Ramblings of a rural(ish) geek

and two more appear; with even more lurking. Four boxes of papers to the shred bin, but I think that's mostly done, unless I find some extra copies of payroll lurking about (I found a couple yesterday when I was filing). BC went through the long-term storage, and pulled everything more than 8 years old, so now there's space in those drawers. BC is trying a new, eventually more efficient, method of preparing for the annual audit, but it's taking a bit of catch-up, and that's why my desk is buried under "originals to be filed", "copies to be filed", and "files to be copied then filed".

Construction on the new office space continues. The walls are done, the phone/network drops are done, carpet is down, floor registers are installed. Still need a thermostat and blinds and proper lights. And while the HVAC peeps have been working hard, they've still got a way to go. The rest of the runs and returns in the old space need to be installed, and they discovered a few more 'shortcuts' that need to be remediated. HVAC says that he should be able to move the furnace next week, so that's a big step toward completion. We've started discussing long-term storage plans for election infrastructure (voting booths, signage, privacy sleeves, mailing envelopes, etc) -- I think a couple of sturdy shop-grade shelving units will be fine. The stuff's not heavy, just bulky, and doesn't need "secure" storage. I think we should get a tiger cage for the ballots and election records (and bolt it to the exterior basement wall), but BC is dithering on that.

Neither band had rehearsal last week, so this week's rehearsals were fairly intense. I could wish that Livingston actually paid attention to dynamics without being reminded by the director. I'm getting a bit tired of Holst's First Suite, as both bands are playing it. The only saving grace is that Farmington is not really rehearsing it, more just doing play-throughs to get it "under our fingers" and get us familiar with the tempos he wants. Livingston wishes he could do that....

I did get the holiday lights out of the trees before it got cold, and discovered why one strand wasn't working -- the solar panel had fallen off the stake and was face down in the pine straw....

Ji is very annoyed with my inability to fix the weather. The wind we've been having makes it much less pleasant than it looks, and this annoys him. "what's this stuff! I didn't ask for cold breezes -- I want the sunny day I can see through the door!"

whew. That was a week.

At work, we mailed over 1000 ballots this week. Monday AM, we finished the accuracy testing (three different ballot styles each had to be tested in two tabulators, each test takes about 45 minutes). Then we started the process of getting the ballots ready to mail. ack. fortunately (fsvo), somebody has to take the flats of ready to mail ballots to the PO, so the day usually ends about 4:30. I took the last flats into the PO yesterday (Thursday), then came home and sat down for longer than it takes to put on socks & shoes!

Monday, I had rehearsal in Farmington, for which I leave about 5:15. It's a long drive, so I always check with Google to see the best route. This week, there was a 60 minute backup on my usual route. Yeah, I'm going the other way.

Tuesday, I had rehearsal in Howell, for which I leave about 6. I actually had time to make dinner between work and rehearsal!

Wednesday, I had to be at the HS in town at 4:30. That was a weird staffing day, as Wednesday is not a usual office day, so we all had something scheduled that day, but all at different times. I left work at 4, came home and changed into my Band Mom shirt and 'layers suitable for standing around outside until after 9pm', and dashed off to town to work the Marching Band Exhibition. I had actually only signed up for the second shift, but I went early, assuming that there would be something for me to do, and there was. The people who were supposed to be doing that task for the first shift were too busy yammering about band trips and the tours that the specialty groups could go on to do the task they were signed up for.

SR claimed that the theme song for Michigan high school band was "it's a small world", as it seemed that every time she'd come across a new director/clinician, they knew somebody that she or I had worked with. Wednesday's iteration of that was one of the Western Michigan graduate assistants played with the Farmington band during his gap year between BS and grad school.

He came up to me with a slightly perplexed look on his face "do you play bari sax?",
"yes, in a couple of community bands."
"which ones?"
"Farmington mostly, but also Livingston"
"I played with Farmington for a season. I thought you looked familiar."
(I mean, who expects to see someone you met in Farmington at a high school football field in Chelsea? His confusion was not surprising.)

One of the band directors (who's been at every one of the shows) pointed out that most of the kids on the field for this event weren't even born in 2008 when we held the first one. sigh.

In other news (hurricane Helene), the telephones to the senior complex where my mother lives are down. She lives near Greensboro, NC, so this is not actually surprising. The house phone here rang with a call from her number, and when I answered it there was nothing there. So I tried calling her back, and got a fast busy. Yeah, that system is down. I'll probably hear from her sometime next week. Meanwhile, I'll try not to worry. They're in a stable part of town, well up a hill, so I don't expect her to flood out, but they'll undoubtedly lose power (the emergency generators will run out of fuel, and they'll have to prioritize the rehab wing) and have already lost phone. The only real source of danger from Helene for them is tornado or general disruption. They're not in a high tornado threat area, but that is subject to change.

(plus an indoor concert that, while an exercise in staging, is not subject to weather unless roads to the venue are flooded.)

Monday, the Farmington Band was outside at a Senior Housing complex. It was hot and sticky, but we were in the shade of a building. Somewhat unfortunately, the building blocked some of the (slight) breeze.

Tuesday, the Livingston Band was outside in downtown Howell. It wasn't quite as hot, nor as sticky. I, however, was showing the effects of three concerts in three days, and was off my game (I got the tricky bits, but the easy stuff I flailed at. Why is it so freaking hard to count in 2?!?). The audience outnumbered the band by a wide margin -- they were sitting in various shady places all around the amphitheater. We didn't play as well as we often do, but I bet that's because we haven't played since June....

Today has been an annoying day. I woke up with a headache, probably due to too much reading music outdoors without sunglasses and/or not enough water. Then, when I went out to deal with the birdfeeders, the Camry was making noises (fan noises, mostly) and there were lights on. I *KNOW* that everything was off last night when I closed the garage door, so I was perplexed. poke the Start button "No key detected" (fair enough, they're in the house), try again with the key. Nothing. The dash flickers a little bit. well, f#$K - the battery's dead. Turn the light control to "no DRL" from "Auto" and the right headlight and left running lights go off. get out of car, close door. "Smart Key failure" (erm, no. smart key _sensor_ failure, yes.)

Text J (who is, of course, 600+ miles away) "where's the battery charger?' First, we try the smart charger. Says the battery is at 6V. Well, there's your problem. Put the smart charger on the battery. 10 minutes later, it throws a "battery failure" alert. (Apparently the smart chargers sometimes don't work if the battery they're connected to is under about 9V.) Dig out Papa's old charger, the one that he built from a Heathkit kit in the early 70's. (hook that charger up. the engine fan that's been surging from 'only if you're listening for it' to 'why is that fan running' (WHY?) revs waaay up immediately after plugging the charger in. jump into front seat and poke Start button. Fan shuts off entirely. starter clicking noise also stops.) Get the battery charged to 10V so I can put the smart charger on it. Now it's up to about 12.5V, so I'm going to drive into town and back and see if it will start again. If not, I guess I call the dealer and say "WTF?" If it does, I go to the gas station on the corner, then run into A2 so that the battery is charged. Then cross my fingers that the same thing won't happen tonight.

UPDATE: drove into town (the long way) and back again, turned the car off in the driveway. Came in to the house, did a couple of things, went back out to see if it would start. Yay! it did. So off to the corner store for gas, and back again. Now I hope that it starts in the morning so I can go to work. (We often buy gas at the corner store because an abandoned gas station on the corner is worse than a gas station on the corner. And really, they're not that much of a problem. The lights are good downlights, so that the only time we really get any skyglow from them is when it's been raining and the parking lot is wet and reflective; they're not open really early or really late; and it's far enough from anywhere that the "kids" don't hang out in the parking lot all afternoon.)

Despite the heat advisory on Tuesday night, the Livingston concert in Fowlerville went on. Tuesday evening was cooler and drier than it's been the rest of the week, and there was a nice breeze. The trees in the park there are getting big enough that there was enough shade for the audience - the band is under a pavilion, which is nice for purposes of heat mitigation, but not-so-nice for purposes of playing for an audience. The sound goes up into the pavilion roof and bounces around, and not all of it gets out to the audience. OTOH, they keep inviting us back. :)

DC and I got the first set of ballots into the mail today, after altogether too much faffing around figuring out how to get the state voter database to do what we wanted it to do. The method that they suggest is intended for large jurisdictions with 5K voters per precinct and multiple full-time clerks; not little townships with under 2.5K voters and three less-than-half-time clerks. Once we got it figured out, I don't think it's any slower than the "old" way, but getting to that point was way more confusing than it should have been. Didn't help any that my label printer had somehow gotten only mostly unplugged, so it looked connected but actually wasn't. And it was both ends of that cable....

J has been busy with a friend's car and working on some much needed repairs at the parsonage (things that probably should have been done 15 years ago and *still* aren't done). It seems as though they've also recruited him to be a non-hostile IT person.

I guess that if I have to pick a week to be at work every day, the week that it's too hot to work outside is a good one. I don't feel as guilty. :) And, honestly, even the weeds don't like it when it's this hot. :) We do get more birds when it's hot -- they don't want to wast time flying around looking for food, they just come here where they know there's food *and* water.

A whole lotta same ol' same ol'.

The Bureau of Elections held a virtual seminar on Election Security. It was pretty much useless, but it was better than an inperson training, because I was able to get envelopes prepped for mailing ballots later in the month. It was either stuff I already knew; vague and hand-wavium (X is a possible threat, consult your IT/local law enforcement/insurance agent); or policies/procedures that need to be set by the township board.

I got into the garden a little bit, but the best days for yardwork were early in the week when I don't have enough spoons to do yardwork on top of the other things.

I picked a few strawberries! Quite early, but we didn't get a freeze or frost in the last part of May, and it was warm. I need to go out there today and see if there are any more. It's only the first bearing year for this planting, and there's only a dozen plants, so I don't expect much. But I can get more at the Farmer's Market this week.

The Livingston band had a gig on Saturday afternoon. In South Lyon. I went surface streets, because there's a lot of construction between here and there. There were 35 people in the band (out of the 60+ at rehearsal on Tuesday), and I was the bass line. (The only tuba player was there because his daughter said "Dad, we need a tuba player today", and he was sight reading most of the concert.) It went reasonably well, and people seemed to enjoy it. (and the band got paid, which is always good.)

My filing system for Livingston music needed to be upgraded (it's outgrowing the current arrangement), and it turns out that it's significantly cheaper and quicker to order from the Staples storefront on Amazon than it is to order from Staples directly, even if I pick it up in-store.

I skipped the Farmington band picnic on Sunday, because when I checked the traffic maps, they were telling me it'd be 75-90 minutes one way. erm, no. (especially since I have to go to Farmington twice this week anyway.)

(I know, one day at a time.)

The LCCB concert on Saturday went quite well (for LCCB concerts). I made (mostly) new-to-me mistakes, and didn't have any unintentional solos, and that's really all I ask. Tuesday was the first rehearsal for summer, and based on the signups, the section leader has moved me down to BSax for the summer. sigh. I mean, I *prefer* bari, but it's a lot of work in the summer, when I've got to haul stand + chair as well.

The weather has been continuing its "nice on days I can't garden; rainish/chilly on days I can", so today is the first day I've been able to get out there. I've filled the garden cart once, and then it rained a bit (and I was hungry), so I took a break. I'll be able to fill the cart again today.

My work computer didn't turn on yesterday. I checked all the cords, etc; and texted IT. He said "take the day off. I'm elsewhere today and can't get to it until tomorrow." But I had things to do. BossClerk was off at at meeting, so I logged in using her computer and did the things I needed to do. Then we started doing election things.

The FCB concert on Sunday is going to be pretty good, I think. I will be very glad when setup is done, as it's not an easy space to use. DC and BM and I have been making it very clear to people that they will probably not be in the same relative position within the band - space is limited and oddly shaped - but the set crew will do their best to give everyone sightlines. Complicating matters is the scholarship presentation -- we need to provide routes for the recipients *and* the committee members to get out of the setup -- and a guest conductor from the Tuba section who also needs to get out of the setup. whee?

(odd, that)

I missed last Tuesday's Livingston rehearsal because I was at Hill Auditorium for the Emanuel Ax/YoYo Ma/Leonadis Kavakos concert. It was worth missing a rehearsal, even though I will miss at least one more before the concert (I will be working the Election, and rehearsals are Tuesday evenings). The music in that ensemble is straightforward enough that I can miss another rehearsal and still perform well.

This week was the first week that I've been to rehearsals for both bands in the same week since the beginning of the year -- scheduled school holiday/snow days/TimeFail have wreaked havoc with my schedule, but I should be good until Election week, in which I will miss both rehearsals. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Last weekend we ran off to Capricon in Chicago. The con was good, we hung out with our friends, actually went to some programming, ate lots of restaurant meals (we walked to all of them, because the convention was downtown, so that was nice). It was good driving weather both ways, which is also nice.

I've been doing a lot of video training for working Early Voting (as mandated by the new Michigan voting laws), and there's so many things that we Just Don't Know about how it's all going to work. At the same time, I've been sending out absent voter ballots. BossClerk wants to know when the AV counting board should start, and I'm like "dunno, man. Depends on how many ballots we get back. Right now, we've got maybe three hours worth of ballots. If all of the ballots that we've sent out come back, we might have five hours of work. But some of them won't come back. And we may send out a lot of ballots next week." (again with the shrug.)

The cats are pleased by the change in weather -- they like the sun. They will be annoyed next week when it gets cloudy again.

- have made plans to visit Mum before Christmas. I haven't seen her all year - we've talked on the phone, but we were so busy this summer that I couldn't get away when she was home.

- I have made no plans for Thanksgiving. I may be moved to do something (there is a tube of crescent rolls in the fridge, and some ham steaks, and I can probably rustle up some potatoes and veg), but I'm just not feeling it this year.

- one rehearsal until the Livingston concert. *my* B-flat was not the problem -- somebody else in that chord was playing a wrong note. Rehearsal this week was pretty much just a run-through to see if there were any problems with concert order -- there were more people absent than usual, so DM didn't feel that he could do much. OTOH, the concert is less than two weeks away, so he shouldn't have a lot of big things to work on.

- three rehearsals until Farmington's concert. It's a much more ambitious program, and there's a lot to work on. DC has added our tuba cues to a piece, even though there are five very good tubas back there. He wants the sound of more people playing mezzo-forte rather than the sound of fewer people playing forte+. KB is a very different director than DC or the other guest conductors from within the band, and it took us a bit to get used to her directing. (She's also doing the piece in slightly different style/tempo than the only version available on youtube, so some people were confused by that.)

- we deployed the heated birdbath over the weekend. I pulled a 2" thick "pizza" out of it the morning *before* we plugged it in. Of course, it's not been that cold since. :) They tell us it will get quite chilly on Friday night, so I will be glad that it's plugged in. Doesn't look like it's going to get/stay cold for a while, so I think the pond pump will stay in. I really should go out and run some more water into the pond if we're going to leave it running for a while. I should do that today, actually, as it's sunny and 40+.

The series of early morning appointments last week and this (M, F, T) has netted me a diagnosis of "not bursitis; probably tendonitis, *might* be early tendonosis. Meanwhile, PT and meds as necessary." If PT doesn't help, they'll have to ultrasound the joint to find out why. (Tendonosis is degenerative, tendonitis is just inflammation.) Xray shows mild arthritis and a tiny bone spur, but nothing else. Sigh. Don't want even more exercises in my home exercise plan -- I already need a chart to keep track of which ones I do when.

In music news, Monday's FCB rehearsal was hard. 100 minutes of sightreading might be good for the brain, but it's hard, too. A different guest conductor than we usually have (this one from the flute section, not the low brass like the last two) was also tricky. New-but-old trumpet player still being doofus -- we set chairs for the entire section, you Do Not add your own chair. "but I wanna sit here!" "your section leader wants you to sit *here*. Deal." Livingston's rehearsal was also hard, but mostly because my brain was still tired from Monday. Taking a week off from both bands is a good way to make everything harder.

Damp and rainish today, and I forgot to get birdseed yesterday when I was out. :( Maybe I'll stop at the coffee shop and get something hot to drink.

A mixed record this week.

The Farmington concert on Monday was cancelled. Late, so by the time I found out I was (literally) three miles from the venue. So I continued on to the site and turned in my music. And chatted a while with other people who were doing the same. We got no rain at the house, but it rained fairly hard in Farmington. I heard later that the rain had pretty much stopped by about 7:30, but everything was wet and dripping, and I don't know how much of an audience we'd have had....

Tuesday's LCCB concert went on as scheduled. Probably the concert closest to me, as the park in Pinckney is less than 20 miles from my house. Next week's concert is not only much farther away, it's up US23 which will be mostly closed next week. There is an alternate route that will (hopefully) not be too much slower - it's not the alternate route they're suggesting for US23 traffic, so I have hopes. It was humid in Pinckney, not really hot, but sticky.

Not much else going on -- work meeting yesterday; doing as much weeding as I can, but with the episodic rain we've been getting it's been hard (the gardens barely dry out before it rains again, or they dry out on a day when I've got too many other things going on).