home for the holidays

It has been quite a few winters since I've attempted to put together any sort of year-end review, but I've got some time this morning, the house is empty (Scott's gone home to MN for the next week or so), and I can only play so many Arban exercises on my tenor horn before growing weary of my mediocrity.

2012 has been a year of newness, both pleasant and un.  I began a new walking regimen in January, met a new lady in March, started a new job in May.  I visited new places in June and July, tried new camera equipment during October, got a new computer in November, and saw a new symphony in December.  Throughout the year, I worked a variety of new schedules, found new places to play, tamed some new cats, and dreamed about a new car.  So let's take a look back and see what I can recall.

For about the first three quarters of the year, I took walks nearly every morning ranging from 2 - 12 miles.  I began doing this mainly because I wanted to play with a new exercise application on my phone that drew my walking paths all over a map.  So caught up in the maps and the statistics was I that I almost didn't realize that I was walking further and faster over time - and losing weight and lowering my blood pressure.  The walks became more sporadic beginning in about August when my work schedules started getting flaky during the week and football season began to monopolize the weekends; but I'm still getting out there when I have the time, the light, and the lack of rain required.  Today, by the way, does not fit into those three categories - it has been raining for two days now.

Long strings of windmills along I-65 in central Indiana became a regular sight
during 2012 as I drove to and from Waukegan, IL

In April, I attended the 30th annual North American Brass Band Championships (in Cincinnati), and almost literally stumbled into the woman of my dreams after coming down a flight of stairs where I'd been photographing the events.  Amy and I are still getting to know each other nearly 10 months later with no immediate plans to cease doing so, and she's played a huge part in many of the other events of the last year.

On the first of May, I started a new job - leaving the one that I'd held for the previous 4 years in the face of looming outsourcing (though the company still refuses to call it that).  To say that I'm less than thrilled with the new gig would be the understatement of my life; but if you've read any of this blog since May, you're probably quite aware of my feelings for the current gig.  I say in all modesty that it is a tribute to me that I have neither quit nor flown completely off the handle at my management - though I've come frighteningly close to doing both on several occasions.

Over the summer, I did quite a bit of travelling.  There was a trip Vermont to visit with Cy and "T" and participate, with the Georgia Brass Band, in Middlebury's annual summer benefit concert for the Sheldon Museum.  I also attended a brass festival in Gettysburg - mainly to catch the performance of an all-female brass band in which Amy was playing.  I returned to the hallowed shores of Ahmic Lake in Magnetawan, Ontario, this year after having to miss that luxury in 2011.  After about a week of tennis, swimming, card games and food with family and friends, I headed west through Ontario, brushed around the top of Lake Michigan and ended up in Waukegan, Il, to spend another week with Amy in her hometown.  I camped on the lake's western shore, took in a renaissance fair on the Illinois/Wisconsin border, sampled the food at a couple of local diners, and took pictures of all of the above.  It was the longest of three trips that I took to Waukegan during the summer, and Amy visited Atlanta a couple of times as well.

Football season was both a disappointment and a joy.  As my team struggled to a wretched 2-9 record, I vastly improved my photography with the aid of some rented lenses and a top-notch camera body, and I closed out the season as a "real" professional photog by shooting two games for the Greenville News.  I still haven't been paid for those games, incidentally.  Maybe I'll spend some time today making up invoices.  The trips during the season were enjoyable as always, though somewhat tiring.  In addition to the regular drives to Greenville, I had a couple of long days on the road (to Burlington and Boone, NC).  With the exception of one early game, however, the weather was fantastic on each Saturday and the drives were pleasant.  That one exception, though....wow.  Tornados, downpours, game delayed by nearly an hour....and we lost in triple overtime, which portended the season to come.

Near the end of the season, I found a watering hole quite near my house that boasts both dart boards and (holy of holies) a pinball machine.  Scott (my renter) and I have amused ourselves over the last few months by regularly playing in weekly "blind draw" darts tournaments - quite often placing in the money - and by seeing just how hard we can shake that pinball machine without tilting it.

Quite a lot, as it turns out.

The feral cats have come and gone over the last year at their whims.  At one time, I think there were as many as 5 scrambling up the steps of my deck each morning to dive into the food that I put out for them; but their number has dropped to just two in recent weeks.  Both of those little guys were born last summer and both are about as tame as feral cats can be.  Free food, a warm and dry place to sleep, a nice guy who'll scratch their heads and coo at them.  They know when they've got it good.

In November, I made the last payment on my Audi and immediately began sniffing around for a Subaru Outback.  As of this writing, however, I haven't found one that I'm willing to drop $25,000 on; so - for now at least - I'll just keep driving my car as hard as I can and using that non-existent car payment to cleave through other debts.  Maybe in a few months, I'll take the plunge; I'm not quite ready to do that yet.

Also in November, I got to meet Amy's family and have Thanksgiving dinner with them; and just two days ago I returned from yet another trip to Waukegan during which Amy and I attended the Midwest Music Conference (my first time) and also caught a performance of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (also a first for me).  Both of these events were things that I've heard about for decades - and both lived up to the hype.

And that brings us pretty much up to date; though I'm certain that, as soon as I click the "publish" button up there, I'll remember amazing things that happened during the year and will immediately berate myself for not including them in this rambling epistle.  Suffice it to say that, on average, 2012 has been a decent year, with only that minor annoyance - the job - scratching the otherwise shiny brass and silver coating.  So, as I begin the last week of the year - the last week before I'm 47! - I'll look forward to figuring out how to deal with the employment situation and will wish all of you reading this a most delightful and rewarding 2013.  And, though I don't have her permission to do so, I'll finish this up by quoting from the end of Cy's annual letter, wherein she (or, perhaps, "T") beautifully advises us that

"...we are, indeed, blessed.  We have what we need and more, and it is incumbent upon us to share.  No one of us will ever be able to eliminate all sorrow or alleviate all pain or worry.  But we can do our part, every day, to make some portion of our world a little better.  It is the gift we can always give, in any season and in any place."

Think about that. 

TWD

 

year's end...world's end?

So two weeks has passed and I am once again in bed and have once again spent the last 20 minutes playing with my paint program working on "The Cypress Swamp," which is sure to garner world-wide interest among artistic circles.  The lines, the colors, the...swampiness of it simply cannot be understated.

It is a Saturday morning, but the cats didn't really care about that and rousted me from a most delightful slumber at 5:45 this morning.  Little bastards have really got to figure out the whole "day of rest" thing at some point, but I'm not holding my breath.  So, after feeding them and the outdoor critters (Buddy and Brooks are still regulars, though I haven't seen Daphne in quite some time), I put on some shorts and a jacket and set out for a walk.  Got about 8.5 miles in and came up with a new path that has potential - though I was certain that I was going to be road kill during one mile-long stretch with neither sidewalks nor shoulders.

That took a couple of hours and I got back to the house and back in bed by about 9:00 (for those of you doing the math, yes - I killed an hour watching television between the cat feeding and the walk); and I've spend the intervening 3 hours catching up on email, booking a hotel in Waukegan for next week, reading my messageboards, and - of course - painting "The Cypress Swamp."

The last couple of weeks at work haven't been half bad, actually.  I finished up with my year-end review stuff (didn't have the actual review, but wrote down all the stuff that I think I accomplished in the last 12 months and sent it to my boss) and spent most of my time working on my automation projects - one of which will be used by me tonight when I go in (at midnight) for yet another upgrade procedure.  The last time I did this, I didn't get out of the office until 9 in the morning.  Here's hoping that tonight is not a repeat of that fiasco.

A lot of my effort for the automation stuff has been focused on trying to connect to and get information from a number of UNIX servers.  So far, I've managed to connect to the things and send a few simple commands; but I'm still having trouble with more advanced stuff that, while extremely simple to type at a terminal, is proving to be a real bugger to program.  I have a few ideas about the problems, though, and will no doubt spend most of tonight's upgrade session trying them out.  I think I mentioned in my blog post on the night of the last upgrade that, no matter how long the whole thing takes, my part - thanks largely to my automation - lasts all of about 5 minutes.  The rest of the time, I'm just sitting there on the phone, amusing myself in whatever way possible, and waiting to see if I'm going to have to roll back my five minutes worth of changes because the people taking 9 hours have screwed something up.

I played the last of three Red Kettle gigs last night and was extremely disappointed in the other 4 people who were playing with me.  I'm not a world class musician or anything, but I find it hard to believe that any supposedly talented person can get lost - and stay lost - while reading Christmas carols that, on average, last for about 45 seconds.  Time after time last night, however, one or more of the people in the quintet missed repeats and became hopelessly confused.  Not to toot my own horn (both because I'm not that good at tooting it and because it's kind of like bragging for not falling over when taking a step), but I was the only one of the 5 who didn't get lost....and even had I done so, I wouldn't have wasted the rest of the tune floundering around trying to "fit in" to a carol that any 4-year-old can recognize.

The RK gigs, at any rate, are over for another year.

The Cypress Swamp

Did I mention that my work schedule is changing again as of tomorrow?  Yeah.  It is.  I'll be going M-F, 8-5 now. This won't last long.  Word is that the schedule will change AGAIN in mid-late January.  For the record, yes, I *did* bitch on my year-end stuff about the complete lack of a standard (or even non-standard, but at least long-lasting) schedule over the last year...and I don't particularly care if my boss takes offense at the fact that I blamed the lack of such on his leadership skills.  The year-end stuff is supposed to be when you let your boss know if you have any problems with him.  I've never had any before, but this schedule thing is really chapping my ass.

Waukegan next week?  Yes indeedy.  I still had a couple of vacation days to take, so I burned next Thursday and Friday (Friday being 12/21/12) and am planning on driving up Thursday morning and spending a few days with Amy.  Still not sure if I'm working on Christmas or New Year's day, but the early word is that the call center will be closed - which means that I won't be.

Not that it matters, of course; because, according to the ancient Mayans, the world will end on 12/21/12.  So at least I'll get to die in a northern state.

That's a good thing, right?

TWD

nothing planned

Well this is a strange feeling.

No games to shoot, no work scheduled, not taking a trip anywhere...it's just a lazy Saturday morning during which I can sit in bed and do nothing other than yell at my cat to get his feet out of the water dish.  I'm not entirely sure how to deal with this, although I'll probably go for a walk at some point.

I spent twenty minutes working on my latest masterpiece ("Big Tree") while watching the news in bed.  It was a relaxing 20 minutes and I enjoyed it.  Not sure that it will command the same price as "Night Lake," but I'm certain that it'll bring in a couple hundred thousand at auction.

Played the first of three red kettle gigs for the Salvation Army last night.  We had a pretty good showing (two cornets, two flugels, trombone, tuba) and did okay for the S.A. I think.  Probably netted them somewhere around $300 over a three-hour period.  Doing all that good work was, of course, exhausting - so I went out afterwards and played pinball for a few hours with Scott.

Big Tree

Work wasn't too terrible yesterday.  I came up with a new automation idea and convinced my boss that it'd be worth my time to work on it, so I've got that going for me for a few weeks anyway.  Basically, I've watched as my team has done 20-25 installs every morning. It's an extremely manual process - and it's also like a feeding frenzy because everyone on the team is desperate to do something other than simple monitoring.  IT-type people like to push buttons.

So I thought about a system to not only automate the installation a bit, but also to track who's doing what, how long it's taking, etc.  Then pitched the idea to my boss, in spite of the fact that these manual installs are supposed to be ceasing in the near future.  I didn't figure he'd sign off on it, but maybe he knows just how bored I'm getting.

Next week, I've got to put together all the garbage for my year-end review.  That's always a complete waste of time, but big corporations just love doing the reviews.

I was also informed that my group's office space in Atlanta is being moved from our current location (2 miles from my house) to a different building near Midtown (20 miles from my house).  I wasn't overly thrilled with that until it was revealed that call center people really like having me with them - so I'll be staying where I am and the rest of my team will have to deal with the hideous commute that is Midtown,

Sweet.

Must get out of bed and do something.  The aforementioned walk and, perhaps, a hair cut.  Happy day, all!

TWD

still not rich

So the Powerball lottery jackpot went up to $555,000,000 this week and I, along with millions of other people, spent $10 on five tickets.  I didn't win.  I didn't expect to win.  For my $10, though, I got to spend about three days dreaming of what I'd do if I had.

Hope you're not looking for anything exciting here, as I'm completely convinced that sudden overwhelming wealth would have very little effect on  me.  Obviously, my lifestyle would change a bit.  For starters, I sure as hell wouldn't be working at AT&T.  More than likely, I'd look for a part-time gig doing something that I really enjoy - photography, working at a library, mowing lawns...I don't know.  After paying off all of my debts, I'm pretty sure I'd go shopping for a new vehicle.  Not sure if I'd go the RV route or not, though it would be tempting.  It'd be nice to be able to live out of an RV for the next 10 years or so, but I'm not convinced that I'd like driving something that big very often.  Maybe something like a Hummer would be more to my liking.

The brass band would certainly receive a sizable donation, if the board could give me a good reason for needing it; and the new stadium that's being built at Furman would have my name on it.

Prominently.

I think there'd also be a new endowed scholarship at that school with my website's name on it.

After spending on those little things, I'd be left with around $335,000,000 (remember, I had to pay taxes on the original half-billion), so the fun could really begin.  I figured to give about $2,000,000 each to my siblings and Dad (if he wanted it - he certainly wouldn't have to worry about money at any time, at any rate).  The way I figure it, a gift of $2,000,000 is perfect - you use about half of it to pay the taxes on the gift, and you put the other half into an account that pays 4% interest.  If you're not a complete goob, you could live off the interest for the rest of your life.  Not in high style, mind you, but not in poverty, either.

So I'm down to $325,000,000 now.

There's a decent possibility that I'd buy some land in Vermont, but not a lot.  After all, I'd have to pay property taxes on it.  One idea would be to buy the land and put a certain amount - we'll call it a million bucks - into some sort of vehicle that would automatically pay the taxes out of the interest earned in perpetuity.  Not sure exactly how that'd work, but I'm sure that there are accountants who'd know how to do it.  I wouldn't mind paying the taxes.  I just wouldn't want to deal with the hassle if it could be avoided.

So let's say that I've dumped two million on the Vermont deal.  I still have $323,000,000 left.   My renter would get about $500,000, Jenny would get a few million, a very small handful of friends would get one or two million each, and I'd find a cause or two that I think should get some money - a zoo or two, the humane society, maybe a youth sports organization (though I'd have to think REALLY carefully about that one).

And that'd leave me with around three hundred million....with which I'd have absolutely no idea what to do.  Some of it would have to be used to screw people or organizations that I don't like, but I'm  not entirely sure who or what (or how).  The rest?  I guess I'd open up a few hundred savings accounts or something.  I mean, I'd never be able to spend that much, but I'd want it to be FDIC insured anyway.  When it gets right down to it, I figure that I could live an incredibly full life on about $5,000,000 (face it- that's 50 years worth of a pretty good salary).  After paying off debt, there's no reason to have any more than that, and why anyone - ANYONE - wants to have more than that is honestly beyond me.

But, at least for now, I don't need to think about it anymore; because, as previously noted, I didn't win the lottery.

Night Lake

I mentioned in my last post that I spent several days in Waukegan last week and had a good time.  There was one slight downside to the trip, and I'm still not entirely sure how it happened.  I got two voice mails on Tuesday afternoon.  The first was from a photography store in Calumet, IL, and the second was from the fraud department at Discover Card.  Apparently, someone managed to steal my Discover Card information during the 20 minutes that I spent paying bills (online) from my hotel room last Wednesday afternoon, and they used the information to buy a $17 e-card (online postcard, I guess) and to attempt to buy $2,500 worth of something at the photography store.  Since I've - literally - never charged anything to my Discover card, their fraud department was all over it; and my card was cancelled (and all charges were dismissed) by 8:30 Tuesday night.  On Wednesday, I talked to the photography store, let them know that it was a bogus charge, and learned that whoever stole the card information also learned my correct mailing address, though they were having whatever they tried to buy shipped to Maryland - in my name, apparently.

I'm not thrilled that my mailing address is apparently obtainable from the act of spying on my online bill-paying, but it appears that no harm was done.  While paying the bills, I also paid my mortgage and two other credit cards, and I'm not sure if it would've been possible to grab my bank account information from those transactions or not, so I've been keeping a close eye on all of those accounts - so far, all seems to be normal.  I'll continue to watch.

Lesson learned, at any rate.  I will never again pay my bills from a hotel room.  I can do most of the bill paying from my phone, anyway.  I just like to keep a spreadsheet, which is why I normally use the laptop.

Today's picture is one that I drew with my little paint program (Fresh Paint) on my surface, and I call it something catchy: "Night Lake."  I'm certain that, at some future date, it will be worth that $5,000,000 that I need.

TWD

back to the grind

Well then.

I made it back to the warm confines of Ye Olde Duluthe at about 4:30 yesterday afternoon.  Wisely, as it turns out, I had scheduled a vacation day for today - so I have time to do some laundry, sleep, get organized, check email, sleep, do dishes, and sleep.

And update this blog a bit while the laundry is laundering.

Previously a bank, now a Chinese restaurant.  Downtown Waukegan, IL

The trip north was fun.  I spent most of Wednesday doing a bunch of nothing while Amy worked.  Went to the beach and took a few pictures (that will not appear in this entry, although one other will) at around sunset.  I also went to Amy's store and bought a fake book, a couple of t-shirts, and a valve case brush (which I've been meaning to buy for about two months now - the valves on my alto horn are disgusting).

On Thursday, I had Thanksgiving lunch with Amy, her folks, one of her brothers, and her sister and sister's significant other.  After lunch, I went back to my hotel to be alone for a couple of hours before the two of us went to see the movie Lincoln on Thursday night.

Friday was back at Amy's parents' house for leftover turkey and to meet the two remaining brothers and their wives and children. Had a great time chatting with a niece and nephew about their school, sports and music lives while Amy took a nap.  Later in the afternoon, she had to go to a doctor's appointment, so I watched some football and took a nap before we got together for dinner later on.

Illinois Beach State Park 11/24/12

On Saturday, we took a walk around downtown Waukegan in the morning, then did our own thing for a while in the afternoon (I took a walk on the beach), then got together for dinner, then went back to her place where I watched football (Carolina beat Clemson for the 4th straight year) and tried to get her printer working.  She concentrated on decorating her living room.  Fun date, huh?

I hit the road VERY early on Sunday morning (like at around 3:30 Sunday morning) and had a pleasant, if tiring, drive back to Atlanta.

And now you're all caught up!  Happy Thanksgiving.

TWD

live from waukegan

Yes, indeed.  I'm typing this entry from within the borders of idyllic Waukegan, Illinois; where, for centuries, lonely travelers have sought solace and relief from a host of physical and mental maladies by swimming in the crystal waters of Lake Michigan, frolicking in the fresh mountain air of downtown Waukegan, and meditating along the quiet banks of  the Waukegan River.

Yeah.  Okay.  For starters, the water in Lake Michigan might actually be somewhat clean, but I'm not about to go jump in it.  It's 36 degrees outside.  Also, the air in Waukegan could possibly be clean (I'm not gonna put money on that), but the nearest mountains are 400 miles to the east and it's ridiculously foggy this morning - if you breathe too deeply, you'll drown.  And the Waukegan River?  It does exist.  That's pretty much all I know about it.

Proof that Waukegan is a suburb of Chicago

Waukegan, as you all know, is a suburb of Chicago.  I don't care if Waukeganites (Waukenigans?  Waukeshans?) don't want to admit it.  It's a simple fact. True, it's must closer to Wisconsin (and, therefore, Milwaukee - because let's face it: without Milwaukee, Wisconsin itself is a suburb of Lansing, MI) than it is to Chicago; but if you were to ask an honest Waukenian where he or she is from, he or she will say, "Waukegan."  And when you follow that up with, "Where the hell is Waukegan," they'll say, "About 40 miles north of Chicago."  What they'll be referring to when they say that, of course, is downtown Chicago; but Chicago, like Atlanta, stretches out from its downtown area in a circle with a radius of approximately 38 miles.

So don't let anybody tell you that Waukegan isn't a suburb of Chicago.  It is.  Oddly enough, it has its own suburbs, too:  Zion, for example, is a suburb of Waukegan.  So is Kenosha, Bank of America, and the entire state of Iowa.

Waukegan is not a small town, though Waukadalians would have you believe that.  Its 28 square miles are home to nearly 90,000 people.  That's about 4,000 people per mile.  Imagine walking a mile to the grocery store and having to make your way past 4,000 neighbors.  You will be shot, stabbed or insulted at least 4 times in that mile.  It's just science.

This ain't Mayberry, folks. 

The town's name means "Little Fort" in the Potawatomi language, though I've never seen a fort here.  There are some some lovely parks that I've visited in previous sojourns (and some parks where, I've been told, I will die should I ever set foot in them).  It is also home to the expressway to nowhere (I can't make this stuff up).

Waukegan does have a number of famous sons and daughters, including sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, comedian Jack Benny, running back Michael Turner and trumpeter Amy Nelson.  For whatever reason, Al Capone is not embraced by Waukenagites in spite of the fact that he pretty much is synonymous with Chicago - and, as we've established, Waukegan is Chicago.

Amy Nelson, by far, is the most famous resident of Waukegan; not only because she's a world-renowned musician but also because she's seen me in my swim trunks.

I'll have lots of interesting Waukedlian facts in the days ahead.  Right now, though, I'm going to eat my breakfast: pizza and coffee.


TWD

i hate this job

So.

I'm currently sitting at my desk at work.  It's 12:37 AM, Sunday, November 18th.  I got out of bed at around 6:00 AM, Saturday, November 17th.  I expect to next be in bed at around 4:00 AM this morning. 

Why?

Well, I can give legitimate reasons for why I got up yesterday morning at least.  The cats were hungry and I had to get to Greenville to shoot Furman's final game of the season.  Had a lovely time, in fact (although my purple guys lost and ended up with the school's worst season in 18 years).  I managed to get my shots delivered to the Greenville News well before my deadline and all was good.

Got home at around 9:30 and *tried* to take a nap, but just couldn't fall asleep.

Now why am I at the office in the middle of the night?  That's a much more difficult question to answer.  Ostensibly, I'm here to help out with a systems upgrade, scheduled to run from midnight until sometime between 2:20 AM and 6:00 AM.  My actual participation in this upgrade, however, amounts to about 5 minutes of work to be performed somewhere around 2:00 AM.  At least that's the projected time - and previous upgrades have been notoriously poorly projected.

There are, in fact, 6 people from my team participating in this upgrade - none of whom actually do much of anything.  All of the actual work is being performed by one database administrator and two software engineers.  My boss, however, is adamant that he wants "butts in chairs" during the upgrades.

So why am I here?   I haven't got the first clue.  Chalk it up as just one more reason that I hate this job.

Since I've got to be here and awake for the next several hours, I guess I'll write something in this here blog.  Good plan, huh?

The game today, although a bust athletically, was pretty good photographically.  The camera that I've had for the last 10 days is the new Canon 1Dx - an incredibly piece of machinery that doesn't seem to have any flaws.  I just did some browsing about it - looking for lower prices (I am not at all opposed to gray market purchases) - and was unable to find any.  It appears that I'll be shelling out about $6,700 sometime next year for the camera body.  An unheard-of amount for me to pay earlier in my digital camera "career," but after having shot with the thing for the last three games, I am so in awe of what this camera is capable of doing that I'm willing to spend most of my 2013 bonus to own it.

Of course, I might get that bonus and use it for something more normal - like paying off a few bills - but, somehow, I'll be shooting next season on the 1Dx.  It quite literally opens up high school games (and dark college games) like nothing I've ever seen before; and that includes the high-end Nikons that have, until the arrival of the 1Dx, dominated the low-light wars.

We're nearly two hours into the upgrade now, btw.  I still haven't done anything.  Have been web surfing and talking photography with one of the guys on my team.

After tonight's over, I'm almost out of the woods for a while.  I've got a concert tomorrow afternoon with the GBB (that's gonna be fun....I'll be 80% asleep), but then I've got 8 days off.  Monday will be mainly a day of sleep, housekeeping and packing.  Tuesday, I'll head to Waukegan for 5 days. 

This trip may hold some heart palpitations for me, as it seems likely that Amy and I will be spending some time with most of her family on Friday.  I've met her folks before (don't think I horrified them or anything), but now I've got to try not to make a fool of myself in front of her siblings, their spouses (spice?), and any of their offspring that come along.  "Terrified" is probably not too strong of a word to use here - but neither is "anticipatory."

I'll also get to meet (I think) her boss at the music store where she works.  My impression is that he might be more protective of her than anybody else, so that should also be an interesting experience.  But hey, I need some cleaning brushes for my horn, so I'll be able to make a good impression by actually buying something from the store....

Switching gears completely, I've got a little paint program on my tablet called "Fresh Paint," and I've been having a blast recently by playing around in it and trying to paint Bob Ross style landscapes.  For those of you who hate public television, I should explain that Bob Ross is the guy who hosted "The Joy of Painting" for God knows how long on PBS.  Although he died several years ago, reruns of Ross' show still air all the time, and I record them to watch on Sunday mornings.  I've become convinced that I could go out and buy paint supplies and do a passable landscape painting on my first try simply because I've seen Ross do it so many times.  I've literally come to understand the technique....whether I'd actually have the talent to make something that doesn't look ridiculous remains to be seen.

Having said all that, it is necessary to point out that a computer paint program is in no ways similar to actual painting, so the whole "Bob Ross on a Microsoft Tablet" experiment is just something that make me laugh - and something that I find both relaxing and enjoyable.  I give you, "Swiss Goat Mountain."



"Swiss Goat Mountain" - a painting by me
 

It is now 2:54 AM and I have completed my part of the upgrade, which was to push out a new version of a monitoring client to the enterprise.  Technically, I have nothing left to do, but I may need to stay here for several hours while other work is being done.  I don't really know why.  To make matters interesting, however, there is someone on the call - I swear I am not making this up - who has fallen asleep and is snoring happily.  Wish I was.


I think I'll call this a finished entry for now (at 3:11 AM).  Hopefully, I'll be able to get out of here before too much longer. 

TWD

a foot in the door

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

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 4x4 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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