Is It Fall Yet?

I always say it, but I should really write more often on this thing….it's been about four months now. We're still in the heat-end of summer, looking forward to the cooler time of fall. Which I have to hope is just around the corner. We've been in a serious drought now for awhile, and cooler temperatures and some rain would certainly be welcome right about now.

Anyhoo, a new school year has started and here we are on week three already. This is shaping up to be a really light semester actually; the number of concerts we normally do is way down, most particularly in the student recital area. I guess I'm kind of looking forward to having a little bit of a break, more or less. Maybe I can catch up on some other things that have fallen to the wayside. Like writing music…

It's hard to believe it's been over a month now since our Mickey passed away. He was such a good kitty. He had been diagnosed with a heart condition last November (read the blog about that). It was tough seeing him go, but at least we all got to say goodbye. And he fortunately went peacefully, more or less, on his own. Which is about the most I could have hoped for. I certainly don't miss force feeding him pills twice a day. But his company and personality are sorely missed. There will never be another one quite like him.

I just finished conducting the Preview Show for RSP. What a trip that was! After arranging half of the tunes and trying to figure out how to run the other half, and correcting problems in parts and finding out there were whole songs the cast were doing that we knew nothing about, I was pretty burnt out on the whole project. But the show itself went really well in the end, and people seemed to really enjoy. Still, I don't think I'll be doing that again next year; I just don't have the time, and apparently nor do I have the patience, to do something thrown together like this.

Playing 'A Light in the Piazza' with Green Valley Theatre was far more rewarding. What a neat show! At least musically, anyway. It's the first time I've played a musical without amping the bass. And it didn't really need it. An amazing score with a flare for the operatic, it was a delight to play. Certainly one of the most musically rewarding experiences I've had in a long time. And hey, I've been around for awhile!

Well, I suppose I should get back to the Defensive Driver Training which I'm supposed to be completing online to continue driving state vehicles. I've been letting it just run in the background, and every once in awhile I go to it and press the forward button so it goes to the next slide. I have no idea what it's talking about, but the little quizzes at the end of each section are easy enough that you can just guess on them. So, back to it I suppose!

...It's still 90 degrees outside…come on Fall! I'm waiting!