There. I think I finally caught up on all the blogging and photos from the Washington DC road trip. I had gotten so far behind that I didn’t want to do anything cool until I got caught up. Now that that’s done, I think I can get on with life 🙂
It’s been a bit strange. The week we were on vacation was the first week back for teachers in my former district. This week was the start of school for students. It’s the first time in about 20 years that I’ve missed the start of school, and at that time I was wandering through the deserts of Arizona. I have had lots happening this week, though, so I’ll do a quick rundown…
Monday
I spent a good part of the day cleaning up from our trip. In the evening, though, I had something else to occupy my time. Fellow singer Perry Mixter had invited several of us over to his house for an evening of informal choral singing. We had a potluck dinner, followed by a read-through of several madrigals, motets, and other works.
If the song was in another language we dove right in and attempted some sort of pronunciation. It wasn’t a rehearsal, most of it sounded pretty ragged. Even so, I made a recording. Here are a few seconds of Matona, Mia Cara by Orlando di Lasso…
The evening was a blast, and I appreciate Perry putting it together for us. I’m hoping we have more of these throughout the year.
Tuesday
New great-nephew Jack Marshall was born. I did manage to get in a blog post about that.
Wednesday – Thursday
I acquired the parts to put together a simple laser oscilloscope, then did a video of the project. I’ll do another blog post on that, later. Laura was back at Furman in full force, which meant a faculty retreat on Thursday. Keith Dover and I took the opportunity to drive up to Haus Heidelberg in Hendersonville for some German food.
Friday
I met up with Rick Kalk, who left Spart 5 the same day I did. We had lunch, and talked about what’s been keeping us busy during these first months of retirement, then we went to see the movie “Jobs” – not about employment, but about the life of Steve Jobs. At first it looked like it was going to be pure hero worship, but the movie did a good job of showing the good and bad. It covered the time from Jobs in college through development of the Apple II in his garage, through the ups and downs of the 1990s, and up until the release of the iMac.
Saturday
Yardwork – lots of it. This was the first Saturday both of us had been at home in awhile. We got quite a bit done.
Saturday evening we were invited to a customer appreciate party at Century Mini. We decided to go just for the heck of it.
It was an interesting group. There was a DJ playing an odd mix of tunes, and an open bar. Caters brought around little plates of tapas, while people stood around and gawked at Minis and Mini swag. The crowd divided between folks our age and older, and young hipsters in their late 20s, early 30s. The hippest hipster was the designated photographer, with Miami Vice jacket, superhero T-Shirt, and straw fedora.
Laura met a fellow chemist from Clemson who is also a Mini owner. She and her husband were there, so at least we had someone we knew with whom to chat. There was a drawing, and Mini t-shirts and other gear were given away.
Probably the best thing that happened was that we hooked up with the Upstate Mini Club. They have regular gatherings and road trips, and Laura seemed very interested in participating with some of their activities. We’ll have to see what happens there.
So, that’s the week. I think I’ve got one more catch-up blog post, then I should be back on track for a bit.