August, 2021

August 31, 2021

August 2 started with a surprise - an invitation to take over the Strings Program at Trinity School while their teacher is on maternity leave. Bettina, the strings teacher and I go back a long way, as a 7 year-old or so, she was a fine violinist in the Piedmont Youth Orchestra which I conducted for many years. I spent several meetings to learn how the school system works, and find I am woefully behind on all this technology. I'm a string teacher, not an experienced technician doing everything online on a Mac computer. I teach the Lower School, the Middle School and then the Upper School.

During that week, I also was making my video, #15 Pirates of the Caribbean to send to the Covid Cello Project (now called Global Cello Project- as there are so many people from all over the world). I didn't dress up as a pirate's fancy mol, but I had borrowed a lovely shirt and hoop earring from Jennifer, and a cute Bolivian hat borrowed from Patricia, my Chilean neighbor.

The next day was a rehearsal with our string quartet "The Solterra String Quartet". The name comes from a community where the second violinist lives. It's a unique development of about 45 houses of all types, owners get together weekly for dinner in the Community House, with vegetables from the community garden. We are planning a concert there in October.

Most of the time during the middle of August was spent at school meetings, a real eye opener for me, as my last school where I taught for 21 years, was very laid back, although they did have endless meetings. Fortunately I was only part-time, so was not expected to attend, thank goodness. Just before I left, they asked me to go full-time as they only wanted one string teacher, but the thought of all those meetings were too much for me to deal with! Trinity is up on top of technology, they gave me an Apple laptop with apps that I have no idea how to handle.

One day I had an unusual experience in my car. On the way home from teaching, I was behind a bus and all of a sudden I heard a ping and the windshield cracked! Fortunately, the crack wasn't very large, it held up and I was able to get home. Very prompt help from my insurance company and the auto-glass company was assuring. The first try could not be glazed on the crack, so a complete new windshield had to be installed. The repairman didn't mind me looking on, he was chatting away.

After all the interest in the car, the highlight of the week was having Dan, Elisa and Zoe visiting and going to the Durham Bulls baseball game. Dan was able to get great seats in the shade (it's been in the 90s for weeks).

On the Monday, Dan and Zoe came up with me to Hillsborough where I was giving a cello lesson. Afterwards we had lunch in the grounds of Ayr Mount estate, and walked around the paths that go down to the Eno River. It's one of my favorite places to have lunch and be there in the lovely grounds.

Just before leaving for the beach, Dan and Zoe made more good things for my car. The ceiling material was flopping down and they fixed this with these buttons!

Friday, a lovely ending of the week, having lunch at Elmo's in Durham. This is where 23 years ago, Dan and Elisa first met. Elisa's friend Danna had invited them for lunch, and now they are still having lunch there! Sadly, friend Danna was up in the North and couldn't come down. However, our good friend Ben, was able to join us. Their 22nd wedding anniversary is on Sept.4, and we plan to have lunch at the restaurant in Wilmington where their reception was after the ceremony. How the years fly by!

Out team for the Conqueror Challenge, Lands' End to John O'Groats, 1008+ miles. has been slow these past weeks. The heat and humidity in the 90's wipes us out after a few minutes. Hopefully we'll be able to catch up at the beach. Maggie arrives tomorrow, Sept. 1st, and she and I will drive down to Atlantic Beach. This is where we are so far.