Stuff, Again...

I had an awesome Christmas! I hope that you did too.
This is one of favorite times of the year. It is nice to get a 2 week break from work but more importantly I get to spend those 2 weeks with my family.

I never seem to make enough time for those that I love the most. It's sad but true. My job, my wife's job, and the kids activities always seem to get in the way of solid quality time. As a father and husband I think that our lives end up focusing on things other than being a family. I also think that this is a very typical situation.

I have always believed that my kids should be busy. I was brought up being taught that "Idle hands are the devils workshop" and I believe that it's true. When a kid has to spend time coming up with something to do they can decide to do things that are not exactly positive....

I AM actually looking forward to returning to school.
I miss my students and friends.

My bands are making some very nice sounds. These breaks tend to take away our momentum. That, of course, makes sense. When we have a break the kids don't have their horns to their faces. Returning will take care of it.

I am looking forward to getting ready for contests.
I'm hoping that the younger kids can do it and still enjoy band. Contest prep is hyper-boring at times. We have to be so very picky it can seriously wear the kids down. To be successful though it must be done.

I am looking forward to teaching the 6th graders again. I have really enjoyed them so far.

I have had so much fun teaching this year. More so than any year in recent memory. There have been so few problems. I think that our program has begun to turn the corner into being a positive experience for all involved.

In years past there had been WAY too many kids falling short of expectations. I do not expect perfection from anyone. I DO expect the kids to give me their best effort though.

I have NEVER told the kids that they have to make a certain rating or achieve a specific placement at contests. I HAVE told them that I will only accept their best effort. As long as I get their best I will never complain.

My opinion has always been that no judge will ever know where our band started from. They only see/hear us for one brief moment in time. They will never see our complete journey from learning music to becoming the best we could be. I see that.

Our best is all I ever ask for.

Happy New Year Everybody!

The soapbox of a lunatic

College football rules.

That's about it.

I'm sitting on my couch watching the Big 12 championship game as I write tonight.  I love it.  I truly enjoy watching excellence.  It matters not what field it is in.  I enjoy watching excellent sports and listening to excellent music.  It's the best.

New Subject:

My kids all won their games today.  Both by large margins.

I got to listen to some really good Horn players today at All-State.

It was all awesome.

More Stuff:

I'm looking forward to the next semester.  I truly enjoy prepping the kids for contest.  It's a wonderful process of discovery and learning.

My only source of trepidation is eligibility.  I have a total of 4 kids in the high school band failing at least 2 classes.  I have another 3 failing one.  This is not acceptable.

In the 7th grade there's a total of 4 kids failing classes.

These kids don't seem to get it.

I don't get it.

I was never an awesome student.  I carried a 3.5 GPA through high school.  I was capable of more but I was...LAZY.

How do these kids FAIL classes?

These are not unintelligent kids either.  They are LAZY!

My conversation with almost EVERY flunky:

ME- "What's up in your classes?"

Flunky- "I don't know."

ME- "Bull.  You go to that class.  You go their every class period. How can you NOT know what's going on in there?"

Flunky- "I don't know."

Me- "That's bull and you know it!  Why are you failing?"

Flunky- "I don't turn in my work."

ME- "Why?"

Flunky- "I don't know.  I do the work, I just forget to turn it in."

Doing your homework work and not turning it in would be the ultimate in stupidity.

I cannot stand stupidity.  It disgusts me.  BAH!

O for the day that responsibility and self-respect are learned by us all.

It comes down to the fact that we all need more of these.

The ramblings of a lunatic

Christmas time is finally here.  I mean by-golly Christmas time.  Not the standard Halloween is over let's watch the stores put up Christmas decorations a month-and-a-half early time.

It's cold outside.  The temperature has finally dropped and we might have a winter.  Winter meaning cold and maybe some snow, maybe.  Here's to hoping for no ice!

What a great time to be alive.  My kids are awesome.  My wife is awesome.  My students are responding relatively well to instruction.  My dog, well she pees on the carpet.  Not so much with the dog.

I'm very thankful for the place I'm in right now.  I enjoy my family and my job.  What more can you ask for?

One thing comes to mind.  Someone other than Obama running the country would be nice.  Of course I'll have to give the man a chance, but I don't like it.  Not one bit.

Band is going decently at the high school.  It would be nice if the kids could remember what it means to play with more than two volumes.

Middle school is ok too.  There are far too many 7th graders not practicing their instruments.  It's a shame too.  There is quite a bit of talent being wasted.  THAT I believe is a sin.  Not just a sin as a student but an actual sin against God.  The Lord blesses someone with talent and ability and that person just poops it to the wind.  It is too easy to sit and watch tv, talk on the phone, text, or myspace than to develop your talent.

Such a waste.

6th graders are STILL excited about being in Band!  That is awesome.  Usually by now quite a few have become jaded because I want them to work and get better.  Far to many kids sign up for Band thinking it will be a blow off class.  Most of their parents tell them that.  Those parents were probably kids that took Band one year and blew it off.  The apples don't fall far from the trees you know.

Anyway, a vast majority (90%) of the 6th graders are fired up.  I like it!  Most of those kids follow my thinking in that intelligence is required to make it in this world.  In case you didn't know I despise stupidity.  Most of the time it comes from someone not paying attention.  Of course those people are "ADD".  The single most over diagnosed affliction known to mankind.  When I was a kid it was called hyperactive.  It's not something you treat with drugs.  You treat it with a smack to the back of the head whilst saying "PAY ATTENTION!"  

I have a hard time paying attention or focusing on what's important.  I'm not sick, I'm preoccupied with other stuff.  THAT'S OK!  Don't drug me.  We take far too many drugs in our society.  Let's take some responsibility.  

A kid can make a decision to pay attention.  If they don't do it in school they fail.  If they fail they might actually learn something about themselves.  If we rush in and say "It's ok Sally.  Your ADD or H/ADD.  We'll get you some medicine.  It's not your fault you can't sit still and pay attention."  Bull poop.

I think it's far better to let that kid fail and maybe have to repeat a grade.  Like they did when I was a kid.  Nobody took medicine for ADD.  They would have been laughed at by their elders.  Those elders would say what I'm saying know.  Sit still and pay attention.

If I go hard-core in school on something like that I might get sued.  THAT'S another problem with our world that I'll let go for know.

I'm sort of ranting in this post huh?

So the 6th graders are mostly awesome.

Awesomeness

So marching band is over. Awesome!
Now the real teaching can begin. Since there is only one director in Harrah it's prohibitively difficult to work on the things I would like to cover during marching band.

There's too much to cover when you try to cram marching concepts with advanced playing concepts. The kids will hit information overload. Not a good place to be.

NOW I get to work on tone, balance, theory, tuning and technique. We are getting better. I love it!

I have planned a very difficult concert for the high school kids. We will enjoy working on it and I hope that the audience will as well. Sometimes it's pretty difficult to plan an enjoyable concert for students, parents, and the director. I hope that I have done it.

The middle school bands are really good.
I spent a good deal of time bragging on last years 7th grade group. I think this years group is even better. That doesn't guarantee contest results but it does guarantee the progress of our band program.

The 6th graders are quite good too. They are a bit of an odd group though. Usually I do not have difficulty controlling a group. I don't think that this group is necessarily hard to control but I do think they have a tendency to talk too much. That's saying something for a group of 6th graders. They already like to talk but this group leans to the side of absurdity.

That may be a little too harsh. I think that about 6 kids need to have a permanent seat next to me. That combined with a muzzle, a few rolls of duct tape, and a cattle prod and I think we can call it good.

So putting aside the FACT that 6 kids need to have their larynx's removed I think we have a pretty salty group. They play REAL well and seem to have a good handle on the basic concepts that I try to teach to beginners.

I am seriously looking forward to the coming years. I truly enjoy watching the students come to me as little kids, some as young as 10, and leaving me as young adults.

People do not believe it when I say that I see my students as adopted children. I truly do. I spend more time with most of them than I spend with my own kids. We work through problems together and have good times and bad. We celebrate victories and get bummed out together about losses. It's a pretty special thing that I get to do!

As for my family...
My wife, Stephanie, is having her challenges and victories as a 4th grade teacher in Yukon. Seems that she has a very special student that has a hard time with basic human interactions. As teachers we get these kids from time to time. It's never fun. It does give us an opportunity to thank God for our own children and our "normal" students though.

My oldest son, Brandon, is in 8th grade and is STILL recovering from his injuries. He is out for the Basketball season. This really stinks for him. He plays on his school team and a little-league team too. The little-league is just for fun. They won their league last year, which is pretty fun. Anyway, we hope he's ready for Baseball. That's his true love and his favorite thing to do. I'm believing that God will make sure he's ready. Besides sports he is a very gifted student. He does well in all of his classes.

Ryan is also doing well. He is also in the midst of Basketball season. He seems to be doing quite well too. Ryan is my fast kid. He plays guard for his team and has pretty good ball-handling skills. Ryan is in 5th grade in Yukon. This means he may or may not take Band next year. I would like to see ONE of my kids join the Band. Yukon has a very strong Band program that is far better than the athletic department. I just don't know what he wants to do and neither does he. He is also a very gifted student. He does VERY well in his classes. One thing I truly appreciate about the boy is that he gets mad when he screws up. To Ryan a screw up is a "B" on a paper. Sweet!

Dillon is in 3rd grade. He too is a very gifted student. He's a little like his daddy though. One of my favorite sayings is "why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?" It seems to me that Dillon lives by that saying too. Hopefully his mothers influence will overpower mine. He is also in basketball season. He is a very good defender and an average shooter. He's a big kid though and that means he plays near the basket. That means easier shots.

All of my kids are in the gifted and talented program in their schools. All of my kids are good students. Brandon takes all of the advanced courses at his school. Ryan will too. He hates stupidity, JUST LIKE HIS DAD, and he likes to hang with smart kids. Dillon will also take the advanced classes. He may be the smartest of the bunch. I may have a brood of evil geniuses on my hands.

The boys all play baseball, basketball, and golf. Brandon is the only one that still plays football. Both Ryan and Dillon hated it. Ryan hates to sweat and Dillon hates to take orders. It's funny that Ryan hated to sweat in football. He plays catcher in baseball. It gets REAL hot in that catchers gear. Especially in the summer. Hmmmmm...

Gas prices are dropping!

Life Is Good!

Items Items and Items

We are on fall break!
What a great time for this beautiful break to come.
Fall break is a very appreciated time in which we get to relax and just chill out. I love it.

Our light show was last night and it went very well. I was a little worried. Our music is a BIT more complex than usual and it could have led to serious phasing with the lights out. I just told the kids to count aloud like we do in rehearsal. Things went quite well!

The pit took the show to a new level this year. Rope lights, Christmas lights, and a fog machine. I actually thought the pit was on fire when the fog started. I forgot about the fog for a split second. I seriously started over to them to help put out the flames. We have a lot of money tied up in the pit and I wanted to save what we could. If anyone but me knew my fear it would have been embarrassing.

Some of the kids said that 3 of them are on YOUTUBE but I can never find them. Email me a link if you find one please so I can put it on the website.
harrahband@gmail.com

One week to go and we keep getting better!
No fear no regrets!

The Latest

Thanks for all of the nice messages, texts, and emails! My family and I really appreciate it.

Well the HS Band is close. We have 6 moves to go! We are gonna do a great job!

7th grade is really starting to sound nice. A few have some serious attention span issues but for the most part their doing an awesome job. 7th grade is an awkward year for all students. Band students tend to either fall away or really intensify their efforts. There are about 3 kids that are falling off. THAT is a good average!

6th grade is, as always, amazing. They are starting to make serious progress.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is an exciting time at HPS. Band is really starting to take off!

We rule!

Brandon And My Near Heart Attack

My son Brandon almost stopped my heart Thursday night.
Yukon Independence Middle School 8th grade was playing PC Capps Middle School at Miller Pride Stadium in Yukon.

The 7:30 kick-off happened at about 8:55, DOH!
At the end of the 1st half Yukon IMS was up 32-0. It was a country butt whooping. During the entire game both teams were, shall we say, frisky. Personal fouls, late hits, coaches yelling at officials, parents yelling at officials, and players getting a little dirty with the play. A recipe for a straight up brawl.

During the second half of the game the IMS team was pretty much just trying to run out the clock. It was a blow out and they wanted to get the game over asap. Capps Middle School; previously named Central Middle School, was the school I USED to teach at, decided to get a little nasty. They started running their mouths on the field and they tried to sneakily start fights. Our coaches decided they wanted to score and shut them up.

THIS is where my son gets heavily involved. Brandon had played well all night. He had several tackles playing Line Backer and had caught several passes as Wide Reciever. His number was called again on a 3rd and 9 play. He runs a simple up and out route to the sideline and is thrown the ball. Brandon makes the catch, in heavy traffic, and breaks up the field for about a 15 yard gain.

Then came the tackle. It was a clean, honest and legitimate tackle. It was also made by the 12th man on the field. Yes, they were playing with 12 players. For at least 3 straight plays 12 players were on defense. I swear that I saw 13 on one play.

Brandon was undercut in an odd fashion and he fell at an equally odd angle. Straight down with his head smashing into the ground. His head took the full force of the impact from the ground.

None of the parents knew anything was wrong. After the play we high-fived the great catch and run and we resumed talking. After a moment we looked over and saw a player down. We couldn't tell who it was. I started to look for B and couldn't find him until I saw him lying on the ground. the down player was B. After a minute the other teams coaches frantically waved our coaches over. That was my first clue that something was wrong. B is a tough kid and I thought he had just had the breath knocked out of him, but our coaches had to cross the field to check on him.

He was down for several minutes.
He got up. He fell down. The coach picked him up and put him over his shoulder and carried him off the field.

When I saw B get picked up I KNEW ther was a problem. B's tough.
I had seen enough and I QUICKLY mad my way to the sideline where they had laid him on the bench.

Brandon was clearly in agony and they were removing his helmet. The principal had called an ambulance and we were told he had injured his neck.
At this point I thought I was going to loose it right there on the sideline.

Players were crying. The parents of B's friends had us surrounded and they were about to loose it. My son Ryan was so distraught he fainted.

By the time the ambulance got their the game had ended and we watched as the EMT's cut off my sons jersey and shoulder pads. I have never felt more helpless in my entire life.

We arrived at the hospital and wheeled immediately into the trauma unit. Again, I was helpless as the team of doctors and nurses swarmed over Brandon. Again, they cut off any remaining clothes and my baby lay naked on the table. They had the decency to cover him with a blanket as they worked on him. Checking reflexes and muscle controls. We were very worried that at the field he could not grip with his left hand. He could move some but he could not grip.

MANY x-rays were taken and a CT-scan was made. 2 IV's had been started and pain meds were given. And my baby lay on a table and I could only watch.

It is at moments like this that decisions are made. Deals are pled for with God. Others are made with the devil. I am frequently told, like most husbands I think, that my job is more important than my family. Come to find out I agree with her.

The outcome is pretty good. There was no permenant damage done. No bone structures were damaged at all and there is no internal bleeding. He does have whiplash encompassing the entire neck region, ligament damage, and a concussion. He is in a neck brace for at least a week and is out for the remainder of the football season.

My boy is going to be ok!

Being out for the season is a big deal to him. Football is his life. It's what he does and he does it well.

My boy is going to be ok!

I know for me there will be changes made. I always say that my family comes first. That has not been true. It felt good to say but it was not true. It will be now.

My career will come later down the list of priorities. I have had a general lust for career advancement. Family advancement is FAR more important.

My boy is going to be Ok!

Opportunities Abound...

Opportunity.
That is the only thing we can ever really ask for.
The opportunity to be a success.
It does not matter what we are involved in. Sports, business, school, whatever. All we can ask for is a chance.

Will my band make the most of its opportunities?

I don't have the faintest notion. They want to do well.
The desire seems to be there. I don't think that the determination is there though.
Does that say anything about me as their teacher and motivator?
I don't know.

Years ago I would be throwing fits about the work that's left to be done. I would figuratively have kittens at the fact that 50% of the band does not know its final tune.

Not so much know.

I think that I have mellowed over the years.

I was a different person when I first arrived at Harrah High School.
I had great demands on the kids but the talent wasn't there to deliver.

The talent is almost there. Almost.

If only State competitions were hand grenades or horse shoes what a Merry Christmas this would be.

The kids are literally on the cusp of something special. I can see it. I think a couple of them can see it too.

If only....

We still rule!
I love these kids and all they have done this year.
No fear, no regrets!

Contests Contests And More Contests, And Stuff- The Longest Post

Contest season is WELL underway. We have had a mixed bag to this date.
The Moore contest was good and ok. Prelims went well and finals was, ok.
Putnam City, a contest I knew we wouldn't final in, was ok. We were the defending champions at the Konawa contest. It was OK. We defended a portion of our title. We repeated as class champs but that was it.

I'm not mad or even disappointed. I'm sort of in a state of limbo. The kids haven't really fired on all cylinders at contest yet. Any performance really. Audiences have YET to see what I get to see everyday. Yes there are times when it is average at best. There are also times where I would be honored to take them to Grand Nationals in Indianapolis.

I have a young band. A very young band. A majority of my students are in the 8th and 9th grades. I challenge ANY band to compete on the level that we compete on with the same population my band has. I am extremely pleased with what our band does. We do not have 100 kids. We barely have 50. We do not have an abundance of talent. We DO have great students. We DO have great attitudes. We DO have dedication. I'll take my group any day over 200 students and the headaches that come with them.

We are currently staring OBA in the face. We have one tune to put on the field and three weeks to do it. We may not climb in the standings. We will probably drop. That's cool. OUR band has come a long way this year. We actually learned something this year. We learned some responsibility. We learned how to function as a group. A pretty large group of 8th graders came in and learned how to march AND play at the same time. At a pretty good level too.

Our composer, Peter Felice and brother Mario, visited us just before the Konawa trip. He came to our football game and went to contest with us. This cat is IN to music. He has a pretty good concept of what he wants to do with it too. I was impressed. The dude seemed to have a good sense of humor too. I spent a fare amount of time ribbing he and his brother and they took to it quite well. They're Simpsons fans too. Be still my heart.

I think we have next years show sort of nailed down. This is a first for me. Usually I wait until January to seriously consider projects. We conceptualized it in the van rides to and from Konawa and in the club at Peters hotel....

COLOR GUARD IS GETTING BETTER!
They had really good scores at Konawa. Fires me up!

I am currently very grateful to the kids. There has been so little complaining. There have been so few problems this year. If we can grow the Tuba section up; get them ALL to pass classes, bring their music, act older than 10 etc.. we'll be in pretty decent shape. Of course Peter, the Euphonium player, wants more Euphoniums. I agree. I need bodies though.

I am starting to think that I see the corner we need to turn. We're not there yet, but we're getting pretty close!

7th grade continues to get better. I'm not quite sure yet but I think they may end up better than last years crew. It's going to be close. They have responsibility issues. Forgetting music and supplies etc.. A really talented group though. If they'll get an urge to practice they'll be GREAT. Not good but great.

6th grade continues to get better as well. I've been able to LISTEN to them for over a month now. Beginners can be tough on the ears for quite some time. this group was tough for about 2 weeks. THAT"S AWESOME!

Our trumpets are pretty sweet, our Flutes a really good, some of our Clarinets are REALLY good- too many are so-so, percussion is good for the most part, and Trombones are pretty decent too. Usually the Trombones are pretty awful. Not so this year. There's some good talent in there.

I wish I had ALL the students every day. This is a battle that I must win. Sports at Harrah has too much of a stranglehold over the schedule. Athletics are wonderful. I was an athlete and my kids are now. I love athletics. They should not be part of the schedule at the middle school level though.

In an era of low test scores and foreign countries outperforming Americans in ALL educational measures, we have sports as a class in middle school. I don't get it. Schools with WAY more athletic ability than Harrah have their middle school teams meet after school.

Shawnee-Tulsa
Guthrie-Jenks
Carl Albert-Union
Yukon-Broken Arrow
Mustang-El Reno
Putnam City-Chickasha
Edmond-Enid
Norman-Stillwater
Kingfisher-Cashion
Clinton Deer-Creek

Yes, some of these are 6A powerhouses. If Jenks and Union can meet after school we can too. THEY have won the 6A titles for 10 of the past 11 years. We can do it too!

Band kids, you rule!

No fear, no regrets!

Neat Stuff

Well it's happened.
The HS Band is getting pretty good.
The only problem is we may not achieve as much as last year. We are so young and inconsistent I don't always know which group will show up. There are times that the playing is downright salty. Then there are times that we are downright average. I guess our success will go as the spirit moves us.

Our all white uni was well received by parents, patrons, and audience members everywhere we have been so far. If we can somehow keep them clean.

At our latest contest we had some neat things happen.
1. Folks randomly came up to me and told me how they loved our uni's.
2. We had some people come and ask to take pictures of our uni rack. I remember Joe Amico and I doing the same thing 5 years ago. Pretty cool when your stuff is being copied.
3. Students and directors from other bands were totally gassed by our new Mallet Kat. We heard several times "wow, what's that?" or "that thing is sweet!" Even our parents are cooled out by it.
4. SEVERAL students were heard talking about being excited about watching the Harrah Band. THAT is a pretty cool place to be.

Our HS Band may never be the best in the world. We may never win another contest or make finals at PC/OBA. We WILL be an entertaining group. We WILL be fun to watch. The students WILL have a good time while learning new and exciting stuff.

We will not have marathon rehearsals. Some bands find it necessary to rehearse for 6 hours before contest or 3 hours after prelims.

The kids will not have to audition to be in our band or pay a $1,200 fee because of all the stuff we have to buy or pay for the 10 extra staff members every year just for marching band.

We will not make the students live at the band room. The kids will be able to have a life and be teenagers. They will be able to have a job, do their homework, have a boyfriend/girlfriend. They will be able to have a life.

The kids attitudes are awesome.

Life is good at Harrah High School.

Our middle school students are equally exciting. The 7th graders are starting to make some pretty good sounds. Most of them are practicing decently and passing off their tests.

The 6th graders are doing a great job too. They have good attitudes and are excited to play the simplest of tunes.

Life is good with the Harrah Band!

I digg my students this year!

We have no losers.
Usually there's at least 2 or 3 in each class.
This year- NONE!

My beginners are awesome! What a great group of kids. They have great attitudes, personalities, and are reasonably well-behaved. Sure they act like middle school kids, but they have a pretty good idea how to go from goofy to work. It's great.

My 7th graders are a great group of kids too!
They make good sounds and also have good attitudes. We WILL go far this year.

The high school group is doing well. We have a few that need to learn a bit of personal responsibility, but that's OK. We are doing a pretty good job of learning drill and music.

I must admit that I'm a little nervous about our show. It's different. The music has some randomness to it. I'm interested to see how it's received by crowds and judges.

The music is a little harder than last year which is to be expected, I try to do that each year as the talent level increases. The problem is we had difficult drill last year and this year is no easier. Harder music + hard drill=tough show.

My main concerns with the marching band are pit, bass drums, and color guard. Not in that order. Color guard has been a significant challenge for quite some time. Change WILL happen next year.

In a perfect world all aspects of the program would increase at the same rate. Of course we don't live in that world. Ah, if I were the omnipotent one.

We Rule!

Good set of rehearsals lately.  I don't know if the kids agree....but it's going great!  Our drill is pretty cool this season, again.  We have entered the first set of toughies and the kids are responding well.

The 7th graders are trying to find their way.  It's always a tough start for the 7th graders.  They're used to being the beginners.  Now they aren't.  They will get into the swing quite soon.

6th grade rules!  They laugh at my jokes and do what I tell them too at an acceptable rate.  There are quite a few of them and they are not used to being in such a large class.

Ahh growing pains.  

Rehearsals

First week was very good.
Week 2 is off to a fantastic start. More kids showed up and we gained 2 new ones. We are officially missing 2 students. Not bad.

Last week 3 kids had heat troubles. This week we started losing them pretty fast. Nobody was bad, just a little dizzy. Of course, we were marching in a crock-pot, I expected a little dizziness.

We are far ahead of last year as far as show music is concerned. No stand junk yet, that will come.

Our attitudes are awesome!

Mixed emotions....And stuff

It's here, and it's over.
Summer Marching Camp begins today, and summer is officially over. Bah! Time for long days and hot marching stuff. I have a very mixed bag of emotions here.

On one hand I have the most talented HS Band I've had to date. A VERY good group of kids with some pretty good attitudes. Most of these kids have some serious talent! Several of them work very hard.

On the other hand I have learned from history...a lot of us don't want to work. I don't get it. So much talent has gone to waste in the past. It's a shame. God bestows gifts and talents upon us and FAR too many times we waste them. It's much more fun(?) to just hang out. I think that's why there are so many problems with our world. We would rather just hang around and do quite literally nothing. It takes zero effort to hang out. It takes time, work, and honest to goodness effort to be a success at something. Those that do work hard are made fun of for it. I don't get it. But I digress...

We all do it. I do. I look back at what could be and I kick myself in the rear ALL the time for it.

Anyway, I was talking about the Band. Again. If the planets line up and we work hard, or even work sort of hard, we can do something special. I am going to choose to look at the positive side!

School is rapidly approaching. Friday night football. Saturday contests. LONG, LONG days at school. Pretty cool.

I'm most looking forward to working with the kids this year. I have been waiting for this group to happen! I'm looking forward to hooking up a new crew of beginners and seeing them smile as they make some music. Pretty sweet indeed.

Summer Is Too Short!

It's July 4th and our time away from school is almost over. It seems that school gets out and we barely get to relax before the grind begins again.

I have been spending my time with my family. Brandon made the school Baseball team and he ended up with a 25-7 record. They went to the state tournament and lost in the semi-finals. It was interesting that his little-league coach saw fit to let him pitch 3 times from February to May. He pitched 7 times in the month of June for the Millers. I don't get it.

I coached my 10 year old son, Ryan, on his team. He was the catcher and he pitched some. He had an ok experience most of the time. He did have one spectacular outing as a pitcher. He threw a no-hit complete game shutout. We were so proud. Ryan acted like he did it every day!

Dillon had a great experience with his team too. Last season they were pretty awful as a team. They improved from a last place finish last spring to third place this year. He also hit his first Homerun! Very exciting for all of us.

The boys and I spend at least 4 nights a week fishing at our lake. It's pretty sweet to see my kids pull those fish out. Sometimes it's ridiculous to see the various sizes of fish. Once Dillon caught what can only be described as a minnow only to catch a 4 pound bass 5 minutes later.

As far as Band stuff goes...
I have spent a little time working on stand junk. Usually I have churned out 10-12 tunes by now. At this time I have finished 2. Yikes!

Our drill is being written by the same dude as last year. Be ready to run.

The Color Guard has been practicing about 3 days a week on average. Hopefully the drum line will get to camp safely!

Buckle up, camp starts in less than a month!