I jumped in the car and drove to Muskegon yesterday morning for Solo and Ensemble Festival. I only had one person to accompany, the violinist I have been working with. In the time I worked with her it was obvious that she enjoyed it. I was slightly disconcerted by her easy acceptance of me. I guess that these days when I meet someone local I expect that my personality and presence will confuse or slightly repel them. The violinist’s mother kept telling me how much her daughter had enjoyed working with me.

This all was especially satisfying because I felt that the young musician surmounted her inevitable jitters and pretty much nailed the piece she played.

On the way home, I decided to stop at Meijer and pick up some things I knew we needed. I pulled in to the parking lot and began texting Eileen only to look up and see her and the entire crew sitting in the car next to me.

We all went in to Meijer. When family members who are living abroad come home and go to Miejer it helps me realize how overwhelming our abundance is in the United States. Or as Jeremy put it yesterday, even the so called “99% ” in the USA is part of the 1% of the world.

Factoring in the fact that in the USA we still have people who are suffering order valium from china from hunger and no place to live, this is still true for many of us. I know it’s true for me and my loved ones and friends.

Later my trio rehearsed for today. I video taped our piece with my phone and uploaded it to YouTube to see how bad the recording is. I remember the performance to be pretty good. I think we will do well this morning.

I just posted this on Grace Music Ministry’s Facebook group. It might be my first video on Facebook. I make videos with my phone often but usually just to time preludes. The quality both of the recording or my playing often convinces not to post them. This one is not too bad.

While I was practicing the fam went to visit my Mom.

It has been very encouraging to watch my Mom lately. She seems to be doing better and enjoying life a bit more.

And of course it certainly doesn’t hurt to have a new great-grand baby to hold.

Jeremy has just about convinced me to consider installing Window 7 on my PCs. It looks doable. Of course I will have to reinstall critical software like Finale. Scary.  I think it will speed the laptops up significantly, but I’m still looking to purchase a Mac Mini for Eileen and me. I think it would be fun to learn the Apple interface.