So Saturday involved running the soundboard for two competition stages at the Feis for twelve and a half hours. Of course, I’m happy to do it, as it is my Dance Dad (and Spouse) Duty™, and it lets the dance school save a few bucks not having to rent the equipment. Still, sitting there digging through playlists and fading out jigs, reels, and hornpipes for that long is exhausting, and not terribly easy on my back, which has been giving me old man fits for the last week (my knocking out a few dozen miles on the bike in the colder weather over the last few days probably didn’t help, but the exercise and getting out in nature did me good, and in my opinion, does just as much to reduce symptoms of depression as much as the pills do.

As of this afternoon I’m feeling a little bit better, thanks to the magic, bone-cracking hands of Frank the chiropractor. Seriously, these quarterly appointments have been life-changing.

In any case, the girls had a pretty good showing in competition; the youngest bumped to the next level in a couple of categories, and the eldest and the spouse both looked good on the floor, even if they didn’t advance (the rules make it difficult sometimes, especially in higher age categories where there are fewer competitors).

After Saturday’s competition, they spent a bunch of Sunday working on grade exams, each of them passing and earning new ranks, much to their delight. While they did that, I muddled around the neighborhood by the dance school, playing some Pokemon and hiking five miles at a nearby county park I’d not seriously visited before. After the eldest wrapped her exam portion, I returned and hauled her back to school, and making a stop at the very nice Loose Shoe Brewing near the campus to have a pint and fill some growlers (a friend is in love, and rightfully so, with their Thin Mint Stout, so I picked him up some) on the way home.

Being Veteran’s Day, I was off on Monday, so I spent my day mostly catching up on cleaning and laundry that I missed Saturday and Sunday for being otherwise engaged, and knocked out a few more bass tracks (and packaged up another participant’s line readings we recorded last week) for Jonah’s record. Just a few more pieces there and I’m done with that effort, which is cool, because UPS dropped this off yesterday:

Yeah, I have my initial stock in hand. Now, the pressure of selling the damned things, and re-learning how to play some of the songs on it. The plan is that it’ll go up on bandcamp for download sales on Friday, unless it doesn’t, but it’ll be out there soon. At this point, I’m just sort of enjoying the fact that I made this thing, and that even if it’s not perfect, it’s a more than respectable first time out. One more thing knocked off the bucket list.

Enjoy your week, folks – they said the “s” word on the radio weather report yesterday, so I expect the next 48 hours or so with this fabled cold front. Glad I got bread and milk before the crazy started.