Spring-y Thing-y

Been away from the blog world for awhile. Really not much going on other than work. Been really slammed at the office lately - my payroll/benefits manager out on maternity leave, and her back-up is a very nervous woman. Spend most of my time trying to get her to calm down and think logically.

We are well into Spring by now. Azaleas blooming and grass really greening up. We've had mucho rain and more on the way, so the Back 40 is pretty much un-mowable, unless you've got some gumbo mudders on the old riding mower. It will dry up eventually, but I'll probably need a machete by then. Our redbud tree was really pretty this year, though - see photo.

Been working on some songwriting. Hava couple of tunes in the works, Finally figured out midi, which for someone as low tech as me, is a significant achievement. I was very proud of myself. For those who don't have any idea what midi is (like me up until very recently, it is an acronym for "musical instrument digital interface." It is simply a series of computer instructions that tell a midi-capable device (keyboard, synthesizer, drum machine, or other virtual instrument) to play a particular midi note at a certain velocity (volume) for a certain duration. Once you have your midi recording track set up, you can move notes around at will, make them last longer or shorten them, increase or decrease the volume. Then you can apply any virtual instrument and play it back in an audio track and have it sound like any instrument you can imagine. Very cool and powerful tool for making music. It's nothing new, been around for years, but it's new to me.

This afternoon going to help out at our local Miracle League ball field. Miracle League is where disabled kids can play baseball with the help of adults to hit the ball and "run" the bases. Every kid gets to play and bat every inning. They play on a special hard-surface ball field that allows kids in wheelchairs to move around the field with ease. Should be fun.