Echoes from history, ringing loud and clear. None of them good.

The politicization of everything is his only approach to anything, and he’s proven so clearly that his toolbox is only adept at making any situation worse than it was when he got involved.

Last few days have been filled with ups and downs; lots of yard work that has led to good-looking areas of the yard, and healthy-looking poison ivy on my arms. Nothing serious, but have to clear it up before diving this weekend. Really don’t want to experience p.i. under a wetsuit in this very hot weather. (Yesterday reached 103 here; certainly better on the water, though.)

Sunday night brought a bizarre incident of vandalism, as best we/police can tell targeted for someone else…awaking at 1am to a ‘boom’ and the sound of the water hose turning on. Someone smashed two windows on Pattie’s car (in our carport), put the garden hose in it and turned on the water.

I got there within about 2 minutes, turned off the water, but lots of damage, of course. Yesterday was lots of cleanup, dealing with insurance, getting rental car, dropping car off for repair, etc. Just a useless, costly hassle.

But on Sunday also received rough cut recording of Six Humors, another of ACA‘s Shelter Recordings Project. This recording comes a month of e-conversations and a zoom-rehearsal with violinist Anton Miller. He’s fabulous, and really poured all of his technique, creativity, and interpretive aplomb into this hard piece, and I’m again thrilled with the results coming from this project. I expect it’ll become available within a month, and Anton mentions creating a video, as well, so I’m curious to see what he’s come up with!

And given that the start of school is just a few weeks away (August 10 is first class), and that I’m teaching everything online/remotely, the past days have also been filled with creating content and learning alot about our delivery system–Canvas. This system is certainly a huge improvement over our previous system, offering so many more possibilities and flexibility. But, of course, that all means a bit more learning to be done. Trying not to overdo things–the job is to get the course together, not to master every one of the system’s capabilities–but it still all takes time. Very glad to know (from personal experience) that Canvas’s 24-7 support is really 24-7, and is very helpful.

Lots to do, and today will be a better one that yesterday. Hoping it is for you, too.