Another Weekend That Almost Wasn't

Whew...yesterday was one of the longest Sundays in recent memory. It totally laid waste to the concept of a "day of rest," that's for sure. It started out with my usual morning of playing two services at church, with a direct segue into the DFWAAA picnic at Sandy Lake (yes, the same one you went to in middle school if you grew up in this area). That was a good time; we had the biggest crowd ever (which made for a mad rush when the grill finally got there an hour late) and a lot of new alums or soon-to-be-grads were in attendance. I wasn't able to recapture the Ferrell Cup (the trophy given each year to the winner of the miniature golf tournament at the picnic), but I did do better overall than last year and had two holes-in-one.

After that, I went and had my official visit with the Sinfonia chapter at UNT. As Governor, I visit my chapters whenever I can, but once every three years I do it more formally (yes, I wore a tie) and document everything. It's pretty easy to do when it's my home chapter, so I had a good time hanging with the guys and checking out their progress this semester. It was the last meeting of the year, so they had lots of ceremonies and tributes to the upcoming graduates and all that; I finally left at 11:15 and they weren't quite done even then.

All in all, it made for a long weekend and a more-tired-than-usual Monday--granted, not as much as Halfling, Fizban and Dingus, whose bus trip ended at 2 a.m. last night/this morning--but still I was running on fumes most of the day.

And then, at the end of the day, I had an old friend/former student come by and play me some of the stuff he's been doing recently (if you had to put a genre on it, you could call it "acid jazz"). One of the tracks that he solos on is evidently tearing it up at this big international DJs' convention in Miami at the moment, so it may get released worldwide. He just stopped over to thank me for my guidance and influence and play me the track he said I had indirectly helped spawn. We had certainly have had our differences of opinion and difficult moments over the years, but it had all turned into something good...and when it gets right down to it, things like that are the reason that I put in such long days doing what I do.

And, seeing as how another one of those days awaits, I'm off for now.