Clarky and John:

Thank you for the response and the encouragement!

Flexibility is definitely a struggle, but now I know to just keep at it, slowly and surely. What I need is probably two sets of eyes; one to watch my picking hand so I hit the right string, and one to watch my fretting hand so I get those darn fingers where they need to go.

Aw, heck: if I'm asking for extra eyes, maybe I should be asking for natural ability ;) But I'll try not to beat myself up too much.

One thing I've found that seems to help: taking a break and going to play a bit with Yousician. I find that when my lessons here on Guitar Tricks get a bit 'stuck' that keeps me plinking at the strings rather than throwing my hands up in disgust at my own lack of progress :)