We are having squirrel infestation. Eileen has battled them over her plants. The squirrels weirdly uproot all strawberry and corn plants they can get their paws on. Eileen finally resorted to a motion detector sprinkler which seems to be helping. But it looks like the turtle is back in the pond which means there are destroyed plants in that area. Sprinklers don’t work with turtles.
Something has been coming through the screen on the back door to eat seeds Eileen left there. The last two mornings I have gotten up and found holes in the screen. I then proceeded to repair it (in a very half-ass Steve way). This morning it seems to have made it through the night intact.
It’s a lovely cool morning in Western Michigan. The sky is just beginning to light up. I am pretty drained. Still in bad need of some time off, but realizing how lucky I am to be able to be doing so many things that I truly enjoy.
The list includes composing for actual performance, having the new experience of consulting with a choreographer, and playing with a little jazz quartet. Speaking of, we perform this evening at the silly Thursday night Holland Street Performer series.
I continue to love my church work even though I feel a few ticks past burned out right now. At staff yesterday, the boss said we were to take our recently submitted job description and rate things we don’t like doing with a 1, would prefer not to do – 2, like doing – 3. To her apparent dismay, I said it would be easy since I didn’t really want a job at all, I could rate everything 1. It’s not true. But it’s the first thing to come to mind.
I also am playing a wedding Saturday at Hope College Dimnent Chapel. I went over yesterday and registered the music (this means picked out which sets of pipes to play pieces with). I found a note in one of the lovely romantic solo stops that didn’t work. This surprised me. I then decided to strum the grand piano to see how it was doing. It was a bit out of tune (not surprising) but seemed to be in working condition.
I feel like Hope College is hostile territory for me. I know it’s my own subjective stuff. But it’s not without some basis in fact. First of all, they disapprove of gay people and non Christians as a matter of policy. This bothers me. There’s other stuff, but I have decided it’s probably best if I not put it the blog. Better not rehearse other people’s old bad behavior and give them the benefit of the doubt, not to mention a chance to change. Silly me.
The Skinner is a nice romantic organ. I’m not a fan of the genre. But I do like quality organs no matter the design or intent. It was fun to play it a bit, even though they seem to have a new policy of limiting preparing organists to one hour of free time with the idea they will charge for anything over that. I was out in forty minutes.
Eileen and I had a lovely meal at the pub. When we arrived we were surprised that there was no one sitting outside. This changed quickly.
I need to stop and clean the kitchen. I have been ignoring it since I have been so busy.