Sunday Hymn

On September 8, 1900, the worst natural disaster in U.S. history occurred when the hurricane known simply as The Galveston Storm made landfall, leaving behind unimaginable devastation.

On Galveston, there was an orphanage, St. Mary's, run by some nuns.  As the storm moved across the island, the nuns gathered the children together in what they though would be the stronger of the two dormitory buildings.  It wasn't.  The surge took the building, killing 10 nuns and 90 children.  Only three teenage boys survived.

They later related that in order to keep the childrens' spirits up, the nuns sang them this French fisherman's hymn.  Thus, I have decided to share it with you for today's Sunday hymn.

(By the way, I'm not Catholic.  I'm Baptist, but I'm pretty sure my Catholic friends will have no objection to me posting it.)




If you feel led, join me in observing a moment of silence in memory of the 8000-12000 souls the sea claimed that day.

I Remembered!

I remembered what it was I was going to tell you in my last blog post!

There I was at work, just a working away.  Sometimes when I'm at work, my mind goes to strange places.  It went there Thursday.  For some strange reason, I started singing.  Now, that in itself isn't strange.  I sing all the time.  It's what I was singing that was strange.  And what was that, you may ask?  I'll tell you.  It was this:

This little dork light of mine,
I'm going to dork and let it shine.
This little dork light of mine,
I'm going to dork and let it shine.
This little dork light of mine,
I'm going to dork and let it shine

Dork and let it shine
Dork and let it shine,
Dork and let it shine.

Don't ask.  Even I don't know.   But here's a bit of dorky dorkness for you.  I was practicing my piano last night, while listening to my weather radio.  Seriously, I was.  I have photographic evidence.

I'm thinking I might make that my FB profile picture. 

My yard guy didn't show up last week, so I got out this morning and mowed the back yard and behind the fence.  The grass was high enough to make hay, I'm telling you.  BTW, I don't know why he didn't show.  He didn't message or call or anything.  Eh, no matter.  They've cut our hours at work, and the grass growth is starting to slow down a bit.  I can handle it from here on out.  I don't know if I'm going to use him again next year, though.  I need someone I can depend on, and a no-show ain't it.

I saw a new to me bird out in the back this afternoon.  I didn't get a good enough look to positively identify it, though, because it never came out into the open.  It had a dark back -- I couldn't tell if it was gray, brown, or black-- and a bright yellow belly.  I first thought it was a meadowlark, but it didn't have the black V on its breast.  I also saw a tufted titmouse.  I don't know what it is about them, but I just like those little birds. 

Well, I really don't have much to talk about, unless you want to hear about doing the laundry and washing the dishes.  Not much else has been going on on this lazy Saturday.  Oh, I was able to practice my guitar almost 30 minutes without my arm cramping up.  So, that was exciting.

I bought some new fake flowers to put into one of my glass vases.  They're a little too long, so I decided to cut the stems off.  I needed my hack saw to hack through the wires, but I couldn't find it, and my coping saw just couldn't cope.  I'm sure my hack saw will show up eventually.  Probably right after I've bought a new one. 

Other than that, it's just been knitting and watching football, so I guess I'll leave you to it.

Goodnight.



 

Doomed

This is how we know society is doomed.

Remember how I showed you they are putting up these turnstiles in front of the employee entrance?  There are four in total.  Turnstiles, that is.

For added security, they say, though I don't know what good it will do when the door back by the shipping office stays propped open all the time.

And I do mean All.  The.  Time. 

If it's ever closed, they first thing they do when they get there in the morning is to ...you guessed it...prop it open. 

But I digress...

I get to work bright and early this morning, and as I am walking across the parking lot, I see people going into the plant.  Remember, I said there were four.  Turnstiles, I mean, not people.  There were about 10-12 people -- all lined up going through one single turnstile.  Only one person had the sense to go through one of the other THREE.  Unoccupied.  Turnstiles.

I later told my coworker, "If she's the smart one of the group, we're in big trouble." 

And that is how we know society is doomed.

In other news, I've found my next piano piece I'm going to learn to play.

What'cha think?  By the way, I finally broke down and ordered a blue ink cartridge last night.  On my phone.  Laying in my bed.  In a fit of insomnia.  It'll be here tomorrow.  Then maybe my printer will stop being contrary. 

Oh, and apparently, y'all weren't very impressed by my story of the argument I had with the aforementioned printer I posted yesterday.  Or else I'm suddenly a boring person. 

There was something else I was going to tell you, but I can't remember what it is right now, so I'll just leave you with this picture of my weirdo dog using the entertainment center as a pillow.

Sometimes I jes' don't know 'bout that dog.

Standoff

My printer and I are having a bit of a stand off.

Well, let me back up for a second and give you the back story.  See, in my piano book, there are a few songs that are giving me fits.  Also, there are some that I just like playing.  But I don't want the ones giving me fits to hold me back and keep me stuck in the same place week after week. 

I had the bright idea that I'd just run off copies of those songs and practice them separately, so I could go on with my lessons.  I snatched up my book and ran into the computer room to do just that.

I put the book onto the scanner and hit the copy icon, only to see the message: Print cartridge needs changing. 

It was the blue cartridge.  No biggie, I'd just switch it to black and white copies and make my music.

But the copier wouldn't do it.  It kept saying I needed to change my blue cartridge. 

"I'm not going to use blue ink, though," I told the copier. 

"You still need to change the cartridge before I can make your copies," the copier said.

"But I'm making black and white copies," I insisted.

"You still need to replace the blue cartridge," it said.

"Why? I'm not even going to use blue."  I said.

"Because I said so!" the copier replied. 

Sigh, it's not the first time I've lost an argument with an inanimate object.  And it probably won't be the last.  So, I guess until I get a new cartridge, I'll just be flipping back and forth in the book. 

We have the weekend off again - just a normal weekend, though, not a long one.  I'll still have plenty of time to practice again.  By the way, if I could play every single song ever written with just a G chord, I'd be jamming on that guitar.  I've got that one.  It's the rest of them I can't play. 

Finally, look what I've got to look forward to. 

I don't even want to think what the heat indices will be.  Look at Monday and Tuesday!  It's going to be absolutely miserable at work.  I sure hope they pass out Popsicles. 

Back To Work

How on earth did my long weekend go by so fast?  Yep, it was back to work this morning, and I sure didn't want to go.  Alas, someone has to feed and house all these dogs, so up I got and off to work I went.

I get there and not too far into the shift, here comes my stalker.  ANOTHER coworker, not me, walked by, saying, "I just don't want to fool with Stalker today.  He needs to go find something else to do."  Only she didn't say "fool", and she called his real name.

I laughed and said, "Welcome to my world."

Seriously, though, he really does need to just go away.  Even though we don't speak any more -- and when an INTJ says she'll never speak to someone again, you can bet your sweet bippy that someone will never get spoken to again, at all, ever -- he still can't leave me alone.  A couple of weeks ago, when it was so hot in the plant, I'd put my hair up in a bun one day, to keep it up off my neck.  Stalker went around telling the other brazers, "Becky's got her hair up in a bun."  I guess he thought they didn't have eyes of their own.  Or whatever.

In spite of that, the day seemed to go by pretty quickly.  It helped that they cut us back to 10 hours instead of 11 or 12.  Still, I think what I missed most about being off was being able to play my piano as much as I want to, without feeling rushed.  I think yesterday, I played for about 2 hours -- not all at once, but totaled up.  I don't play my guitar nearly that much, mainly because it hurts my hand.  I can do the individual notes, but when I try to make chords, my hands start hurting.  I think this is what Cody meant when he spoke about building up finger strength.  Practice will help, and also, figuring out how hard to push down on the strings.  It's got to be hard enough the note sounds clear, but not so hard I make my hand sore.  Again, that will come with practice.

Enough about that, though.

You know my friend who has the Etsy shop?  The one who makes candles, soap, and things?  Well, a few days ago, I ordered some things from her.  I'm not going to tell you what, because they're going to end up being Christmas gifts.  Anyway, she shares my fondness for, nay obsession with, survival gear.  The things I ordered arrived today, and when I opened the box, I discovered she'd sent me a surprise!

I love it!  It's going into my bug out bag post haste!  How in the world did I get so lucky to have such wonderful friends?

This is her latest soap creation.

She'd posted a picture of it on FB, saying it looked a lot like SPAM.  The meat, that is, not the annoying emails.  Thus, it became known as the SPAM soap.  When I pulled the wrapping off, I said, "Dang, it really does look like SPAM."  Thank goodness, it doesn't smell like SPAM.

I keep saying I'm going to try to get her to make me a custom candle that smells like salt air, diesel fuel, creosote, and dead fish -- and call it Bolivar Ferry Landing.   What do you say, Kristine?  I can hear the seagulls already...

I'm just kidding.  But not really...Though I do think the sweet feed and saddle leather one would sell. 

And finally, I'm not exactly sure what Rylea was doing here, but she was certainly getting into it.

Watching And Waiting

Football is back!!

I spent all day yesterday watching games.  First up, I had Ole Miss on the TV and Mississippi State on the computer.  When those games were over, I put Navy on the TV and Alabama on the computer.  The day ended with LSU on the TV and Texas on the computer.

All that to say, my computer was a bit tied up, thus you didn't get a blog post.  But LSU and Texas both look very strong this season.  So did Navy, but Army and Air Force also had decisive victories.  Malcolm Perry has come so far since last season, though, so maybe Navy finally has a QB to replace Keenan.

While I was watching all that football, I finished another hat for my friend's blessing bags.

It's getting close to time to ship them all to her, so I got out all the hats I'd made this year and washed them.

They wouldn't all fit into the big envelope I'd bought, so I'm going to have to put them into a box.  Naturally, the next thing I did was to cast on another one.

Almost as naturally, I chose the hurricane hat pattern.  Can't imagine why...

In between watching football, knitting, and tracking the hurricane, I started putting out my Fall decorations.

I want to get some leaves or something to put on those lanterns, to make them Fall-ish, but I'm going to have to buy something.  I didn't have anything on hand I could decorate them with.  I'm thinking maybe I could find some candle rings or something easy, but would make them look really nice. 

Since I have half a mantle this year, I was able to put some stuff on it, too.

Cody still insists he's going to put up the other side for me  -- soon.  I hope it's before Christmas, so I can decorate it. It's been so long since I've had a mantle, I'm excited about being able to put some Christmassy stuff in that corner.

Speaking of Dorian, anyone remember when I posted this?

Sometimes I hate being right.

Really Long Weekend

Before I get into today's post, I feel I owe it to my coworker to clarify her question.  Remember the one who asked if there were boy and girl horses?  Yeah...that one.  Now, she knows good and well there are male and female animals, and that you need one of each to make a baby animal.  Well, after she asked her initial question, and I'd dissolved into laughter,  she said, "No, but what I mean is..."

Turns out, she was really asking about the terminology.  In other words, she wanted to know if there is a different word for male horses and female horses.  It all stemmed from a conversation she'd had a few years ago about bulls.  She'd thought a bull was a species of animal, and not the term for a male of certain species.  She may have grown up in a small Mississippi town, but a country girl she is not.

And now, on to your regularly scheduled blog post.

I woke up yesterday, as is my custom, and went to work, as is also my custom.  However, when I stepped outside to put my things into my car, I said to myself, "Self, it's a bit nippy out here!"  I came back inside and checked the temps on my weather app.

65' in August???  What is this sorcery?

The good news is, nobody hates Port Isaac any more.  We are also not envious of Fairbanks.  Farmer's Almanac is predicting another brutally cold and snowy winter this year.  I'm not sure how they figure it, but they're usually more accurate than NOAA.  Also, I've already seen a solid black woolly bear, so there is that.   Now I'm watching the deer to see how soon they turn gray.  They say if the deer are gray by the end of October, it'll be an especially cold winter.

It was even cooler this morning.

Since I have the day off for our long weekend, I was able to leave the back door open and let some fresh air into the house -- for a little while at least.  I closed it when I had to get the dogs back into the house so I could go do my shopping.

I noticed yesterday there were more birds at my feeders than usual.  It would seem annual migration has begun, so I picked up an extra bag of bird seed while I was in town.

I also got another bag of deer corn, and some suet cakes.   I'm probably going to hang my other bird feeder back up, too, just for migration.  Well, I'll see if the squirrels will leave it alone, now that they've got their own food.  If they do, I'll leave it up.

Oh, and I saw my yearling bucks a couple of days ago.  One of them is going to be a 4 point, but the other one has seven (!) points on his antlers.  Maybe one day, I can get a picture of them.

The only other thing I did was to turn my piano back around.

What with football season starting up, I didn't want to have my back to the TV.   This way, I can practice my music while watching the games.  I'll have to come up with some sort of lighting for that corner, but I think it's going to be much better this way.

One thing I these instruments have taught me is I desperately need new glasses.  Here I am, trying to learn to play, and I can't even see the music!  If we have next Friday off, I'm going to go up to the optometrist at Walmart.  They take walk ins, so I don't have to make that dreaded phone call.

That's about it for now.  I don't have to go back to work until Tuesday.  I plan on spending the rest of the weekend watching football, knitting, practicing my music, and keeping an eye on Dorian.  I said a week ago he'd be one to watch.  Now they're predicting he'll make landfall as a Cat 4.

The only question left is, has anybody seen Jim?

An Extraordinary Impact

I've loved all my dogs.  They've all been special in their own ways, and I miss every one who's gone on to that great beyond.



However, every so often there comes along a dog who is so extraordinary, so special,  you still grieve her loss 10 years later.



Katie was just such a dog.




















I suspect that's a wound that will never completely heal.


















Run free, old girl.  We will never forget you.

Katie Belle

November 25, 1995 -- August 29, 2009

Hectic

Yesterday was somewhat of a hectic day for me.  I had my usual 11 hour shift out at the plant, then had to run into the dentist straight after work to get my new crown put on.  That didn't take but a few minutes.  I pulled into the dentist office parking lot at 4:12, and pulled back out at 4:21.  The bad news is, insurance wouldn't pay anything towards my replacement crown, so all of it had to come out of my pocket.  I was so excited, because I'd gotten that credit card down to $2K and some change.  Now, it's back up over $3K.  Sigh...a few more months...

Anyway, I was relieved to get it done.  The most stressful part is getting out of the plant, then flying across town to get there in only 15 minutes.  I said to myself, no more 4:15 appointments for me!  I'm not going to give myself a stroke trying to get there on time.  It's only going to get worse in the future, because the plant is installing these turnstiles over the employee entrance.

Eventually, they're going to have it so you have to scan your badge to get into the plant, and scan it again to get out.  They were saying there would be a 6 second delay between employees, but I think they're going to shorten that.  If they left it at 6 seconds, it'd take about 20 minutes just to get all of the employees out the door at the end of the day. 

Funny thing, today they were working on them, and tripped a breaker or something, plunging the entire plant into darkness.  OK, it wasn't really that dark, because they do have emergency lights up, but still...After milling around in the dark a few moments, someone in management said to send all the employees outside.  Out we went, and were just hanging around in the parking lot, when someone said, "Go to your designated area."

And by designated area, they mean the place each department is supposed to report to in the event of a fire alarm, bomb threat, or any other reason they'd need to evacuate the plant. 

Now, this is the first time we've ever had to evacuate since they moved the sub-brazers into the tubing department.  We haven't even had a fire drill since I don't remember when.  I'm pretty sure that's a violation of some sort of fire code or something.  So, all us brazers were wandering around the parking lot, looking for the sign that said Tubing. 

"There's Fin Press.  There's Line 1...That's Line 7...Where is Tubing?"

We eventually found our sign. 

Do you see it?  It's there.  Really, it is.  Honest and for true.

We got all the way out there and one of my coworkers said, "Dang, I got all the way out here and now I need to pee!"  To which I replied, "You can go behind them weeds," and another coworker said, "Nobody going to see you back there!" 

But I digress...

Back to yesterday. 

I got out of the dentist office, then had to go vote in the runoff on the way home.  It didn't take a minute, either, and I got another sticker. 

Finally, I made it home.  I sat down at the computer, because I had something really funny to tell you.   I logged on, and got the little notification, "Your computer needs a restart".  OK, no problem.  I hit the "Restart Now" icon and waited for the computer to reboot.  That's when I saw the dreaded line:  "Your computer is updating.  This may take a while." 

Three hours later, it still wasn't done.  It wasn't even close to being done. "Them people ain't gonna get no blog post today,"  I said to myself.  I cringed at my own grammar and went to bed. 

On the bright side, you now get to hear the funny thing I was going to tell you yesterday, but had to wait until today, due to stupid computer updates. 

Out at the plant, I have a coworker named Gladiola.  Like the flower.  One of the dispatchers insists on calling her Gladolia, and it sets my teeth on edge every single time.  But that's not what this story is about. 

Gladiola is a person of color.  Remember that.  It is significant.

Yesterday, one of the HR people was walking around the plant with a police officer and a sheriff's deputy.   I'm not sure what was going on, but they were out there getting a tour of the facilities.  The police officer was white, and the sheriff's deputy was black.  Normally, I wouldn't even make such a distinction, but that point must be made, or nothing that follows will seem even slightly humorous. 

As they were walking down the aisle, one of the other sub-brazers said, "That's Gladiola's son."  And Edna Who Loves To See Her Name In My Blog replied, "Which one?" 

Which one?  Which one?????  Yes, she really did say that. 

I thought Coworker Dorothy was going to hurt herself from laughing.

Once we could breathe again, I told Edna, "Don't feel too bad.  Just wait until you hear what Vanessa asked me yesterday." 

"Oh, Becky, don't tell that!"  But it was too late...the story is as follows. 

There I was at work, just a working away, when Vanessa said, "Becky, it's stupid question time."  She looked at me and said in all seriousness, "Are there girl horses and boy horses?" 

I stared at her for a moment, dumbfounded, and blurted out, "Where do you think baby horses come from?"

Then I dissolved into fits of laughter and was completely useless and unproductive for the rest of the day. 

One last thing before I let you go for today.  Someone has started referring to our Group Leader as "Group Leader Shark".  You know, like Baby shark do do do do.

Not only has it stuck, it's spreading.  We're going to try to make it go plant wide. 

OK, that's it for today.  Isn't that enough?

Labor Day

The first thing I though when I woke up this morning was, "Ugh, I don't want to get up.  Why can't we have Monday off, too?"  Then it struck me....when the heck is Labor Day anyway?

Getting up, I checked the calendar, and yippee!  It's next week!  Maybe I'll finally get one of those three day weekends they promised us when they switched us to this alternate schedule.

But my next thought was, "Ugh, I still have to go to work today.  Hmmm, maybe I'll call in sick and take another day off."  Alas, I didn't want to blow my perfect attendance this close to the end of the month, so I dragged my weary body in to work.  Surprisingly, the day went by fairly quickly.  Funny how cooler temps and having actual work to do does that.

By the way, it was only cool because it's Monday and all the machines have been shut down for a few days, and it was raining.  It'll be back to being its usual oven before the week is out.  The good news is, it's only a few more days until September!  Yes, it'll still be hot, but Fall is on the way!

I don't know about you, but bales of hay in a field speaks Fall to me.  And yes, I pulled over and stopped to take that photo.  Actually, I was at a stop sign, so I was kind of already stopped anyway.  The point is, I wasn't driving when I took it.  So there. 

More good news, after 4 months, they finally opened the levee road across the dam.  Last week, I went out and drove across it, just because I could.

The water is still high, but things are moving in the right direction.  And yes, I pulled over and stopped (at that little parking space below the visitor's center, for you local folks) to take that picture. 

I'm thinking about getting a fishing license again.  I used to fish a lot, but when my stalker found out I like to fish, he badgered and nagged and pestered and worries me so much about fishing, it kind of put me off it.  Of course, it'd be better if I had a boat, but still...

Before I leave you, the next hat is progressing nicely.

The colorway is Red Heart Pumpkin, but it looks hunter orange to me.  Soon, I'll have to pack all my hats up and send them on their merry way, so my friend can get her blessing bags ready before winter.

I guess that's it for today.  One day, the blog will be interesting again, but until then, you'll have to put up with this mindless drivel.

The Last Book

People can be such twits, I'm telling ya. 

We have this one lady at work...I call her Lazy L, because she has two speeds:  Super slow motion, and super duper slow motion.  She is not a nice person.  She's one of those folks who is always trying to stir up stuff.  She's a liar and an instigator.

I got into it with her a few weeks ago.  See, the line I braze for was down waiting on parts -- parts I didn't even have to braze for them.  I went into the tubing department, and found the headers I needed.  I carried the box to Lazy L and said, now mind you, I was perfectly polite and respectful about it...I said, "Can you do these for me real quick, please?"   

She got all irate, and started screaming and hollering, saying "NO!  I do them in the order they send them down the line!"  I said, "But, the line is down waiting on them."  She yelled, "I don't know nothing about that!" and went on doing what she was doing.

I went back to my stand, but another employee went and got Group Leader.  She got the box of parts and took them to Lazy L, telling her to do them -- only she wasn't nearly as nice as I was.  That made Lazy L mad, so she stood there just glaring at me.  I guess she thought she was going to intimidate me, but I just laughed at her.

Another time, I was hunting some adapter tubes.  I grabbed the hook the parts stagers use to pull the bins down the line, only the parts in the bin I pulled weren't the ones I needed.  I hung the hook back where I found it and walked off.  Lazy L started shouting that I'd put the hook in the wrong place.  Since I'd put it right back where I'd found it, I figured she's just trying to start something, so I ignored her and walked off.  Another employee asked what was going on, and Lazy L said, "I told that old b*tch..."  I turned around and said, "Excuse me?"  She said, "I said Becky.  I said that old Becky."  If she said that, how did she even know what I was talking about?  I said, "You'd better watch your mouth!"  And she popped back, "YOU better watch YOUR mouth!" like she was threatening me.  Yeah, good luck with that. 

There have been other incidents with her.  She's run off so many employees, because she's so hard to work with.  I heard one girl tell Supervisor she wasn't working over there any more, and if Sup didn't move her, she'd quit.  She's always trying to stir up crap and push people into reacting.  One of these days, she's going to push someone too far, and end up getting her tail end whipped.

One of my fellow sub brazers' birthday is next month.  Since it's her big Five Oh, we were planning a surprise party for her.  We were all sneaking around, trying to be secretive and all.  Only yesterday morning, guess who blabbed to her about it.  On purpose, too.  Now, why would you do something like that?  She was just trying to mess up our surprise, because she's just sorry. 

Some people are like that. 

In better news, the book of technical and dexterity exercises I'd ordered got here today.

It's actually three books combined into one:  Hanon The Virtuoso Pianist, Czerny Practical Method, and Schmitt Op 16 Preparatory.  The only complaint I have about it is I wish it were spiral bound.  The way it is bound, the pages don't stay open.  I put a binder clip on it, but that isn't helping much. 

I'm hoping with time, the binding will loosen, and the book will stay open better.  In the meantime, I'm thinking I may just run off copies on my scanner to make it easier to play.  So to speak.

Rylea has decided she likes to lay under my piano, both when I am playing, and when I'm not.

It's almost like I have a fan. 

A fan who sometimes walks out on me....

Little butt. 

Way Too Late

I stayed up way too late playing the piano last night, and believe me, I've felt it today.  I was going to do better...but then, these arrived. 

Yep, I'm not getting to bed early tonight after all.  The one on the left seems more designed to be used with the All In One course, while the one on the right is just simple music arrangements.  It's got flats in it, though.  I haven't learned flats yet. 

I tried to play a few songs, but the mail carrier had rolled the envelopes up to fit them into my mail box, and the pages kept closing.  I've got them under a book, so maybe by the time I get home tomorrow, they'll be flat enough. 

I've got one more book to order, a finger strength and dexterity exercise book, then I'll be done for a while.  Ordering books that is. 

By the way, I'm still plugging away at my guitar, and no you are not getting a guitar recital.  Not yet anyway. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, there's music to be made!

 

Thank You All!

Before I begin, I'd like to thank you all for your kind comments on my little recital.  I'll be doing those periodically.  Not every month, but maybe every three or four months.  My cousin Marsha suggested I do a Christmas concert, so I hopped onto Amazon and ordered a couple of Level 1 Christmas books.  They are supposed to get here tomorrow, so I can go ahead and start learning those.  That ought to give me plenty of time to practice up. 

Moving right along, some of you with better memories than I may recall a month or so ago I found this little notation at the bottom of one of my lesson pages.

It says, "You are now ready to begin GREATEST HITS, Level 1".  At the time, I chose not to order the book, based on reviews saying it was a bit too difficult for someone just beginning to play.  However, with another month of practice under my belt, one day last week, I took the plunge.

Before I logged off Amazon, I said to myself, "Self, while you're here, might as well get the other two, too."  And that's exactly what I did. 

I promptly put the level 2 and 3 books on the shelf with the appropriate level course books, for future use, and eagerly opened my level 1 book.  Some of the songs include:

Love Me Tender
Edelweiss
Beauty And The Beast (Tale As Old As Time)
Nadia's Theme

And more.  Squee!  I'm so excited!  I had to make my self practice my regular course before I started the new stuff, but once I'd finished, I grabbed up my new book, and began learning the first song, which is Love Me Tender.

What's cool about this book is up in the top corner by the title of each song, it tells you when you are ready to start learning that song.  As in, "You are ready to learn this song after page 54 of Alfred's All In One Lesson Book" or whatever.  By that guide, there are four songs I can learn at this time.  The songs are challenging, but not impossible. 

You may notice a reduced presence on Facebook over the next few weeks.  Eh, it's too depressing to get on FB any more anyway. 

And finally, I finished my Coriolis hat while watching Avengers:  Endgame yesterday.

This yarn was much better to work with than the other yarn I made this pattern out of.  It's much less splitty. 

I guess that's about it for now.  I think I'll go practice my new music a bit before bed time. 

Piano Recital

When I was a kid, I took piano lessons for a year.

And when I say a year, mean a school year, so it was really 9 months, or so.

By and by, recital time came around and my teacher began preparing her students for said recital.  Now, there was this one piece she had me learning called Our School Band.  I still remember it -- mainly because I hated that piece with a passion.

And when I say with a passion, I mean the passion of all the fires of a thousand volcanoes.

I seriously hated that song.  I don't know why.  It didn't even have any words, but I still hated it.  Guess which one Mrs. D chose for me to play at the recital?  Yep, that horrible song.  I told her I hated the song and didn't want to play it.  I begged her to let me play something else.  I said I'd be too embarrassed to play that song.

She said, "Embarrassed?  Why would you be embarrassed?  There's nothing wrong with that song, and you're going to play it."  She also had me playing two other songs, and to this day, I don't understand why I had to play all three.  Surely, two songs were enough, especially when one of them was Parade of The Tin Soldiers by Leon Jessel, played as a duet with the teacher.  But nooooo.

Finally, the big day arrived, and we had a rehearsal that afternoon, before the actual recital.  When it was my turn to practice, everything seemed to go well.  Until...I got to that horrible Our School Band song.  Oh, how I hated that song, but I was up there gamely banging my way through it, when I heard laughter.  It came from a group of girls, other students, waiting their turn to rehearse.  They laughed and laughed through the whole song.  I was convinced they were laughing at me having to play that song.

My mother insisted they were laughing at my younger brother, and not me, but I wasn't having it.  That night, I flat out refused to go to the recital.  By the next year, my mother had cancelled my lessons.  When school started back the following August, I hadn't yet gotten into the routine of things.  I kept forgetting which day my piano lesson was on, and would walk home from school instead of to the teacher's house.  My mother was furious, claiming I was being defiant and refusing to go to my lessons.  I tried to tell her I wasn't forgetting on purpose, but she wouldn't listen.   She said she wasn't going to fight me on this, and she stopped my lessons.

Thus, I have never been to a piano recital.

I've always regretted not continuing with my piano lessons, and if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you'll know that listening to The Piano Guys has inspired me to take it up again.  I cashed in my iBotta savings and bought myself a keyboard.

Today, I've had my keyboard (which I call my piano, even though it's technically not) for exactly two months, so I thought I'd invite you to my own little recital, so you can see how I'm progressing.

*Please ignore the crappy sound quality.  I'm afraid it's going to be that way for a while, until I can save up for a better camera -- or until Cody comes home and can film me on my phone.

For my first piece, I'd like to play a song from Alfred's All-In-One Course.  This song is called The Cuckoo.



This next song doesn't have a title.  I guess it's really a technical exercise, but I liked it.  I hope you do, too.



And finally, I will end my recital with this one.  No explanation is necessary.

I will say, however, it isn't in my piano course book.  I downloaded the sheet music, and truthfully, I haven't even learned some of these notes, which is why I'm playing so slowly.



Thank you for attending my little recital.  I hope you enjoyed it.

P.S.  Be kind.  I have only been playing for two months, after all.

Half Day Off

I'd taken a half day off work today -- mainly to use up my vacation days, since they don't let you carry them over.  Use them or lose them type of thing.  The plan was to watch Endgame and knit, but you know what they say about the best laid plans. 

Back a couple of weeks ago during my regular dentist appointment, my dentist told me I needed a filling.  Sure, and since I'd already had a half day of vacation approved, so I scheduled it for this afternoon.  Shouldn't take more than 30 minutes, right?  But you know what they say about...well, you know.

A few weeks back, I noticed that one of my crowns was loose.  I mentioned it to Dr. Horan at my checkup.  He thought having the root canal on it last December might have cracked the adhesive, and it just gradually worked loose.  I was worried that my actual tooth had broken, and I'd be losing another one. 

I got there today, and he filled my cavity, then tried to work the loose crown off the other tooth.  The hope was that he could remove it, clean it up, and re-cement it.  Unfortunately, he couldn't get the crown off.  We discussed it, and the only real solution is to completely replace the crown.  He said it would have to be done, and it would be better to do it sooner, before worse problems develop.  He said we could go ahead and do it today, if I wanted to.  I said, "Might as well." 

First thing the dentist did was to take an X-Ray.  The root canal and actual tooth looked good, so that was a relief to me.  I won't be losing another tooth.  Whew!

He then cut the old crown off and discovered it was the buildup underneath that was loose.  He had to cut that off and replace it, as well.  Again, he thinks that may have happened during that root canal I had on it.

Needless to say, all of that took a lot longer than we'd originally planned, so I guess I'll put off watching Endgame until the weekend. 

Speaking of the weekend, they have us working Friday again.  Now, why they are cutting our hours during the week, but still having us come in on Friday...well, scuttlebutt has it they did that so they could take our 2:30 break away.  They can't just tell us we can't take it, because that came from HR.  All personnel who work a 12 hour shift get a 10 minute break at 2:30. 

The only way they can keep us from taking that break is to cut our shifts by an hour, and that's why they did it.  At least that's the rumor going around...

And finally, I finished this hat.

The yarn is Red Heart Supersaver in the Pinata colorway.  It's some my friend Peggy sent me when she was de-stashing. 

I cast on another Coriolis hat. 

I think Peggy sent me this yarn, too.  It's Red Heart Supersaver in Pale Yellow. 

This is a really fun pattern to knit.  It's busy enough not to be boring, but mindlesss enough I can still watch TV while working on it.  I see a lot more of them in my future.