Another plateau surmounted....

[Divejob@xxxxxxx]

Once again, it's not often that I find that I have anything of great note to 
contribute to this august cyber-roundtable.  Usually,  I am content and 
honored to lurk along in respectful silence, soaking up as much good info as I can 
glean from the wealth of wisdom on this List.  However, in this case, I feel 
pretty good about my own recent popping through of the doldrums that we so often 
find ourselves in:
About three years ago, I was on a very remote dam project in the Idaho woods 
and found myself spending a fair bit of quality time with a tupperware case 
full of harps that I regularly pack in with my dive gear when I go off on jobs.  
I was feeling smugly accomplished over some plateau-busting epiphany and 
thought I would step up a bit and treat myself to a custom made harp.    About 
four weeks into the job, rather than meander off to go fly-fishing on Sunday (our 
only day off), I took the 3 hr drive into Boise and got online at one of 
those college coffee & internet houses.
Two weeks later, I took the same drive and retrieved a new Mark Lavoie maple 
wood "A" from the project post office box.  I noodled around with it for a 
while. But, after several weeks of butt-busting dive work, I found that when I 
had the time to wander off to a nice rock and play, my feeling of righteous 
talent had waned somewhat.  I felt like I just wasn't doing justice to the extra 
cost of the harp.  Since then, I have pulled it out from time to time and tried 
to give it some excersise.  But again, I'm like the guy that buys the top of 
the line skis or tennis racket.  I've always thought that while yes, the high 
end equipment may help your game, more than likely only the top 1 percent can 
really tax it to it's full potential.  The rest of us weekend warriors are 
benefiting only psychologically.
All this came to a frothy head this last Friday.  I had finished up my week 
at the main office in the San Francisco Bay Area and was on my long commute 
home to the ranch.   Friday afternoons, I have anywhere from 5 to 8 hours of 
windshield time to play along with cd's, alone and unmolested.
Over the last year, when I'm in the Bay Area, I've had the good fortune to 
have a few sitdown  lessons with the lovely and talented Mr. Michael Peloquin.  
Lately, using highnote and blow-bend instruction from MP (a patient, gracious 
and wickedly talented dude), I have made a conscious effort to play basic 12 & 
8bar stuff, while trying to entirely ignore the bottom end of the ten-hole 
diatonic.  Well, it finally clicked.  
I was rolling up the highway, doing my best to hold my own, duplicate and 
embellish "High-Fashioned Woman" off Billy Boy Arnold's "Back Where I Belong" 
disc.  I was feeling pretty pleased with myself when my two-months-out-of-the-box 
Special 20 "A" decided to succumb to whatever bar peanuts I was generating 
out from between my teeth and crapped out.  Not wanting to let the groove wane, 
I reached into the case on the passenger seat, whipped out the Lavoie Maple 
"A" and kept going.  Lawdy, lawdy, I was filled with the spirit and the stew 
came to a boil!
I was the proverbial 'legend in my own mind' as I cruised north on Interstate 
5.  Humbly, I have been to the mountain and I have seen the Promised Land.  
After 20 minutes, I pulled into the highway rest stop and raised blisters for 
another :20 or :30.
Between the insightful hints and tips from Mike, and the mojo that Mark 
infused into the harp, I managed to bust off of a plateau with a vengeance.  I hit 
the bends (which, as a diver, is traditionally a quite negative phrase), I 
slid into and out of them, walked back and forth on holes 6 thru 10 and played 
with all manner of oddball phrasings.  
I finally finished up satisfied, wiped myself off and sat back with a 
cigarette (figuratively).
   I have now waited almost a week to make sure that it wasn't some fluke.  
No, the smoke is still in the bottle.  And, while I have yet to fully duplicate 
the devilish whole body possession of last week, I have been able to call up 
and harness at will the high hounds with confidence.
A big thanks to Mssrs. Peloquin and Lavoie.  A hearty layman's endorsement 
from this most satisfied customer.  You'll both be hearing from me again quite 
soon.

- --Ron

Ron Null
El Rancho Nada
Taylorsville, CA