Rain, Rain, Go Away

Actually, up until a month ago this was one of the driest winters on record in NorCal. All kinds of people were crying drought. But with a little patience and faith, we are now looking at one of the wetter winters. Which brings me to my point. I did my Spring Concert last night with the school bands. The set up and take down for this event has become dramatically easier with the obtaining of the trailer you see below (okay, mostly you see the Jeep, but I'm coming to that).

As nice as the trailer is, it's not covered. And that's the way I want it - except when it rains hard on a concert night. So I had to leave all the equipment and instruments at Andros Karperos School where we do our concerts (the old K-8 schools where I teach both have very tiny MP rooms that are not big enough to hold the huge crowds, 600+, that come to our concerts), and hope the rain stopped by this morning. As you can see, it did.

The kids really played well at the concert. My Inter. Band played a piece called Slide and the Family Bones (yes, it's a reference to Sly Stone and his relatives who had a very good Funk/Rock/Jazz fusion group in the early 70's) which is a trombone solo number. We had all the trombones from every group play it with them. The Adv. Band did some great music. I was especially pleased with their performance of a new number called "Moscow, 1941" which is meant to describe through music the Red Army's defeat of the Germans outside of Moscow during WWII. And they knocked people's socks off with a version of "Amparito Roca" (a Spanish march) which is very technical, and very fast, and very exciting.

Of course, all this music talk brings me back to the Jeep. I had hoped to get a vehicle that had an mp3 port so that I could use my iPod to listen to music and talks. But when I got this rig home I discovered that it actually has a 24GB hard drive I can use for such things. I've loaded much of my music and talks onto it, and I do use it.

Alf Hall is a Puzzle to Me

I found this photo of my great grandfather Alf Hall (my grandpa Hall's Dad) in some files that my brother Mike uploaded to Google Docs sometime ago. Of all the photos I've seen of my ancestors, I think I resemble this one somewhat. None of the others have even been close

A year or so ago I was buying puzzles for Grant to get into (he loves them, and can focus his energy like no kid that age that I've ever seen before). There was a different kind of puzzle there too that allows you to use a personal photo, then makes a map using the 300 pieces that come with it so that you can make you own puzzle from the personal photo. You can re-do it over and over again using different photos.

I thought that was pretty cool, so I bought it and have put a few together. The one above of is my good friend Alf in puzzle form. I don't know if he would approve or not. But I have often thought over the years that I am more like my grandpa Vern than I am like my father (and probably getting more like him every day, to my wife's chagrin) so who knows, maybe I got a portion of his Dad's qualities as well. And not just the dark hair and heavy eyebrows.

When Do You Think?

The first time I remember being asked if, and when, I spent time pondering (the scriptures, true doctrine, the teachings of the prophets, etc.) I was an Elders Quorum President and the stake president was doing the asking. It caught me by surprise and I didn't have a ready answer so I fumbled something out, and he seemed willing to let that suffice. But it got me thinking about just when, and how much I really think about important things.

And actually, it surprised me how much time I spent doing that sort of thing.

The next time someone asked me that question (again it was my stake president) I was serving as a bishop. I was a bit better prepared this time, but unfortunately it came at a time when I felt nearly overwhelmed by the duties of my calling, caring for my family, and work at school. My first reaction was: Man! when am I going to make time to do that? Fortunately, this time the stake president was my brother, so no offense was taken at my response.

But as before, when I pondered the reality of my ponderings, I realized that even with everything I was doing, I still spent time pondering, and thinking through events, situations, teachings, and scriptures. Just not perhaps as much as I should have, or would have liked to.

The third time I was asked that question, I was the stake president, and it was asked of me by a member of the Seventy. This time I was ready. Here's what I said. . .

My favorite time to ponder and think is when I run. Now, I don't particularly like running. I've never been very good at it, and the older I get, the slower I get. But running requires just enough physical effort for me to focus my thoughts. Walking and riding a bike are okay, and I do some thinking then, but it's much easier for my mind to wander when I'm doing those activities.

Most of the time when I run I write talks for Church meetings, link scriptures together in chains, consider what various experiences in my life have taught me - and of course I think about my family. Now, there are other times when I ponder and peruse in my head things that I have written or memorized. When I read the scriptures, and when I pray are certainly other times; but also when I wake up in the night, and sometimes when I'm just sitting doing nothing. It's just that those last two things don't happen very often.

So when do you ponder? When do you think? And what do you think? For me, inspiration - even revelation has often come. Answers to what I should say, and how I should act, almost always come during my pondering. I highly recommend it.