A Percussionist's Notebook

 About 3 years ago we purchased a ROKU stick to do some streaming. We usually watched ACORN that had the Murdock Mysteries and Foyle's War, but it wasn't until the pandemic came around that we started binge watching. Brokenwood, Pie in the Sky, 800 Words, Rake, Mystery Queens, Whitstable Pearl, just to name a few that was on the menu. Everything was great until Saturday when in the middle of one show an alert showed up on screen. "ROKU is overheating".   I didn't know that could be an issue. Doing a Google search I found that it was a quite common issue. The most common cause is the location of the 'stick', ours was in the back of the amp for our home theater and being very close to the air vents it wouldn't dissipate the heat properly. The fix is to locate the 'stick' further away from other sources of heat. I had another HDMI cable that was long enough to put the 'stick' on top of the cabinet but I quickly realized that I had connecti...

A week ago while trimming in my backyard (a chore that I like even less than mowing) I had to stop a number of times to untangle the cords in the automatic feed. This is a procedure that I have learned to do quickly since it's an ongoing issue with this model. I can do it with my eyes closed (which led to my latest disaster). As I turned on the trimmer this time I heard this horrendous rattling sound and saw all of the line spin out of the trimmer.   Actually it was kind of cool looking. There was no discernable end showing and there were tangles that were technically impossible to create. Except they did. After trying to untangle this impossibly formed DNA Helix I gave up and just cut the cord in pieces to remove it. After a trip to Ace Hardware to pick up the proper weight cord I returned and wound it back on. It was now that I realized that the cord retainer cap was missing. Evidently I did not pop in the cap securely the last time I fixed it. So...... I returned to the bac...

 I just realized that this sounds like a 'James Bond' type spy thriller. Actually it involves my attempts to produce a non-reflective finish for so many of my aluminum projects. Powder coating and anodizing are the typical processes to produce this finish but they are expensive or require car battery chargers and caustic chemicals for the DIYers.  I've tried a flat black paint using etching preps etc. but they all resulted in the paint chipping off quickly when tossed around and hitting other things in an accessory case. Since I use a 2 part epoxy to connect the parts of the Nickster together with perfect results, I thought about using this as a bass coat for the paint (see my Nickster Commemorative post). This result had promise but the finish became glossy even though I used the matte black paint in the mixture.  I came up with this idea from an accident. After the epoxy/paint mixture experiment I left some of the mixture out and some of the paint had dripped on the mix...

 I timed myself mowing the lawn this morning. I hate mowing the lawn! Even though this sub-23 minutes is considerably shorter than mowing the family lawn when I was a boy. Our yard back then was larger, the front and back was equal to about 3 football fields and took about 24 hours to finish (there might be a slight exaggeration  here). It rains a lot in Pennsylvania which normally means we had to mow very often. It doesn't rain very much in Colorado and 'green' grass is not native to the area. Buffalo grass and yucca yes but not that stuff that makes it look like a New England countryside. Also, there are only 1 or 2 roads to get anywhere in Colorado unlike PA where they invented the "toll road" and multiple main, secondary and tertiary roads. When our uncles, aunts and cousins would come visiting the conversation always started with " What route did you take to get here?" That led to a half hour discussion about any and all variations of routes. After ...

 I was caught off guard, I didn't realize that we even had a National Dog Day. I made a list of most of the dogs in my life. Bumba: The first year that we lived in the country my brother and I got a Collie/Shepherd mix. Unfortunately she died after 1 year from distemper. Somewhere I have a picture of her but I can't find it. She was the best dog I ever had. Bambi: The following year we got Bambi, another Collie/Shepherd mix. I always joke about being raised by wolves. Bambi was that wolf. I was in 4th grade when we got her and she saw me off to the army when I was 21. She was the best dog I ever had. Bambi Heidi: When I was in the Army Band in Colorado we got a Great Pyrenees and named her Heidi. My wife was in very poor health during that time and Heidi became totally attached to her. She was the best dog I ever had. Heidi Scruffy: Another Collie/Shepherd mix. My brother got Scruffy when he was in the Army but gave him to our parents when he was transferred. Since we lived in ...

 After last year's catastrophic attempt at my chokecherry shrub I decided for some jelly this year. My plan was to give the cherries that I picked and give them to my neighbor. Since I am not set up to do canning myself this was a good choice. Unfortunately our neighbor went on an extended camping trip the day before I did the picking so that didn't work. But.... a friend mentioned that she was using her grandmother's stuff to do her canning. Two bags of cleaned and washed cherries went to her house and 3 jars of jelly returned. I would include a pic of the jelly but you can Google a pic of home made jelly and look at it...they all look the same. This jelly retained enough of the chokecherry tartness with the perfect amount of sweetness. Thank you Marsha! Good bye shrub experiment I have found my jelly source from now on.

 I guess there is a day for everything. But since I am left handed (mostly) it has more importance. I say 'mostly' because I write with my left hand and eat with my left hand (using a fork or spoon even though I was raised by wolves) but I throw with my right hand. I think this contradiction comes from my brother who is a real lefty, he taught me to write before I started school and I just copied him when we ate our meals. The point being is this has affected me all of my life not only as a daily occurrence but as a bicycle mechanic and a percussionist. Sinistral, Sinistro, Sinister, these are all words associated with the left hand. They also imply something dark, mean, evil, wrong. As a bike mechanic I had to endure the insult when I installed some pedals on bikes, many European pedals were marked with a 'D' destra meaning right or 'S' sinistro meaning left. Both of these words are Italian with their roots in Latin, Right means good, Left means bad! 'Clock...

Okay, we didn't plant broccoli but zucchini would screw up the alliteration. I had to remove the cages because the plants quickly outgrew them. Besides, they were ugly. Instead we had to rely on my recipe......Bunny Ban. Water, red pepper flacks, garlic, Tobasco Sauce, and dish washing liquid. Set in the sun for 4 days, filter into a spray bottle. So far it's working and we are already harvesting zucchini.  I hope bears don't like peppers and garlic.😬 

We have never had many bunnies near us, the fox, coyotes, hawks, and owls have dined on them over the years. The first week of June I did see a small bunny running through the back yard and was happy to see they were making a come back, and then our garden was planted. At first we would just see him scamper away when we went to water the garden. Then we noticed a leaf was missing from a pumpkin plant that just sprouted, a squash blossom was gone, and then two entire pumpkin plants went missing. We had to face the harsh reality that we were witnessing a remake of 'Night of the Lepus'*. I started to imagine that the situation was escalating to the point that they would attack our neighbor's dog, or we would find the partially eaten carcasses of deer and bear behind our house.  It was time to take action. We added hardware cloth fencing around the small plants, I made a concoction of cayenne pepper/garlic/dish soap per instruction from the internet. The promise of a bountiful ...

Families refer to the children as Big Brother/Sister or Little Brother/Sister. My mother passed away in 2004 when I was 57 and she still referred to me as 'My Baby".  Regardless of science's theories of time whether it's relative, linear, constant or whatever, families seem to be caught in a Time Warp. I'll always be the Little Brother. My Big Brother is celebrating his birthday in April so I made him a card. He started out as a Math Major in college and has continued to have a love of math. The Front The Inside

THE VIDEO SAYS IT ALL Let's not lose our humor. Stay safe!

The shelves are empty of  face masks and hand sanitizer. When all of this stops I wonder what they are going to do with all of the excess. Maybe...……………..             ……………………... Charmallets?

There was a news article recently about Italians serenading each other from their balconies. There were singers (a beautiful rendition of Nessun Dorma) and instrumentalists. Only the Italians would think of something like that, and then there people on the internet doing the same. I loved the idea and started to do the same for my neighbors. Unfortunately my marimba is too heavy to lug upstairs and into the driveway. The only thing I could carry would be my snare drum and I don't think it would be received in the manner in which it was intended.😢

Chalk up another win for Covid-19. Canyon Winds has cancelled rehearsals for the next 2 weeks after which we will assess the situation. Bummer, but considering that the majority of the members are middle and older (some with pre-existing conditions) adults it is the appropriate response. Still it's sad to miss rehearsing and performing. Also most of the school districts in the Colorado Springs area are closed until after Spring Break. The Colorado Springs Philharmonic is closed, The Youth Symphony (supposed to tour Greece this summer??), and groups are added every day. I cancelled my private students until April. This is my biggest disappointment but with my wife having a compromised immune system it has to be done. Thank goodness for Skype, email, and texts! The upside to this 'social isolation' is we can get a lot of our projects done. I'm glad that I never took up Toilet paper mache.

Groundhog Day has a special meaning for me. I was born on Feb. 2.  As time went on, I learned that Groundhog Day has quite a history. It is called Candlemas in the Christian world because Priests would bless the candles of the followers which would be used for the remainder of the year. The ancient Celts called it Imbolc or Lamb's Milk, I think this was because this was the time when lambs were born. It's also a Cross-Quarter Day which again comes from the Celts. Imbolc was the traditional Cross-Quarter Day that was midway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. I've had a number of nicknames over the years, one of them was 'Rodent', although I think this moniker was given me more for the shape of my nose rather than my birthday's namesake. Somewhere I have a picture of a groundhog holding a sign (I'm sure it was Photoshopped) that says 'I'm a rodent, not a meteorologist!'. When I was in college I would go groundhog hunting with my ...

Yep, it snowed last night (and all morning). They warned us, they said it's going to be a lot of snow and since it has been in the 40's that means there is a sheet of ice under all of it. (Abominable) Snowman tracks  The neighborhood kids must have been up early and used part of our driveway to make their snowmen. Since today is the day to take out trash and recyclables, I decided to do my Star Trek thing. I BOLDLY WENT WHERE SNOWMAN HAS GONE BEFORE.

I love this time of year! The air is crisp, geese are flying south, and mallets are starting to change their color😏

Since our mother passed away in 2008, my brother and I have Skyped nearly every Sunday. If you read my 'Welcome post' he was my first drum teacher and a very influential person in my musical life. For whatever reason we started to talk about connections to historical people last Sunday. That  made me think about famous musicians of course. So..... 1965- my wife(girlfriend at the time) and I had a class with musician and musicologist Fredrick Dorian. One day as we entered his apartment we found Rudolf Serkin sitting on a chair in conversation with Dr. Dorian. Serkin was in town to play Beethoven's Choral Fantasy with the Pittsburgh Symphony. After introductions were made Mr. Serkin stood up and shook hands with all of us students in the class. My memory of him was a very soft spoken, humble man and very easy to talk to. That made me think of connections: Rudolf Serkin (1) Serkin met Schnabel at a concert in Berlin 1921. Artur Schnabel (2) Theodor Leschetizky (Schnabel...