Month: March 2015

I thought the meeting last night was handled well, but it is still very scary to be in a room full of people that hate you. We went into closed session after about 10 minutes of introducing new board members and all of us telling a little about ourselves (I didn’t say much, because I figure they all know me well enough). But in closed session, we still had a board member that was totally on their side. She opposed the action the board decided to take, which was to expel 7 individuals for a minimum of 60 days. They will be getting this notification by certified mail, which means they can still show up (as they did today) until they get the letters. Who knows how long that will be if they refuse to sign for them and pick them up?

There is a lot more to tell, but I’m tired of even thinking about it.

On the good side, I worked at the college yesterday and during the first lesson, the first song we worked on was something that was so soothing to my soul that I knew it was God that had arranged it that way. I just needed to relax in the music yesterday and forget about the Center for a while. I also had a great rehearsal with my duet partner for the college choir concert over the lunch break. Everything went together just fine, so I’m not worried at all about that now.

I’m doing okay, but it is starting to get the best of me. Please continue to pray, because it is far from over.

We woke to the sound of rain on the roof this morning – it was nice! Then the temperature dropped a few degrees and it was not so nice, because it was freezing on the windshield. But that didn’t last too long. This was the first good “wash off the yard” rain we’ve had. It makes me think that it won’t be long until things start to get green.

We sat down with Gary Mohr yesterday to make a complete materials list for the garage we are planning to build on the property in July. Now we we can get a quote on all the materials and know how much money we need to save. We can save about $1500 a month right now (thanks to a job that I’m struggling to tolerate), so we should have enough by July. I’m excited. It has been a while since we’ve built new – like about 15 years! Anyone want to help?? It shouldn’t take long to put up – we aren’t going to pour the concrete or finish the inside – just do the shell, so we have a place to store all the stuff that is in the back of the youth center.

We had another membership meeting at work yesterday and didn’t invite the police and other city officials like we did at the last one in January. BIG MISTAKE. The “mean ladies” took over the meeting and said horrible things to and about me. I was angry, but people who care about me were in tears afterwards because they were so mean to me. When I could see there was no way we were going to get back to the agenda, I asked the president to simply adjourn and I went in my office and shut the front desk window and the door and stayed there until they had left.

I’m not sure what the next steps will be, but I’m not leaving, so they are going to have to, some way or other. I can’t be subject to that sort of treatment on my job. My first action today will be to inform the 8:15 exercise class (which several of the “mean ladies” go to) that the building will no longer be available for their class. I know it will make them mad,  so I’m just going to leave the front desk window closed until they leave.  But I shouldn’t have to welcome them into the building where they scowl at me and say who knows what behind my back while they do an exercise program they basically stole from me when I left a year ago.

I’m getting a little tired of all the stress this situation is causing me, to say the least…

This is always a crazy time of the year, right up until we leave for our trip. I have concerts at least once a week, plus preparing for solo/ensemble contest. So I basically work, have a couple hours (at the most) off, then go to school, or vice versa, then do lessons and then something in the evening three days a week.

No doubt I need vacation when I get it!!

Shortly after we got Pippi, she got a hold of Sherlock’s Gentle Leader collar and chewed it up. So, not only didn’t we have one for her, we no longer had one for him, either. We finally got to the pet shop in Eau Claire over the weekend and remembered to buy new ones. They are quite expensive, it turns out, but the investment was well worth it, because now I can take a nice, leisurely walk with the two of them, without having to fight with either one. Pippi has actually taken to it very quickly. She knows it means a walk, so she just sits there quietly and lets me put it on. I had thought I’d have a struggle getting it on, but I was delightfully wrong! Now that I can get her outside, I’m hoping that some of her destructive behavior will lessen. I think she needs a lot more activity than she has been getting in the winter!

First the one at work – the piano company informed me that the electric  part was added after the purchase, so tomorrow I try to track down someone at the company that made that part and see if they can recommend a service person in our area.

On our piano – turns out that in the fiasco of the last move, with the leg having to be cut off, etc. some screw heads came loose and lodged themselves, along with multiple paper clips, under a wooden piece that is somehow related to the damper pedal. But it isn’t the damper pedal that is the problem – it is the middle pedal. It has a rod that runs along on top of the damper pedal rod and the damper pedal rod is elevated because of this wooden piece that was bowed upwards because of the stuff stuck under it. The thought is that now that the stuff is all out, the wood will begin to relax into place and we can further tighten it down every few days, until the pedals work properly again. I’ll admit, it is somewhat better. Good enough that I can practice, although there is still a constant note in the background, because of one string in particular vibrating all the time, because the damper is not firmly down on it. I’m hopeful that it will eventually correct itself and we will save considerable expense of getting it fixed.

Both of the grand pianos I’m responsible are giving me headaches. My own has this crazy vibration of the lower bank of strings and I thought tuning it would fix it, but it didn’t. Then I had Mr. Skerhutt here for a couple hours yesterday, and he couldn’t fix it, but he didn’t leave a note or anything, so I’ve got to call him and see what he thinks I should do. I’ll probably have to call in the experts from River Falls, which is going to cost a bunch. But I really can’t stand it the way it is.

Then I still have to find someone to fix the one at work before my May recital. No one around, and that includes Eau Claire, seems to be able to work on it. So now I’m emailing back and forth with the company that made it. It is a baby grand piano with a player piano attachment and we think the problem might be in the interface between the electronics and the action on the keys, since when it plays, the keys actually move. And a couple keys don’t play right when you just use it as a regular piano.

Both problems are kind of weird and very frustrating!

This may very well be the last couple days of bitter cold for this winter. It was well below zero again last night and will be tonight as well. But then, temperatures should rise considerably over the weekend and into next week, enough that we may lose much of our very dismal snow cover. Sure, it may snow again before the grass gets green. But just being past the really, really cold stuff will be nice. This winter seems to have gone very quickly for me, but that was probably because of starting work again.

I got another couple piano students the past week. The number is getting to the point where I can almost say, “enough!” I must be at about 25 now. I know there are only two after school slots here and one in Cameron, without having to go into the supper hour as I already do on Tuesday and Wednesday. It is enough that, with going to school to practice in the afternoon, it seems like I’m working a very long day. I went in at 6:45 this a.m., had about an hour between work and school, then another half hour before lessons, then right up to church after lessons, then will be home about 12 1/2 hours after I started the day. But I like everything I do, so I’m not complaining!