Ramblings of a rural(ish) geek

Sunday's FCB concert was postponed due to predicted rain. I know it was wet here all afternoon. I hear that it was dry in many areas north and east of here, although I don't know what it was like at the actual venue. They have rescheduled it for this Sunday, which may actually happen - the weather folk are saying there a chance of rain this weekend, but it's much lower than they were predicting for last weekend.

Monday's FCB rehearsal was inside. Theoretically, the bandroom is big enough for the FCB. In practice, it's not quite. The official measurements of the bandroom are 50x60, but there's built-in cabinets or shelves on three sides, *and* there's three rows deep percussion along the back wall. After moving one row of the percussion gear into the back hall, we were able to get 6 rows in. Theoretically, that's enough spaces, but it's not really, because the trombones need deeper row spacing, and the percussion section has to fit somewhere in the room. BM, who gets the safety check-ins, has been dealing with some health issues and wasn't there, so JK and I did not have actual numbers for people attending, and we missed a couple, so that required some rearrangement on the fly. Unfortunately, that included moving the oboes, who fussed and complained. We tried really hard not to have to move them, but there was no way they could stay where they were once all the bassoons & clarinets showed up. If all five trombone players show up, we have to move even *more* gear into the hall. I have told people that I will not be at the Halloween concert, and DC has asked one of the TSax players to swap down for the concert. I'll give him my folder on Sunday after the concert. In a perfect world, since I won't be playing Halloween, I'd not *go* to rehearsal on Monday because they need the space and they'll be working on stuff I'm not going to play, but JK will not be at rehearsal on Monday (offsite project that *will* run late) and it's not clear whether BM will be there or not, so someone has to manage setup & teardown. The equipment managers immediately previous to us are no longer in the band, and the EM prior to them who is still in the band will be unavailable on Monday. sigh.

DB has moved to OH - a friend a)is looking for a roommate b)says he can get a job at zie's place of employment. It's been... interesting... he's back today for more stuff and a visit with the doc. Hopefully, this experiment will last longer than the move to Ypsi did. He does have a better car this time.

SR has moved closer to Melbourne - as in, across the street. IF she needs to go into work, it's a five minute walk. Her flatmate lived in a different building in the complex a decade ago, so they know where the shops/takeout/bus stop are.

Rattled cages on newsletter articles. Got responses from all four "too busy (moving)", "too busy (work)", "forgot and now on vacation", "ISP is down (email on phone OK; sending attachments not)". So, OK, no articles from those four. Lay out what I have. Point out to managing editor that I have no information on the September gathering. She has whoever is doing it send me a copy of the Flyer. Which, um, erk, wow is that bad. And this got sent out?!?

Theoretically, the person doing the flyer took Communication classes at Tech from the same prof I did, but you couldn't tell from the flyer. The layout is OK - not what I'd do, but OK. The text, on the other hand. oy. Poorly written (probably lifted from a website somewhere, but really needed some editing for missing prepositions/spaces/words), painful misuse of the semi-colon (pro tip, a semi-colon is not to be used instead of a comma - that does not make you look smart), missing information (who are these people and why should we be interested in what they have to say?), and a sentence that little sense made. So I redid the flyer. Have a question out to people "Are you really going to physically mail people a thing before the gathering? If so, you need to move up the registration deadline, because a week isn't enough time to get things in the mail. If email, you need to say *that*. email =/= mail. Especially when many registrants don't have email or don't check it regularly."

I'm going to go take my frustrations out on some weeds.

I needed my d$#n cell phone to log into my google mail account this morning. All of a sudden, google decided that it didn't recognise my desktop computer (that I set my google account up on years ago), and insisted that I confirm with my cell phone. Which is a) in the other room because b) cell connection sucks out here. It took four tries to get the notification through, FFS. grumble. stupid security theater.

Also in security theater, the new paperwork for municipal employment requires either a passport or drivers' license + birth certificate. The feds now require election inspectors to be actual employees of the municipality in which the election is held, rather than contract employees as in prior years. So the township employee rolls just quadrupled. I gave the clerk a new file, so she can submit me as a D or an R depending upon which she needs more. The only thing that affiliation affects is a little letter on my assignment at elections, and who I can be paired with for some tasks. She's not been using me for elections because she's gotten so many new Ds moving into the township, but she needs Rs, and asked if I'd be willing to change that flag -- she'd much rather have me than some half-trained hard-core R from elsewhere in the county, which is what she's gotten the last few times she's asked the county for one. Especially for the Absentee Voter Board, which gets locked in a room for 10 hours. (The county acts as a clearing house for election inspectors if a municipality can't fill its balance with people from its files.)

In less muttery news, music making continues. Still flailing at the bouncy bits in Britten's Theme and Fugue, but I'll get it -- I've got the notes, now I just need to speed it up and get it with other stuff going on around me. I won't get all of the runs without getting a new horn, so I'll have to fake those.

Weather continues to be January - hovering around freezing, with occasional precipitation.