Just some stuff

I'm impressed with how quickly time goes by when you are relaxing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not sitting around doing nothing with my summer, it's still chock full of good stuff, but I am surprised just how quickly June 2nd turned into June 12th...

This week, I've participated in the bell choir, sung with the interfaith choir, played bassoon trios, installed a drip line sprinkler system in the garden, cleaned the basement (and subsequently messed up a bunch of other stuff...), searched for a new home (and looked at listings of literally hundreds of southern Utah homes - some of which won't work because they are in other counties or ...Beaver...), rode over 20 miles (multiple trips) on my bike, and started to get back into shape!

My summer has been good. The drip line might be my biggest accomplishment so far. That felt good. Plus, I killed a black widow spider in the process! (Don't judge... Those things are hateful!) If the thing is dumb enough to hide in the hinge of the sprinkler valve box, it deserves to be squashed.

I'll have to get some photos up from the garden. I'm pretty proud of it! There are tomatoes, rhubarb, squash, zucchini, lima and green beans, bell peppers, and corn. It's not a huge area, but it's a good size, and the plants are pretty healthy.

Today, when I turned on the water to the sprinkler system, I realized that I hadn't put plugs in all the holes in the main water line (I'm using recycled hose lines). AND, the pressure was a little too high for my little garden area. Thus, one section of sprinkler sprayed about 20 feet into the air, catching the wind, and blowing over the fence into the neighbor's yard. I patched that hole, then started the system again. One of the drip valves blew out (aiming at me, of course), blasting a pretty solid stream of water in my direction. Luckily, the wind kicked up right about then, thus I avoided getting totally soaked! Replaced said drip head... twice... and started the system up with much less pressure. SUCCESS! :-)

I talked about riding my bike. That's been fun. I told my brother the other day that my route took me through the adjacent neighborhood to mine, up the running trail, down the hill around the block to the grocery store, back up the hill (oof!), then down the trail and back home. Turned out to be a really good route... just with a lot of uphill! That one section didn't look so enormous until I had to go up it with my heavy bike at the lowest gear. I passed the same old man watering his lawn going down and going back up. I think he made a face the second time I saw him...

Bell choir was pretty awesome. I've never done that before! My first experience was pretty good, too. I had three notes: F, Gb, and  G. Turns out that some of the pieces they are playing have a lot of those notes! I got tied up at one point holding all three bells in my hands and trying to play them sequentially... Just for the record that doesn't work... Gotta do one bell at a time! Anyway, it's good practice for when I do some bell things at the school next year. OK, so they're not fancy bells, but they'll do -- Suzuki Tonechimes. We used to play them in elementary school pretty regularly, and now I have a set in my classroom! w00t!

It's June Already?!

Well, here it is... June! Great times.

I just finished what might be one of the most insane jobs of my life, but I'm actually kind of excited to do it again next year. So I could be (sort of) organized next year, I made a chart of things to do for each major event in a year of my career, and came up with 13 main events, each with some kinda sub-work involved. The chart I made is a "Gantt" chart, and I like it - actually, I'm just geeky enough to brag about a Gantt chart on my blog... :-) Anyway, I think I can survive next year better! (hopefully)

So, I now better understand the reason my predecessor was so tired after all of this stuff! And why she is so bored now that she isn't working there. Just in the last month of school were state choir festival, the final concert, a combined concert with another school, graduation practice, instrument inventory and storage, preparation for instruments to go to the shop, collecting music, compiling school profile data, and making some plans for next year - well, at least some of the framework, anyway... Ha!

Now that I'm not in a rush, time feels like it's going by really fast... We've already been out for just over a week, and I'm starting to "slow down" and relax a bit. The more I slow down, the faster time seems to go.... How weird is that? 

This weekend, I mapped out the garden space at the folks place and planted a bunch of yummy things! :) In fact, it looks pretty good, too... If I do say so myself. Scott, the parentals, and myself did all of it yesterday afternoon, and I didn't even get too much sunburn!

The last two weeks of school, I listened to an audiobook, too. w00t! Haven't had an opportunity to actually read a book just yet, but that's a start! More to follow. Guess I'm going to be spending some time at the library and actually using Goodreads on Facebook? Oh, and getting a library card!

Last week, I went to St. George for some car maintenance. Actually, I ended up going twice, because the first day, I wasn't actually on the schedule for maintenance. Turns out, if I go to the Kia dealer in St. George for oil changes, it's only a $16 operation (well... Plus time and the fuel to get there...). But that's still a deal. I want to say Jiffy Lube costs like 3x that much... So, much for convenience!

The trip to St. George wasn't a total waste, either. I did hit up a few music stores looking for ideas on what to play next year. And for upcoming gigs. There's a lot to choose from! I also hit the Target (hehe) and bought some new shoes and a few shirts. Spent way too much money, but now I have some non-ratty-looking clothes to wear later!

Happening right now is "Hello Dolly!" at the Heritage Theater. I'm playing sax in the pit orchestra, and enjoying listening to the music and exercising my brain when I don't play (which, as it turns out, is most of the show). That's OK, though. It's given me a chance to finish a few Sudoku puzzles and most of the one- and two-star "Nonologic" puzzles on my phone. I do wish I could play a little more frequently, but it's OK, too.

Last thing... For this post, anyway, is the Cedar City Interfaith Choir. I'm singing first tenor, though I'm not sure exactly why I'm singing first tenor! It's fun. The pieces we're singing are super-fun, and the rehearsals have been really interesting. I'm glad I can watch how another choir director does things - I'm learning so much! We'll be singing on July 3rd for a special event.

Now that I'm looking through this post, I guess I haven't really slowed down much yet this summer... Oh well. It's fun, and I am meeting lots of new people. Guess it's a good thing, too! It's forcing me to get out and do things. 'bout time! Haha!