Bits and Pieces of Today

We had several things happen today that I can write about. First, we attended our last orchestra class. Today targeted the strings section. The gentleman holding the class brought his cello and his violin. He was very good and the kids could tell he had a genuine interest in them. He said his cello was worth $82,000.00 dollars. Yes, you read that right. His cello is also 215 yrs. old. That's amazing to me. The most expensive violin (or was it cello? can't remember!) sold for almost 10 million dollars, which is even more amazing. The most entertaining thing the teacher did today for the kids, was to play samples of all manner of different types of music: jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, rock and roll, heavy metal, and of course, classical. The kids, as well as the parents, had a great time trying to figure out what he was playing. Some of the songs were pretty deceptive and hard to recognize, since he could only play one line of the song, unlike the actual recorded piece like it may appear on the radio.

Before we left, the official orchestra people discussed with us HS moms that they may be willing to start some orchestral shows at a discounted price here in our county. They would be held in MD at a certain church which can hold quite a few people. So, we will be watching for those developments.

We came home, ate, and then did some school work after lunch. We were temporarily interuppted by a plethora of birds outside our window. We tried to identify several species of small birds, all catching bugs in the grass. We also saw a pair of Eastern Bluebirds. We are glad to see them, as we have seen them before, but sparingly. We need to look into getting a birdhouse for them and see if they will move in. A couple hours later, we discovered the Robins have migrated through! We see them every year about this time. We counted upwards of 100 Robins in our front yard alone. It is common for them to be in a large group when they first come through, but then only a handful remain near our home the entire winter.

We also saw some escapees from our front window. Our neighbors across the way had a couple goats he had to relocate to another neighbor's property. (I can't tell you their names because then you would know where we live! They are named after the town....) Anyway, I knew they weren't supposed to be back so knew they must have escaped and come back home. We drove over to the new owners' house, and sure enough, they had gotten loose. We volunteered to help capture and relocate them, and proceeded to do so. It went well, and went back home for supper.

No sooner had we gotten started with supper preparations, when hubby came home and announced he had to go pick up our neighbor's teenage son's car. It was sitting stranded a couple blocks away. I later discovered, by talking to his mother, that he had just had an entire brake job completed on his classic car. New disc brakes, maybe? Evidently, the installers botched the job. While he drove it home, the father, who was following behind him, called on the cell phone and frantically informed him of a fire ball shooting flames from under the car! They pulled over, and managed to put the fire out with an extinguisher and massive handfuls and kicking of dirt that they threw on the flames. My hubby loaded up the car in his trailer and hauled it back to their house. They are next door neighbors to us. So, we are thankful that he is safe. It could have happened on the interstate, but happened close to home, on a dirt road, no less. Thankfully it did!

And finally, B caught a lizard on her own. She is quite proud and excited about the whole thing. She is no stranger to critters, and likes to hold all sorts of stuff. Must be that having 2 older brothers wears off on her.