thing to thing
Oct. 23rd, 2009 08:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kip_w.
Yesterday was the busiest day of the week for me. In the morning, I had 'Art Ambassador' for Sarah's class; my first time as classroom coordinator. For this, I get a mixed grade. I did arrange the date with the teacher and get it on the calendar. I did not inform the other volunteer parents for the classroom. I got there and realized that nobody's going to do that for me this year. I was going to tell the teacher we'd have to reschedule, but as I got there, the substitute (both classroom teachers were out sick, as I recall) was telling the class we were about to do the project. I conferred with him and we decided to go on and give it a shot.
I went through the checklist, locating most of the items except for copies of the handout, so I took the master to the office and requested twenty, and for the next hour we kept the kids supplied with brushes and watered glue and tissue paper strips to glue down. I showed the Eric Carle video and the display board one of the other parents had made. Sarah had been present for the session where I was shown these things, and she was a valuable and very forward volunteer in helping get things done. We proceeded from step to step. After the glued parts went off to be hung up for drying, each of us took a group of kids to wash their fingers for the second part. I took the girls, with Sarah leading the way. Oh, she loves being in charge.
Things got tricky when we brought out the stencils (one kit for a caterpillar, one kit for a butterfly), but we managed to enforce sharing of the kits and of the limited scissor supply. I headed off some potential difficulties by telling them to number the pieces like the stencils so they'd know if they had a complete butterfly or whatever.
The handouts arrived before they left. As kids were finishing, I praised their work and urged anybody with free hands to pick up some of the leftover trash. They left, and I finished cleaning up and putting things away, with just enough time left to hasten homeward for the anticipated installer from Sears, bearing a new dishwasher. Sarah and I had gone a couple of weeks ago to pick it out at the store. There were phone messages, and I thought it was going to mean some delay with the appliance, but it turned out to be the author of a book I had just converted, telling me that one of the photos had vanished in the PDF. I fixed that and sent him the corrected file with apologies.
It turns out the installer was running late, so I was done with lunch when he came. That part went fine. Old dishwasher out and gone, new one in. Still, I had less time left than I thought, so I had to wait on the next part of my day until Sarah was home.
I told her when she got off the bus that we had to go out and do some things together. She suggested an alternative, but when I checked with the other parents involved, it was not workable. We went to the fire station together, and she got to see me get a flu shot. Then we went to the post office and I sent a thumb drive back to the author. Then we took a Pokemon tape back to the library, and I paid the overdue fine. Sarah vanished into the children's library, and for a while I just browsed the shelves. Libraries can be quite enjoyable. I'd been there on Tuesday for a luncheon honoring volunteers (of which I am one), and if I'd known, I could have returned the tape then. We got home half a minute before Cathy arrived. She had been at the grocery store, finding out that I had forgotten to call in a refill of Malathion for Sarah's head bugs. Oops.
A package arrived. It was the replacement for a shelf in the door of the fridge that had broken some time back. I put it in place with a sense of accomplishment. Then I relaxed a little and fiddled at the computer. Cathy made a tasty supper of stir-fried meat and Southwestern vegetables. Sarah helped me collect household trash and recycling and get it out. I couldn't tell exactly if I was required at rehearsal, so I went anyway and found that I could return home. I did find that our choreographer's husband was doing better (the car they were in was hit head-on by a drunk driver a few days ago, and he was badly hurt; she was injured, but not as much) and passed the news to another cast member who showed up as I was leaving.
This gave me time for stretches. I'm taking physical therapy to try and stretch some of my muscles and keep flexibility in the sacroiliac area. Only there are so many stretches now, that it takes the better part of an hour to do them all. Still managed to get to bed a little early and sleep pleasantly until morning. I got up and heard Sarah bossing her imaginary big brother, Sean, in the living room. Sean can't seem to do anything right. Her imaginary brother Alex doesn't get nearly as much criticism.
I didn't find out until today that Soupy Sales had passed on, which made me a little sad. He was a funny guy. Sarah mastered shoe tying earlier this week. I heard her tell Cathy that she didn't need Daddy for that. This is, of course, a good-news/bad-news thing. Daddy likes to feel needed, but then, Sarah says it was Daddy that taught her how to do it, and she just suddenly realized what Daddy meant. She seems concerned now that she doesn't tie them quickly, but I told her that will come. I put her ponytail up for her. We didn't play catch this morning because of the light drizzle.
Today is a day bright with promise. I showed Cathy a card that had been placed in our mailbox from a local piano tuner, and after I called them about their rates, she said I could get the piano in the music room tuned, and the sticky key unstuck. I'm looking forward to that. Tuning it myself has been gratifying enough when it comes to making bad notes stop being so bad, but I lack the chops for putting the whole thing in tip-top tune.
It's been a busy week, but Thursday was definitely the busiest day of it.
.
Yesterday was the busiest day of the week for me. In the morning, I had 'Art Ambassador' for Sarah's class; my first time as classroom coordinator. For this, I get a mixed grade. I did arrange the date with the teacher and get it on the calendar. I did not inform the other volunteer parents for the classroom. I got there and realized that nobody's going to do that for me this year. I was going to tell the teacher we'd have to reschedule, but as I got there, the substitute (both classroom teachers were out sick, as I recall) was telling the class we were about to do the project. I conferred with him and we decided to go on and give it a shot.
I went through the checklist, locating most of the items except for copies of the handout, so I took the master to the office and requested twenty, and for the next hour we kept the kids supplied with brushes and watered glue and tissue paper strips to glue down. I showed the Eric Carle video and the display board one of the other parents had made. Sarah had been present for the session where I was shown these things, and she was a valuable and very forward volunteer in helping get things done. We proceeded from step to step. After the glued parts went off to be hung up for drying, each of us took a group of kids to wash their fingers for the second part. I took the girls, with Sarah leading the way. Oh, she loves being in charge.
Things got tricky when we brought out the stencils (one kit for a caterpillar, one kit for a butterfly), but we managed to enforce sharing of the kits and of the limited scissor supply. I headed off some potential difficulties by telling them to number the pieces like the stencils so they'd know if they had a complete butterfly or whatever.
The handouts arrived before they left. As kids were finishing, I praised their work and urged anybody with free hands to pick up some of the leftover trash. They left, and I finished cleaning up and putting things away, with just enough time left to hasten homeward for the anticipated installer from Sears, bearing a new dishwasher. Sarah and I had gone a couple of weeks ago to pick it out at the store. There were phone messages, and I thought it was going to mean some delay with the appliance, but it turned out to be the author of a book I had just converted, telling me that one of the photos had vanished in the PDF. I fixed that and sent him the corrected file with apologies.
It turns out the installer was running late, so I was done with lunch when he came. That part went fine. Old dishwasher out and gone, new one in. Still, I had less time left than I thought, so I had to wait on the next part of my day until Sarah was home.
I told her when she got off the bus that we had to go out and do some things together. She suggested an alternative, but when I checked with the other parents involved, it was not workable. We went to the fire station together, and she got to see me get a flu shot. Then we went to the post office and I sent a thumb drive back to the author. Then we took a Pokemon tape back to the library, and I paid the overdue fine. Sarah vanished into the children's library, and for a while I just browsed the shelves. Libraries can be quite enjoyable. I'd been there on Tuesday for a luncheon honoring volunteers (of which I am one), and if I'd known, I could have returned the tape then. We got home half a minute before Cathy arrived. She had been at the grocery store, finding out that I had forgotten to call in a refill of Malathion for Sarah's head bugs. Oops.
A package arrived. It was the replacement for a shelf in the door of the fridge that had broken some time back. I put it in place with a sense of accomplishment. Then I relaxed a little and fiddled at the computer. Cathy made a tasty supper of stir-fried meat and Southwestern vegetables. Sarah helped me collect household trash and recycling and get it out. I couldn't tell exactly if I was required at rehearsal, so I went anyway and found that I could return home. I did find that our choreographer's husband was doing better (the car they were in was hit head-on by a drunk driver a few days ago, and he was badly hurt; she was injured, but not as much) and passed the news to another cast member who showed up as I was leaving.
This gave me time for stretches. I'm taking physical therapy to try and stretch some of my muscles and keep flexibility in the sacroiliac area. Only there are so many stretches now, that it takes the better part of an hour to do them all. Still managed to get to bed a little early and sleep pleasantly until morning. I got up and heard Sarah bossing her imaginary big brother, Sean, in the living room. Sean can't seem to do anything right. Her imaginary brother Alex doesn't get nearly as much criticism.
I didn't find out until today that Soupy Sales had passed on, which made me a little sad. He was a funny guy. Sarah mastered shoe tying earlier this week. I heard her tell Cathy that she didn't need Daddy for that. This is, of course, a good-news/bad-news thing. Daddy likes to feel needed, but then, Sarah says it was Daddy that taught her how to do it, and she just suddenly realized what Daddy meant. She seems concerned now that she doesn't tie them quickly, but I told her that will come. I put her ponytail up for her. We didn't play catch this morning because of the light drizzle.
Today is a day bright with promise. I showed Cathy a card that had been placed in our mailbox from a local piano tuner, and after I called them about their rates, she said I could get the piano in the music room tuned, and the sticky key unstuck. I'm looking forward to that. Tuning it myself has been gratifying enough when it comes to making bad notes stop being so bad, but I lack the chops for putting the whole thing in tip-top tune.
It's been a busy week, but Thursday was definitely the busiest day of it.
.
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-23 06:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-24 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-25 04:13 am (UTC)Neato on the piano tuning. It really is a specialized skill. I was wondering not too long ago if there were still easily found piano tuners around. I guess so.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-01 02:21 pm (UTC)When I was taking piano from Von Bernewitz in the 80s, he told me about another tuner in Newport News, Gregor Belitsky (sic?). He would have his wife call around and ask for an estimate on tuning to see how much the competition was charging. I've forgotten the name of the music store that used to be where Fantasy is now (or was when I left) on Jefferson, toward the Food Lion. Anyway, the manager there picked up a call and recognized Belitsky's wife's voice, and when she asked about tuning, he said, "Thirty-five bucks." There was a shocked silence, and the phone at the other end slammed down.
These guys are pretty reasonable. They tuned my piano for $85 (less ten percent for a first-time client) and fixed some issues with the action for another thirty. About a week later, they sent me a $10 rebate, figuring they should have charged less for the repair work. They also came back and fixed a sticking key and two that stuttered a little, all at no extra charge.
I'm pretty happy with their service, and with my piano.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-02 04:39 am (UTC)Speaking of music stores, I think I had forgotten there was one on Jefferson. When I had any reason to go to one I always went to the one on Warwick (kind of in the Warwick S/C area, a little before Hilton). It may have been gone by the time you lived here, but it was there for many, many years.
Sounds like you've found a good tuning service. Hooray!
no subject
Date: 2009-11-02 04:56 am (UTC)There were some nice ones on the south side too, which also closed up after I'd been to them about three times. I still regret not getting some things I saw at a place by the Naro -- the only complete sheet music for "The Pink Panther" that included the second, big-band sounding, part. It was for piano and flute, but I always think I could have done something with it.
Oh yeah, the one that used to be where Fantasy took over was Parker Piano. In the story Von Bernewitz told me, it was Buddy Parker who took the call. Some day I'll want to remember that again. (another note to self: collect the last couple years of my LJ into a PDF -- it's time again!)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-02 04:25 am (UTC)