Running on Fumes

If that date sounds familiar, it should, since today was prognosticated by many as the last day of planet earth.  This may sound a bit crazy in a few years, but it was taken quite seriously by many people.  Oh well, we’re still here.

In any case, it is late Friday night in Scottsdale.  Another busy week has come to a close, but for a busy Sabbath awaiting me tomorrow.  This week produced quite a few memorable moments. 

Tuesday I enjoyed a great musical concert at GAA.  It was amazing what that school has put together at their school.  The children sound nothing short of amazing!  The selection of music was not simple and basic.  It was challenging and more than a bit complex.  But the kids rose to the occasion and produced some wonderful melodies and harmonies.

            Thursday was the Christmas Concert at TCE, where Penny and I work a few days out of the week.  All I can say about that evening is that God rescued what could have been a disastrous night.  Pretty much everything that could have gone wrong went wrong, not just that evening, but for a couple days leading up to the concert.

To name a few (not all), we lost our performance CD.  It was taken by mistake to California.  We failed to order a rush copy, because we were convinced that we could use a “Dropbox” copy of the performance CD for the rehearsals and the “dress rehearsal”.  As it was, we were unable to open the Dropbox copy on time to use during our rehearsals on Wednesday due to some security firewalls.  We had to use a scratched and imperfect copy to rehearse.

We had planned a dress rehearsal on Thursday morning in the TAA Auditorium.  Instead we were forced into a “lockdown” situation due to a police situation a couple of miles away from our school.  That was after we were informed that the person who was running all the lights for the evening program had been admitted to the hospital in California (with our CD). When we finally went to rehearse, the good news is that we had a workable copy created by a very intelligent computer genius.  On that down side, our sound technician did not show up.  We were forced to have a dress rehearsal without the microphones we were going to use in the evening.

We survived.  The technician arrived that afternoon, about 4:00 p.m., and set up the microphones and other amenities. All was working well. No lights, though, since the technician was not familiar with the intricacies, as was his wife, who was in the hospital in California.  We launched the program anyway, only to discover too late that most of the microphones were in fact not working.  One speaker and the “fold-back” speakers used by the choir also when dead early in the cantata.  Do you see a pattern?

The good news is that the kids did wonderfully!  They sang their little hearts out, and in the end, the parents left delighted with the results, not realizing that the choral director was close to a coronary!  It was an amazing night, in spite of the technical difficulties.

Tonight I went for the last rehearsal before tomorrow’s cantata at AWC.  I’m tired!  Good night!  (213.6)