A Piper's Tale(?) progresses. I think I'm improving, though sometimes it's difficult to tell.

Recently our PM brought in two big shots he knew for a piping/drumming clinic. Only one drummer benefited; she's the only one who shows up! At the end of the day what I remember from my esteemed guest instructor--who ranks high enough that he can tell our boss how to play--amounts to taking care to properly sound the low Gs in certain required embellishments.

Failed to note our meeting maybe two months ago at which the band decided to pursue music rather than worry about uniforms. So--no controversial tartan decisions for the time being!

On a more personal level, it seems I neglected to record here how I've become a poster boy for some common middle-age maladies. Aside from mere obesity, I've been dealing with hyperlipidemia for a few years, & more recently my blood-sugar readings put me in Type-II diabetic territory. (Fortunately my blood pressure never was a problem.) I finally resolved to lose weight & leave that territory. Just a few weeks ago I signed up with a new exercise establishment within walking distance of home; my mom already works out at the place next door. Preliminary results are good, but I recognize I've only begun.

Argh! Blatantly Xmas-related ads have begun appearing on TV already. Enough of this pre-Halloween Yuletide crap! I think a consumer rebellion is in order.

After two weeks the band met again. Turnout proved better this time. Our hotshot piper from (originally) Milwaukee showed up, & there was a new guy, a total novice, I guess, from Green Bay. In one of those amazing coincidences we're sometimes told about, the two Wisconsonians realized they'd met before--not sure when or where, but they're both into historical reenactment.

Early this month we played at the local National Guard Armory before & after a departure ceremony for an infantry company on its way to Iraq via Mississippi. Our state's governor showed up for the occasion. Quoting my journal:

Regrettably I found I wasn’t even as good a piper as I’d thought, though maybe (I hope) no one outside the band noticed. Someone commented that our performance, in context, was like a “call to arms.”

Here, by the way, are the arms of the battalion these soldiers belong to:

Well, isn't this amusing: Blogger managed to eat my post again, despite my supposedly recovering it (nice feature if it worked)! No one informed me that "Save as Draft" might mean "Flush Down Etoilet."

OK, on to my reconstruction. The band, if such it still is, has begun meeting in its new home, actually that of its sponsoring institution, a school of art/music established within the last ten years in the building formerly housing our town's leading funeral home. It so happens that the other guy in my piping "class" used to work here in his family business; now his HQ is the firm's new facility just down the avenue from my family's house. (In another, goofier coincidence, their competition moved a few blocks to a spot you can see from the other side of our property!) Regrettably our third newly-recognized piper has quit, at least as far as the band business goes. Whether our band will diminish to a club remains a question.

I've finally taken my own initiative with regard to pipe music. One particular copy of a march--"The 79th's Farewell to Gibraltar"--from a sheaf of non-repertory stuff I'd received earlier, included a URL I finally got around to trying. Turned out the author's no longer in his former band but still maintains an online library of tunes. There I found every traditional piece of pipe music I've wished I could play myself--free! This gives me new motivation.

(Strange, the URL's not working as it did before.)

Yes, that's how I found the claim mentioned in my previous entry. Sorry for a little chronological inconsistency.

Here's a quote from my journal so I don't need to compose too much new text about the current situation:

Some kind of transition time for the band. [This] month we’re set to leave the [Masonic] Temple for the [Arts/Music] School, home of our sponsor. There may be financial changes. And there’s the tartan question, which I’ve tried to help with by leaving my tartan book there. PM... says he likes best the MacBain sett, which I pretty much find unacceptable. Our wunderkind piper gave another point in its favor: she reportedly has ancestry from that clan. (The PM had previously offered Russell tartan as a choice-having recently been informed of his own--non-Scandinavian--descent from that line, but he’s declared himself tired of wearing green & blue.) Furthermore, attendance has dwindled; I’ve lately been the only piper showing up at five.

Meanwhile practice meetings are on hiatus.

Congratuations to me! According to this page's author, less than one in five apiring pipers makes it to the stage of actually playing the pipes. I had no idea I was so distinguished.

One other note, partly off-topic, which our boss recommended including in these Chronicles: I pointed out that my book of tartans, in its paragraph on the Kennedy clan, suggested that the name seemed to derive from "an unflattering Gaelic nickname, caennaideach (ugly-headed)." I don't know what connection the Kennedys of southwestern Scotland may have with the famous Irish-American family, but of course this tidbit reminded us of a certain US senator known in some circles for his big head! (FWIW I do know that at least some of us in the band are Republicans, possibly related to a small-business background.)

Not much in the piping department to brag about, but then I didn't start this blog to chronicle the subject, important to me as it is. Come the end of June, our band was set to play at a civic function; only four of us showed up--without our Pipe Major, absent, we were told, due to the passing of a grandfather. I still had to drone, not knowing all the chosen music.

It seemed a low blow when the PM's father died two weeks later. We learned afterwards that he'd long suffered from a chronic, progressive, presumably incurable disease.

Since my previous entry, the Deep Impact project successfully blasted a comet. Also last month, NASA finally got a manned mission into orbit for the first time since the Columbia disaster. Too bad all the eggs were in the shuttle basket.

Now comes word that a possible tenth planet has been discovered--except that, while it appears probably larger than Pluto, it's presumably a "mere" Kuiper-Belt object, as is Pluto! Things aren't so simple these days. On the question of what to call this body, I've favored the name Erebus since I started giving much thought to the matter of a hypothetical tenth planet.

Here's a short but historic account from my journal describing my first appearance in a parade in which I was not merely droning.

First Sunday [this month] brought this season’s only band gig that I actually committed to [an event in a town down the road]. Rain still fell [at home], but we were under the impression it was letting up to the west. Well, coming in waves it may have been, but let up it wouldn’t. Eventually the full band occupied a designated Lutheran church basement, where uncertainty gave us plenty of preparation time. Finally we found ourselves lining up for the delayed parade at the intersection outside the church, practically next to a lake (which I probably hadn’t known about) with rain blowing across it. Turned out we were the second unit, & I was placed in the front rank next to the Major--for my first experience actually playing tunes in a pipe band. The route through town proved short enough, which may have been just as well; my performance disappointed me. Never heard complaints afterward, though.

Wearing wool can come in handy.

Have to set down piping progress. Won't say it happened overnight, but my competence appears to be increasing. Lately I've been blowing in the garage rather than on the nearby deck, not just to avoid this season's frequent rain but because it sounds better. At least I can hear the drones more easily.

Friday afternoon I was back out on our deck practicing with my pipes. Lately I've done it facing the house, which may provide some aural benefit--with the further advantage(?) of being able to monitor my reflection in a window. Well, after playing the band's military medley, with more goofs than I would've liked, I heard applause from a spectator I'd failed to notice, though he was standing nearby. Turned out he'd been raking two houses down. His first comment was that he'd been exposed to piping from British troops in Northern Ireland, where he'd been once been stationed during World War II. Wound up an unexpectedly long conversation. He told me of fighting Germans with the 34th Infantry in North Africa & Italy.

Realized afterwards that, like a big dummy, I'd forgotten to thank him for his service.

After missing several weeks of band meetings, I've been back for two. The first saw just a few of us, mostly level-one pipers, & after undergoing the drawn-out tuning process we didn't play together for that long. Evidently trouble with the management has kept us from marching around indoors, so that was it. Fortunately an expected visitor showed up with computer-rendered samples of the new tartan we're hoping to acquire. During our most recent session we students didn't even unpack our pipes. I was able to report progress at home, since I've found I can crudely play tunes I've never seen written. The response: That's the way we want it! As I've failed to point out, word is that pipe music wasn't even written down until not much more than a quarter-century ago.

OK, I've been blowing into my pipes' new bag long enough to appreciate the difference, but from the get-go it wasn't obvious. Yet my immediate family's claimed to hear improvement, even if it was just improved endurance. Playing seems more enjoyable now--but various glitches regularly keep my enthusiasm in check! Still, all three drones are apparently staying in tune now, & they don't cut out.

Today I went outside & had started up with "The Flower of Scotland" when three young blondes, whom I'd noticed walking by earlier, suddenly showed up & approached to investigate, not having a good view of me from the street. They applauded after I quit & insisted they didn't know I wasn't very good at it. They'd never heard of our band; turns out they were here visiting relatives.

Hmmm--bagpipes as a chick magnet?

FWIW I could have mentioned earlier that, rather like a year ago, I spotted an eagle as my mom & I were driving to the casino. The gambling--for me--wasn't so good this time.

More significantly, we just celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary, effective on the day (St. Joe's, I think) when the swallows traditionally return to San Juan Capistrano--& like the original a Saturday this year. This is worth observing.

Well, I've been crowned--so's am I royalty? Nyuk nyuk nyuk! Actually just two of my teeth received their finely-wrought ceramic-noble metal crowns, with a bridge of similar composition soldered in between them. It's nice to be able to crunch on both sides of my mouth after months of limitations. My only complaint, other than the expense--which came at an inconvenient time--is that the necessary modified flossing, with a doodad for inserting the floss under the bridge, hasn't come easily for my clumsy fingers.

And now it's St. Urho's Day.

Finally: The new Goretex bag arrived, our PM tied in the pipes, fitting clamps during the intervening week, & now I've begun playing my instrument again. So far the only definite difference I've noticed is that cutting out--ceasing the sound--seems smoother. Unfortunately the Major didn't like my chanter's reed, so he replaced it with another new, stiff, harder-to-blow one.

Meanwhile I kept a dental appointment of an hour & 40 minutes, though it may have lasted longer. In preparation for a bridge, the outer 1-2 mm of enamel had to come off two teeth--a scary prospect, maybe, but perhaps not so much as extraction. Wasn't too bad. Crowns evidently offer advantages, too. At the moment mine are temporary.

Yet again I'm late with my chronicling!

Last month's final weekend saw our band put on our second Burns' Night. This time we staged a more detailed program, & for this cause I actually stayed all the way through several practice sessions in order to get it down like everyone else. It was mostly droning again, but there came a point during the intermission when we three official new pipers had to really play, performing "The Flower of Scotland" with the pipe major as we'd rehearsed for some two months--except that, to avoid tuning complications, only three of our nine drones were allowed to sound. I wasn't impressed with myself/us, but who complained?

We may not have attracted quite the crowd this time (I didn't see the Cornells), but word was, simply, there was no comparison with last year, & maybe I'll leave it at that--except to note the action seemed to fade away more quickly this night.

Early this month the leftover haggis & accompanying mash were put up for grabs, & I took my share--only finishing it the day before this entry's date!

HURRAY FOR HUYGENS!!!

Halfway through this first month of the new year, & that's obviously the most significant event. It may in fact prove difficult to soon eclipse.

Meanwhile I finally attended one of the band's annual parties; its location in this instance was too close to turn it down, even though I'd been invited to another, simultaneous party, involving my family's business, for the first time in the last few years. To quote myself--the original text altered here because too many brackets seem to mess up Blogger/HTML:

We were supposed to bring food based on available Scottish recipes; I noticed one for herring & potatoes &, with a little help...& inspiration from my days with my late Finnish friend, who'd introduced me to pickled herring with potatoes, made a cheap imitation...The party included an official meeting, during which I & two others were awarded certificates for completing level-1 piping.

Asking the PM later, I learned this merely meant I'd been cleared to play the real pipes.

OK--on to "real" history. The Huygens probe has landed on Titan. Though its mission ran only a few hours, & some doofus failed to flip a switch, compromising a second data channel, I consider this the greatest day in Solar System exploration since Voyager 2 left Neptune behind. This is not to minimize the Jovian contributions of Cassini's durable predecessor Galileo, nor the balance of Cassini's own Saturnian mission, which is to last at least a few years. Nor do I wish to overlook the two rovers currently operating on Mars--as orbiters investigate that world from above. These twin rovers, in fact, still rolling around the Red Planet after a year now, are champions in their own right. I happen to be more interested in the outer Solar System, truth be told, & Titan's been described as the last unknown real estate, its exotic atmosphere hiding a no-doubt fascinating surface. Already Europe's lander appears to have spotted liquid-carved channels, though the presence & nature of any liquid there remains uncertain.

FWIW, when I was in high school, some 30 years ago, I came up with a sort of comic-book/cartoon series featuring a character, based on myself, who served as governor ("Satrap") of Saturn under a science-fiction-style interstellar empire. Naturally his HQ was on Titan. In those days I had little better than a Chesley Bonestell painting to go by when depicting this moon; we didn't yet know it was blanketed in smog!