SUNDAY FUNDAY - MAY 29, 2022

 SUNDAY FUNDAY - MAY 29, 2022

Happy last Sunday in May 2022.  

We’ve had a little rain and some cooler temperatures in Central Texas.  So, Mother Nature is teasing us before summer really hits!!!  

For Texas, this is pretty common weather - soon, the high-pressure dome will sit over us.  I can be the weather forecaster for the first week of August:  The highs will be from 96 to 105, there will be no precipitation, and the lows overnight will be 78 to 85 degrees.

(A comment:  My apartment has a joint heater/air conditioner unit. (The compressor for the air conditioner is outside the apartment).  I turned my unit off in February.  It has been off for March, April, and May.  Yes, my electric bill has been cheaper and I’ve survived.  

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I have played in symphonic groups since 2000 when I moved to Connecticut.  (I also played with the Tri-College Symphony in college.)  I like symphonic music better than band music. What are my favorite pieces?  Favorite composers?  It varies from week to week.  

In Connecticut, I played first with the Hamden Symphony - which played on Quinnipiac’s campus.  Then a friend said the Cheshire Symphony needed a tuba - so, okay, I played with the Cheshire Symphony.  Then the Nutmeg Symphony needed a tuba - I played with that group for two concerts - and that was enough. They rehearsed on Saturday mornings - and we did things on Saturdays.  When Quinnipiac University started a symphony in my last year on campus, I played with that group too!!!  (We had strange instrumentation - saxophones, baritones, and some strings.

Moving to Texas I looked for symphonic groups.  The Williamson County Symphony had two tubas (and three tubas would be too much).  I played with the Band of the Hills - and even was elected President for two years (and past president for four years - ouch).  A friend told me the Williamson County Symphony needed a tuba, so I jumped in (about the time of COVID!!).  

Last summer a second symphonic group got started - the Central Texas Musical Arts.  I played with both groups for the fall concert - but then the December concert got scheduled for the same night.  I liked both groups, but I opted for the Central Texas group.  (I do still have some ego.  In the Williamson County symphony, I was just a player - but in the Central Texas group, I am the “Principle Tuba” player - and the “principle” of my whole section.  We had a high school tuba player join in for two concerts, but he had other activities, so I am the Principle player of a section of one person!!!  

This group is playing our spring concert next Friday and Saturday nights.  On Friday we play outside in a large park, and on Saturday night at First Methodist Church in Round Rock.  I’m looking forward to the Saturday night concert as we have the church organ joining us for some of the music.

The theme is “A Traveler’s Tale” - with Star Wars (long ago in a galaxy far, far away), Mars (the bringer of War), and Jupiter (the bringer of Jollity) from Holst's suite ‘The Planets”, Finlandia, The Pines of Rome, American in Paris [note - I have a solo for four measures!!!], and Stars and Stripes Forever.  

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America has had another tragedy - this time in Uvalde Texas.  I hear so much hate talk - and I try to say “Love Wins”.  “Love one another”, and even “Love your enemies”!!!  I worked last Tuesday for the Primary Runoff contests from the March primary election.  There is such political hate - can’t we get along.  LOVE WINS!!

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Some National Days ahead:

SUNDAY, PUT A PILLOW ON YOUR FRIDGE DAY - May 29, 2022 - National Today

Okay, this was new to me!!!  The write up says:

“Put a Pillow on Your Fridge Day is celebrated on May 29 and it’s meant to bring you prosperity and good fortune. The name of this day is quite literal, for on this day people are to put a pillow on their fridge for the magic to work.”

MONDAY, NATIONAL CREATIVITY DAY - May 30, 2022 - National Today

All of us have some creativity in us.  Maybe you knit, crochet, draw, cook, and even write poetry, limericks, or prose.  Let your Creativity grow today!!!

TUESDAY, AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE DAY - May 31, 2022 - National Today

I’m waiting for the day as a senior where I can say to my car, “Take me to HEB, take me to bridge, take me to Granny Basketball practice”, and not have to drive.  When seniors give up their car keys, they lose an important part of their lives - independence.  When my father gave up driving, it sped up his decline and death.  

WEDNESDAY, WEAR A DRESS DAY - June 1, 2022 - National Today

“Wear a Dress Day is celebrated every June 1 and gives women an opportunity to sport their favorite dress. This includes dresses of all sorts, designs, and patterns — all that is important is that it’s a dress you love. Why create a day that is all about dresses, you ask? Well, the fact is, dresses are easy to wear and super comfy, especially in the hot summer weather when you begin to sweat the minute you step out of air-conditioned space. So use this occasion to dump your jeans and adorn a cute dress that makes you look oh so lovely.”

THURSDAY, NATIONAL ROTISSERIE CHICKEN DAY - June 2, 2022 - National Today

I’m guessing we all have done this.  It’s been a long day, it’s time for dinner, and we don’t want to cook, we don’t want take-out food, so we pick up a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store.  Maybe add some instant mashed potatoes, or grab a salad - and there you are - instant dinner.

FRIDAY, LOVE CONQUERS ALL DAY - June 3, 2022 - National Today

Love Conquers All Day is celebrated on June 3 every year as a day to cherish our loved ones. No matter how tough life gets, the sailing becomes smoother with our loved ones at our side. It is a day to express gratitude and love to those who matter and recognize love as an emotion that makes the world go around. A day of joy and warmth, you can celebrate it with your friends, family, partners, pets, or anyone whom you love and cherish!

SATURDAY, NATIONAL PRAIRIE DAY - June 4, 2022 - National Today

A lot of the Great Plains - are just that - plains.  The link says, “Spanning more than a dozen American states and several Canadian provinces, the North American prairie is a vast grassland that offers more biodiversity and beauty than most people realize. With their endless, gently rolling plains and highly productive soils, prairies have been a valued location for farming and ranching for thousands of years. 

JOKES

Scene: With a patient in my medical exam room Me: How old are your kids? Patient: Forty-four and 39 from my wife who passed away, and from my second wife, 15 and 13. Me: That’s quite the age difference! Patient: Well, the older ones didn’t give me any grandkids, so I made my own.

I tried having my mother’s phone disconnected, but the customer service rep told me that since the account was in my dad’s name, he’d have to be the one to put in the request. The fact that he’d been dead for 40 years didn’t sway her. Then a solution hit me: “If I stop paying the bill, you can turn off the service, right?” “Well, yes,” she said reluctantly. “But that would ruin his credit.”

 

Feeling down about my thinning hair, I told a friend, “Soon I’ll never need to go back to the beauty salon. Whenever I vacuum, all I pick up is my hair.” A glass-half-full kind of gal, she responded, “Well, then you won’t need to vacuum either.”

On the phone with my 93-year-old brother in Wisconsin, I told him I thought it was time he paid someone to shovel snow for him. He suddenly grew indignant. “Why should I pay someone to shovel?” he demanded. “I can get my son to do it. He’s only 70!”

“This is your great-grandma and great-grandpa,” I told my grandson as I handed him a photo of my parents. “Do you think I look like them?” He shook his head. “Not yet.”

WRAP-UP!!

Enjoy the last week of May, and celebrate Memorial Day (once known as “Decoration Day”, as Americans decorated the graves of those killed in the Civil War.  Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer.  If you haven’t yet, get down those shorts, sandals, and t-shirts.  

LOVE WINS

KAREN

MAY 29, 2022