Like my last set of recordings from the Hill Country Community Band, this is recorded from the crowd perspective.  I’m sorry for the lack of volume on the [...]]]> The Comal Community Band performed it’s “Thank You” concert for First United Methodist Church in New Braunfels for the use of Wesley Hall as it’s summer practice facility.

Like my last set of recordings from the Hill Country Community Band, this is recorded from the crowd perspective.  I’m sorry for the lack of volume on the first few songs as the venue was a bit loud at times.

The ZIP file with all of the songs can be downloaded here.

1.  One of my dear friends has left my office.  This hurts [...]]]> It seems that this has been one of worst weeks in the past year.  Turmoil and sorrow at the office.  Being sick and overwhelmed at the same time.  Missing out on life.  – Let me back up a little and start from the beginning:

1.  One of my dear friends has left my office.  This hurts me as much as when Stephen, Ryan, and Wayne left.  Maybe a bit more.  This was not her fault – I feel it was more the decisions from the powers-that-be at the office.  It’s not the first time and won’t be the last time that I am completely befuddled by what they are attempting to do.  Wait, I understand what they are doing – I just questions the methods and decisions that are being made.  There are others there that I care about so I must press on for now.

2.  I should be happy this week.  The weather is more to my liking without any sun for the past three days.  However, it seems that the mold in the air is kicking my butt right now.  I think it is a sinus infection, but a cold wouldn’t be out of the question as of now.  I left work feeling absolutely miserable at 2 PM and promptly slept for 4 hours before waking up to fix supper.

3  Due to weather and the above sickness, I had to miss my practice on Tuesday night up in Wimberly with the Hill Country Community Band and then bowling tonight (although I probably would have stunk up the game with my general lethargy that I’m feeling right now…).  The concert and football game on Saturday are subject to being cancelled for me if I don’t feel a little better.  Secondly, I wanted to drop by the fairgrounds and buy a sausage-on-a-stick and some roasted corn.  It seems unlikely that I’ll be able to make that either.

Enough complaining for now.

I tried recording our Summer Concert held today (June 28, 2009) at First United Methodist Church using my IPhone 3G.  The results actually turned out pretty good – way better than my original Fuze.  Please note that the perspective of these audio tracks is the same as [...]]]> This is the first of several postings for today…

I tried recording our Summer Concert held today (June 28, 2009) at First United Methodist Church using my IPhone 3G.  The results actually turned out pretty good – way better than my original Fuze.  Please note that the perspective of these audio tracks is the same as one would get if you were actually sitting in the band.  So the songs are pretty brass heavy, but everything can be heard.  This also is a test of the Audio Player Plugin for WordPress:

Please note that some songs have a delay before starting. Remember that I need to handle my instrument before starting the recordings…

1.  [...]]]> In case you haven’t seen my Twitter or Facebook postings, I picked up my 7-week old chocolate lab puppy named Rudy (after my grandfather Rudolph Jaks, and also my father’s middle name – Wilburn Rudolph Randow) from a former co-worker last weekend.  This has been an interesting experience due to the fact that this is:

1.  My first indoor dog.  Well, let me rephrase that.  He stays inside with me at night.  He’s outside while I am at work.  And that is probably how it will stay.  I eventually would like him to sleep on the foot of my bed, but I am a LONG way from that right now.

2.  Caregiving.  The thoughts of almost everyone who knows me has been that I need a puppy to keep from dwelling on the past.  This ALMOST worked..  I’m not dwelling as much, but when I do, it goes very deep.

We’ll see how things progress.  I love the puppy.  I wish he would stop using my finger as it’s own personal chewing toy, but I’m starting to break him of that habit.  I took him out walking in the neighborhood in front of my house tonight (I walk with him nightly, but have been varying the route to let him see more) and he got a lot of socializing.  I think that we had about 10 children of various ages come to pet him, three parents, and two other families.  I was getting a bit concerned about finding children for his socialization, but when he is at the “cute puppy” age, I guess that isn’t an insurmountable problem.

In other matters this past week:

1.  I went to church with Stephen today.  I go to church every weekend, but this is the first time I actually went with somebody.  Actually, I picked his church today since the Comal Community Band, of which I am a member, had a “thank you” concert for the church for using their facilities for our weekly practice this past month.  Nice service.  Methodist churches are not too bad, but they take a while to get used to.  Also, the fact that we were singing patriotic hymns was also a pleasant experience.

2.  After church, I attended the band wrap-up party for this season.  We do have one more rehersals and two more performances on Friday (July 4), but it made sense to do the wrap party on a non-holiday weekend.  In the past, I wouldn’t have attended.  However, in an effort to make myself do more, I am forcing myself to leave my comfort zone and do things.  I still need to do more and my to-do list for the summer and fall is still very very long.

3.  Work sucks.  I’m sorry to be so blunt with that statement, but it’s the unfortunate truth.  We (me and Stephen) have so much work piled on us between now and August 8 and it will be a daunting task for us to actually finish it all.  So as you can surmise, the stress level has gone up considerably, which is exactly what I do not need at this time.  Oh well…  I’m starting to run a countdown clock to August 8 and then want to take a trip after that time.  Plus, I have so much unfinished business that I need to take care of, like probate and other legal matters.

4.  Friends rock.  Another short but profound statement.  I’m afraid to think of what type of shape I would be in at this point without the bedrock of support from others.  I feel so small, though, in that I haven’t been the person that I could have been in the past.  I consistently concentrated on issues around me (and my family) and generally ignored everything else externally.  That needs to stop as of now.

In closing I want to add a reminder that you can also keep track of me via Twitter, Friendfeed, or Facebook.  On Twitter and Friendfeed, my alias is JeffreyCentex and you can find me by my name on Facebook. 

Thank you for reading and may God bless you and your family!