This week is not moving. I feel like it should be Thursday at the very least. I thought life was supposed to go by faster when you reached my advanced age. Another lie told me me in my youth, I guess.
Still not a great deal of interest going on in Duluth and its environs. I had great rehearsals last Friday night and all day on Saturday with Dr. Holman – actually received a few kind words from the flugel player in the band who said something along the lines of, “There are at least two of us that really enjoy listening to you play and we think you sound better than the other guys back there.” I politely thanked him, told him he was insane, and blushed for about three days. He’s actually the third person in the band who’s said that to me in the last year. So the insanity is spreading, but it’s still nice to hear. 🙂
In all seriousness, I have been getting a lot stronger on the Eb horn since rejoining the band in 2006; but I have nowhere near the talent level as the 4 guys who sit back there with me and let their skills remind me on a weekly basis that I may have been the big dog 20 years ago, but I’m not anymore.
Doesn’t mean I can’t keep trying and eventually blow them out of their chairs, but I’ll wait until the time is right.
After the Saturday rehearsal, I went to The 5 Seasons Brewpub with 6 other guys (well – 4 guys, 2 girls) to talk music, drink really good beer and generally laugh at everything. I do enjoy hanging out with the bandsmen of the GBB. It’s a fun group. This is a good thing, as one of the BBb tuba guys and I are renting a car a couple of days before NABBA so we can go up to Louisville and hang around for a while before we have to play anywhere. Robert is originally from the area, so he knows the cool stuff to see. We’ll also be rooming together (with one other guy, who I don’t recall at the moment) at the Galt House in the city until Sunday. Maybe it’s the Gault House. I don’t know. It’s just a really big expensive hotel.
Found out this morning that I’m supposed to be playing a church service next Sunday. This is news to me. I’d sort of planned on going camping. Guess not. What do I have to do to get a free weekend around here? Last weekend was the Holman rehearsals, this weekend is a service, next weekend I’m on call….I just want to get some camping in, dammit!
Julie moved a lot of her kitchen stuff over to the house while I was in rehearsal, incidentally. She apparently had a ball rearranging everything that’s been in the same place in my kitchens since I was 4 years old. I will admit that she did a great job of organizing, although it took me about 4 hours to find a potholder.
Our Ad Insertion server in Florida (I think I mentioned it in the last entry) is now dead. I mean, like, REALLY dead. As in, barring a complete miracle, it’s not coming back to life. As in, we’re out of the advertising business in Florida. I hope my president takes this turn of events very poorly indeed. After all, he was the guy who said we couldn’t replace or upgrade any of the hardware or software two years ago when we told him it was going to fail. His response at the time was, “I guess if it fails, we’ll be out of the adveritising business – ha ha!”
Sorry, Don. You said it, buddy, not us. This particular server generated somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 per year. How much would it have cost to replace it two years ago? About $80,000. I guess corporate presidents have no more foresight than national ones, huh?
Ha! That should get Mom fired up, so I guess I’ve written enough for one day.
TWD
