Catch-up

Ok. It's been close to two weeks again since I've posted anything about my life. Time to play catch-up

July 4 - Independence Day! BRTC wrangled a performance at Purcellville's Independence Day celebration. This weekend, I performed "Just Joshin'" for the first time with the group. "Just Joshin'" is a very positional dance--meaning that it is danced with a specific number of people (in this case 4 couples) and that each person has a slightly different part. Generally, a person masters one of part of the dance before learning a second. But it also limits the options on when it can be perfomed--the group doesn't just have to have 8 people to perform "Just Joshin'," it has to have people that know each of the 8 parts. As it has so many parts, we aren't able to perform it often. And since there are two other people that know the part I dance--4th boy---I only have about a 1 in 3 chance of dancing anytime we perform it.

For the evening, I went with my neighbors to Windham Winery. From there we could see the Hillsboro fireworks just a mile or so away and about 4 other displays of fireworks through the trees and off in the distance. While waiting for the fireworks to begin, GA and I spent some time with a frisbee.

Thursday, July 7. DM--friend from grad school--was in the area visiting another friend in the area. Before he left the area to head back to Kansas City, we met for breakfast at IHOP and he took the time for a visit of the PHC Library. Showing the library off to another librarian gets a little more understanding than most other people.

Saturday, July 9. Attended the first of two mandatory clogging practices for the Ireland trip. About 15 cloggers were there. I took a hard fall during the first dance because the tape had worn off the bottom of my shoes. Ended up with a bruised knee. It was a bit sore during practice, but didn't let it slow me down. The sore muscles and general stiffness--from the fall, not from the practice--that evening and the next day were more frustrating. I was wishing for one of my family or friends that is so skilled at shoulder rubs.

Monday, July 11. Interviewed a candidate for the Library Assistant position. 1 week until JS arrives as Librarian for Accreditation.

Tuesday, July 12. I wasn't in the mood for clogging when I went to practice, but at the end of the evening was feeling better about life in general. It was one of those nights that reminded me why I like clogging. Beyond meeting and making friends or just being able to show off, clogging is an emotional release. Even when I'm physically tired and don't want to drag my body through the same songe we've already done a hunded times, doing it anyway leaves me feeling like I've accomplished something and that all the little bothers will get dealt with.

Wednesday, July 13. AC accepted the Library Assistant position! She will begin work on Monday, July 18--same time as JS.

After work, I went to help SW unpack. When I moved here in 2000, she rented me a bedroom in her 3-story townhowes, along with her daughter and another good friend, JP. A couple of years ago, her daughter had married and she had always wanted to live closer to work, so she got rid of some of her stuff and moved into a split-level home in Purcellville with JP. This summer, JP moved back to California to be closer to friends. SW decided she didn't want to find another housemate. So she has gone through the emotional task of parting with another large portion of her possessions in order to move into a 2-bedroom apartment attached to the home of friends.

Thursday, July 14. Left work "on-time" to go to SW's to help her with settling in for a couple of hours before heading for clogging.

Both of the dances I'm learning right now--My Country 'Tis and Fisher's Hornpipe--are getting closer to performance level. Tonight we ran through both songs several times, increasing the tempo each time to work toward dancing it at full speed. I'm still making mistakes in both songs, but for the most part they are problems of not being able to recall the steps fast enough, rather than not knowing or not being able to do the steps. The only answer is more practice. And as both dances are partner dances with lots of group interaction, it limits how effective the practice is by myself, but any practice is better than no practice.

Friday, July 15. This morning the library has been busy, but not with much library research. At 8:30, a man was here to re-hang one of the pieces of artwork in the library to make room for a bookcase where the artwork had been. At the same time, the man who is replacing the HVAC filters through out the building was working on the ones in the library. Several of the I.T. guys have made a number of trips in the library and phone calls to me--moving the phone and computer out of the office next to mine, moving another phone into that office (for JS), doing some inventory checking on various computers in the library, checking with me about software and set-up on the new computer being built for JS, etc. There have been a couple of people down here to check out books and a couple of campers to use the computers, but the other visits have outnumbered them easily.