I did the amplify down thing and I could see the spike being reduced , although, my god, that's slow, but after I did it about three times -- the program started kicking me out again. It didin't seem to matter where I tried to lower the spikes. I don't think it sounds too off for part one so I am officially waving the white flag at Audacity. But I learned more about how the program works and for that I thank you.
Laurie