Welcome aboard JB!! Yeah, we are bracing for what you are dealing with now arriving here. -21 degrees - it's been a REALLY long time since I've experienced that! Ugh!! It won't be as bad here, but it's gonna be cold!

I saw the picture of the guitar you picked up that you posted in another thread. It's certainly a nice looking guitar - I can see why it spoke to you. I remember Hammer guitars back in the 80's. OK, I take that back - it was Hamer. I never played one, but I remember them being popular back in the 80's. Here's a quote I found in a forum post:
"Highly regarded by professional musicians it boasted a plethora of big names among its users including The Police, The Pretenders, Dire Straits and a host of others." So you may have found yourself a good one there!

That's a bummer about your finger. I have a feeling though that you'll be able to accomplish quite a bit even with that limitation. Jerry Garcia was missing a good amount of one finger and Tony Iommi chopped off one of his fingertips in a sheet metal shop when he was young - both went on to become pretty accomplished players.

Hopefully somebody with experience can chime in with specific advice for you. All I can say keep up your positive attitude about it and go for it!!