Mark,
I have given some serious thought to selling everything and completely retiring from my music gigs. I even sold my Tyros 4 and one of my Bose Compact speakers. My gripe is not the quality of the competition but rather the corporations that refuse to give the retirement homes a decent entertainment budget but yet charge the living hell out of their residents. I, like you, have a very strong professional background that only a few here know about and I simply refuse to play for the money some of the senior places are now offering. Would you believe some have even lowered the pay offered this year!!! I dropped eleven places this year over pay disputes.

So, I don't know what I will end up doing. I would miss seeing the people I play for but I sure wouldn't miss the PITAl it is to get gigs booked and driving in the heavy Dallas traffic.

Deane