I'm getting pretty short. I'll be at home, enjoying a nice steak with my wife in 23 days. With any luck, Jim will finish up the order in time for it to arrive a few days after I do, so that I use my leave time to set up several hundred pounds of gear. My replacement leaves the States Monday night, so I'll be eager to have him get here and do a turnover. This has been an experience of a lifetime, in some ways I'm sad to leave, and in other ways I just can't wait to get out of here.
I think one major change in my listening habits will be the rediscovery of the classical genre I have neglected for several years. All too often, I just wasn't in the mood to sit and listen to a symphony, rather just play some rock or whatever. Plus I was never all that thrilled with the quality of most recordings of classical, having played in orchestras and so forth, they just didn't do it for me. But, now that I have been turned to great labels like Telarc, I can go out and find the absolute best recordings of the greats and hear them in all their detail.
I absolutely can't wait to see curly walnut live and in person. The ones Jim showed online were just stunning, and to that I added quite a beautful piece of claro walnut I found. It should match my wife's decor nicely, she has dark chocolate accents in our living room, and the walnut should play nicely.