Messages From The Heartland

[David In Indy]

What about your ancestry Jack? I know you are Greek (half I think, correct) but what about the rest? Tell us about your heritage!

[David In Indy]

I wonder how they manage to get fish oil in those pills? I wonder about that sometimes. I take fish oil pills every day, and I try very hard not to burp for several hours after I take them or else I will taste fish.

How do the get the oil in there? I was wondering about it again today. There's really no place to put the oil in. The pills are solid. Maybe they use a needle or something and squirt it in there.

In other news, our beloved Indianapolis Colts lost last night, it was a playoff game against the San Diego Chargers. I figured they would lose. Indianapolis played like a bunch of fools and I felt embarrassed for them. Poor Payton. He got sacked on the 4 yard line I think, and he got pushed towards the goal and ended up on the one yard line. That sealed our fate when it happened. He stood up, brushed himself off and then hung his head low like a little puppy. I felt really sorry for him.

I have a mouse in the house. More than one probably. They are in the kitchen so I'm keeping the doors closed in there so the cat won't get to them. I have some live traps set. If I manage to catch them I will take them down to the woods and release them. One scurried across the floor last night when I turned the kitchen light on and he scared the fire out of me. I watched him run behind the refrigerator. Eww! I hope it doesn't happen again. They don't scare me if I can see them. But if I CAN'T see them, then they will scare me! It's a startled feeling, like when something pops our at you unexpectedly.

And I have a couple of raccoons in my back yard. They come around all the time. I've been trying to take a picture of them, but when I open the door, or turn on the flood lights they run away. If I get a picture I will post it here. I put scraps of food out there all the time for them. And for the deers too. Sometimes I think the coyotes sneak up there and steal the food for themselves. I'm sure they do. The raccoons love eggs.

[David In Indy]

I was playing my cello earlier tonight.

SOMEBODY in my local chamber orchestra volunteered me, without asking me no less,      to perform one of the Bach Cello Suites this coming summer, so I've been, out of panic, practicing a few of them earnestly. I havn't decided which one it will be yet.

Anyway...I was practicing tonight and I suddenly felt a real connection to the instrument. This has happened many times before. I always love the feeling of the bow drawing across the strings, especially the C and G strings. The vibration from the strings works through the bow and into my hand. It feels wonderful. It almost feels like the instrument is talking to me. Or singing to me. I know that sounds stupid, but I'd be willing to bet other cellists have experienced the same thing. So I laid my head down on the shoulder of my cello as I was playing it and I listened to it sing to me.

I've experienced the same thing with my violin. There's something beautiful about the bowed string instruments and very real connection develops between the instrument and the musician.... some kind of connection one does not often get with other instruments. Or perhaps it does. I'm really not sure.

I love my cello and violin!

And YES I'm very nervous about the upcoming performance. I can't believe they did that to me!

[Shasta542]

Hi David--nice posts!

Get one of those plug in mouse things. It emits a noise that sends them out of the house. The only thing--the kind I have--you have to put one in each room because the rays or whatever don't extend into other rooms. I have some live traps in the other rooms, but no mice yet. Maybe my plug-in is reaching farther than expected. 

David--you should have been a music teacher!!! Summers off. 

[injest]

I was playing my cello earlier tonight.

SOMEBODY in my local chamber orchestra volunteered me, without asking me no less,      to perform one of the Bach Cello Suites this coming summer, so I've been, out of panic, practicing a few of them earnestly. I havn't decided which one it will be yet.

Anyway...I was practicing tonight and I suddenly felt a real connection to the instrument. This has happened many times before. I always love the feeling of the bow drawing across the strings, especially the C and G strings. The vibration from the strings works through the bow and into my hand. It feels wonderful. It almost feels like the instrument is talking to me. Or singing to me. I know that sounds stupid, but I'd be willing to bet other cellists have experienced the same thing. So I laid my head down on the shoulder of my cello as I was playing it and I listened to it sing to me.

I've experienced the same thing with my violin. There's something beautiful about the bowed string instruments and very real connection develops between the instrument and the musician.... some kind of connection one does not often get with other instruments. Or perhaps it does. I'm really not sure.

I love my cello and violin!

And YES I'm very nervous about the upcoming performance. I can't believe they did that to me!

what a wonderful post, David!

{{David}}

it is like waking up to a present!

[Kelda]

 

YOu'll be fine with the solo David!

 

[David In Indy]

Thanks Shasta, Jess, Kelda and Scott.

I think I will probably play Bach's UCS #1, since I've been playing it for fun for many many years and I have it mostly memorized. But then I started wondering if that maybe is cheating, or at least takes the challenge out of it. So, I started working on #3 and #4 last night. I haven't been practicing my cello and violin as much as I should recently and I'm a little rusty. So I'm hoping I'll be able to work out the rust with some intense practice. You may have heard Bach's UCS (Unaccompanied Cello Suite) #1 before. It (the Prelude) was featured in the movie "Master and Commander The Far Side of the World" with Russell Crowe.

Anyway...

I haven't played with that group for a couple of years. So it will be fun to hook back up with them all again.

Scott, do you play the cello too?

[David In Indy]

Well today is Epiphany (Jan 6), or as it is often called in my religion - The Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord. It is considered a Holy Day in the Catholic faith and it marks the end of the Christmas season. This is the day the Wise Men finally reached the stable and gave the Baby his birthday presents. When I was a kid, Epiphany was also the day all of us Catholics (or at least all the Catholics who owned live trees) would tote them down to a large clearing, pile them into a large stack and have a big bonfire. Later on, in the 1970s, instead of bonfires, many people would call someone to have them picked up and the trees would be hauled away, chopped up and the wood donated to poor families for kindling to help keep them warm during the long cold winter months ahead.

In some countries, children do not receive their Christmas presents until Epiphany in keeping with the memory of the three Wise Men. In my family we opened our presents on Christmas Day, but Mom and Dad always held one back for us each to open on Epiphany. We had an artificial tree, so Epiphany was also the day our tree came down, was packed up and placed safely in the attic until next Christmas.

Happy Epiphany Everyone!!

[David In Indy]

Hi David--nice posts!

Get one of those plug in mouse things. It emits a noise that sends them out of the house. The only thing--the kind I have--you have to put one in each room because the rays or whatever don't extend into other rooms. I have some live traps in the other rooms, but no mice yet. Maybe my plug-in is reaching farther than expected. 

David--you should have been a music teacher!!! Summers off. 

Shasta, are you talking about those Rid-Ex devices they sell on TV? I've been tempted to buy a few of those but I was never certain whether they worked or not. Do they work? I've seen them for sale at CVS and Walgreen's but they are about $20 dollars apiece and I didn't want to sink that much money into something like that unless I was reasonably certain it worked.

I've often thought about teaching piano, but not in a public school. I'd give private lessons. Unfortunately I'd love to teach violin and cello too, but most kids these days are not interested in learning those instruments. But the piano remains fairly popular.

[David In Indy]

When my niece was a little girl (she will be 30 this year) I offered to buy a violin for her and teach her how to play it. She flat out turned me down. She wasn't interested at all. Just this last Christmas I made the very same offer to my great nephew Eric, and he turned me down as well. Maybe Olivia, Eric's sister will be interested in the violin in a few years. She's only 4 now. But I think she may wish to learn the instrument in another year or two. I think Eric might be interested in learning the cello however. Every time he comes over to my house, he's always looking at my cello and asking me if he can play it. I always let him fool around with it for a few minutes but he quickly loses interest and switches his attention to something else - like my Xbox 360. Or my animals.

He will be turning eight in May.