Thursday, February 07, 2013

Thursday This and That


Just came back from another lovely early, early spring walk, and now I'm looking out the window at snow flakes.  I knew it was forecast, but the morning air just did not feel like snow.

Oh well, it's a short storm, and the next several days look ideal weatherwise.  Crisp, dry, cool and mostly sunny. 

So, I think this winter will go one record as one for the record books in my mind:  the fewest days of Marianne griping about winter since ????

I can't remember too many winters of late when I didn't gripe a lot.  This one has been pretty easy on us so far. 

Well, from Facebook, the radio and the newspaper, I've learned that we had a violent confrontation in Sandpoint last night:  one person dead, the other with a bullet to the arm in what sounds like a post-drinking fight. 

A couple of 30-year-old guys got into it at a Larch and Boyer residence.  Details are sketchy except that the police have had cooperation from those involved.

What amazed me was to read that the last shooting death within the city was the one that occurred just down the road from us a few years back. 

So, I guess things are fairly peaceful around our area.  Ironically, just below the story about the confrontation in this morning's paper, appeared a photo of Sandpoint's new police chief Corey Coon receiving his official badge from his wife and daughter.  

I have no doubt that Corey will handle his job very well.  He's a local and he's been a reliable law enforcement officer for some time.

Today is  "back to Fiddlin' Red day" for me.  I took a week off from my banjo lessons when I had the flu.  Fiddlin' Red told me the first day that if I was sick, he didn't want to see me.

So, I complied.

Today I'll go to his brand new store on Church Street in what was the old Roland's Hotel.  He moved in there last week, when Sandpoint Music closed its doors to do business strictly online. 

Gonna kinda miss those guys.  I had never met Sheldon Packwood's little brother Bob until I walked in to take banjo lessons.  Bob is a genius, I'm told, plus he's a really nice guy, just like his brother. 

Sheldon was one of my students back in the late 1970s.  He returned to Sandpoint a few years ago to manage the K2 motel and to play music.  His brother had been on the road for sometime, playing music. 

Now, they're both here, and they do their gigs at local venues like the Ponderay Garden Center. 

Meanwhile,  Fiddlin' Red tells me he likes his new digs, so I'm anxious to see the set-up.  I've continued to practice and almost have the notes to my two practice songs memorized. 

Still, there's a big difference between memorization and music that sounds good.  Even if the songs don't sound like they're supposed to, they make me happy, and, as Bill says, "Look at what you didn't know a month ago and what you can do now."  

So, there's progress. 

Ahhh, the snowflakes have stopped.  Yes, that WAS a short storm.  No guarantees we won't get more, but it looks like a pretty nice day ahead.  

So, I'll head off and see what it brings with banjo plucking and Bulldog Madness---of the Gonzaga (now No. 6) variety.  GO ZAGS tonight vs. Pepperdine.  8 p.m. KHQ 

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