Ramblings of a rural(ish) geek

And the Bands are on a winning streak! If I'm keeping score correctly, each band has had one concert cancelled due to weather. It's been hot and rather icky for the last four concerts, but not raining nor "do not breathe outside", so they're a win!

I, however, have been flailing badly (by my standards, which means only a bit below average for the ensemble) at the Tuesday evening concerts. There are a number of factors for this, partly my 'real' job and partly leftover tired from Monday's FCB gigs which are always a lot of work (and driving. Cannot discount the extra tired one gets from driving home at twilight after doing physical work outside in 85F+ weather) and partly 'the last time I played this in concert I was playing an entirely different part'. It's almost as though I'm sight-reading the concert. I'm not *that* good at sight-reading.

First day of wearing my emergency-backup-Treasurer hat went fairly well. Four or five customers, one of whom knows the office staff well enough to know that I was 'out of position', as it were. (Treasurer had a community operations meeting to go to which overlaps with office hours, so she wasn't in the office until 11:30, and someone had to cover.) I took my laptop into her office, and did some of my work while I was there.

J is off to the Annual Picnic. I see lunchtime traffic on the Signal group.... Ji is only sulking a little bit. J was only home for a couple of weeks between excursions, and he kind of ignored Ji while he was here, so Ji has resigned himself to it. It is, however, still my fault that the weather's been "bad".

Sometime in the last couple of days, I cracked a toenail, and I didn't notice it until I wore my old Birks into town today. Ow! (I wore new Birks last night, and they're not as worn and don't push up on my toes as much.) Will have to be careful which shoes I wear to work tomorrow. sigh.

- skipped FCB rehearsal on Monday, because when I looked at the traffic to NFHS from here it was saying "best route 75-80 minutes". Egads, no. Add in the fact that I'd be driving J's truck (which I hadn't driven in over a year), and I bailed. Sent BM the row numbers -- it was rather disturbing when I could just rattle them off without much thought.

- no LCCB this week, as this is traditionally their week off. sometimes a parade appearance is organized, but not this year.

- no basement work on Tuesday (other than putting shelf boxes into the basement), as it was the day to do payroll. Getting the data entered in takes a couple of hours, and then there's some flinging of files to ensure that neither I nor the payroll company made an error entering data. It's a very rare month when everything is right on the first pass.

- today I got two shelves assembled, another moved into its new home, and a closet emptied. One shelf is loaded up, and I showed the office manager where all of the file cabinets she needs access to are now. And BC determined that "someone" (not me or her!), has been moving things out of the fireproof file cabinets. We didn't have time to dig into the cabinets to find out what's in them now, but that's a pretty important thing for next week.

I went in to the office on Friday, and with a fresh brain, was able to find a way to get the corner desk into the room where it was to go. The base of the section does not go all the way to the floor on all sides, so I was able to wrap it around the doorframe. Then I reassembled the desk, put the drawer keys back in the top drawer, and went on to vacuum where the desk had been. Then I emptied a file cabinet and cleared a space for a different filing cabinet and moved the maps that were in the wrong place and sorted out paint and measured all the boxes + things that I'd have to find storage for. Then left that sheet at the office. sigh.

Not that it makes that much difference at this point, as I probably won't be getting the shelves until next weekend. I don't want to have to take them out of the car other than at the office, and I have to haul Lily somewhere M-T-W next week. At least, that's the current schedule. I expect we'll still have rehearsal on Monday as it's indoors; but the T-W concerts are both outside in the Heat Advisory/Extreme Heat Alert areas (depending on the concert). The weather people tell us that it won't get below 70F until the wee hours of Thursday AM. Maybe. Friday night for sure!

The AC came on at 8:45 this morning. I have it set for 76. (Anything higher, and the cats get really lethargic and unhappy. No need to stress old cats more than necessary.)

Yesterday's Sousapalooza was fun. there were about 25 of us, more old (most of them older than me!) flute players than anything else. We played 8 different Sousa marches, all of which I had played before. Many of them (besides Stars and Stripes Forever) have been in a summer repertoire for one band or another. It was indoors, so we didn't have to worry about the heat. I really think that an event like this needs to be outside, but yesterday I was glad that it wasn't. It wasn't really a concert intended for an audience, just a bunch of people playing music together.

- at home, the cats are being cats. Which is to say that Jiji is being very annoyed with me. I have, in no particular order: sent J away, failed at weather control (it's hot and humid now, and will rain, possibly hard, later), am *not* J, demonstrated my inability to skritch him "just right", gone away for "all day" Tuesday thus 'trapping' him inside (he can't fool me - he slept most of the time I was at work). Annabelle doesn't like the hot weather, either, as I don't let her curl up in my lap as much when it's 78F.

- in the backyard: I heard froggies on Monday after rehearsal, there was a small fuzzy sandhill crane in the yard when I got home from work on Tuesday (it looked at me very curiously before deciding I was no danger, and went back to lawn-poking), I saw fireflies yesterday evening after a concert in Fowlerville.

- on the road: (all rural two lane roads, because that's where I normally drive.) I came around a blind corner on my way to the concert yesterday, and there was a deer standing in the middle of the road. This was a few miles after the one who nearly ran into my car -- waited on the shoulder until I was nearly past, *then* started across the road. I accelerated just enough that it missed the rear bumper. Three miles from the venue, there was a quartet of ducks moseying across the road and I had to stop for them. Fortunately for all involved, the numbskull going 10 mph over the speed limit was far enough behind me that he didn't get to us until the ducks were off the road.

It was very hot in Fowlerville last night. We were, for the most part, under a pavilion so not in the sun, but I still had sweat running down my face. Many people deployed small personal fans. I have a little one, but it was in the other music bag. I should put it in Lily's case, and then I'll have it with me! (which will be good on Saturday, when I head up to Lansing for Sousapalooza. They say it will be 93 there. I hope we're on the shady side of the shop.)

Yesterday at work, I discovered that TE has handed responsibility for the entirety of the basement mess off to me. I don't wanna be in charge! So tomorrow I call HandymanDan and see when we can schedule him and a helper for a day. And BC and I went through and moved some expenses so that they were being pulled out of the correct account (fiscal year ends with June). I had been mis-attributing an expense because no-one told me that it actually belonged somewhere else. And then there was the one that I just screwed up. (Payroll is complicated, even if the payroll company does all the taxes, etc.)

Looked out this afternoon, and there are a couple score of red-winged blackbirds at and under the feeders. There is also a sandhill crane standing watch in the backyard. :)

in work news -- AAAIIIGGGHH-- that is all. I am completely and utterly stonewalled at a task until I hear from BC how it is done. (there's a step missing between payroll and accounting, and I don't even know where to start looking for it.) I can do payroll, I can do GL entry, but I have no idea how to get data from one to the other. Treas. says "there's a spreadsheet that she imports", but I can't find the damn thing. I know full well that she does not enter the entirety of payroll (inc. taxes/pensions/etc) every month, and the timesheet that gets sent off to the payroll company doesn't have all the info on it, but I can't figure out where she gets the data from. I suspect there is a file to download from the payroll company, but I can't figure out how to get that report in xls format.

I spent so much time poking about on BC's computer today (well, and an already scheduled staff meeting) that I didn't get *anything* else done. People will just have to wait until next week for their expense checks. I did get payroll entered and sent off to the payroll company on time, so at least people will get paid. I am somewhat concerned about the early month bills, but I don't *think* there's anything due before the end of next week....

There was an LCCB concert on Sunday, and it went pretty well. I could wish for a less shrill flute section, and a trumpet section that actually played soft, but it's fine for what it is. There are many community bands that are less good.... I am kind of tempted to go to the AA Concert Band concert on Sunday, but they're doing a piece I really dislike, and I am a bit concerned that they're going to spend the concert "spraining their shoulders" as they pat themselves on the back for the theme of the concert. It could be fine, but I've seen other things in AA that could be nice made into caricatures because the presenters are so proud of themselves for doing a 'different' thing.

that it's very strange for there to be more snow on the ground in Houston and NOLA than there is here. Some of that, of course, is because "it's too cold to snow" here -- usually when it's this cold, there are no clouds and thus no snow, and we are far inland and only get lake effect snow when the wind is coming straight from the west (or from the north over Lake Huron/Saginaw Bay, but that happens very rarely).

I did not have to skip Livingston rehearsal tonight -- Howell cancelled school, so by default there is no LCCB rehearsal. BC called the Ingham County clerk about tomorrow morning's meeting, and they said "yeah, you're not the first to call. We'll have the meeting for whomever shows up, and send forms off to those who didn't make it in to the meeting". TwpBoss closed the office for Tuesday a couple of days ago, so I haven't left the house since Sunday's trip to choir practice....

I discovered tonight that the ski gloves that I picked up off the clearance rack last summer have pockets for those little handwarmers.... I don't need them when I'm going outside to get the birdfeeders or to sweep the fluffy snow off the porch, but it's nice to know.

J is currently building a mixtape for his new motorcycle. It's got a tape deck, so of course it needs a mixtape. Grateful Dead, Cash, P!nk (because why not), BOC, Springsteen, Queen, etc. (hopefully no Bob Seger. If I never hear another Seger track in my life, it'll be about right.)

J started the bathroom demolition/reconstruction last week. (The old shower stall is being removed from the hall bath, and the space is being shifted to the closet in the master bedroom.) The same day, we started clearing spaces at work for the HVAC contractors. I am already tired of boxes everywhere....

Three elections worth of boxes are in the Clerk's office, one under my desk where it's almost-but-not-quite in the way; and there are other boxes on top of filing cabinets. Another year's worth of elections is boxed up and on the floor in the furnace room. They'll just have to live with it for the next four weeks or so (the space is quite large, and seems at least partially intended for storage of municipal broadband equipment). I only did one row of boxes down one side of the space, out of their way. BC and I went down on Friday and got everything off the top of the file cabinets and desktops and floor and sorted into Recycle/Shred/Trash stacks, with one box of "we need to see if we have copies of these before we Shred them, but we don't have time now". There are still two rooms of cruft that need to be sorted, but they aren't our responsibility. One is the treasurer's space, and one is Zoning's. We're still waiting to hear when the remodelling crew wants to start work on the office spaces upstairs, because we'll have more stuff to move then. In an ideal situation,, the HVAC crew will be done, and we'll be able to move most of the stuff from that closet into the basement, but that's a bit unlikely, based on the amount of work the HVAC crew has to do. It'll probably have to go into the shed, which is a faff -- either down a narrow half-flight of stairs and out the side door; or halfway across the building, out the front door, and then halfway around it. Nothing really heavy, per se, just bulky and hard to carry, and many pieces of it.

On the home front, everything had to be removed from the closet. There are boxes and stacks of clothing everywhere. And drywall dust, and broken chunks of drywall, and the old closet shelves+rods. The old shower is in pieces on the deck. (The closet will actually get painted now! Have no idea what color it will be -- there may be enough usable paint in the basement, or we may have to buy some. I think there is enough of the almost-boring-beige(*) left from the master bath for the hall bath.) We need to figure out closet flooring and cabinetry colors, too. And a layout, so we can get everything out of boxen and into the closet ASAP. I want lots of shoe cubbies (will also work for J's tshirts) and mesh drawers for sweaters and wear-to-work shirts.

(* -- I thought it would have more color in it. I did sizable test patches, and it was good, but once the whole room was done it was beige. kind of a taupe-y beige, but still beige. sigh.)

FCB tech rehearsal was last night. In Farmington (natch). In the cold (13F when I left home; it was still 13F when I got home, so that wasn't too bad). At least there hadn't been any snow since Thursday AM. We had to fit the usual band arrangement (with an extra mallet percussion and a drum kit) on the stage, and add a piano (Clavinova) and a harp! It's a bit of a squish. The band is already a bit too big for that stage, and adding in a couple of very large instruments....

The harpist missed the rehearsal because she had a concert, so we won't know exactly how she'll fit until Sunday. At this point, my main concern is how people are going to get to their seats, with both sides filled with not-so movable instruments. I think we'll have to ask the harpist to move her instrument out of the traffic pattern until everyone is in. (She doesn't play on the first piece.)

Thursday morning, my boss called "due to cold and the condition of the back roads, I'm not going in to the office. You don't have to either, unless you've got something that needs to be done." well, I don't really have anything that needs to be done except plan the move, which we can do now. So we spent about an hour discussing timing and what will need to be moved where so the contractor can start in mid January. It's going to be a mess. The worst part will be figuring out where the old ballots (which need to be in locked storage) will go while the contractors are working in both of the available locking storage areas. Currently, they're in the upstairs locked closet, but that closet is going away. Well, put them in the basement; except that the heating/cooling duct that runs down the middle of the basement is being replaced. We'll have to check with the contractor -- if they don't need access to the new furnace room, maybe we can put them in there.

Thursday evening (after the snow had stopped, but it was still cold), I went in to AA to usher for a strings concert at Rackham. I was underimpressed. OK, I will acknowledge that they are technically a very good ensemble, but they are much better heard than watched. Everyone in the quartet makes it obvious to the audience when they are playing a difficult part -- they dive toward the stand, or writhe around on their chair, or flip their head or leg. I find that extremely distracting -- I was taught that it's supposed to at least seem effortless. It probably didn't help that I really did not like the first piece that they did. It was billed as a "conversation between solo cello and string quartet", but it didn't seem like one to me. It seemed more like two different speakers addressing an audience, which is not actually a conversation. (and then the cello player was tapping her foot during the String Quintet, which is usually not a problem, but she was wearing hard soled shoes and I could hear every tap. As a festival judge once said "I don't see a 'foot tap' part in the score".)

At least it's not actually raining -- it's been doing that mostly overnight or when I'm at work this week. I did get rained on a teensy bit yesterday when I was out running extended errands -- hadn't done anything since before the election, so I was way behind, although we hadn't run out of anything. Only three cans of cat food left, though.

Today I need to clear the living room of all the things that I've just been dropping there to deal with "later". It is now later, so....

BC and I did a layout of the new office space (so they know where to put the outlets and the network and phone ports). Once I got the room plotted out, and post-its of the furniture sizes, it took about 5 minutes, and we tried a few different configurations. :) She was impressed. There's a desk in the corner with the person's back to the door, but as that's the second clerk, I don't see it as an issue -- that person will rarely be in the office by themselves. There is space to shift the desk away from the wall, but then that person will be between the wall and the desk. This may be preferable, I don't know.

And then word came down from 'on high' that they wanted a third estimate, and they wanted to ponder some of the results of the energy audit. sigh. It's not going to be plausible to replace two small gas furnaces (new one is 5 yrs old, old one is only 10) with a heat pump, especially if it means redoing the HVAC system in the entire building. [The HVAC in the old building needs to be fixed anyhow, because the person acting as General Contractor (to "save money") for the remodel 5 years ago screwed it up, and exactly how badly has now become clear. It was apparent shortly after the remodel was finished that there were issues, but the "GC" said it was fine. It wasn't, and still isn't, but BC and I went poking around in the basement/ductwork with a flashlight and chalk and figured out what was wrong. Short version? Penny-wise and pound-foolish. (or, as Papa used to say "you'll always remember how much you saved".)]

My TSax compatriot at Livingston will not be playing the Holiday concert -- his wife scheduled a "I gotta get out of this town" vacation for that weekend, so.... It'll be OK, although I will have to pay especial attention to Christmas Festival, which I'm used to playing in a different key. It's important to play a Bflat instead of a B, really it is. And I need to work on the flying-finger bits in Home Alone. (I needed to work on them anyway, because he was very clear that he wasn't gonna try for the 8th notes at 160bpm, much less the 16th notes.) And there's another piece where I'll probably be playing the 2nd ASax part -- both of the AS2 players are new to the instrument, and are scared of the accidentals and syncopations.

(the way it usually does, one day at a time. I know.)

Farmington's Halloween concert was Sunday. It was much better performed than Livingston's, even though the music was harder. We did not have FCB rehearsal the day after the concert, because the HS was having stage rehearsal for their Tuesday evening concert, and it was just easier for everyone if 70 extra musicians just stayed away. I will be missing the rehearsal on Monday, 4 November, because I will be doing the final set up for the township hall for Tuesday's election, after a day of processing and tabulating Absent Voter ballots. whee?

I postponed the week's erranding to today from the usual Wednesday, because the weather then was great for working in the garden. So, of course, it's chilly and damp today and AA is overrun with Oregon fans in town for tomorrow's football game. sigh. OTOH, there was no line at the cider mill or the gas station. OTOOH, I forgot to stop at the feed store for birdseed. I will need to run into town tomorrow and get that. sigh, again.