About Lugnut -- Patrick Malone


Many of us have come to know Patrick Malone (Lugnut) as a friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and kind individual. He is a frequent and enthusiastic contributor to our analog discussion forum. He has initiated only 17 threads, but responded to 559 threads. I would guess that many, if not most, of us can recall a time when Pat replied with helpful advice to a question we posted or helped us track down a rare recording. I have come to love Pat as a friend, and to respect him as a man, and I suspect many of you share those feelings.

Today I write to share difficult news with you. Pat has been diagnosed with an aggressive stomach cancer. It has yet to be determined whether surgery will even be worth it. If surgery is performed, most or all of the stomach will be removed, and Pat would face a difficult and long post-op period in the hospital. The medical course is still uncertain, but will be determined soon. Whatever is decided, it will not be easy or pleasant.

Something may be planned in the future to assist the family. For now, Pat could use some of the friendship he so often and willingly showed us. You can email Pat at: [email protected]. You can also mail cards, letters ... or whatever. You may email me for Pat's mailing address. My email is: [email protected].

I hope to spend a few days with Pat in Idaho or Nebraska (from which he hails) soon. Between this news, my legal work, getting ready for family arriving for the holidays, Audio Intelligent, and trying to make plans to visit Pat, my head is spinning. If you email me and I don't respond, please understand that I am not ignoring you, but rather simply do not have time to reply.

Pat may or may not have time to respond to posts here, to emails, or to cards mailed to him. But he has asked me to convey to each and every one of you that he has cherished your friendship, your comradery, and sharing our common hobby on this great website.

As we prepare for our holiday season celebrations, and look forward to -- as we should -- enjoying this time of year, I ask that you keep Pat and his family in mind ... and softly offer up, in quiet moments in the still of night and early morning, prayers for Pat and his family. God bless.

Warmest regards to all,
Paul Frumkin
paul_frumkin
Pat, glad to hear your spirit is rallying (and that you're sleeping better!). I also just received some good news about my sick cousin I recently visited (the latest chemo is effecting a measure of remission at this time), so I think we're all feeling a bit better today.

I'd like to send you some nice unfamiliar music - one of the stuffs of life! - for your listening pleasure if you're up for it. I'll email you...Keep on livin' it up, Alex.
Patrick thanks for the update, I was wondering why the thread kinda stalled. Now about this depression thing, Patrick you hit the nail on the head with you assessment of the situation. I believe you are handling your present circumstances better that most. You are gettin out and about a lot more than me, lol.
Buy the way I will keep you in my prayers, and have a great time in Miami.

Peace, Ron
Patrick

You really do sound like yourself again. Glad to hear this. Have a great trip in Miami. Out of curiosity what was the great record you were listening to a few threads back. Take care

Gary Gelfand
Gajgmusic,

I've not forgotten about the recording I mentioned earlier in this thread. Vetterone introduced me to this record. I've been waiting for him to write about its virtues, not wanting to steal his thunder. I'll contact him and see if he has time to write a review of this piece as I had hoped. If he doesn't I'll not forget to post about it here. My copy should be here any moment.
Pat, I was shocked to hear what happened, I'm sure glad you're O.K. !
Thank God.
It's been a while since we talked (a little about cars, that is) !
By the way, my digital ears made the mistake of listening to a Walker Proscenium Gold at a buddy of mine yesterday for 4 hours !!
It was like putting a big-block in my RX7 !!!!!!!!!!
You take care now and God Bless,

.................. Pat
It's always wonderful to read about good news,as seems to be the case here.I am a newcomer to the forum,but am very happy to see the apparent outcome here!!Great luck,for a really LONG time!!!
Rockinroni,
Why would you put a big block (or any block) in an RX-7? Are you mad? MAD?! What could be more fun to drive than a rotary?

I owned two first gen RX-7's and now own an RX-8. 6 speed gearbox + 9,500rpm redline = zoom! Redlined it in 3rd and 4th just yesterday. That was some movin'.

And yes folks, this is relevant. Pat loves cars and he thinks my RX-8 looks sexy. He's right of course, but mostly because I was standing next to it! ;-)
Oh behave.......Yeah baby.......Groovy......

Doug, you sound just like my sworn enemy, Austin Powers.

BBBWWWWWWAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
BBBWWWAAAAAAAHHHAAAAAA!!!!
BBWWWAAAHHHHAAA!!!
BWWAAHHAA!!
BWAHA....

Hey, is this thing on.....tap, tap...............
Thanks John,
I didn't think being a hobbyist mechanic made engine swaps morbid, maybe I am mad.
I came up with RX8 WAY before Mazda conceived theirs.
The car is professionally retained in its form, 50-50 weight, so on, so forth, just go to Grannys Speedshop.com

My main post here was to say hi to Patrick and wish him well, with a touch of humor.
02-27-05: Dougdeacon
Rockinroni,
Why would you put a big block (or any block) in an RX-7? Are you mad? MAD?! What could be more fun to drive than a rotary?

Hey Doug, I thinks you have me confused with rx8man

Besides I like my STS just fine, love that dual overhead cam 32 valve 300hp kickass V8! zoom zoom

I was also glad to here a digital ear guy got to here a Walker.

Now that is life in the fast lane, Zoom Zoom Zoom!!!

Peace
Ron
Oh no. Doug's going to think less of me. I helped my neighbor slip a 350 into his old RX. One reason for doing so was that his motor went belly up and there were no replacements to be found. Now, get this, this was just about the cheapest and cheesiest transplant I've ever seen. We had to leave the hood off permanently since the only radiator we could afford was too tall to allow it to close. Because of a lack of funds we didn't do any front end modifications to handle the extra weight. The car proved to be dangerous but the owner had fun. He later put some slicks on it and added nitrous and went street racing against my advice. He is a fun guy and luckily outlived the Mazda.

I can't remember the cars name but another friend took the original rotary coupe from the 80's and inserted a motor that dyno'd at over 1000 h.p. before the four stages of nitrous kicked in. It made approximately 2500 h.p. on the bottle and ran in the low, low seven second range. This was a real street legal car that was driven regularly. This fellow hauled this thing around the U.S. competing in the fastest street car shootout races for big bucks. Deep down he was a street racer and lost his life behind the wheel of this car in a spectacular crash while racing another car for pocket change. When I later drove out to the crash site of this lonesome two lane road I found that the quarter mile measured an actual third of a mile with a huge dip and corner at the end of the straight away. His wife and daughter were spectators at this late night illegal event.

I like Doug's car a lot and yes, it is very sexy. Too bad that he is flying into Miami. If his car were there I'd love to be a passenger while he pushes it to the maximum. From what I've read about these cars the cornering is unreal. That would probably raise my heart rate higher than listening to tonearm and cartridge changes.

Gimme a BOSS HOG!!!
Ron,
Sorry for the confusion. Overhead cams? What are cams? What do you use them for?

RX8man,
Great website! I love winding the rotary out and I'm not into drag, on street, track or nightclub, but that's some cool stuff. Have you posted on rx8club.com? Lots of modders there.

John,
Austin who? Them's fightin' words baby!

Pat,
We could always try to wangle a test drive out of a dealer. No good roads near Miami though. Everything's pretty flat and straight AFAIK. Give me New England hills or your mountains for RX8 driving.
Doug,

There are always residental streets. They still have corners in Miami, no? he he
Speaking of cars and Connecticut, I spent quite a few weekends back in the '70s with a Lotus 23B at Lime Rock Park in SCCA C-SportsRacer class competition.

Lime Rock is a fun track. The roads around it aren't bad either.

Cams? Yes the Lotus had a pair of them, on top of a hemi-headed big valve 1300(1600 de-stroked to make C class), short ported with dual Weber DCOE, dry sump, mid engine, 5 speed Hewland transaxle with Elektron hubs, all tube space-frame chassis, Bruill custom bodywork, and all Colin Chapman design and handling. It was originally the Lotus Factory entry in the Nurburgring 1000km(w/twin fuel tanks) with Jim Clark behind the wheel. We got it later, and raced it as a C-SportsRacing class car.

That was about 215hp at 11,500rpm, not bad in those days, out of only 80 cubic inches displacement. The car weighed just over 900 pounds. No turbos, no injection, no nitrous, just plain ol' normally-aspirated Cosworth aluminum.

We always wanted to drop a 285hp Cosworth BDF 4-valve injected motor into it and run Class B, but it cost too much to do. Eventually we had to sell it because it was too expensive for a privateer to run against the "big bucks" sponsored boys.
Steve sat down at his computer to share the information about the recording I referred to above but Audiongon must have been rebooting or something and it didn't get posted. So, with all the spare time I enjoy I figured I'd do the typing instead.

There are only two vinyl records available from this label. Though they have other recording on CD, and I understand they are stunning as well, I can't speak about their audiopile characteristics.

Before I share the artist's name and purchasing information I'd like to express what it is about the album that tripped my trigger. Steve's system is very, very nice and has the ability to reproduce all of the information thrown at it. It's very musical and does a very fine job of not being as picky about source material as you would think. Generic pressings sound very good. But, as the recording quality goes up so does the reproduced sound. My system is very modest in comparison but it too responds well to better recordings and does a very nice job with generics too.

Steve had attended the last CES and had heard this pressing used as demo material and was impressed with the level of detail and the content so he wrote down the purchasing information and ordered it for himself. He didn't say anything to me about its sonic attributes before he put it on his Teres. From the first note I heard things I've never heard quite so clearly on his system. It was like finally a piece of software that wasn't holding his system back. The record exceeds the performance of my system....

The artist is David Roth and the title is "Pearl Diver". It's a direct metal master on the Stockfisch label. Maybe there is an online retailer where you can listen to the content but if you can't find anyway to audition it I offer the following information to try and help you determine if you would like this. David Roth has a manly voice and the entire album is acoustic with perhaps up to five instruments total playing. His music is slow balads and the lyrics reflect his politics. My guess is that he's an environmentalist and a proponent of tolerance. Personally, I prefer artists that don't try to influence my belief system whether I agree with them or not. In this case, I'm not offended in the least as I simply view what he sings about as coming from a gentle soul. The songs that represent his personal views are not "in your face" and come across as sincere and thoughtful. His rendition of Don McClean's "Vincent" is simply incredible. That one cut alone is worth the price of admission.

Stockfisch has only one other vinyl offering and it is a two record set from Sara K.'s "Waterfall". I know you can audition this album online to determine if you like it enough to buy. I've played but one of the records and enjoy it a lot but can't comment of it's sonics. I've not listened to it on Steve's system.

Cut and paste the following to place an order:

www.stockfisch-records.de

The website is mainly in German. Go to the order link and then select viny records. You'll see the two albums and what they sell for in Euro's.

I'm sure that the sonics are about as good as it gets but this is all IMHO, submitted that YMMV and all the stuff that will keep you guys from sending me hate mail if you don't like it.
Ain't nothing out there to prevent me from sending hate mail when Ah feel like it. Its almost funner than openin' a can o' whoop-a$$ on some blue state liberal ;~)

Patrick by your description;

"David Roth has a manly voice and the entire album is acoustic with perhaps up to five instruments total playing. His music is slow ballads and the lyrics reflect his politics."

When I read this, Leonard Cohen popped into my head for some reason, even close?

Thanks for your sharing
Peace

Ron
Lugnut,

I admire you more amd more with every post you make... so insperational...though you don't know me I feel like I know you and and think of you often. The world needs more people like you not less.
Ron,

I've pondered who David Roth reminds me of and I can't think of a single successful singer/songwriter. He does remind me of several club performers I've heard in my life that couldn't get the crowd up and dancing and drinking til they fall down. His type is usually a one night stand in the club scene because the audience sits and listens. This guys music isn't going to be used to hawk tennis shoes, beer or credit cards on tv.

Bin,

Thanks for the compliment. I believe that, in a certain sense, it's more difficult to read my posts than to live them. I have no choice but to face my own mortality but you have CHOSEN to face it, and in doing so, your own.

This is the second type of cancer I've faced, the first being in '88. One of my high school classmates couldn't bring himself to even call me back then and has expressed numerous times of late how guilty he has felt about it. He now calls on a regular basis and the conversation always turns to God. We both believe in the traditional, Christian sense. During our last conversation he told me a long story about him wanting to minister to me so that I could have the gift of salvation. I'm aware that his church, and particularly his men's bible study group, prays for me and my family on a regular basis. He has shared most of our converstaions with his pastor and eventually this pastor said to him, "Paul, can't you see that he is ministering to you?". I could tell that he was near tears when he shared this with me. He went on to say that whenever he calls he feels closer to God. Bin, listen carefully here as I think it's important. I'm not ministering to anyone. Not intentionally anyway. If God is using me for a greater good I'm very happy for him doing so. From the beginning of this thread I've felt that this experience was bigger than audio and Lugnut. You guys have reached out to me and lifted me up. I consider this to be a very special gift to me personally, but since it's really about our shared humanity and proof of how good mankind can be, and that's it's something that needs to be shared. If what I write is in some way helping someone else it is not because I'm expressly trying to do so. I give the credit to God. I'm happy if he is using me in this way and He's welcome to use me up. I feel as though I've known all of you guys forever.
Pat, how does one respond correctly to such gracious comments? Wisdom of that caliber is not of this world. I stand to learn from you, and have followed this thread because I have so much to learn. You are in my prayers!
Pat- it's obvious your soul is churning up great things.

In the midst of great difficulty, you share with us the bitter and sweet of life. I know you don't feel courageous. I'm sure you feel that you're simply playing the hand you're dealt as best you can. But you my friend are a beautiful man, whom God has richly blessed with kindness and wisdom.

Thank you for talking to us, and helping us understand anew the gift of friendship and love.

For some reason as I close this note, I'm reminded of a quote from- of all people- Carl Jung.

"Bidden or not- God is Present".
I would also like to echo Bin's comments. Pat, there is not much I can say that others haven't. God Bless, you and your loved ones will remain in my thoughts and prayers.
I just returned from Miami. What a gas! I would never have thought that old Lugnut would be soaring so high with the audio eagles. Honestly, I'm so appreciative to have been included with such a select group of very fine people. I also experienced a couple of things I've wanted to do specific to southern Florida. I tasted Cuban coffee and had one Cuban seafood meal. The food was very good but the coffee was addictive, it's that good. Sorry to slam Starbucks but they are amatuer.

I just returned so I've other things to do. I'll write more soon.
Sounds like you had an awesome time Pat! Cuban coffee is something I've never heard of, but now I gotta find out. You didn't mention anything about the lovely Cuban women, or had Barb made sure you were wearing your Preakness Blinders? heheh.
I've got to say that the Latin women were, uhmm, very easy on the eyes. Very exotic looking too. The Cuban people that I saw were a handsome, proud group that took much pride in their appearance and the apprearance of what they owned. Understand though that I was staying in the city of Doral where the golf tournament was held last weekend. We're not talking a low rent district. It's a shame I didn't take my camera as the hotel was across the street from the Miami/Dade County Elections Commission building. I'd love to have had a photo of me in front of the building.
Who is Steve Kay from Evanston, Ill.? I just received a Nick Drake "Five Leaves Left" Simply Vinyl LP from him. Thank you. I'd love to associate a moniker with the name.
Ben, How incredibly thoughtful of you. It is all about the music now, isn't it?
Pat I hope you enjoy it I think the more you listen the more you'll enjoy it-his music seems quite slight on the surface but repeated plays brings many more layers.
I'd like to thank Patrick for sharing himself with us last weekend, and for especially for sharing his new love with me.

The Cuban coffee, you perverts, not the Cubans!

Patrick took me around to this restaurant he'd found and bought me a cup. Imagine something almost espresso, but sweetened nearly to a syrup. Yum. We were the only two English speakers in the place. Long tables were filled with two or three generations, families sharing Sunday lunch after church, judging by their attire. Wonderful atmosphere, wonderful coffee.
Yeah, don't pretend like you weren't taking hidden glances yourself Doug, heheh.
glad you folks had fun in miami,i grew up there,way back when south beach was a low rent area,,,becareful; a little cafe goes a long way,,,i really miss the food ,culture and esp. Latin women!!!!
Some days I feel like I'm running around with a big question mark tatooed to my forehead. I just can't understand why good fortune, considering the circumstances, continues to rain down on me. Here's the deal. My oncologist had persuaded me to try an oral chemotherapy even though my insurance company considers its use to be investigatory in nature and uncovered. The drug, Xeloda-a brand of capecitabine (the iv version) is grossly expensive. If this household had to pay for it out of pocket I would need to sell our home and liquidate all of my other assets. It is that expensive.

The pharmaceutical company gifted me my first round of this medication and I am having little, if any, side effects. The coverage is being appealed to the insurance company and documents regarding its useage as standard protocol have been submitted. It may or may not eventually be covered. The need to continue on the next round of the drug is coming so the pharmaceutical company has again gifted me another course of treatment. My biggest fear is that this stuff would work and I couldn't have it. I'm sure you can understand the emotional side of things if that happened. Well, to make a long story short the cancer clinic I go to has just told me to not worry about it. No matter whether the insurance pays or not I will receive this drug free of charge if it is working for me.

After the second round of chemo I'll get a CT scan and the images will be compared to my last CT to see if the disease has progressed, stopped in its tracks or reversed course. I'm really in touch with my body and its telling me that this stuff is working. I could bitch about a number of things that are no longer normal but I'm in generally good health and can enjoy every day. I can actually make plans and follow through with them. That may not seem like a big deal to you healthy guys but it is what gives me my life back. Previously if I were invited to do something I'd have to qualify my response with "sure, if I'm feeling good enough". Now I can say, "what time?".

On the stereo front the Syrah has been sent off for repair and I purchased a used Wright WPL 10 V just in case. I should be getting it in a few days and I'm sure I'll be happy with it. I also contacted Robert at Ridge Street and ordered another pair of the Poiema! speaker cables since my speakers require two stereo pairs. I also ordered some Eichmann banana connectors to use with these cables from Robert. Now, remember Robert gifted me two pairs of RCA's and one pair of the speaker cables earlier. He charged me so little for all this other stuff that I consider it a gift too. Just the interconnects and the speaker cables have made a huge difference in my system. In fact, the retail price of the cabling exceeds the value of my amps, crossovers and speakers. Well, I did buy them used you understand. Looking at everything in retail dollars the cabling is about 50% of the price of the parts I just mentioned. It sounds better doing it this way than moving up the food chain with my hardware for the same dollar figure. Not long ago I wouldn't have believed this possible.

I now only have one challenge left with the system. Assuming the Syrah never returns I need step up transformers to use with a new cartridge. I just love the Bent Audio transformers. They sound great if broken in and the cartridge loading is very easy to change. They are out of my price range however. If anyone has any ideas about a cheaper way to go I'd be most interested. I really only need about 10 db of gain but configuring for other gain settings would be a plus. Cartridge loading changes would need to be easy because I'm so ignorant about the more difficult ways its accomplished. Dip switches would be okay but the way the Bent Audio unit works is just too cool. You simply clamp the resistors between two posts to attain any value you want. I saw this first hand in Miami thanks to Doug Deacon and was amazed. I was amazed by how easy it was and also how clearly audible very small changes affected the sound.

I also had some good fortune on the software front too. I'd been looking for an affordable MOFI copy of Muddy Waters "Folk Singer". Affordable is a laugh. What I did find was a Chess reissue in mint condition. After having played it I find it difficult to believe the MOFI is any better. This is great content and a wonderful performance recorded about as good as it gets. I love this album. I'm also very impressed by the album Bem Campbell sent me. It's Nick Drake's "Five Leaves Left". This album has really grabbed me after a few plays. Considering that it was originally released around 1968 and I can't remember having heard it before makes it all the more interesting.

Did anyone here take my advice and buy the David Roth album? Just curious what others think of it.

Two friends from the Midwest are arriving today for a weeks visit. We'll be going out tonight for some live blues. I have some fun things we're going to do while they are here but the bulk of the time will be spent listening to tunes, visiting and getting small. As soon as this is posted I'm going out to buy a good bottle of cognac to go along with those cigars I bought in Miami. Ah, the aroma of stinking up the house with old friends is something I really look forward to.
That is fabulous news about the chemo drug. Seems like a lot of folks are listening and applying the thinking of your musical "hero," Neil Young, when he sings "Long May You Run."

Cigar smoke gives me cluster headaches. Cognac, too. My back is bothering me and I can't sit very long at a time. The hearing is falling off in my left ear. And I always thought dip switches were named for me. But I hope you guys have a good time. :-)

Now you've got me thinking about whether I should use a step-up transformer between my low output (0.5mV) Grado The Statement and my Plinius Jarrah phono stage. Just what my wife wanted: for me to spend more money on gear. I'm telling her it's your fault, Pat.

Warmest regards to all,
Paul
Pat,
That's great news about the medication.

Glad you like the Drake album,he has two other albums which are equally as good!
Paul,

You can blame me for anything as long as she believes it. No problem there at all. he he.

I posted my system today and was disappointed to see that they no longer appear on the "new today" page. bummer. Check it out guys.
Dear Patrick

That is great news. Glad to hear you are tolerating well. Good things do happen to good people. Take care and I'll be in touch.

Gary g
Great news, Pat. Keep it up, man. Maybe I was wrong when I told me wife that women are clearly tougher than men.
wonderfull news concerning your meds Pat,glad to hear your tolerating it so well,,
Hi Pat, you can use my Cotter step-up tranny if you want to.
My system is down now anyway while I'm working on the house.
I'd need to get it back later, though, since I can't play my system without it.

It has 20db gain, is configured for 40ohms load, and is not really re-settable without a major pain in the ass. It's a good load for my Shelter.

But, you are welcome to it, if you need it.
I'm really in touch with my body and its telling me that this stuff is working. I could bitch about a number of things that are no longer normal but I'm in generally good health and can enjoy every day. I can actually make plans and follow through with them. That may not seem like a big deal to you healthy guys but it is what gives me my life back. Previously if I were invited to do something I'd have to qualify my response with "sure, if I'm feeling good enough". Now I can say, "what time?".
Patrick, you've made my day, week and month! I'm so glad to hear this good news. Personally I hate cigars, so I'm staying away from Boise until you use them up. ;-)

Glad you enjoyed that unscheduled demo of the value of John Chapman's simple and clever design. Why doesn't every stepup have these? I guess people just haven't experienced how critical impedance loading is for an MC running through a stepup. As you heard, the tiniest change can turn a pedestrian sounding setup into real magic.

We learned this partly by dumb luck and partly because Paul is a scientist. I supplied the dumb luck by choosing the BentAudio Mu's. It was simply an, "I don't know what I'm doing so I'll go for flexibility," decision. Paul predicted the sensitivity to impedance adjustment and explained that we could create intermediate values by combining two or more resistors. He was like, "Well duh, doesn't everyone do that?" (You try living with a genius - it ain't all peaches and cream!)

Funny how things large or small can surprise us and work out well sometimes, but I guess you know that.

Here's a suggestion: pick up a set of the K&K stepups (they have a sponsor link on VA). You can buy them in kit form for $250. Solder a pair of speaker binding posts across the secondaries while making the kits. Voila! Same functionality as the Bent's for 1/3 the cost.

Better yet, borrow Twl's Cotter and mod it for him. He'll thank you when he gets it back!

Cheers, buddy. Glad to hear you're feeling better.
Geez, you guys are the best. Tom, I'll decline on the kind offer. I have a perfect 901 which I plan on using at some point. Your Cotter would have been plug and play. I really don't want to maybe have Barb sort out things that need to be returned. Doug, the K&K is one I'm considering and it's probably a perfect match for the level of my system. If I do the K&K thing I'll probably call you for some specifics. I don't much care for cigars myself. If you and Paul can somehow make it out this way I'd accomodate any such requests.

I posted my system the other day and was disappointed to see it did not make it to the "new today" forum page. Did I do something wrong? I was hoping that you guys would get to see it since it was only made possible through your help. It is an extension of my personality. It's found in the system link on the home page entitled Lugnut's room.
Patrick: "keep on truckin, man" is appropriate. With or without a step-up tranny:)!
good fortune, considering the circumstances, continues to rain down on me
To be able to SEE good fortune and look positively at the world, from where you are is a great lesson for all the rest of us. Thank you on behalf of my little family & myself.

On step-up trannies: K&K's lundahl trannies are good. Also, sowter sells them as does diyhifisupply. All are very easy to operate!
Cheers and be well.
Last week was spent with a couple of old friends from the Midwest that came out to just hang around. We went to one of our audio club meetings and everyone seemed to enjoy my guests. Two nights were spent listening to live blues at my favorite watering hole. Played some pool too and owned the table for a few hours until I just hung it up in favor of people watching. We also went to Steve's home and they were just blown away by his room and system. We stayed up late listening to various types of music, drinking single malt scotch and cognac, smoking various cigars and other, er, plants. One of my friends spent some time shooting skeet, trap and sporting clays, with my other friend going to some BLM land and target shooting his rifles at long distances. A lot of the time these guys brought up stories about yours truly that they will never forget. Wow! Listening to these tales makes me realize that I've been a smart ass for most of my life. Like the time a lady in a shopping center parking lot was hitting her son on the head telling him how stupid he was. My comment to her was, "Yeah lady, that's right. Hit him on the brain. That should make him smarter." Or the time at a party when an obnoxious drunk butted into a great conversation and I told him that the more I knew him the more I liked him less. I don't just blurt things out like I used to but I still think them. I love these guys and cherish the time I spent with them this last week.

I received my Wright WPL10 V preamp last week too. I've got to say that for such an inexpensive piece it has speed to die for and lets the details through rivaling pieces selling for much higher prices not to mention it is dead quiet. I do have some things to sort out though and maybe you guys can help. The cartridge I'm currently using is one reported to not be a good match with this phono stage and the 901 that I have requires a step up tranny to work as it should because of its low source impedence. The phono stage has a total of 65 db of gain and is said to work well with cartridges down to .5 mv. Considering all of my options it seems buying a new cartridge is perhaps the easiest path to satisfaction. Besides, the 901 doesn't belong to me. I've got an Ittok arm, need a minimum .5 mv output and 47k loading as well as high source impedence. I'm looking to spend around $500 but will go up to $800 new or used. Used, if from a trusted source like one of you guys. Advice is needed. Of course, I could sell the WPL10 V and buy another preamp for more money too.

I finished my first go round of the Xeloda. I guess I tolerated it well enough. Hell, at this point I don't know how I'm supposed to be feeling. I don't sleep well and am fatigued most of the time but I don't blame this on the medication although I know it contributes to being tired. I'll begin the second round next Wednesday and after that go in for a CT scan to see if it is helping. In the meantime I'm just going to try and ignore thinking about it. There doesn't seem to be any point in that mental exercise anyway. After all, it is what it is. I do dislike very much swallowing so many pills every day. I realize it's a mental thing but popping seven in the morning and ten in the evening of various required meds makes me wonder if mixing all of them up creates something brand new! Do doctors even think about the synergy thing?? LOL
Patrick- I've been thinking about you a lot. My wife has just finished her 4th surgery in the last 2 months and is about to start what they call dose-dense chemo in a couple of weeks. People like you and she are the definition in my book of class AND bravery. Taking the bitter with the sweet and doing what you have to do without any sense of self-pity. Her long term prognosis is pretty good so that helps her (and me), but so far she has not caught any breaks at all in terms of what was anticipated vs. what actually happened. And of course at some point you just have to decide either to trust the docs or not; there is no way you can have the independent knowledge to know that from a medical standpoint you are doing the right thing if your not a Dr. yourself. That doesn't mean that you have to do what they recommend, but if you can't trust your doc to give you valid info on something as complicated and significant (understatement!) as cancer therapy, then you're really up $hit creek. BTW, with the new anti-nausea drugs, is the smoking recreational or medicinal? Hard for us to know how to plan for this, especially with a 16 year old in the house. I guess we will just let it come to us.

Glad to hear that you have had a good time with your buds. I'm not a shooter but hanging out and drinking some good booze and listening to some tunes, sounds like what I like to do with my friends; just substitute golf for skeet! Don't get a chance to do it that often; note to self to do that kind of thing more often.

I'm thinking about you and will be sending all good thoughts for good results on your CT scan.