Into each musician's life some rain must fall
It has been an astonishingly long time since I last updated my journal, but I'd like to start updating it regularly. I think producing words on a regular basis, no matter how trivial, is a useful exercise for me. Apologies for boring anyone in the process. Anyhow...
Wednesday night was to be our last concert of the season. With only a 30% chance of rain and a mostly clear afternoon, things looked good for our concert. I think everyone can see where this is headed.
After only two songs, we were hit by a thunderstorm. The band and a few audience members ran to cower under the bandstand -- we're too large a group to play on it -- and wait out the rain. Hah! Gusts of wind made this a completely useless effort. I felt like I was taking a chilling shower with excellent water pressure. My clothes were thoroughly drenched right down to the skin. Of course this was the concert I had persuaded Matt to bring Jorie to. I told him to take her back to the car while I waited with everyone else. I had worried about how she would react, but Matt reported that she really loved the rain and thought it great fun.
Our band president had initially had the idea that we would wait out the storm and continue, but by the time the rain had passed -- maybe 15 minutes later -- our audience had fled and the band was soaked, so that idea was abandoned. I helped pack up some of the percussion equipment and chairs and squelched back to the car. At least we were treated to a beautiful double rainbow.
The bag I carry my stand, music, and accessories in was soaked. The music was mostly protected by the folder, but the tops of some pieces got wet. I laid the music out to dry and the damage was minimal. I had made one tactical error, however. When standing with the horn, I carry it with the bell facing up. It flooded with rain. Thursday night was our regularly scheduled rehearsal, and I gurgled all the way through, despite emptying all the slides numerous times. Sunday is the first real opportunity I'll have to bathe it -- yes, I'm going to flush out the water with water -- and I'll take out all the sides and turn the thing over and over until all the water is gone. Poor horn!
Wednesday night continued its poor track record when Jorie rolled out of bed. She was lying between me and Matt. He got up to go to the bathroom thinking she was fast asleep and wouldn't be moving. Apparently she was lightly asleep enough that she went looking for a warm body and went over the side. I heard the thump, saw Jorie wasn't on the bed and leaned over the side and saw her. I went to get her and she started screaming and screaming. I don't blame her; what a way to wake up! We couldn't see anything wrong with her, but she wouldn't stop crying. She was obviously tired, but would start to drift back to sleep then begin screaming again. We thought she might have some sort of injury we couldn't immediately detect. We eventually had the idea of waking her fully to calm her down. This worked. I read a couple of books with her. The downside was, that once she was fully awake, it took a while to get her down again.
Speaking of Jorie, her birthday was today, August 10th. My baby's a year old. Somehow it took both forever and no time at all. mmcirvin has some pictures up.
Wednesday night was to be our last concert of the season. With only a 30% chance of rain and a mostly clear afternoon, things looked good for our concert. I think everyone can see where this is headed.
After only two songs, we were hit by a thunderstorm. The band and a few audience members ran to cower under the bandstand -- we're too large a group to play on it -- and wait out the rain. Hah! Gusts of wind made this a completely useless effort. I felt like I was taking a chilling shower with excellent water pressure. My clothes were thoroughly drenched right down to the skin. Of course this was the concert I had persuaded Matt to bring Jorie to. I told him to take her back to the car while I waited with everyone else. I had worried about how she would react, but Matt reported that she really loved the rain and thought it great fun.
Our band president had initially had the idea that we would wait out the storm and continue, but by the time the rain had passed -- maybe 15 minutes later -- our audience had fled and the band was soaked, so that idea was abandoned. I helped pack up some of the percussion equipment and chairs and squelched back to the car. At least we were treated to a beautiful double rainbow.
The bag I carry my stand, music, and accessories in was soaked. The music was mostly protected by the folder, but the tops of some pieces got wet. I laid the music out to dry and the damage was minimal. I had made one tactical error, however. When standing with the horn, I carry it with the bell facing up. It flooded with rain. Thursday night was our regularly scheduled rehearsal, and I gurgled all the way through, despite emptying all the slides numerous times. Sunday is the first real opportunity I'll have to bathe it -- yes, I'm going to flush out the water with water -- and I'll take out all the sides and turn the thing over and over until all the water is gone. Poor horn!
Wednesday night continued its poor track record when Jorie rolled out of bed. She was lying between me and Matt. He got up to go to the bathroom thinking she was fast asleep and wouldn't be moving. Apparently she was lightly asleep enough that she went looking for a warm body and went over the side. I heard the thump, saw Jorie wasn't on the bed and leaned over the side and saw her. I went to get her and she started screaming and screaming. I don't blame her; what a way to wake up! We couldn't see anything wrong with her, but she wouldn't stop crying. She was obviously tired, but would start to drift back to sleep then begin screaming again. We thought she might have some sort of injury we couldn't immediately detect. We eventually had the idea of waking her fully to calm her down. This worked. I read a couple of books with her. The downside was, that once she was fully awake, it took a while to get her down again.
Speaking of Jorie, her birthday was today, August 10th. My baby's a year old. Somehow it took both forever and no time at all. mmcirvin has some pictures up.