Happy 10th Anniversary

Ten years ago today on an island off the coast, Cindy and I were married. There were only 14 people in attendance and it rained a bit that day too. We have been a lot of places and seen a lot together but we have been inseparable every since. I am happy that when I go to band events one of the first things out of most people I respect is "Where's Cindy?" Usually all I have to do it point because she is always close by. Happy Anniversary to us!

New Drums!

We have a new drumline and as excited as the kids and I am there is one that is more excited...Mr. Apple...or as I call him...Greg. Greg is one of my best friends and the band is fortunate to have him as the Director of Percussion Studies. I think that is an appropriate title for him but any way. I remember about 6 years ago I met Mr. Apple. He drove 60 miles round trip to teach two of my students at B-L. It took about 2 minutes for me to figure out he was the real deal. We have worked together every since. It is not secret that when you get older it get more difficult to make true friends but I am fortunate to have made one with Greg. We often work for free as we did all day today and we don't always agree on everything but we always have mutual respect for each other and that is always enough for me. Here are a few pictures of the new drums...and Mr. Apple.

Note: As you can see in one picture, putting together new drums can be very tiring.

Fathers's Day - My Dad

It's Father's Day so I thought I might do a little post about mine. When I was young I just knew my dad did something important. I really didn't know what it was though. I just knew when my dad went to work he may not come home for 6 months or more sometime. I would talk to him on a special phone and I would ask him where he was and he would stuff like the North Pole or "I can't tell you" and to make it even more odd, he was telling the truth. You see my dad was on a submarine for a great deal of his life. He worked for the Navy for over 40 years and is still certified to be on a nuclear submarine. He fought in one of the most important wars. He fought in the Cold War. The United States is really the only superpower left in the world and my Dad had something to do with that. If you have ever seen the movie "Hunt for Red October" that is what my Dad did...for real! It is strange though I think his greatest acts have been toward me. I remember the Navy recruiters would come to my house my senior year in high school by the droves. They thought I should be in the Navy too and most of the people I graduated with did just that, but I wanted something different. I remember telling my Dad that I wanted to be a band director. He just said "You better the best one I ever saw." I told him OK. He has taken care of me and my family as long I remember. I will never forget one day in my younger days of band directing, he and my Mom came to see my band at the Walterboro competition. We won everything with a band much smaller than the others. He was walking down the steps of the stadium to leave and looked at me and just gave me a thumbs up. To me that meant the world. I don't know if I am the best band director but I will never stop trying to be just that. My Dad is to thank for all the work ethic I have and that is has made all the difference. Thanks Bill.

Today my dad is retired and works in the yard a lot. We have him to thank for most of our beautiful flowers. He was recently name volunteer of the year at Cypress Gardens. The picture is of the USS Hado. I think he liked that submarine the best.

Fundraising Input Results

Well have five responses to the previous post so I am going to reply as I said I would. I am going to add my comments to each suggestion.

Sell Chocolates like ROTC - the problem here is the collection of money. I actually teach most of the day and my planning time is quickly taken up by other administrative work. I don't touch money.

Sell ice cream or something in the commons - this will offer the same challenge as described above.

More cheesecake fundraisers - Yes, I like this one. We could do one in the fall and one in the spring.

Car wash - These tend to be more of a social event rather than a fundraiser. When you add up all the people and time involved and divide it by the actual profit, you may be surprised at how little funds are actually raised.

Get sponsors - This is most underutilized means of raising funds for the band and for band fees. I don't know why more are not doing this. It is so easy and there is nothing to deliver.

Have more than one fruit sale - Yes. We could add one in the spring.

Pine straw - I like this one too. I use it in my yard and many others do too. I think it would be a good one.

Magazines - Again, this one is a great one and I don't know why more don't do it. You don't even have to deliver anything.

Start a search engine - I don't much about this but it seems like a good one.

Sponsor based anything - I would for this if it was profitable and not a social event.

Charge for parking at football games - This is the athletic departments call. We can't just charge for parking to events that are not ours.

I appreciate the few of you that did contribute to this post. My comments are not meant to be negative they are just from my perspective of each.

One thing is for sure. I can't do these things for you. All students and parents need to participate in ALL fundraisers. Many seem to have the attitude that if their band fees are paid then they don't have to fund raise. This is not correct. The band fees were lowered by $125 to ease some of the financial burden to the band families. Fundraising is a required activity of being in band. I have seen bands and other organizations use a "fair share" program in which each student is expected to participate in the fundraisers or pay their "fair share". It works like this. I will use the fruit sale as an example. Let's say each student and family is expected to sell 5 boxes of fruit. If they chose not to sale fruit, they can simply donate $50 to the band booster club.

I don't have all the answers to our problems, but I think I have some suggestions but again, I CAN'T DO IT ALL. Everybody has to do their part.

Fundraising for Band

I bet that title will get lots and lots of hits on the search engines! Any way, I need help. I know you are out there too. It is time to get lots of comments about this subject and I will answer all of them. I would like to hear your suggests for fundraisers for the up coming school year. I see other bands with things we need. They go on trips and they have charter buses too. Our kids deserve these things too but they cost money. So let's hear it. What do you suggest? This is your chance to be heard. You don't even have to post who you are! Be anonymous if you wish.

Our Flowers

Here are some of our flowers so far. Many more are still on the way too.

Today's Schedule

I took Henry to the vet this morning to get his stitches out of his hand. He has a mole or something removed and today was the day to get them out. His hand looks great. He will be back to hand modeling in no time. I moved my tomato plants to their summer area. They get so tall and top heavy they will fall over if I don't tie them to the fence. I might do some fertilizing later but other than that I will just be enjoying our beautiful yard. It is pretty nice when to you want to go to a garden you just have to walk out the back door. It takes a lot of work but it is well worth it.

Somebody told me once they didn't read the blog to read about fishing and flowers and the Boyz. They said they read it to read about band. Well this blog is not about band. It is about me and what I enjoy so sometimes I don't think about band.

Snakes on a Garage

"I am tired of these @#$%^ snakes on this @$%^#$* garage!"

I will keep it PG for today. Any way we went to the movies last night and saw Ironman 2. It was pretty good although I would have liked to have seen more of the suit. The suit is everything in Ironman. I actually have Ironman #1 comic book. Bet you didn't know I did that about me too. Yes I collect comic books. I don't know how many I have but it is over about 3000 and I have some real jewels like Daredevil #1, Ironman #1, The Incredible Hulk #181, The Amazing Spiderman #129, Daredevil #158, and so on...Oh yeah almost the entire run of Valiant comics too. But back to snakes...

We came home at about 10:30 and a snake was crawling up our garage door or at least trying too. Cindy yelled snake and I got out to look at it. I thought it might be a gardener snake or something. Nope, it was a copperhead! I went to the shed to get a shovel or something and when I got back...the snake was gone. So today I spent all morning cleaning out the flower bed around the garage. It's not that I don't like snake because I really do but a poisonous snake has no business around my house and family. It I would him I would leave while he had a chance.

The Day Ahead

I plan to do some yard work today. The grass is looking great due to our 5 + inches of rain this past week. We have some amazing flowers in our yard too. I will try to post some pictures later. I bet you will be surprised. We may go to a garden store later and even out to listen to some music perhaps. It should be a good day.

Summer Break

Yeap, I am off work for a while or at least I get to work on my schedule. This is my just reward for working 17 hour days and 85 hour weeks many times. I hear from people that say things like "It must be nice" or " that isn't fair" or "I wish I got that". My response is the same. YOU HAVE THE SAME CHANCE. JUST BE A TEACHER! Here is something to think about though. I have never been on a spring or fall vacation. I don't get to pick when I get vacation. It is always pretty much in June. But that's ok too. I went fishing today and it was great.