One note. That's all it takes to define you as a band student. If you loved it, everything said to you made that note just a little better, good posture, deep breath, focus relaxed air stream, hold instrument firm but relaxed. I was all those things. I respected that one note. Take away the flutes, and the clarinets, and the brass instruments and you would definitely hear my saxophone above the others. Add them all back in and they would all blend around my note as the root of all that was good. There was a time in my life when I lived for nothing more than making music with my instrument.
Tonight, I find myself on the spectator side and I see my Chubs starting out, hopefully on a stretch of seven and maybe even more years playing that one true note. It was a warm-up routine, the kids have only had their instruments since late August, and still, that one note defines you. Some hit it on their first try, sounding like they have been born to do it. Others, were hit and miss, and even with only a few months, I could see those that belonged in the 2nd band, those that are just fidgeting, faking it, overwhelmed by the beast in their hands. To tame it and bring it under control would help them conquer a fear of doubt some of them will carry all their lives, but to do so would mean to commit and too many times that is problem number one, kids don't want to commit.
After plenty of practice and going through the challenging sections, we were treated to a concert flavored in holiday music. Chubs was horribly worried about the spotlight when their section, the saxophones all played a solo together. His worry was because there are only five saxophones, it would be easy to tell if they messed up. There was a little fumbling, but it was over in a few seconds, overall we could tell what song they were playing, so I call it good.
I was also very surprised that they call it the beginner band and it was composed of 6th graders and it was over one hundred students. This is just one middle school that fills Akins High School, no wonder their band reaches numbers up to five hundred students. I was thinking we had a good band back when I was in high school, our total headcount was around one hundred members, it was only after I told the band director this that he said this band was that size. The school also has a band for seventh graders and a band for eighth graders, not to mention an orchestra band with violins and cellos, and to make sure the brown peeps are represented, their even exists a mariachi band that accompanies the ballet folklorico group.
After this treat by the youngest in our household, we went and celebrated by eating dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse. My mom made the three hour trip, which I thought was very nice. It is very hard to get the family to be involved as it is for us to be involved in their activities because we live so far apart, and it doesn't help that these things are scheduled for middle of the week instead of the weekend. I had to use a few hours of vacation time to be there, but it was worth it.
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
12/6/16 Boy Is Reaching Far?
As much as I usually feel like choking Boy, I don't want him to go to far, and I would prefer if he stays here in town. He is looking at a fellowship which the professor he is working for recommended. What can I say to that? The fellowship seems to be a big deal, it would award him something like $108,000 for schooling for three years. He would be doing research for the Department of Defense, and going to school somewhere there, in Washington DC.
The application process is kind of confusing though. It is for a graduate student, but one can apply if they are within a year of graduating at the end of this school year. I don't want him to stop going to school without a Bachelor's Degree, but the opportunity does sound pretty great. He then needs some letters of recommendation, and to show his grades and GPA.
Boy has always been interested in military stuff, but I did not and will not encourage him to go out and fight in wars that don't make sense. What has been accomplished in Iraq? We killed Saddam, and? We put him in power in the first place. Stupid shit on top of stupid shit. But if he does end up working as a civilian on weapons, it would have to be linked to a Northrop Grumman, or even a Lockheed Martin which would be a solid paying job for years to come, considering our need to be involved militarily all over the place.
He needs a high paying job, because shhh, between us, don't tell Wife, we're buying a plane one day. I'm gonna knock her ass out like they used to do Mr. T on the A-Team and fly her all around the world. Even if he thinks he's going to work up north somewhere, we will just be a plane ride a couple hours away. If you find out Wife, decide on whether I should sock you on the head or you prefer pills to go quietly into that plane ride, socking you is cheaper but probably not good for you. I kid.
Boy is nearing the end of another semester, he says it is driving him crazy. You can feel the end of the semester, the professors start acting like they don't care as much, nobody is focused in class. Finals start next week. I asked him how he was going to do, and honestly he is taking a pretty heavy workload, each class sounds harder than the next one, even for me. Oh well, my goal was to produce productive individuals, and it is looking good.
The application process is kind of confusing though. It is for a graduate student, but one can apply if they are within a year of graduating at the end of this school year. I don't want him to stop going to school without a Bachelor's Degree, but the opportunity does sound pretty great. He then needs some letters of recommendation, and to show his grades and GPA.
Boy has always been interested in military stuff, but I did not and will not encourage him to go out and fight in wars that don't make sense. What has been accomplished in Iraq? We killed Saddam, and? We put him in power in the first place. Stupid shit on top of stupid shit. But if he does end up working as a civilian on weapons, it would have to be linked to a Northrop Grumman, or even a Lockheed Martin which would be a solid paying job for years to come, considering our need to be involved militarily all over the place.
He needs a high paying job, because shhh, between us, don't tell Wife, we're buying a plane one day. I'm gonna knock her ass out like they used to do Mr. T on the A-Team and fly her all around the world. Even if he thinks he's going to work up north somewhere, we will just be a plane ride a couple hours away. If you find out Wife, decide on whether I should sock you on the head or you prefer pills to go quietly into that plane ride, socking you is cheaper but probably not good for you. I kid.
Boy is nearing the end of another semester, he says it is driving him crazy. You can feel the end of the semester, the professors start acting like they don't care as much, nobody is focused in class. Finals start next week. I asked him how he was going to do, and honestly he is taking a pretty heavy workload, each class sounds harder than the next one, even for me. Oh well, my goal was to produce productive individuals, and it is looking good.
Sunday, December 4, 2016
12/5/16 Cold Is Here, Seems Early?
This week is looking to be a cold wet mess. This weekend started that way, and I am looking at the rest of the week and I saw some 20's for lows later in the week. I feel we usually have more warning than this. If the cold is here and real, I need to go unplug the water hoses and put those weird Styrofoam bowls to prevent them from freezing. I need to make sure the pool and hot tub pumps are safe from a freeze. One year I was lazy and ignored the pumps and it cost me a new heater to the tune of $1100.
I will have to be tougher this year, I love the cold, and coming home after a night of work and just a quick hot shower and hiding under my blankets. Nowadays, I have to come home from work and take Chubs to school, so I will have to go back in the cold after I have showered, that will not be fun. I know that is we have a sprinkling of moisture and freezing temps, we will probably get an in-service day for the kids, so there is that to look forward to. Last year, we had a couple days like that. Hopefully, it works out that Wife gets stuck up here and has to stay an extra day or two versus her getting stuck down there and then we don't see her for a weekend. Being the worrywart she is, she is already contemplating scenarios where we don't see each other. I like to stay positive and although I know stuff can get dicey, there is always a way, if you really want it. For example, if we know it is supposed to freeze Friday afternoon, take a half day and drive up at noon. With the daytime traffic, roads usually stay drivable until it gets dark.
I was scanning info on my phone and caught the Green Bay game being played in snow and ice, just miserable, but then again, they are men and getting paid millions. How about the poor boys still playing high school football trying to get to state? Sure, some will get glory and a state title, the rest will have to remember coming up short. Meanwhile all the college games are mostly done, save for the bowl games and those four teams in the "college playoffs." I still think they need to expand the playoffs into maybe the top ten or twenty teams, make it really interesting. I know it won't because the bowl games cough up too much cash, and half the teams end up thinking they won something worthwhile.
I am hoping this weather holds up through the Christmas break, too often we are up on Christmas Eve and the day was 85 degrees. It just doesn't feel holly jolly when we have to turn on the air conditioner, but I guess it is safer for those traveling.
This week will be interesting in that Wife has a conference here in town, so she will be back Tuesday and stay the rest of the week, hopefully, in time for Chub's music recital. My Mom also said she was coming, so we should see her and my dad in the middle of the week, which rarely happens. I am planning on taking a couple hours off to attend and then to go eat dinner with the family. Should be fun.
I will have to be tougher this year, I love the cold, and coming home after a night of work and just a quick hot shower and hiding under my blankets. Nowadays, I have to come home from work and take Chubs to school, so I will have to go back in the cold after I have showered, that will not be fun. I know that is we have a sprinkling of moisture and freezing temps, we will probably get an in-service day for the kids, so there is that to look forward to. Last year, we had a couple days like that. Hopefully, it works out that Wife gets stuck up here and has to stay an extra day or two versus her getting stuck down there and then we don't see her for a weekend. Being the worrywart she is, she is already contemplating scenarios where we don't see each other. I like to stay positive and although I know stuff can get dicey, there is always a way, if you really want it. For example, if we know it is supposed to freeze Friday afternoon, take a half day and drive up at noon. With the daytime traffic, roads usually stay drivable until it gets dark.
I was scanning info on my phone and caught the Green Bay game being played in snow and ice, just miserable, but then again, they are men and getting paid millions. How about the poor boys still playing high school football trying to get to state? Sure, some will get glory and a state title, the rest will have to remember coming up short. Meanwhile all the college games are mostly done, save for the bowl games and those four teams in the "college playoffs." I still think they need to expand the playoffs into maybe the top ten or twenty teams, make it really interesting. I know it won't because the bowl games cough up too much cash, and half the teams end up thinking they won something worthwhile.
I am hoping this weather holds up through the Christmas break, too often we are up on Christmas Eve and the day was 85 degrees. It just doesn't feel holly jolly when we have to turn on the air conditioner, but I guess it is safer for those traveling.
This week will be interesting in that Wife has a conference here in town, so she will be back Tuesday and stay the rest of the week, hopefully, in time for Chub's music recital. My Mom also said she was coming, so we should see her and my dad in the middle of the week, which rarely happens. I am planning on taking a couple hours off to attend and then to go eat dinner with the family. Should be fun.
12/4/16 How Far In Debt Should Santa Go?
We have been working on a plan to get us out of debt all year. We're not using our credit cards like we used to, only a few for emergencies. Everything has been in a fine balance, but now Christmas must be thrown in digested and passed out. Do we throw caution to the wind, go crazy to enjoy that spender's high and see our kids and loved ones happy for a second? Or do we cheap out, get everybody the lump of coal they probably deserve and walk past the holiday unscathed?
Wife always starts sometime around the end of August "we are not going to get into debt buying gifts for everybody..." All I can manage is a "yeah", what else can you say when it is 105 degrees and she wants to discuss Christmas gifts? As it stands right now, we got a new Target card with no debt, we headed there to buy Chubs some video games for his birthday the week before Thanksgiving. While we were there and figuring we were gonna lose that card's virginity, we might as well hit it hard. We bought pajamas for all her nephews, sounds lame, but that is what the parents have suggested we buy them. Since we were on a role and we never see my nephews playing with toys other than IPADS and phones, we figured why waste good money on toys? All the kiddos got pajamas on my side of the family as well. I thought of adding a toy, but why?
Along with this, we went to Dillard's last week and took care of pretty much everyone else that we were planning on buying gifts for. I have kind of stepped back. I told Wife you are in charge, if you want to be frugal, fine, we were about done with everybody.
Last night we went to Toys R Us, Chubs has pretty much given up playing with toys, but all of a sudden, he needs to go scouting for Santa. Since he still had about $150 he got from his birthday gifts, he also bought himself some things. Wife and I were both like "really?" He got a couple of figures you put together like Legos, but not Legos. He has bins in his old room that I don't know what to do with full of Legos and toys that you put together. I figured as long as it wasn't my money, I wouldn't stop him. He also threw in some Pokémon cards and then he was home putting them into his own photo book, maybe in an attempt to relate to his old friend from the blog yesterday. I found out since yesterday that the kid doesn't have a cell phone and that is almost a necessary tool as I notice Chubs does group texting with his gang, so that is a connection tool that keeps the boys talking to each other. Chubs has always been a loving, caring boy, I think he'll try to be friendly, but the other little boy needs to step up too, it can't just be my son doing all the work.
Anyways, Wife was kind of trying to engage me about buying toys for the nephews and I was not really interested. She spends months telling me we need to do this because our money this and that, so ok. But then it is getting closer to Santa time and she wants to give flashy gifts, I'm like, nah, stick to the cheap shit, we'll be out of debt for this in 2-3 months instead of 6-7 months.
Wife always starts sometime around the end of August "we are not going to get into debt buying gifts for everybody..." All I can manage is a "yeah", what else can you say when it is 105 degrees and she wants to discuss Christmas gifts? As it stands right now, we got a new Target card with no debt, we headed there to buy Chubs some video games for his birthday the week before Thanksgiving. While we were there and figuring we were gonna lose that card's virginity, we might as well hit it hard. We bought pajamas for all her nephews, sounds lame, but that is what the parents have suggested we buy them. Since we were on a role and we never see my nephews playing with toys other than IPADS and phones, we figured why waste good money on toys? All the kiddos got pajamas on my side of the family as well. I thought of adding a toy, but why?
Along with this, we went to Dillard's last week and took care of pretty much everyone else that we were planning on buying gifts for. I have kind of stepped back. I told Wife you are in charge, if you want to be frugal, fine, we were about done with everybody.
Last night we went to Toys R Us, Chubs has pretty much given up playing with toys, but all of a sudden, he needs to go scouting for Santa. Since he still had about $150 he got from his birthday gifts, he also bought himself some things. Wife and I were both like "really?" He got a couple of figures you put together like Legos, but not Legos. He has bins in his old room that I don't know what to do with full of Legos and toys that you put together. I figured as long as it wasn't my money, I wouldn't stop him. He also threw in some Pokémon cards and then he was home putting them into his own photo book, maybe in an attempt to relate to his old friend from the blog yesterday. I found out since yesterday that the kid doesn't have a cell phone and that is almost a necessary tool as I notice Chubs does group texting with his gang, so that is a connection tool that keeps the boys talking to each other. Chubs has always been a loving, caring boy, I think he'll try to be friendly, but the other little boy needs to step up too, it can't just be my son doing all the work.
Anyways, Wife was kind of trying to engage me about buying toys for the nephews and I was not really interested. She spends months telling me we need to do this because our money this and that, so ok. But then it is getting closer to Santa time and she wants to give flashy gifts, I'm like, nah, stick to the cheap shit, we'll be out of debt for this in 2-3 months instead of 6-7 months.
Saturday, December 3, 2016
12/3/16 At What Age Should Parents Stop Forcing Friendships?
The topic today stems from this morning at Chub's award ceremony. Before I had sat down a parent from one of his close friends from his previous school came and pretty much got in his face. She started asking him what was going on, why he had stopped playing with her son? Then she flat out told him that her son had come home crying numerous times because nobody wanted to play with him, especially Chubs who had been his best friend before. Chubs was caught off guard and I could not figure out what she wanted out of him. She even said that the only one who was still nice to him was Chub's friend who was seated on the other side of him.
Chubs said I try to talk to him every morning when I see him. "I say hi to you" Chubs said to the boy directly, the other little boy said "no you don't", then Chubs said "I say hi to you, but you are always messing with your Pokémon cards." I noticed the kid had a photo book full of different cards and then a thick deck in his hands. Chubs went through the Pokémon phase a couple years ago, but lost interest, I don't recall him asking for cards in a long time. He might go and look at the cards at Target, but he never asks for any.
The mom finally turned to me as about pleaded "they were best friends and now they don't even play because so and so don't like my son." I said we encourage our son to play with everyone, we don't like him to exclude anyone. She said they had heard of our son having sleepovers and her son used to come over all the time last year.
I really do feel bad about it, I said "we have mentioned why doesn't your old bestie come over anymore?" He has said to us that he is a control freak who only wants to play what he wants to. He wants to dictate to whatever group he is with like he is the leader and you can't always be the leader.
I didn't want to tell her there in front of a bunch of other kids that her son is kind of a dick, I just said kids do grow apart, they develop new interests. All I could add is we don't have a problem with whoever comes over, if he has four or five or six, they are in his room stinking it up over there, the boys don't bother me or my wife.
I was left thinking "was this cool?" Should a parent dictate who is who's friend? Kids form new groups by their likes and dislikes. Band kids hang out with other band kids. Jocks look for other jocks. Gamers look for gamers, there has to be something in common. Is it my place to tell her that the kids don't play with her kid because he's hard to get along with? In the end I just sat there, told her that her kid is welcome at our house if my son invites him. I said we would discuss this more at home, but what is there to say? If a person has a problem with everyone, the problem is probably with the guy in the mirror, not everybody else.
Chubs said I try to talk to him every morning when I see him. "I say hi to you" Chubs said to the boy directly, the other little boy said "no you don't", then Chubs said "I say hi to you, but you are always messing with your Pokémon cards." I noticed the kid had a photo book full of different cards and then a thick deck in his hands. Chubs went through the Pokémon phase a couple years ago, but lost interest, I don't recall him asking for cards in a long time. He might go and look at the cards at Target, but he never asks for any.
The mom finally turned to me as about pleaded "they were best friends and now they don't even play because so and so don't like my son." I said we encourage our son to play with everyone, we don't like him to exclude anyone. She said they had heard of our son having sleepovers and her son used to come over all the time last year.
I really do feel bad about it, I said "we have mentioned why doesn't your old bestie come over anymore?" He has said to us that he is a control freak who only wants to play what he wants to. He wants to dictate to whatever group he is with like he is the leader and you can't always be the leader.
I didn't want to tell her there in front of a bunch of other kids that her son is kind of a dick, I just said kids do grow apart, they develop new interests. All I could add is we don't have a problem with whoever comes over, if he has four or five or six, they are in his room stinking it up over there, the boys don't bother me or my wife.
I was left thinking "was this cool?" Should a parent dictate who is who's friend? Kids form new groups by their likes and dislikes. Band kids hang out with other band kids. Jocks look for other jocks. Gamers look for gamers, there has to be something in common. Is it my place to tell her that the kids don't play with her kid because he's hard to get along with? In the end I just sat there, told her that her kid is welcome at our house if my son invites him. I said we would discuss this more at home, but what is there to say? If a person has a problem with everyone, the problem is probably with the guy in the mirror, not everybody else.
Thursday, December 1, 2016
12/2/16 Tis The Time For Comforters Instead Of Quilts?
There are two types of bed/sleeping covers that we use. Quilts and comforters. Quilts are generally thinner and not filled like a comforter with material to make it fluffy. Quilts also tend to be more stitched to keep everything in its place. At this point, we have quilts for every bed and also comforters which are not used often but when needed get the job done against Chilly Willy.
I love having the house be as cold as possible but not in the summer when our utility bill already goes over $700 a month, so when the cold fronts start coming, we will leave the windows in the bedrooms upstairs open. I could not believe my sister when they came before Thanksgiving and fired up the heater like she owned the place. I still had windows open in my bedroom and was looking forward to a chilly night. I let the house warm up a bit, then I turned it off. I did get called the worst host in the world, but that's OK, I want to be comfortable too.
Anyways, we use the quilts probably nine months out of the year. Once I start packing multiple quilts on top of one another, I figure it is time to bring out the big guns. Last night was down to about 39, and it was chilly when I came in my room from work in the morning. Sleeping with the two light quilts had me attempting to curl up into a ball, but 400 pounds don't really curl up.
Out come the comforters tonight, I am making the change, this weekend is supposed to be shitty and cold and wet anyway. I was telling Wife earlier that it would be awesome to just stay in bed all weekend, specially if the high will only be in the 50's. Nope, she is already eyeballing that sale she has been waiting for at Bath and Bodyworks, where the 3 wick candles that normally sell for $24, sell for $8. We bought like 3 or 4 packages, so for awhile we had over 20 candles in a corner of the room.
Since the comforter will be on the bed, is it time to wash the quilts? I think so, but I waited too long to start that process tonight. I have a ton of things to do tomorrow, so I probably need to go to bed early tonight.
Chubs has another award ceremony for the second six weeks at 7:50am at his school, Wife wants me to get the tags for the boat, and also get the Excursion current on its tags too. We finally found a buyer for our boat, so I am supposed to get it in a moving condition, and last we looked, both tires were mostly flat.
All that I can hope for is some rain, they don't do testing of vehicles if the roads are wet. Then I can come back home and just sleep. I am tired right now, but I can't fall asleep, it is too early. Once I am finished writing this, I am planning on going upstairs and ironing Chubs school shirts, which I do every weekend.
I love having the house be as cold as possible but not in the summer when our utility bill already goes over $700 a month, so when the cold fronts start coming, we will leave the windows in the bedrooms upstairs open. I could not believe my sister when they came before Thanksgiving and fired up the heater like she owned the place. I still had windows open in my bedroom and was looking forward to a chilly night. I let the house warm up a bit, then I turned it off. I did get called the worst host in the world, but that's OK, I want to be comfortable too.
Anyways, we use the quilts probably nine months out of the year. Once I start packing multiple quilts on top of one another, I figure it is time to bring out the big guns. Last night was down to about 39, and it was chilly when I came in my room from work in the morning. Sleeping with the two light quilts had me attempting to curl up into a ball, but 400 pounds don't really curl up.
Out come the comforters tonight, I am making the change, this weekend is supposed to be shitty and cold and wet anyway. I was telling Wife earlier that it would be awesome to just stay in bed all weekend, specially if the high will only be in the 50's. Nope, she is already eyeballing that sale she has been waiting for at Bath and Bodyworks, where the 3 wick candles that normally sell for $24, sell for $8. We bought like 3 or 4 packages, so for awhile we had over 20 candles in a corner of the room.
Since the comforter will be on the bed, is it time to wash the quilts? I think so, but I waited too long to start that process tonight. I have a ton of things to do tomorrow, so I probably need to go to bed early tonight.
Chubs has another award ceremony for the second six weeks at 7:50am at his school, Wife wants me to get the tags for the boat, and also get the Excursion current on its tags too. We finally found a buyer for our boat, so I am supposed to get it in a moving condition, and last we looked, both tires were mostly flat.
All that I can hope for is some rain, they don't do testing of vehicles if the roads are wet. Then I can come back home and just sleep. I am tired right now, but I can't fall asleep, it is too early. Once I am finished writing this, I am planning on going upstairs and ironing Chubs school shirts, which I do every weekend.
12/1/16 Anybody Really Working Right Now?
This time of year is really hard to be inspired to focus and work. I believe we are all just going through the motions. I took the whole week of Thanksgiving off for the first time and although I would have rather worked, this whole year has been slow. I figured I would make lemonade with the lemons handed to me and so I spent the whole week with Wife. I already wrote about that, but my point now is I have this overall feeling of laziness. Why crank myself up to work at 100%? This week is a short week, I am done after tonight. Next week is basically the last long week of the year. I will have another short week and then the week before Christmas is long, but I am going to probably take a night or two off making it short also.
I already planned to be off the week between Christmas and New Year's, and Wife will be here for two whole weeks. I don't believe we'll be trying to work hard until January. I feel slightly guilty, in year's past I was always the one volunteering to be the skeleton crew and be here when everybody else was off, mostly for the money. With Wife moving up the ladder, I no longer feel I need to be desperate for every nickel out there. Don't get me wrong, if we were busy, I wouldn't be singing this song, I would be planning on making that time and a half money.
I would love a cold front on Christmas to drop some snow our way and force us to stay indoors. The days after all the Thanksgiving hoopla were really relaxing, just laying around eating and sleeping, I want more of those days.
We had almost forgot about our solar panel system, but they called this week. I guess they had been doing what they said getting permits with the city, and whatever other paperwork. Hopefully, they are installed before the end of the year, I want to be green. I envision a day in which our whole roof is covered in solar panels and even our cars get charged from them. The system we are getting will cover two of the four sides, so it isn't impossible to think this is a possibility in the near future. How awesome would it be if we could buy a couple of small commuter cars for work that charge overnight with the power made during the day? If they were super cheap, I would even drive a single seat funky car, save my truck for family outings. Hmmm, a little clarity perhaps, or just blowing smoke out my butt?
I already planned to be off the week between Christmas and New Year's, and Wife will be here for two whole weeks. I don't believe we'll be trying to work hard until January. I feel slightly guilty, in year's past I was always the one volunteering to be the skeleton crew and be here when everybody else was off, mostly for the money. With Wife moving up the ladder, I no longer feel I need to be desperate for every nickel out there. Don't get me wrong, if we were busy, I wouldn't be singing this song, I would be planning on making that time and a half money.
I would love a cold front on Christmas to drop some snow our way and force us to stay indoors. The days after all the Thanksgiving hoopla were really relaxing, just laying around eating and sleeping, I want more of those days.
We had almost forgot about our solar panel system, but they called this week. I guess they had been doing what they said getting permits with the city, and whatever other paperwork. Hopefully, they are installed before the end of the year, I want to be green. I envision a day in which our whole roof is covered in solar panels and even our cars get charged from them. The system we are getting will cover two of the four sides, so it isn't impossible to think this is a possibility in the near future. How awesome would it be if we could buy a couple of small commuter cars for work that charge overnight with the power made during the day? If they were super cheap, I would even drive a single seat funky car, save my truck for family outings. Hmmm, a little clarity perhaps, or just blowing smoke out my butt?
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