Singing for Fun

A new semester.  A new class.  A new TYPE of class.  This won't be the first time I have tried an off-campus class through the Renaissance Society as last semester I had the frauds and schemes class.  But this is a singing class that I'm trying out this time.   Actually, I'm looking at it as much for therapy as
for fun.  My voice continues to less dependable.  Some days I don't notice a problem and other  times I can barely get out a word.

My Observations & possible meanings:
"Singing for Fun" is the name of the class.  It intrigues me.  I have dropped out of choirs before because they took themselves too seriously.  In those choirs, choir members criticized each other and the director and the director was just as direct with his criticism.  So "Singing for Fun" was a good start.

About 1/6 new members
To me this indicated a relatively stable group that was  still growing.

Lots of talking prior to the class start.
Although many people sat down, a goodly number continued walking around visiting.  I this is probably a good place to make friends.

"Music" was handed out..  
1.  Either Marilyn or Donna is organized, but  2. The music consists only of lyrics.  This indicates to me that the ability to read music will not be necessary nor will there be a serious effort to teach or  sing harmony.

The song selections are really golden oldies dating back to the 30s an d 40's
This reinforces the previous assumptions.

The first session seemed very disorganized.  
We sang each song through in order giving Donnq  an idea of how well we knew each tune and what key seemed best.  We'll have to see what future sessions look like.

Music Circus - I Do! I Do!

When we moved to Sacramento almost 10 years ago, one of the first things we did was subscribe to a full season of plays at the Music Circus.  We quickly found out that seeing a Broadway quality production every week for 6 or 7 weeks is too much.  It's costly to the pocketbook and the body.   We much prefer the costs of the Davis Musical Theater Center where 6 shows of a season are spread throughout the year.

But still we will take in a Music Circus show from time to time.  Recently we saw their production of "I Do!  I Do!"  It has a two person cast and portrays in song and dance the joys and trials of marriage from almost the beginning to almost the end.  With actors in their 50s I found it stretching credibility at the beginning.  And since she has aged faster than him, for most of the play, I found myself thinking it was a mom and her son rather than man and wife.  The story line has aged, also.  When they sang the lovely duet "A Man and a Woman were meant for each other, were meant for each other as husband and wife" it sounded like a low key advertisement for Prop 8 or the Defense of Marriage Act.  There were no such overtones when we  we saw the play 40 years ago in Utah.  It's been a favorite of ours.  I have the piano music.  "My Cup Runneth Over" popularize by Ed Ames in the early 60's has always ben a favorite love song of ours.

I was impressed with something the Music Circus does for people with walkers and wheelchairs.  Volunteers follow you to your seats then politely request that they "store" your equipment.  They tag it with what must be the oldest tags in the business world then whisk them away.  They show up again at intermission and again at the end of the show.  It didn't look like they were expecting a tip of any kind.

Business practices

This isn't the blog I had intended to write but events of the weekend have changed my mind.  What I witnessed convinced me that many businesses are lucky they make any money or even that they stay in business at all.  I'm thinking that I could write a book on running a business without ever having run one.  Apparently I have experience that many business person's don't have - being a customer.

For example, I was shopping around for a ramp to go from our garage into our house through the door there which has a 2 inch threshold.  Even though I was obviously interested and had even taken out my wallet, I was hesitating because I did know how it would fit.  The salesperson suggested that I either (1) think about it, (2) go home and remeasure it, or (3) have her come out and measure it.  All three options would have me leaving without a purchase and with a good chance I wouldn't be back.  In addition, 3 could set up the salesperson for a costly non-productive house call.  When I suggested I could buy the ramp and return it for exchange if it didn't fit as hoped for, the salesperson quickly discouraged that idea as I would be charged a 20% "restocking fee"!  What a stupid idea!  Most retail stores allow returns because it encourages purchases even if there is some risk of dissatisfaction.  There is usually a much higher chance that the sale will stick.  A restocking fee is a wholesaler concept and has no place in the retail business.

My second example concerns a piece of equipment called a SwingAway which allows me to carry my power wheel chair on the back of my Toyota  Highlander and still have access to the rear door.  Short story is that the original SwingAway malfunctioned and the manufacturer agreed to replace it under warranty.  Should be a clear case of keeping the customer happy, right?  Dealer stands to get lots of return business; isn't his fault the SwingAway malfunctioned; keep customer happy, right?  This dealer must have it in his head that the manufacturer is the customer and the manufacturer should be kept happy.  Since when?

This dealer acted like the malfunction must be the customer's fault.  Live with it.  Then when the manufacturer agreed to furnish a replacement, the dealer continued to act put out.  Finally, when there was no other course of action, the dealer replaced the bad SwingAway with the good one, the dealer made a big deal about not charging for labor although he could because the warranty didn't cover labor.   This dealer will be lucky if the customer every comes back.

In both these cases we're talking small business not informal bigbox business.  Who is going to teach these business persons business?

Another Deadline, Another Issue

As assignments go, our current assignment as editors of the ward newsletter has been one of the best.  We've had a core of people who get their monthly information to us in a timely fashion and without needing significant editing. If there is a party or activity to attend so we can get pictures that is good also.  We rarely get any feedback at all so we're either doing a fair job or people just won't complain for fear of getting the job themselves.

I had an interesting experience this month.  In the "BYU" magazine, I had seen a cartoon of Pickles where Grandpa Earl explains to his grandson Nelson that Heck is where those people go who don't believe in Gosh.  Of course the cartoon is copyrighted so I queried the website to see on what terms we could publish the cartoon in our ward newsletter. The published guidelines stated a $120 price but also suggested writing for a quote.  I did and got the final quote of $35.  Still too much.  So no cartoon.

By the way, if you're interested in checking out our newsletter you can click on this link: http://thelasierralink.blogspot.com/2011/08/september-2011.html 

the Root of all evil

I have a congenital orthopedic flaw.  I walk with my right foot about 30 degrees out from the proper alignment.  The flaw is in my genes and therefore has been passed on to my children and grandchildren.  It can be corrected by leg braces but, of course, this does not pass on to later generations.  

This flaw caused me to wear out the heel of my right shoe faster than normal and this frustrated my mother no end.  As a solution, when I started junior high she had steel taps nailed onto my shoes.  It was too bad I didn't have  any rhythm because you could hear me walking a block away.  The taps reduced the wear on my heels and they also reduced my traction.  This led to an embarrassing accident which has had long range effects on my life.  Walking down the junior high school steps, I slipped and tumbled head over heels, finally coming to rest with my face firmly planted on the polished cement floor of the basement level of our junior high building.  I was able to pick myself  up and check to see that all systems were go.  It seemed that my front teeth were a half inch further back than they should be but a quick prying motion with my thumb solved that. Other than being shook up a little, it seemed that no harm had been done.

Was I ever wrong!  Not only had I chipped one tooth but I had also killed the roots on that one and two others.  And those  three teeth would cause me problems the rest of my life.  The latest incident was just yesterday.

For the past week I had felt a pressure irritation in my front gums, a feeling that I was familiar with.  In the past it has meant an infected abscess, a pocket of dead cells and pus.  My dentist concurred and referred me to a specialist, an endodontist.  Luckily, I was able to get an appointment for a consultation even if it was 8:45 Friday morning.  I knew by experience that this doesn't go away so the quicker I could handle it, the better.  The consultation went well, almost exactly what I would have predicted.  Of course there were some unknowns because you can see only so much with an x-ray.  Only when you actually operate can you see what needs to be done.  But it looked like a "simple" operation taking less than an hour.

As I was negotiating an appointment next week for the operation, word came that an afternoon appointment had been canceled.  Would I like to come back Friday afternoon?  Well, yes and no.  I wanted it taken care of but I was still trying to used to the whole operation thing.

At 3:00 I came back.  At 5:30 I was standing somewhat unsteadily at the front desk to pay our portion of the $1,500 bill.  This was not the Friday I had planned for.  And of course the worst was yet to come as the anesthesia started to wear off and I could start feeling the incisions, sutures, and blunt trauma done to my gums.  I can tell I won't be doing much this weekend.

Renaissance summer session ends

Now that the fall semester is almost ready to begin, I guess I should say something about the summer session.  I think I attended more summer classes than I usually do. It helped to have someone to sit with on a regular basis and discus the classes with.  This companion was Beth Bennett, a delightful older lady who has ha the mixed fortune of outliving so many of her friends that she is kept busy trying to make new ones.

Seeing more classes I had a better chance to evaluate and analyze.  It appeared that they strongly encouraged each of the class coordinators for the Fall and Spring Semesters to volunteer for a summer class.  They would either teach one themselves or ask one of their class members to present what he/she presented during the regular session.  Since I had so much fun presenting Judy Small, I was actually hoping our  coordinator would ask me to redo it for Summer.  He chose instead to use the same format I did but present 6 or 7 different singers.

He ran out of time which turned out okay since many of his song picks wouldn't play.

Time and relativity

I'm beginning to think that the speed of light is slowing down near me which is having the effect of speeding up all the clocks that measure my day.  Things that used to take 10 minutes take half an hour.  Things that I used to do in an hour now take three.  It's frustrating.

My library volunteering has been directly affected.  I was assigned as one of the workers with the "pick list", the list of books that people have requested to be set aside.  This reservation system continues to grow because it is so popular with the patrons.  Well, I could see my productivity tanking and the 2 to 3 hours of walking among the bookshelves wearing me out more and more.  So I asked for alternatives.

My main assignment now is to add RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification)  tags to as many books as possible and register those tags with the main library database.

The RFID tags we're using look to all the world like harmless address labels affixed to the back cover of each library book.  However,  if you could see inside, it looks like this:

You can read more about RFID devices and systems at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rfid

Apparently three branches of the 28 branches in the Sacramento County library system already have all their books tagged  To check books out of these libraries you no longer have to scan individual books.   Just setting the whole pile on an RFID reader does the trick.  Although that might reduce bottlenecks, I suspect the library has not put out money just for this purpose.  The same system would certainly speed up checking books in which is a little more cost effective