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Saturday, September 16, 2006

A Day in The Sun

We went to a Truman State University football game today. It was hot, hard, crowded, walking was way too painful, and we were losing when we left after halftime. But I got to see the band, so all was not lost, and some friends of ours looked after Ellie for us during the game and into the afternoon, so it was well worth all the agony of going... and I like going to football games... They remind me of when I was in college and in the band... Do you know, the band cheers really haven't changed since I started school in 1987? That says a lot right there. Either I'm getting old or the band cheers are getting old. Either way, the band looked quite good... they actually marched... We never marched for the first game when I was in band... and the music was rather hard... harder than we ever played.

Speaking of music, I just saw my CD for the miniseries North and South in my CD rack... remember that series? All I know is that I've wanted the music to that mini series since the 80s, when it came out, and it took me this long to buy a copy of it so that I can yell "Good horns!" when I listen to it... I always listen for the French Horn parts, probably because I've played Horn since I was in sixth grade. The band conductor originally wanted me to play baritone, but I couldn't lift it, so I kind of got to play Horn by default... Good Horn parts are hard to come by... The hardest was anything by John Williams... that guy really knows how to use his horn section! He nearly killed me every time we played his music when I was with the Quincy Volunteer Community Band... And it blows my mind (what's left of it) to think that we used to sight read that stuff! Either my sight reading skills improved during those years, or my faking skills did. I'm not really sure, now. All I know is that Sundays used to mean driving to Quincy, playing in the park, dying of sweat, and drinking Frappucino's on the way home. I still love the coffee and own my own Horn, even if I can't play it yet (it takes an amazing amount of air to get noise out of a French Horn!). It sits in the corner and gathers dust now... That is, when Ellie's not pestering me to get it out and play a little for her.

And speaking of Ellie... The other night, when we were at supper, she brought her little toy pink and purple hair dryer to the table and proceeded to 'blow' on her food. I nearly died laughing.