Sparks and Songs

Well, I can safely say things are at least feeling better these past couple weeks compared to the previous others.

I'm still stuck where I'm at, but at least the bullying and belittling has ceased- granted, so have any interactions with [REDACTED], but hey, that works.

But that's uninteresting and irrelevant. What good things have happened? Well, for one thing there's a stray cat who often frequents our property. It's shy but very friendly and nice, and even cuddly; I've decided to name it Jalisco. I finally washed some down sleeping bags I inherited a few years ago, and got to put one to use in the cold, autumn southern Idaho air in my hammock... and I've never slept quite so nice outside in all my life, I think. I also finally put up some sturdy and impressive shelves in my shed- it feels so much more roomy and organized, now! We put up some Halloween lights and decorations; as this is our first year together NOT living in an apartment, it'll be interesting to see if we actually get any trick-or-treaters.

A more interesting tale of mine these past weeks comes from an electrical project- and an impromptu one, at that. Up until recently, our laundry room was setup with two different lights with two different switches, and it was redundant to have to walk across the room to turn on the other one. So, there I was, late one weekday night, about to call it and head to bed with my wife, when the idea came to me- I should just take care of that really quick. Well, I wasn't sure which breaker (or more likely multiple breakers (thanks, former people who did that)) controlled that circuit, and I wasn't about to test them with my wife being asleep, risking waking her up by toggling on the smart light by accident- so I decided to work on it live.

You might be thinking what follows is a horror story of me nearly being shocked to death. Well, the good news is, no- I already did that about a decade prior in front of a bunch of middle school kids, and I have to say, would not recommend. No, but I did get the occasional buzz by accident, and there were a number of sparks that flew thanks to some loose connections. And there was that classic scenario of like 8 different wires trying to fit into one wire nut that's not quite big enough. And after some effort and force, I managed to get everything to fit and work like a charm. It was awesome.

...or so I thought.

Fast forward three days, and I come out of a dream at 3:30 and begin to worry, thinking I had overslept, but then find it's 3:30, and as such I was thankfully very wrong. But then, as I gazed at my phone to look at the time, I happened to notice a notification saying something on my network was offline. I decided to waltz over to my server rack and investigate, and sure enough, my battery backup (1 out of 2, the other one was already dead, now) was beeping desperately. I hurried over to flip whatever breaker had tripped... but none had. And then I realized who was to blame, as I gazed into the metaphorical mirror. So, at 3:30 AM, I once again found myself working on a live circuit and fixing what I should've fixed three days ago. And I did.

But tech stories aside, I would say easily the funnest thing I did these past couple weeks was to go to a barbershop choral competition. I know at least half of anyone reading this just stopped right here and went back to re-read that line. Yes, that's a thing- and it's super fun! I joined a barbershop chorus some months ago, and I've had some fun rehearsing and even performing once or twice. But this last weekend was a whole different level. I traveled via a suburban with three other guys for six hours across the exciting and thrilling landscapes of Wyoming to go to Cheyenne, where there was a regional competition for choruses and quartets. And I won't lie, it would be easy and straightforward to describe it as being a convention where choruses and quartets compete and get judged- and that's true, but not really properly doing it justice on what it's really about.

I kind of laughed it off as a silly gesture many times over, but I have to admit that my dad was right with at least part of his description of it- you get to stay at a hotel with OODLES of conference rooms and hallways (I mean seriously, it's a labyrinth), and you walk these many halls, peer into these rooms, and often before you even approach the room, you can hear the sounds of tight harmonies, ballads and counterpart melodies- and you might think, "wow, these guys are pretty talented" and "gee, they're really serious about practicing for this thing". Nah. Half or more of those you're hearing? How does that blessed Jack Black line from Nacho Libre go? "... it's for fun". But yeah, honestly, you just get a bunch of people in these rooms- sometimes they're just rehearsing, but other times, they're doing something like putting together a quartet of four random singers from various cities and states- having them rehearse a piece of music they've never seen before, and then having them sing it together- and it's honestly just a lot of fun! You really can't quantify the one thing (if there is just one) that makes it so pure and fun- or at least I can't- but it's just awesome!

So, if ever you have the chance to listen to a barbershop chorus or quartet sing, do it! And if you have the chance to join one? That goes double! Honestly, it's just a lot of fun.

And that's a welcome reprieve from the things that add stress to my life, right now. Until next time, see ya!

Sparks and Songs

Adminisk8or

10/01/2024