Here we are, closing in on the halfway point of the winter term. It’s been an eventful four weeks:
- A house in my immediate neighbourhood came on the market in the third week of January, and I swooped for it. The deal closed successfully, and I took possession on 8 February – moving day will be sometime in the late spring, once the current tenants have moved out. Details and photos to follow in due time.
- As luck would often have it, I tested positive for COVID the very next morning – clear of it now, fortunately, but I’m still fighting a residual sinus infection.
- Went to the walk-in clinic on Monday morning with the Mother of All Nosebleeds, and won an all-expenses-paid trip to the Emergency Department, where a doctor crammed a Rhino Rocket up into my right sinus cavity (What’s a Rhino Rocket, you ask…? Google it. If anyone suggests that you try one for fun, _don’t_. No, really; just trust me on this one…). Two days and a trip to Portage later, the regional Ears, Nose, and Throat specialist removed it. Five days later, my face still hurts.
Happily, the week ended on a indisputable high note with the Guitar classes for the Brandon Festival of the Arts, wich went into the books yesterday. My students were on the receiving end of the unfailingly-positive and supporting critique of adjudicator Dr. Ian Hodges, who was thoroughly impressed with their level of dedication and preparation. Congratulations to all who performed, and deepest appreciation to their families who helped make it possible. Special kudos go to scholarship and trophy winners Sydney Komanac, Antoni Klonowski, Matthew van Heyst, and the Cuban Landscape quartet (Syd, Antoni, Nazar Galinski, and Uli Moller).
Now comes the 5-week run-in to Spring Break. Brandon University Jazz Festival goes down in under four weeks, and then comes the run of end-of-season concerts and the aforementioned Moving Day. Talk to you soon, gang – keep being kind to one another as though the world depends on it.