even close, but I'm working on it.  I'm thrilled.  Jayna's less thrilled.   The cat is terrified.

Once I've mastered the basics, all I have to do is figure out what the hell I'm going to do with my skills.  As near as I can tell, there's not alot of demand for didgerdoo players in S. Florida and, unfortunately, it does not seem to be an instrument many will appreciate solo.  On the other hand, I've been long fascinated with the instrument and expect to get a lot of pleasure from learning what it and I can do.

So, if any of you has a suggestion as to how I can put this thing to use, other than obvious things like sticking it . . .   well, feel free to speak up.

Lee