a foot in the door

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I began my newest schedule today.  I should be happy that I get to wait until 10 to go into the office, but the cats are going to wake me up at 6:00 regardless of when I have to leave the house, so I’m still working 13-hour days as far as I’m concerned.  I don’t mind that too much, but I can’t stand coming home when it’s dark.

Couldn’t even go for a walk this morning because it was raining.  True, I could have walked in the rain.  I didn’t feel like it.

Work wasn’t all that hideous today because I spent a lot of time rebuilding a little excel-based program that I wrote a few months ago.  I’m trying to do the whole thing in Visual Basic with a secured back-end database so that the rest of my team can use it to do software upgrades and I won’t have to worry about them somehow getting to the code and screwing everything up.  At least when I’m developing something I’m not bored to tears.

A Furman defender goes after the runner.  The clarity in this picture – from
the shoes to the facial expression, blew me away.  I love this camera.

Furman dropped their game at App State last Saturday, but it was closer than most people had predicted (33-28, ASU).    More importantly, the camera that I rented for the game was everything I’d hoped it would be and more.  I actually used it at a high school game on Friday night and was amazed at the quality of the shots I got.  High school football games are a sports photographer’s nemesis because they’re almost always at night, the lighting at most high school stadiums sucks, and the team that you’re shooting is invariably in some dark color like maroon or navy blue.  You can shoot in manual at about 1600 ISO and set the shutter speed to a relatively slow 1/250, but your shots are still going to be blurry and lacking much detail.  They’ll probably have a lot of noise in them, too.



Furman’s Jerodis Williams tries to hurdle a linebacker.
At 10 framers/second, I could sit back, frame my
shots, and blast away.

The Canon 1Dx that I rented, however, has incredibly good high-ISO quality.  I shot the high school game at 20,000 ISO – which allowed me to have a shutter speed of about 1/600, and the resulting photos have virtually no noise whatsoever.  I was stunned and couldn’t wait to see how the camera would perform at a fairly well-lighted college stadium.  It did not disappoint.  With the ISO problems solved for the end of the game (when it did get dark), and with the camera blasting out 18-megapixel photos at 10 frames/second, I felt like I could just concentrate on framing and focusing and let the camera take care of everything else.  Turned out to be a good plan – I got hundreds of really nice shots.  I gave about 35 of them to the Greenville News and put 91 others into my own slide show. 

Ray Early watches his extra point attempt
go right down the middle

I got an email from the News’ sports editor today telling me that he was very pleased with my work and asking if I’d shoot the Furman/Citadel game for the News this weekend.

I think I mentioned in my previous post that I didn’t make a great deal of money for the ASU game.  I figured out during the drive home that, if I didn’t count what I spent on lens and camera rental, then I made just under $2/hour (after paying for gasoline) for the 18 hours I worked last Saturday.

Even so, being asked by a relatively major paper to shoot another game made me extremely happy this afternoon, and I agreed to shoot the next game.  I may never get a job as a “real” photographer, but the G’News is at least giving me a shot to string for them a little while – truly my dream job – and I’m just going to run with it as far and as hard as I can.  Maybe something will come of it, and maybe nothing will, but I have an opportunity.

The brass band played a concert at the University of Georgia about a month ago, and we got our recording of the concert back last week.  I am normally the first guy to hold his nose and cringe when listening to recordings made by my band, but I’ve got to admit that we made some really nice sounds at UGA.  One track in particular is virtually mistake-free, well in tune, and beautifully balanced.  I’ll try to put a copy of it into this blog at some point.  It’ll definitely be up on the band’s website within the next few days.

I mentioned that I paid off my car last week.  Naturally therefore, the Audi in question started making horrible noises at me when I backed it out of my garage after lunch today.  I’m hoping that it was just a case of having some water on the brakes or something, but – knowing my luck – it’ll probably end up being the first step towards having a blown engine or something along those lines.  You know: something that will cost me $3000 to fix and that will make my car completely worthless as a trade-in if I don’t fix it.

And that’s enough typing for tonight.

and you thought i was dead

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It was brought to my attention a few weeks ago that I have all but abandoned this blog – or any other blog – since last July.

Sorry about that.  There hasn’t been a great deal going on, I haven’t seen anything really shiny, and my stupid job has got me exhausted most of the time.  So….let’s just try to pick up where we left off and hit whatever highlights there have been in my life since July (in no particular order.  This will be strictly stream-of-consciousness writing).

For starters (or enders, actually), I’m typing this on my new Microsoft Surface tablet.  Yeah.  I finally joined the tablet generation.  There was no way I was going to get another Apple device, so the iPad family was out; but a lot of my friends have gotten various types of tablets over the last few years and I was growing somewhat fond of the portability of the things.  When Microsoft finally released a tablet that – quite seriously, thanks largely to the fact that it is Microsoft – has the potential to replace my laptop, I took the plunge.  Perhaps I should have waited another month and gotten the Surface Pro, which runs a full-blown instance of Windows 8 (this one runs Windows 8 RT, which is a scaled down version of the Windows 8 OS), but I thought the time was right, so I just got what I got.  If I want to upgrade to the Pro later on, I’ve been told I can do so for a $50 restocking fee.  We shall see.

At any rate, this is quite a nice little computer.  The touch-sensitive keyboard/screen cover had me a bit nervous at first, as I wondered if it would be a complete pain to use.  However, it works very well if it’s on a tabletop (as it is now).  Takes a little getting used to, and I’ll never be able to use it to type as quickly as I do on a mechanical keyboard, but I’m probably cranking out about 40 wpm right now.

The camera on the tablet is not great.  Actually, that’s a lie.  The camera is terrible – my phone’s camera is (literally) about 6 times better; but who really cares?  It’s not like I’m going to be carrying this thing around in the hope of getting a great photograph.  I have a phone – not to mention a couple of professional-grade cameras – for that. 

The biggest complaint I’ve heard about the surface (one which does not bother me, by the way) is that there aren’t as many apps available for it as there are for the iPad.  This is a fact in one sense and a complete red herring in another.  It is true that the Apple app store has a billion apps and the Windows app store does not.  A quick check just now revealed to me that there are around 4000 Windows 8 apps available in the US.  However, let’s think about the apps themselves.  How many different versions of a fart machine does the typical iPad user need to have?  And how many iPads are running full-blown Microsoft Office applications?  I rest my case.  I don’t think of my tablet as a toy – I really don’t.  It’s a tool and a potential replacement for my laptop.  I use it to check email, look up things on the web, work with files, and occasionally edit photos.  I don’t even have any games installed on it.  If I want to play computer games, I’ll use my playstation or I’ll go to an arcade.  Laptop games, by and large, suck.

Bottom line?  I like my new tablet.

Going back now….after I left Ahmic last summer, I drove west across Ontario in order to cross the border at Sault St. Marie, Michigan.  It was an absolutely stunning day and the drive was beautiful.  My border crossing was also, without question, the smoothest ever.  The customs dude, took my passport, asked me what I was doing (“Going home from vacation,” said I), gave my passport back, and waved me through.  Total time at the booth: 10 seconds.

After that, I made my way across Michigan’s upper peninsula, down through Green Bay, WI, and stayed the night at a hotel in Marinette, WI.  The following day, I completed my trip to Waukegan, IL, and set up camp at the Michigan Beach State Park.  I spent the next few days hanging out with Amy, swimming in Lake Michigan (cold, but fantastic), visiting one of America’s foremost renaissance fairs near Kenosha, WI (Amy is one of the court trumpeters), and had the extreme pleasure of sitting in at a rehearsal of the Chicago Brass Band.

I suppose I should talk a bit about work.  I hate my job, am not fond of my team, despise my company, and am getting incredibly sick of having me schedule radically changed every 5 weeks or so.  When I got back from vacation, I worked M-F, 8-5.  That was changed to M-T, 8-7.  Next week, I’ll be going to M-F, 10-7.  In December, I’ll be switched to S-W, 7-6.  Planning anything outside of work is a nightmare, which is one reason that this blog hasn’t been updated since my vacation.  I get home from work, watch a few minutes of television, and go to bed.  On my days off (like today), I sleep a lot or run errands.

Fortunately, I haven’t had to work on Saturdays yet, so I’ve been able to make all of my planned football games.  I’ve become convinced that my best lenses are badly in need of cleaning and recalibration, however, so have rented lenses for 4 of said games.  Not a particularly cheap arrangement, but hopefully the improved photos will result in increased sales.  So far this season, I’ve sold about $500 worth of pictures, which pretty much offsets the rentals and gas expenses.  This weekend (tomorrow), I’ve also rented a Canon D1-X body, and I’ll need to sell a pantload of prints to pay for that.  I doubt that will happen, but I really want to try out that camera body.  I’ve also been hired by the Greenville News for this game, which is nice.  It’s the first time that a major media outlet has given me a shot, so I’m really hoping to have a good outing and get my name permanently on their stringers list.

My Microsoft Surface Tablet PC

I paid off my car this week!  It was something that I expected to do by the end of the year, but a very nice windfall from Dad allowed me to do it all at once instead of waiting for next month.  As I told Amy, “That puts me one step closer to telling AT&T to get bent.”  I would dearly love to be able to do that on May 10th, 2013; but I don’t see that happening.  Maybe by 5/10/14 – that way they’ll have to give me my 15-year prize, too.  I think I’m up for luggage or something.

I’ve mentioned Amy a few times here, so let’s catch up on her a bit.  Since my first trip to meet her last Spring, I’ve gone back to the Chicago area a total of three times and she’s visited Atlanta three times.  The next time we get together is currently set for the week of Thanksgiving.  I’m looking forward to it.  We send lots of text messages to each other and talk on the phone 4-5 times a week, but being together is just so much nicer.

In September, I attended the NABBA fall board meeting in Cincinnati.  Not much to report on there, except that it was a nice drive, my hotel room was fantastic, and I actually kind of like downtown Cincy.

Now that the car is paid off, I’m going to enjoy not having a car payment for a few months, but I think there’s going to be a new car in the not-too-distant future.  The Audi is closing in on 170,000 miles.  Not a lot, I know, but it does mean that little things are going wrong more frequently than I’d like.  “Little” problems in an Audi usually equate to $1,000 repair bills.  I’ve got my heart set on a Subaru Outback because I want something that comfortable to tool around in in the city and is also something that I can take out into the woods when the opportunities arise,  While the Outback is by far my first choice, however, I’ve also been looking at other 4×4 vehicles that have some promise.  No drop-dead date on that purchase, but it is something that I’m looking into,

It has gotten cooler in Duluth, GA, and I’ve had a raging cold for the last couple of weeks to prove it.  My outdoor cats are quite comfortable, however.  Two of them, Daphne and Buddy, apparently spend most of their time under my deck.  Brooks, who I am 99% sure is the son of Fleck (Fleck died a few months ago, by the way) has taken up residence in the little house that I built for Fleck last summer, and he seems quite content there.  I can count on being stared at by one or all of them every morning now – they’ve become quite tame and they expect their breakfast to be delivered on time.

Walking has gotten more difficult as the year has gone on, largely because of my work schedule.  When I get out of bed, it’s pitch black.  By the time I leave for work, it’s just starting to get light.  By the time I get home, it’s pitch black again.  The schedule change next week should help, as I’ll be able to start walking at 8 in the morning or so and will be able to make it to work by 10.  When the schedule changes back to an 11-hour one, however, the walks will again suffer.  It’s too bad, because I was actually starting to get into shape when I was able to walk every day.  I’ve noticed now that the pain in my calves that I had largely overcome is now back when I try to go for more than a couple of miles.  Back to square one, I guess.

The Georgia Brass Band make actually return to the NABBA championships in 2013.  That was a done deal a month ago, but it’s now up in the air again because we’ve been invited to play at the Great American Brass Band Festival (and we’ll be doing it).  For some members of the band, the idea of playing both events is too daunting.  I don’t really know why, but I’m not going to push it.  I’ll be at NABBA regardless – and if the band doesn’t go, then I’ll have a much easier time doing my duties as NABBA’s secretary.

I guess that’s enough for now.  I was thinking about this blog the other day and I’d really like to write more going forward.  It all comes down to time and topics, however.  If I don’t have much of either, I may disappear for another four months.

vacation 2012: part 6

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Yesterday being Saturday, we all piled into one of the boats shortly after breakfast and headed in to town to do some shopping at the weekend farmers market.  Lots of people apparently had the same idea – the place was packed.  I picked up 4 or 5 zucchinis and then walked to the hardware store, where I bought a new tarp in anticipation of camping in Illinois in a few more days.  Shortly thereafter, the rest of the group wandered back to the center of town and we all came back to the camp.

Dr. Peddy prepares to fish

The afternoon was a quiet one.  I practiced the tuba a bit more while just about everyone else hung out on the dock and read.  At around 3:00, Cy and I hit the tennis court and played 10 games before we both got too hot to play more and headed for the lake.  The score when we stopped was 5-5.  This is not surprising.  So far, Cy and I have played on three days.  After the three sessions, our scores are deadlocked.  I won the first set, 7-6.  Cy won the second, 7-6.  And the third stands at 5 games each.  Maybe we’ll finish the match today.  It is a beautiful day for tennis.

John and Marcia Ramsey came to Ulvik at around 5:00 for cocktails and conversation.  I let the older crowd do most of that.  It was my turn to cook, so I pretty much stayed in the kitchen and made chicken pot pie.  Not to pat myself on the back too awful much, but it was great.

Unfortunately, Karl developed a toothache at some point yesterday.  That, combined with the overzealous cocktail houring by many in the group, led to a mass exodus back to individual cabins shortly after dinner.  I took a dip in the lake, returned to the main cabin for a video call with Amy, then went back to the lake – and then to bed – at around 11:00.

Karl didn’t feel much better today, so he and Diane hit the road for home this morning – a day or two earlier than planned.

Don and I putted around on the lake for an hour or so this morning – ostensibly so he could fish.  Everyone else has been on the dock all day.  As I mentioned, it is a gorgeous Ahmic day, with a nice breeze coming off the lake, spotty sunshine, and temps in the high 70s.

Perfection.

TWD

vacation 2012: part 5

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There were plans made yesterday to visit Echo rock.  I’ve never been there.  Have heard a lot about it, but have never actually seen it.  So I was sort of looking forward to it.

At the last minute, however, the rest of the clan made the decision to go to Huntsville and buy groceries.  Yay.
Not a lot of Curling Clubs in Atlanta…..
Actually, it wasn’t a bad trip.  For one thing, Diane let me drive her car – a new Subaru Outback.  Since the Outback is on my extremely short list of cars that I’m considering (to replace my aging and expensive Audi), I was really rather pleased to be able to drive one for an extended period and on a few different road types. It drove really well and remains at the top of my list.  On the highway – with the A/C at max – it cruised along at about 30 MPG, and it did a great job smoothing out the bumps when I took an alternate way home along the (dirt and gravel) Midlothian Road.  Had to brake hard twice when I got on the Nippissing Road – once for a quail (which was wholly unimpressed with the car’s horn) and again when the Thompson Road driveway suddenly appeared on my left before I was ready for it.
I’m a bit baffled why it doesn’t have a temperature gauge (it has, instead, a needle that swings wildly and is supposed to tell you how economically you’re driving); but other than that, it’s a nice car.  Now I just have to decide when I’m actually going to commit myself to 3-5 more years of car payments.
While in Huntsville, we ate at a river on the docks (I believe the restaurant is called “On the Docks”).  I had a burger, served to me by a young woman who looks exactly like the Olson twins.  
Upon our return to Camp Ulvik, we immediately hopped into quiet mode.  For me, that meant practicing the big horn for a couple of hours.  I read a number of different etudes from my Arban’s Cornet Method – nearly broke my fingers (and my chops) on variations of Yankee Doodle, Blue Bells of Scotland, and America.  Fun pieces all, though.  I might try to concentrate on one of more of them today.
Dinner last night was prepared by Diane and Don and consisted of flank steak, baked beans, and salad.  Great stuff.  
Nellie the amazing wonder puppy
The after-dinner gaming hour turned into an extended bullshit session – I played with the dog and listened to my iPod – until everyone agreed that bed sounded really good at around 10:30.  That being the case, I fell into the lake a few times, took some pictures of Indian Point (it’s really not getting dark here at all this year….at least not before midnight), splurged on a cell phone call to Amy, and finally drifted off to sleep listening to the water slapping against the boats downstairs.
What a great way to fall asleep.
TWD

vacation 2012: part 4

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Karl and Diane Neuse arrived a little before dinner last night, which was good because it was Karl’s job to make dinner.

Ahmic Lake

He didn’t, of course.  Instead, Cy baked a pork roast and some green beans – good stuff.

I spent a couple of hours practicing the big horn in the boathouse yesterday – chops got sore, but the sound is beginning to come back.  One more week to get things in order….

Not much to report from last night.  All of us tottered off to our beds not long after dinner – around 9:30, I suppose.  I slept like a rock and woke up at 6:30.  Took a bath in the lake and started the day.

This morning, I went exploring to the west of Magnetawan.  Basically, I followed route 520 for an hour or so.  Found the Whitestone Cemetery and a few lots for sale in Whitestone on the shore of a tiny little lake – more likely a pond.  Definitely not Whitestone Lake, at any rate.

Just returned to Ulvik about 45 minutes ago and am writing this while I wait for the kitchen to clear out so I can make a couple sandwiches.  After scarfing them, I’ll probably take a quick swim and hit the horn some more.

vacation 2012: part 3

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I woke up at 6:15 this morning, and blinked.

When I next awoke, it was 8:30.
Yesterday was a lazy day for the most part.  In the morning, I made plans to go to Huntsville to pick up, among other things, a micro SD card for my GPS unit.  I believe I mentioned earlier that I needed to load maps of Canada on the thing.  After purchasing the maps, however, I learned that I didn’t have enough space on the device to load them.  Hence the need for the SD card.
I wrote a blog entry two or three years ago in which I confessed to having a mental block when it comes to Huntsville, Ontario.  Somewhere in the darkest recesses of my brain, I have stored away a vital piece of information about that city; and that piece of information is wrong.  Huntsville, you see, is SOUTH of Magnetawan, but I seem to be convinced that it lies to the NORTH.  For that reason, I will turn in the wrong direction, either going to or coming from Huntsville, about 75% of the time.  Yesterday, therefore, I started up a mantra, which I repeated to myself all the way along the road between Magnetawan and Burk’s Falls.  This is a trip of probably 10 miles, and it is the easiest way to get to Canada 11, which is the highway between Burk’s Falls and Huntsville.  The phrase that I kept repeating to myself during this trip was as follows:

When you get to Burk’s Falls, head south on Highway 11.

 It should, therefore, come as no surprise to to anyone that I got to Burk’s Falls and promptly turned north on highway 11.

Once again, I’m sharing the boathouse with a nest
full of soon-to-be baby birds!

To my credit, I realized my mistake almost immediately (like, within a mile or two), but there are very few places on 11 where one can turn around; so I decided that I’d just go to North Bay, Ontario (about 60 miles north), which – like Huntsville – has a Wal-Mart (and therefore would have a micro SD card).  So I drove to North Bay, which is a nice little city and used to be one of the main stops on the road between Montreal and Vancouver.  It lies on the shores of Lake Nippissing and is a great vacation destination should you ever wish to travel north in Ontario.

It also appeared to be closed yesterday.  The whole town had taken the day off as far as I could tell.  And the Wal-Mart looked as if it had been closed for a month.

So I got turned around and headed south on highway 11 – all the way back to Burk’s Falls and then another 40 miles or so to Huntsville, where I went to the Wal-Mart as originally envisioned and picked up my SD card.

Canada maps have now been loaded onto the GPS….and I only had to go 120 miles out of my way to get it done.

After getting back to the camp, I sweet-talked Cy into playing a few games of tennis with me.  As it was rather warm on the court (temps were in the mid-80’s yesterday), we only played 7 games and gave up when I had a 4-3 lead.  We finished the set this morning (I took it, 7-5), but Cy got her revenge and won a second set (also 7-5).  I guess we’ll go for the tie-breaker tomorrow.

Got back to my boathouse after this morning’s tennis and fell in the lake for a few minutes before practicing the tuba for 40 minutes or so.  After that, Don and I capped the chimneys on the main cabin.

Most of the clan sat on the dock for quiet time today.  I checked my work email and uploaded a bunch of photos to both Facebook and the SmugMug gallery mentioned a few days ago.

Think I’m going to go take a walk and then fall in the lake.

Dinner last night, cooked by Don Peddy, consisted of cheeseburgers and some potato salad (made by Julie Peddy).  As always, the food is great.

Karl and Diane Neuse are scheduled to arrive sometime tonight.  Looking forward to catching up with them!

TWD

vacation 2012: part 2

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It is a gorgeous morning on Ahmic Lake.

I woke up in my boathouse retreat about 10 minutes ago after nearly 8 hours of sleep and am listening to a few birds as I type this.  Other than those avian noisemakers, it is virtually silent.  The wind hasn’t started up yet this morning, so I don’t even hear any waves slapping against the dock or pushing the boats around downstairs.  This won’t last long, I’m sure – there’s certain to be a boat or two cruising by before I’m long into this narrative.  I can live with that.

Life on the Magnetawan River

I arrived at Camp Ulvik at about 8:00 Saturday night after a really nice drive from Cornwall, VT.  The trip began somewhat inauspiciously when I discovered, in Shoreham, that the updates that I’d applied to my GPS unit last week had completely wiped out all Canadian data and I was unable to get directions to Magnetawan.  This isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds – I was making the trip before GPS existed, after all – but if the weather hadn’t been perfect all day on Saturday then I might have been a bit stressed.  As it happened, however, I managed to find my way to Cornwall, Ontario; and then I used a method that I’d employed once in the 1990s to get here: I headed west until I saw signs to towns or landmarks that jogged my memory.  Kingston, Ottawa, Algonquin, Huntsville, etc.

I was met at the camp by Cy, “T”, Don & Julie Peddy, and the Peddy’s new puppy, Nellie.  Dinner was barbecued ribs, cole slaw and mashed potatoes, and all of us hit the sack fairly early.

Yesterday morning was devoted mainly to getting the camp connected to the internet.  Whoever closed things up last September hadn’t stored the DSL modem and routers in their normal spot in the basement; and I tried unsuccessfully to connect with an older modem for about an hour before, mainly out of frustration, I had an inspiration and checked an upstairs closet in the farmhouse and found the missing equipment.  Once that was recovered, it was a short business to get things up and running.

One of the floats in the Magnetawan Canada Day Parade

After having a crumpet for breakfast, I joined the rest of the gang for a trip into town to catch Magnetawan’s Canada Day Parade.  It was, by necessity in a town of 300, rather short; but it had a patriotic charm that reminded me of July 4th celebrations from my days in Shoreham in the 1970’s.  Bunting, flags, old cars, kids on bicycles, dogs decked out in flags…all in all, a very pleasant diversion.

After the parade, there was a cake cutting (happy 145th birthday, Canada!) it the town center/library/hockey rink, and 60 or 70 people broke into “Oh, Canada” seemingly spontaneously.  It sounded great.

As do I.

I walked the two and a half miles back to the camp and the remainder of the day was a typical Ahmic afternoon.  Had a nap, followed by a great dinner (“T” grilled some chicken breasts and Julie pitched in with a salad), and then the 5 of us played Oh Hell until 11:00 or so.

Managed to get Amy on a video call at about 11:30 – sadly, she will not be able to visit next week (a tenuous plan that had been formed proved to be too impractical), but we had a nice talk before I toddled off to take a few shots of the moon and hit the sack.

The high temperature yesterday, by the way, was probably about 85.  I’m told that it hit 106 in Atlanta and 111 in other parts of Georgia.  I’m quite happy to be where I am, deer flies and all.

Laptop battery running low, and I’m short on time.  Later, all.

TWD

vacation 2012: part 1

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Yeah.

So I said that I’d try to write something every day while I was on vacation.  I lied.

Ruins of the British soldiers barracks at Crown Point, NY

It is now Friday evening, and Cy, “T”, Dad, Diane and I have just returned to the Cornwall house from dinner in Middlebury – Dad’s treat!  Most in the group got some variant of Thai food.  I opted for a sushi plate, which was quite good.  We’re all back at the house now (it’s about 9:00).  Cy and “T” are busying themselves with last-minute packing details (the three of us are leaving for Magnetawan in the morning), Diane and I are both playing on our computers and Dad is doing his best to take pictures of the incredible sky using an old point-and-shoot camera – I haven’t the heart to tell him that it’s never going to work.

The new Champlain Bridge

The GBB’s concert last night went fairly well.  The crowd seemed to be larger than last year’s was, and it was extremely receptive of the band, which sounded pretty good – and I should know, because I  was late getting back to the stage and watched the first selection of the concert’s second half (West Side Story) from the picnic grounds.  All of the folks in the band who I talked to had a great trip and – judging by several of their posts on Facebook – we wouldn’t be averse to making a third trip to Middlebury.  This won’t happen next year, of course (we’re booked for the international trombone federation in Columbus), but maybe in 2014.

Champlain Lighthouse

I spent most of yesterday tooling around Shoreham in the morning – driving on a bunch of dirt roads near Lake Champlain, eating a late breakfast at the Halfway House, visiting Mom’s tree by the historical society….just reacquainting myself with the old hometown.  Around noon, I went to Middlebury and walked around the cemetery – took a number of pictures, but nothing really caught my eye.  At one o’clock, I hooked up with Cy and the two of us moved percussion equipment from the fine arts building to the stage (a trip of about 200 yards).  The rest of the day was sort of hectic – sound check at 4:00, back to Cornwall for a quick shower, back to the stage for the performance.  After the gig, Cy and I and one of the percussionists moved all the percussion equipment back to the fine arts center and then he and I went to the Two Brothers Tavern in town for a bit of supper.  I ended up getting back to the house at around midnight last night and crashed.  Totally exhausted.

On Wednesday, the day after I arrived in Cornwall, I slept until nearly 9:00, went for a quick 2-mile walk on Clark Road, and then drove to Crown Point, NY.  Spent several hours there walking around the ruins of the two forts on the site (one British, one French).  I never knew that there was an actual historic site there, so it was fun.  Both of the forts were pre-revolution.  The French one – Fort St. Frederic – was built in the 1730s and was never taken (the French destroyed in in 1759 when faced with an overwhelming British force during the French & Indian (aka 7 Years) War.  Almost immediately, the British began construction of a much larger fortification – which was never finished and was taken by American forces in 1775.  Both sets of ruins have been declared National Historic Sites and have not been reconstructed.

Seagull as seen from the top of the Champlain Bridge

Also at the site is the newly-completed (2011) Champlain Bridge, which is really what I drove over there to see.

Wednesday evening I was back at Cy’s place where we hosted a small gathering of GBB members who were in town along with many of their hosts.  I’d been expecting only 5 or 6 people, so it was great to have closer to 10 (maybe 18-20, hosts included).  We hung around, eating chips, drinking good local beer and socializing until perhaps 9:30, when a good number of the band – myself included – went to the Two Brothers  Tavern (they must love us there), ostensibly to play trivia.  As it turned out, we were far too late for the trivia contest, so I ended up playing darts with Matt (the previously-mentioned percussionist) for about two hours before coming back to Cornwall.

House on the Vermont side of the Champlain Bridge

As I stated earlier, tomorrow is a travel day and I probably won’t have much to say.  If I get to Ahmic early enough, however, there may be some pictures.

More pictures from the last three days, by the way, are here.  I’ll continue to add to that album as the vacation continues.

TWD

let’s hit the road

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It seems like it’s been about 20 years since I’ve typed the following words, but in actuality, it’s been only 2: After just one more day of work, I’m setting off for Canada.

To be sure, I’ll actually be setting my GPS for Middlebury, VT, at about 4:00 AM Tuesday; but, after spending about three days there, it’s off to glorious Magnetawan – the home-away-from-home that I was unable to get to last year, and which I’ve sorely missed for the last 700+ days.  It will be a different town than I remember, largely because the Downtown General Store, the anchor of Magnetawan, Ontario’s business district for as long as anyone can remember, was completely destroyed by fire last summer in what appears to be a case of arson.  Due to the difficulties in zoning, registrations, and other political things, the store is not going to be rebuilt; and life on Ahmic Lake may never be the same for the hundreds (perhaps thousands) of summer residents.  Be that as it may, the charm of Ahmic lies in the beauty of the area, the relationships among the lake dwellers and the regular townsfolk, and the relatively carefree days of summer in the lakes region of Ontario.  No matter how many times I visit (but for the skip last year, this would have been my 20th summer on the lake), I am always awed by how fantastic I feel after my first dip in the lake, and I’m always worried that I’m going to do something foolish like call my boss and tell him that I’m never coming back.

We make a cute couple, eh?

I will, of course, be coming back to Duluth again this year; but not before making a stop in Waukegan, as I mentioned in my last entry.  My plan at this point is to leave Canada on the (early) morning of July 12th and travel to Illinois Beach State Park for a few days of camping, rehearsing with the Chicago Brass Band, watching Amy play in a few gigs, and hopefully getting to spend some time with her when she’s not gigging.  Her schedule sounds like it will be fairly busy for the three days that I’m in Illinois – busy enough so that I briefly considered not making the trip.  “Briefly,” however, is the key word.

Amy, by the way, did indeed make it down to Atlanta last Friday night.  On Saturday, we spent some time at a local AT&T store – she needed a new phone and some gizmos to go with it, and I get a pretty hefty discount on the gizmos – and then I introduced her to the magic of the south’s most established eatery (Waffle House) before dragging her with me to a performance by the GBB at the annual International Euphonium Institute.  It wasn’t the band’s best showing, but I didn’t embarrass myself, which was nice.

We’d planned to spend last night watching movies, but both of us were pretty wiped out by midnight and we ended up falling asleep halfway through the first one we started watching (My Cousin Vinnie).

Today found us at the Georgia Aquarium, where we wandered around looking at fish and taking pictures for several hours before I rather unwillingly took her to the airport for her return flight to Illinois.  I received a message from her as I began writing this that she’s landed in Milwaukee and will be home in another hour.  Good news there.  I still don’t trust planes, though I know I’ll be on a few of them as this year winds down.

I know I’ve already gotten slack about updating this blog again, but I’ll do my best to at least get a few paragraphs in each day during the vacation – at least as long as I’ve got internet access.  Unlike my days at home, there should be plenty to write about while I’m away.

For starters, I can fill y’all in on my trip to Gettysburg (last week).  I probably should do that now, but I’m getting ready for a trip, you see.  I’m sort of busy.

TWD

back to the grind

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So it’s been a couple of weeks since my sojourn to Chicago and life in Atlanta hasn’t changed much since then. I still go to work every day and wish that I could have almost any other job in the world.  I still walk a few miles in the mornings and take longer treks on the weekends.  I still have rehearsals on Tuesdays, still listen to my friend Robin play his guitar and sing on Wednesdays, still feed the feral cats most mornings, still have lots of jobs that need to be done around the house.

I guess about the only thing that has changed in the last two weeks is that I’ve been a happier guy.  And yeah – that’s pretty much a direct consequence of my Chicago trip.  Amy and I have had several long talks in the last two weeks and, though we don’t know exactly how things are going to work, we’re both pretty sure that they are going to work.  That makes me happy.  And that’s all I’m going to say about that for now.

Work really has been a complete drag since I switched to DLSO.  It’s bad enough that I really don’t understand what it is that we’re trying to accomplish.  What makes it worse is that the other Atlanta guy – the one who I was actually sort of looking forward to working with – doesn’t seem to have the capacity to shut up. Today, for example, he decided to spend twenty minutes reciting to me all of the company acronyms that he could think of – knowing that the over-abundance of acronyms in my job is one of the things that really pisses me off.  He’s a nice enough guy, but sheesh!  STOP TALKING ALREADY.

With that notable exception, today wasn’t all that bad.  I got volunteered to write the procedures for some failover testing that we’ll be doing tomorrow and it was the most useful I’ve felt in a month.  Nothing huge – just filling in some server names and determining in what order they should be shut off or turned on – but I was doing something tangible and it felt good.  I keep telling myself that if I can just hang in there until the actual technical trials start, I’ll be okay.  Time will tell.

It is currently pouring down rain for about the third of fourth time today.  I don’t mind, as it’s keeping the temperature down and it always sounds nice to me; but every time we get big storms I have to wonder what’s happening to my roof – and I have to wonder how fast my grass is going to grow.  I just mowed the lawns last Saturday, and it’d be nice not to have to do it again really soon, particularly as my next two weekends are booked and I’ll be going to Canada for three weeks after that.

Booked weekends?  Yes!  This coming Friday, I’ll be heading for Gettysburg, PA, immediately after work.  Amy will be playing there with the Athena Brass Band on Saturday afternoon, and that seemed like a good enough excuse to make the trip.  I also intend to kidnap her on Sunday and bring her back to Atlanta until Monday night.

The following weekend, the Georgia Brass Band will be playing at the International Euphonium Institute’s grand finale on Saturday night – and plans are in the works for a certain red-headed friend of mine to fly to Atlanta on Friday to take in the Saturday show and learn a bit more about my adopted city on Sunday.

After tucking her back into a plane on that Sunday, I’ll have one more day of work to snore through before putting my happy ass in the Audi and heading to Vermont, where – on June 28th – the GBB will play a benefit concert for the Sheldon Museum, and from there I’ll make my way up to Magnetawan to spend 10 days or so at glorious Ahmic Lake before picking my way southwestward between two rather larger lakes in order to spend another two or three days in Waukegan.  Then it’ll be, yet again, back to the grind.

I think I’ll still be pretty happy, though.

TWD