Last night we had an event with Homestead Center for the Arts in what we call MuSe – Music Series. We started it several years ago and quite frankly, it may have run its course, but that’s not the point of this post. The band that the other committee member found was a local I wasn’t familiar with. We bring in different genres for MuSe and hadn’t done 60s-70s rock for a while. I had been told the lead singer was quite good and that was certainly true. The whole band was and the range of songs was extensive. Jefferson Airplane, Fleetwood Mac, and others – all cover stuff so I don’t know if they do their own.

Anyway, a long time ago I made the comment about you know your age at the moment you say, “I just don’t get today’s music.” When Rap and Hip Hop came along, I didn’t care for it although I did understand the appeal. (The violence/profanity aspect was a whole different thing, but again, that’s not the point of the post.) I  don’t listen to the radio in general except in the car and yes, the primary stations are classic rock and country. I will admit some of the really old country is okay, although I don’t care for the common “twang” that was popular at the time. I’m the same way with my parents’ music of Big Band and while it’s good for a special event, that’s about it. When talking about  today’s music, the only reason I know any of the names is because they are often in the news. I have no idea who sings what and I’m sure some songs are good – I just don’t plan to try and find out.

The days have been a bit extra jammed lately between helping a couple of people out more than usual added to the already generally full schedule. In fact, I am on my way shortly to cover an second piece for the community paper. This popped up late yesterday and it’s something Hubby would ordinarily cover. It’s an important infrastructure project that is part of a multi-phased program and he covered a critical first part not long ago. He had something else planned for today he couldn’t change and I had to juggle my day a bit to make it work. This happens to be what I call “no creativity required” because it really is a “who, what, where, when, how” piece. My one hope is they have some kind of written program or more detailed press release as there are likely to be at least a few people I am not familiar with and trying to properly identify them for the photos might be tricky. Anyway, that will take care of my piece for next week. I actually have a feel-good one I’m working on, but it isn’t time-sensitive. There are weeks when the editor needs something additional and this is the kind of piece that works well for that.

Continuing on in that vein, one of the reasons I am valuable to the paper is because I am always out and about in the community and run across – or am told – about these kinds of things. Naturally, I am occasionally approached with a topic/event that isn’t suitable, but as a community paper, highlighting local successes or events the public can share in is important. As I have noted in several posts, I have gone to assignments reluctantly, not aware of how heartwarming, uplifting, exciting, or just cool the story would turn out to be.

Hubby was always a fan of Bill the Cat with his “Arrrrgh..” exclamation for various situations. I am definitely having an “Arrrrgh..” situation. Back on Christmas Eve I discovered my computer was failing. We did some workarounds and bought a new computer. Just as I was getting mostly used to the differences in it, my main printer died. Really? I mean really? Fine, replaced that the other day with the usual transition woes. I’m not even going to get into Monday’s frustration when we tried to run a hybrid Zoom meeting using my new computer. Let’s say there were multiple problems which we think have been resolved.

This morning – and at least this is the one day this week I could deal with this – my new, spiffy computer would not come on. I tried the usual before bothering Hubby who did have morning boat which meant he couldn’t help any more it if he couldn’t get it going. He had no luck either and I had a Chamber of Commerce breakfast. So pack up the computer and go see the Geeks after the meeting. Fortunately, a tech was available and even thought for about 20 minutes there was an easy fix. Not happening as it turned out, and worse, it could take 2 or 3 days. As with lots of people, I have become so dependent on the computer that 2 or 3 days is going to be really hard to deal with. Now, if Hubby can fix me up with his laptop again and if he didn’t erase my files from the external hard drive he set up for me a few weeks ago, that will be mostly workable.

While I have my small travel computer, for some odd reason, I can’t connect to wireless on it upstairs. That of course makes no sense, but it doesn’t much matter. He gets in a little earlier today than if he had afternoon boat and I will do my best to let him catch his breath a bit when he gets home before he tackles trying to get me a temporary fix. I also really hope the Geeks come through with.

One morning while the kids were here, daughter-in-law spotted a hummingbird. I though she was mistaken at first because we hadn’t seen one yet. We don’t have the feeder as out it became rather nasty sitting out over the summer and I’m not sure it’s properly cleaned or if it needs to be replaced. Anyway, she was correct and we all saw it (less Hubby who was teaching). The thing is though, that was the only time. We are still somewhat puzzled as to why the neighborhood barely a mile away has hummingbirds year-round and at least up until now, we have only the migratory ones Nov-April. Last year, the two we had actually spent as much time in the front yard as in back so we didn’t see them very often.

We do have lots of butterflies and bees as the flowering shrubs in back are densely planted and now do overlap with each other to make pretty much a continuing stretch along the back fence. I still don’t know the name of all of them, but we have the Chocolate Raspberry which are kind of a trumpet type blossom, the giant milkweed which has grown very large, then some kind of red blossom – there may actually be two different kinds, and a yellow one. There will be times when we have as many as half-a dozen butterflies flitting about and always a few. They are predominantly the zebras, monarchs, a small yellow I don’t know the name of, and three or four other varieties. The bees are constant throughout much of the day. Granddaughter was a little concerned and we explained they were just there to gather pollen and wouldn’t try to sting.

We will keep close watch for the humming bird and we do still have the flock of green parrots that come over about once a day as they roam between neighborhoods. We usually have two or three at a time and occasionally as many as a dozen. Even if we don’t happen to see them because of the angle they are at, they are easy to hear.