Thanks to all who sent birthday wishes via one means or another. Turning 60 was not an event that I anticipated with glee, but now that I've survived it I can say, for those who haven't experienced it yet, that life goes on just fine. I celebrated in a very low-key fashion, going out to dinner with Meri and our neighbors (our adopted family of Mike, Krista, 7-yr.-old Taven and 2-yr.-old Logan) last Saturday. We went to a Chinese buffet restaurant and all walked out with additional poundage. Luckily, a mile in the pool on Sunday took most of that right off. Sunday was my last swimming day (in our pool, at least) for the season. The weather has turned quite nippy here with snow in the forecast for today or tomorrow. This is always a sad time for Meri and me, as we love our summer days outdoors. We actually move out of our house from May thru October and set up residence in our back-yard "beach-house." We have all the amenities that we need there (bed, TV, full kitchen, toilet and shower, etc.) so about the only time we go into the house all summer is to get a fresh change of clothes. But now we've buttoned everything up for the winter and moved indoors. With all the neighborhood kids back in school it's time to get back to business. I've started guitar lessons with some of the kids, prompting me to organize lesson plans. I began writing all the lessons in Microsoft Word and then found that I can add pictures and lines of music, creating an actual instruction book that really looks professional. As this develops I plan to pursue publishing it. I'm honing it as I go, seeing what works and what doesn't. At this point, it's geared to 1st graders, but I may decide to open that up. Or not. In my research for instructional materials I haven't really found anything that is written for really young beginners, so there may be a market for that. The fact that these kids are just starting to read necessitates more of a picture-book approach, which I haven't found elsewhere. I'm hoping that by next summer we'll have a young band going here in the neighborhood. Maybe I can start a sort of Kingston Trio farm, where Bob Shane can come and pick his next crop of performers as the old ones fade into antiquity. Anyway, I'm glad to be back on line here. I look forward to hearing your questions and comments.
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