When I was little and report cards were graded with either a C or a check mark, mine were usually a blur of satisfying C’s and a lone, accusatory check mark for self control. I don’t think I was badly behaved, but somehow my report cards all looked the same. Here we are many years later and it’s still a work in progress. For example, everyone knows the maxim, “if you can’t say something positive, don’t say anything at all.” I wish I was better at that. Fortunately, it’s easier when writing. Initially, I began this post talking about the crappy last 2 years but who wants to read that? The last 2 years have been hard for everyone. Let’s scrap that and talk about the good things.
So the good things, let’s see, there must be something. No, I’m kidding, it’s not that hard, for instance, our yew tree is still living. Why is that special? Well, it’s a 15 foot yew that I moved from close to the house further out into the yard. The tree companies wouldn’t take it on because their heavy equipment couldn’t access the backyard. They suggested I chop it down and plant a new one in the desired location. That’s no good, kill a beautiful, mature yew? And besides, what else was I doing last summer? Might as well move my yew.
So I spent the summer digging out the new location (giant white pine stump in the way, bummer), digging a trench between the new and old spots, placing the yew onto a nursery cart, rolling it over to the new spot, and transplanting it. And it survived! At least so far.
What else? I rewrote some tunes, figured out how to set up and record our band, spruced up the website, and of course, practiced a lot.
That’s it? Nope, the best thing is we have a bunch of gigs at cool venues lined up! Our long-standing gig at Delaney’s still hasn’t returned so we lined up gigs for Inside Pocket at the Dark Horse ArtBar, the Brink Lounge, the Union Terrace, and more. We plan on playing an audience-friendly selection of originals, groove-based jazz, and contemporary jazz by Pat Metheny and others. It’s going to be a lot of fun!
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