Drummer's Corner of the World

So... originally I had scheduled gallbladder surgery for the day before Thanksgiving, because the surgeon thought it would keep getting worse and therefore shouldn't be put off. But, you know, he's a surgeon and it's his job to cut. Me... I haven't had even the slightest twinge from the gallbladder since the first week in September (when it landed me in the emergency room for an evening), and I'm just not sure I really want to go through surgery for something that may or may not continue to be a problem. So I cancelled the surgery. In hindsight, this was a good thing, 'cause that freed me up to take a Semi-Feral Mercy gig this coming Wednesday, so Jen and I will be playing from 7-10pm at the Plainfield Claddagh. W00t!

Three hours. Damn. That's a lot of music. That's a lot of music without being able to rely on Barry's guitar chops or Sally's percussion. Hmmm... So there's been a lot of guitar practice in my week (and I have the ouchy fingertips to prove it!). Tomorrow, I drum for church in the morning, then Jen and I rehearse in the afternoon. Wednesday is the gig. Thursday, Thanksgiving at textdeviant's, for which I promised to make chocolate pastry cake. This could be complicated, since I won't get home 'til late on Wednesday, and the cake needs to set up overnight before being served. Meh. I'll figure it out. Sleep is overrated, right? :-)

Tuesday, I had a guy out to quote swapping my (existing, brought from prior house) heat pump and thermostat in to replace the plain A/C currently in the house. I'd have to have a new heater coil too, and the price turned out to be totally reasonable. Not something I can afford right now, but definitely something that can be planned for, and it will get me closer to not needing the blasted propane, since the heat pump can provide heat until temps are down to about freezing. I also acquired a Comfort Furnace freestanding ceramic heater which is currently heating the entire upstairs, and Thursday I came home early and met the chimney sweep, who gave the chimney and Buck Stove a thorough cleaning and pronounced them safe for use. So even w/out swapping out the heat pump, I may be able to get through this winter w/out paying for propane (I spent $1600 on propane last winter... I can't do that again!!). Haven't had a fire yet, but I did bring a good selection of damp firewood onto the back porch so it can dry out.

I've scheduled several shifts to work Christmas at the Zoo. Unfortunately, shortly after scheduling, I got an invitation to a drum event on one of the same evenings, so I may try to shift my schedule around. Currently scheduled for four shifts... Saturday, Dec. 4, Saturday, Dec 11 (this is the one I may reschedule), Tuesday, Dec. 21, and Thursday, Dec. 30. Working as fire pit monitor all shifts, 4:30-9pm, so come warm up and hang out w/ me if you come to the zoo on any of those evenings! :-)

I'll also be drumming for the UUI Winter Solstice again, which will be on Saturday, Dec. 18, this year, with a repeat performance on Sunday afternoon at the women's prison. Then I leave on either the 22nd or 23rd for a few days in Mississippi w/ the family for the holidays.

For now, I think I'll practice some more guitar. Learning cadhla's "Wicked Girls" for the gig. Yay!

The hazard of using multiple calendars is that sometimes there are things on one that overlap things on the other.

I somehow managed to put the upcoming Indianapolis Women's Chorus concerts (for which I'm drumming) on my work calendar. Duckon was on my personal Google calendar. The two don't talk to each other, and for some reason it took me 'til now to realize that the IWC concerts and Duck are the same weekend.

Oops.

I was already planning to just come to Duck on a daypass, 'cause I couldn't afford the time away all weekend this close to the move. Now I won't even be doing that, 'cause I'd have to be back in Indy by 6 p.m. at the latest, so trying to make part of Duck would just be silly.

Bummer.

Y'all have fun for me, okay?

After Friday night's marathon gig (cons have spoiled me... when you're used to playing for 45 minutes or an hour, four 45-minute sets is quite a change!), min0taur, Sally and I helped provide the special music for this morning's service at UUI (the Unitarian Universalist Church of Indianapolis). I had primed the pastor w/ the lyrics via email and he actually used the lyrics from "Holy Now" (by Peter Mayer... go listen to his stuff if you've not heard of him!) in his sermon, before we played it as the postlude. The lyrics to both songs also got printed in the bulletin, which came in handy when we decided to turn the offertory into a rock-and-roll sing-along and enlisted the audience for the choruses of Dave Carter's "Gentle Arms of Eden".

When I volunteered the three of us (Jen was busy choir-directing at Carmel Lutheran and couldn't join us), it kinda didn't occur to me that we'd never actually played these songs together (oops!). I've been doing them for so long in filk rooms that I spaced the fact that we'd never really worked them up as a band. Thankfully, Barry and Sally take pretty much anything in stride, so after we all attended the Arty Bash at UUI on Saturday night, we went back to Barry and Sally's and sat out on the deck enjoying the beautiful evening while we knocked both songs over a couple of times. After I got over being fascinated by having all that extra musical Stuff going on (it's hard to sing and listen at the same time!), they came together quite nicely and we had lots of fun with them this morning. It's nice to play for people who appreciate good music, and I love that Wild Mercy gives me that opportunity on a regular basis, whether it's at cons, at gigs like this weekend's artists' open house, or at church.