No I don't have a gold tooth like it looks in the picture!

So, long before Max passed I had decided the next big dog I got would be a female Great Dane. Female because I love... male dogs, but Max taught me a couple lesson's.

I didn't really intend to get one two months later. What happened was, Max wasn't gone too long when I really missed him and missed having a big dog. Sophie is a great dog, but a tiny little dog and they aren't the same.

Lisa knew it was killing me, and not really intending to get one yet, mostly just checking prices and availability she found a Great Dane that was just four months old and had just had her ears done. The price was far more reasonable than most she found so she told me and we decided to go take a look.

The story was she had been sold, but the people she was sold too ended up getting divorced so she got brought back.

We were in the kennel meeting some of her awesome adult relatives when they brought her in. I just fell in love with that face!

Even a good price for a Great Dane isn't exactly pocket change and we really weren't prepared for the expense at the time. Probably shouldn't have even taken up their time to look at her.

But as luck has it sometimes, the breeders liked how I was with her, that we had experience with bigger dogs and how she liked us, and they wanted her to have a good home. So when we explained that we probably shouldn't have bothered them yet, well, that changed everything.

Her price stayed the same, but the way it worked out was a hundred dollars down and a few EZ payments. :) She came home that night!

She's not a Max replacement. She's Winnie (who Max happened to name). Winnie has her own place in my heart and she sure has helped during times I've really missed Max. That makes her extra special.

To her credit, she's fully aware that Sophie is boss and has never tried to challenge that, not even in puberty. I think she's actually afraid of Sophie. :)

She doesn't really like anybody who isn't in our family being in the house. She loves everybody if they're outside. Just not in our house. Wierdo!

At four years old, as you can see, she's taller than me standing up and I am not a short individual!

She's a great big doofus!

Winnie loves pizza.

Let me tell you a story (like you have a choice): When we got her we kept her on a strict diet because Danes can have problems if their diet isn't right while they are growing.

When she was about two I wanted to give her a treat because I figured she was grown enough to handle it. I didn't want to personally give it to her because I didn't want her to be begging me all the time.

So we put her outside and while she was out, I put a piece of pizza in her dish. Let her back in and when and sat back down and watched her not even notice. She's pretty strict about when she eats for the most part and doesn't really look at her dish if it's not one of those times.

So after awhile one of the boys pointed it out to her. She sniffed it and nosed it and had no clue. She picked it up and carried it out to the middle of the floor and after having a hard time figuring out how to eat something so huge in comparison to the size of her dog food, she promptly lost her mind.

Balls out, mind blown, full fledged crazy.

She went back over to her dish and barked at it hoping to make another piece appear. She wouldn't stop. When no pizza appeared she decided if she went outside again, maybe that would work. So she rings her bell to go out.

Comes back in lighting fast and pounces on her dish. Nothing there. She would not stop barking at her dish for probably half an hour or more. Absolutely hilarious. I was in pain from laughing at her antics!

I've been so lucky with great animals who have awesome personalities!

Read the story, then come back up for the video. This video is all that remains of 10-2-1 Incident after I deleted all the pictures & stuff in a good riddance celebration. The quality sucks cause it was filmed with a camera with a jerky person recording. Just check out the characters in the story :)

10-2-1 was without a doubt the WORST Band I Was Ever In. Period with a capital PERIOD.

We played one show and that was one show too many.

How it came to be was that after playing full time professionally for a long time with Michael Murphy & The MOB (that story will get here soon too!) I kind of inadvertently retired from music for a long number of years. I was tired of the road life, the sour side of the music business and the effect it had on my home life and didn't want to do it. Just didn't have the fire.

In 2008 I decided it was time to get back in. Hobby only, have a little fun and not be too serious about it, make a little money if possible.

I searched for a long time, but in my area it was hard to find musicians that weren't already in a band.

One day I get contacted by a guy named Dave that was putting together a "blues & classic rock band" and was looking for a bass player and a singer. I told a friend of mine who used to be a singer and we both decided to go check it out.

Well. singer Chris had developed a drinking issue (had to stop for a six pack to slam during the audition jam), and  I should have known better from the minute we started playing.

At the end they said they'd like to have me but Chris was a no go, which was fine with me.

This band looked like it could be interesting on paper. The drummer was a great drummer but a bit on the weird side and a fanatic about knowing everything note for note before practicing.

The guitar player was the gem. He was a crotchety old man, and by "old man"  I mean Paul was 76 years old, didn't look a day over 55 and could play guitar like you wouldn't believe. Blues and jazz absolutely superb, but get this: Ozzy, Metallica, Sublime, Alice In Chains, Pat Benatar, Heart, you name it. This dude smoked! He could shred a young guitar slinger to shreds.

We also had another young kid who's name I can't remember, but he was a beginning guitar and keyboard player.

Then we found a female singer named Annie from Madison. She was young, pretty and had a very bluesy soulful voice. Her problem was she didn't know jack about the blues and she introduced the band to adding tunes by Katy Perry and Pink. I sh*t you not. Paul and Dave decided we should do "Barracuda" by Heart and Annie was unfamiliar with the tune! Again, I sh*t you not.

This was not a band I should be in, but man, it was so hard to find anybody I stuck with it just so I could play again cause I knew I needed that release to get my life feeling like life again.

The name 10-2-1 was just something Dave the Drummer told us the name was going to be pretty much. I started designing a website around the theme "10-2-1, Odd's Are, You'll Like Them" Corny yes, but Dave the Drummer thought that was weird because he didn't get the reference to gambling. He was talking about bands PLAYING from 10-1. Which is the stupidest thing bars have ever done and I won't bother to explain why now.

So anyway, we practice a few months and aren't ready for public performance yet and Dave the Drummer books us for a Wedding gig of all things.

There were a couple of good moments but mostly it sucked. I was mortified. I had never seen such unprofessional behavior in my life. Ever.

Dave the Drummer made us start a couple songs over because he didn't like the way Keyboard Boy started them. That's a no-no. You have to be way messed up to start a song over and then you do it with a joke, not calling out the guy who accidently screwed it up.

Then a little farther into the show came the incident where Dave the Drummer and Paul the Awesome Crotchety Old Guitar player almost came to blows about how some song was supposed to begin. Serious fighting, yelling over the microphones. These guys had been playing together for years in previous bands.

We get done and Paul flat out quits on the spot, as does Keyboard Boy.

Annie & I talked & I knew she was upset, but from the conversation I didn't know that we would never see nor hear from her again.

I stuck with Dave the Drummer because I thought it would get better if we got a different guitar player and it was just us & Annie.

Dave the Drummer found another guitar player to audition. Annie began calling in sick for practice then we just didn't hear from her. Dave the Drummer found a singer named Wayne. We get the guitar player and singer to come.

The guitar player is this a no sh*t British Note-For Note metal shredder who insists every one in the band play every note the original artist played. Even brought me sheet music and tried to explain the basics of sheet music reading to me in a particularly, stereotypically British condescending way.

I told him I don't play to play what some one else played, I play to play what I feel. He chuckled.

At the end of the night I told Dave the Drummer I needed to take my Peavey half-stack home to change a couple tubes in the head and try it out. I left with that and my bass and never looked back. I did leave some stuff there but I just wanted out, I didn't care if it cost me a few dollars, I was done.

A couple months after that I began talking to Mark about the project that would become Gideon's Radio and the rest is history.

Dave the drummer called me once shortly after Mark and I got together asking me to play bass for another project he had going. I told him I had just started up with a band in La Crosse. No.

A while later I go through Taco Bell and he's working there. Ask's me again. No.

About a month ago he calls me at work asks me if I'm still with the band in La Crosse. I say "the wildly successful Gideon's Radio who will be releasing an all original studio album his year? Yes, yes I am!". He actually asked me if I was up for a side gig!

No sir, I am not. I just can't tell the guy the problem with 10-2-1 was Dave the Drummer, and there's no way I would play with him again. Not even for a highly paid charity show.

And that's the 10-2-1 Incident.

As I write it occurs to me Paul would be 81 years old. I hope he is and I hope he's still playing he loved it so much and is probably the most singularly talented person I've ever had the privilege to paly with. Would love to actually play some blues and jazz with him. Incredible talent.

I hope Keyboard Boy and Annie are still pursuing the dream.

Dave the Drummer, I seriously hope he looks at himself and makes some changes before he succeeds in starting another band. He's very talented and could receive a lot of joy from playing if he could just play and not be a dictator.

As much as I hated the experience, I'm glad I have this video to remember some people I am glad to have met and played with under the wrong circumstances!