It was a good day overall

Alarm goes off at 4:45am on a Saturday and I wake up thinking it MUST be time to get tn the truck and head out to go fishing, but no such luck. Pop into the shower, throw on some clothes and head downstairs and load up the 4-Runner, 'cuz BABY, IT'S MARCHING COMPETITION DAY!!!

Of course, it was raining... well, that might be a bit of an understatement... it's friggin' POURING... Continue loading up food and provisions for feeding a 50 member marching band and supporting parents, and thankfully one of our Alumni parents is bringing their world famous BBQ trailer to the event to grill **18** tri-tips to feed this hungry mob (couldn't have made it through this event without them!) Also many other parents bringing salads and desserts, so it's all good.





Students and bus arrive at 6:15, trailer is already gone, everyone gets last minute instructions and away we go... 58 seat bus and a caravan of parents going off in two directions. Arrive in beautiful downtown Lodi about 7:40; still pouring down rain and setup the pop-ups for the band to change into uniforms. As they begin exiting the bus, we hear a chorus of "What IS THAT SMELL??"... sigh I tell them "It's Lodi.. welcome to the place where some of your food comes from. This is what it smells like before it hits the market." =)

Weather obliges us a bit for a half hour, but before we step off into the competition zone, it was apparent we would need the ponchos, so on they go... everyone but the Drum Major and the Drill Team... not because they're tougher, just because they need to be able to move beyond the constraints of the poncho. Our division has 7 bands in it (based on size of band, not school as in past years) and we're 5th to perform in our division. Everything went off without a hitch, nothing dropped, no one broke formation, percussion sounded strong.



Then the sky broke open and it started pouring... so we skipped the group photos, and loaded in the bus to head to the picnic area for lunch. Fortunately, the weather again obliged us and it stopped long enough for the voracious horde to graze. They sat around all butterflies and fears gone now that comp was over for the week and enjoyed each others company... tough to believe at times that 50 students between the ages of 14 and 18 from all different backgrounds and walks of life with only the Marching Ensemble as a common bond can get along so well. About an hour into it, the sky opened up again and they all ran for the bus while parents cleaned up and packed everything away as if we had never been there... leave only footprints, take only memories, right??



At 1:30 we all piled into the beautiful Grape Bowl Stadium (fortunately photos NOT available) and waited for the announcement of the results... and with 34 bands competing in 6 Divisions, plus Jazz, Orchestra and Middle Schools. believe me this takes a LONG TIME TO GET THROUGH... and it's longer in the rain on aluminum bleachers without backs. Nearly 90 minutes later, we get the Division D outcome and find out it's 3rd Place for the SRVHS Marching Wolves... not bad for our first comp of the season!!



Back to the bus and caravan of cars to head home for what seems like a much longer 90 minute drive than the one this morning... sleepy and tired kids pour off the bus, unload the trailer, lay around on the floor for a quick debriefing and get congratulations from their Directors... everyone gets an Extreme Sour Belt and to touch the trophy on the way out the door.

Practice starts again on Monday Night, and there's a nationally televised football game to perform at on Thursday evening, and another comp in Merced next Saturday... with an even earlier drive off time =)




Great bunch of kids, glad to be able to work with them all.

Not ALL about the job, Part 2

So, what do you have to do to change things? Think outside the box...

Can you afford to work fewer days per month, and does your employer support unpaid leave? Take a Thursday and Friday off once a month and get a 4-day weekend. Are you able to work a 4/10 schedule and get regular 3-day weekends? How about a 9/80 and get a 3-day weekend every other week?

If none of these options are available to you, you need to be a bit more creative (unless you're independently wealthy) and look at splitting up your vacation time, maybe take one week of your annual allotment and divide it into days and make periodic 3-day weekends... but plan them far enough ahead that you can be ready to bolt at a moment's notice.

For me, the thing that made me start thinking about it was fishing... specifically, FLY FISHING for trout. That means RUNNING WATER to me, mostly in the Sierra Nevada region, freestone rivers and streams, which are mostly seasonal (first weekend in May thru Nov 15th).

The season is 6-1/2 months, the water is at reasonable flow rates roughly 4 of those months, and so there is a limited number of days where fishing is more than a simple excuse for drinking and not being at work. Knowing that I have other obligations that prevent me from simply going whenever I feel like it, I determined that I could probably go 5 of these 16 weekends- figuring in travel time, setup and tear down camp time, etc that would mean 2 'fishing days' per 3-day weekend.



When I did my calculation, I realized if I could fish in reasonable health, which includes the ability to walk streams, wade knee deep, deal with the altitude, etc. I could probably fish until I was 75-ish. Given my current age, after doing the math I was surprised to find out that unless I made some changes, I was only going to have a few more than 200 of these days left!!! That's less than a year... and to me, that was unacceptable.

So the next plan? When can I retire, and what can I do to push up that date to allow more days to pick from during the limited season. I was on my way to figuring that out until the recent downturn in the economy... and that, coupled with some changes in structure with my employer have provided some additional challenges.

But I'm NOT giving up... and you shouldn't either!

It's NOT all about the job

..seriously, it isn't!

There is much more to a person than what they do to make a living, there's what makes their life and how they spend the rest of their waking hours.

Over time, I think that changes for most of us- past experiences shape our present existence; some for the better and some, well maybe notsomuch. I think if we all had to to do over again, obviously, there are some things we would have done differently but that may not have changed where we are now. Our core beliefs and values are established at an early age and I don't think (unless you've gone through some TRULY life changing experiences) most of us would be anywhere other than where we are.

BUT, that doesn't mean we can't do things to change how we live our lives, and how we spend our time. Think about the things that you enjoy most in life and what you need to do to be able to participate in those activities. Now, try to figure out (honestly) how much time a year you are able to do those things. Don't expect to do this in your head... make a list, write them down, compare it against the time you have available in your current "work-a-day" life and with all of your other obligations and figure out REALLY how much time you can spend doing these things.

NOW, consider your current age, and based on the existence of others in your family tree, how long you could conceivably live.. and to what age you can plan to physically or mentally participate in these favorite activities. Subtract your current age from this age, and multiply that by the number from above (how much time per year you can do these activities). I think you'll be shocked at how little time you have left in life to do the things you REALLY ENJOY. I know I was.

The next question? What do you have to do to increase the amount of time you can spend doing these things that you really love.

See you next post =)

Was cleaning out my wallet

And had almost forgotten about one of my most favorite possessions!!

I keep a plastic folder in there with two fortunes I got in cookies over the past 15 or so years that I think are critical to defining my life:

"You have and unusual equipment for success, use it properly"


"You have had a long-term stimulation relative to business"

Fishy, fishy in the brook

I loves me the way you take that hook! Well, at least it was barbless and the damage was minimal.


Nope, not going to divulge the location; wouldn't be prudent... it's a place I've gone to for over 40 years for peace and quiet and to periodically re-center myself. Over the span of 4 days, I caught and released over 70 trout here this year, all on flies I tied myself and half of them on patterns no one has seen before.

I guess when I have these moments, I understand the concept that "life IS good".

One of the Most Beautiful Places in the WORLD!!

Doesn't matter how many times I've been here, it never ceases to amaze me.



Tough to believe this happened because of earthquakes, glaciers and water



But whatever the cause, I'm glad I live only a few hours away from it




And I can go back as often as I want and be totally BLOWN AWAY again



And again



And again!!

The Saga of Old Faithful

Well, it actually took place a year or so ago, but I'm finally at a point where I can write about it...

This is something I forwarded on to my daughter, decided to "share" with y'all.

We had ribs and CHICKEN LEGS last night. I had a bbq accident =( Last week, y'know, first bbq of the "new season", I had to burn all the yucky stuff off the grates, so like always, I started some coals, added some cut up pieces of wood, made a fire and spread it across the coal grid so I could put the grates over it to burn everything off, then brush them and re-coat them with oil to season them so nothing would stick... same old routine, do it very year and have been for 20+ years.

Well, for SOME REASON, much different results this year, and notsomuchfun... The fire got sorta out of control, caught some grease on the inside sides of the bbq on fire and started burning over the edge of the hood.... it caught the handle on fire (because it got so hot. it started it on fire from the inside!) and when I opened it up to put out the fire, it burned the hair off my hand and wrist!!!!

Worst thing was, no handle left on the BBQ and the meat grates got so hot they turned pink and lost all of their "seasoning" (which is what keeps meat from sticking). I spent the past week searching for possible replacements and it looks like anywhere between $280-400 to get one like what we have (mine was $180 10 years ago!) because almost all they sell anymore is gas "grills", which as you might like to know, I think are like patio stoves

So, I started a reclamation project on Saturday and think I MAY HAVE BEEN ABLE to bring my bbq "back from the dead".... scraped off all of the char and blistering on the inside of the box and hood (so it wouldn't drop on the food) and steel wooled the grates, then gave them a coat of oil and brushed it into them... started a SMALL coal fire (operative word here is SMALL!!!) and put smoker chips on it to try and slow cook the seasoning back into the grates, and repeated the oil, brush, fire, smoke routine 3 times... then it was on to the handle issue. Had a few branches I had saved from the alder I cut down last year and was looking through those and found one that had some possibilities... measured it up, cut it to size, drilled it out and used some steel concrete screw anchors for spacers between it and the bbq hood, and VOILA! Back in business!!



Still need to finish cleaning up the box (as you can see) and might consider giving it a coat of high-heat black paint (if I can get all the grease off the outside first), but then again, IT IS a bbq, right?? So maybe I'll just leave it looking MANLY.... ribs sure were good!!