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.