Sitting at Starbucks before church using their wifi instead of our painfully slow satellite connection at home. Pam's watching videos of some Christian comedian, listening through her ear buds, and laughing out loud because she forgets everyone can hear her. I usually give her a top to remind her to laugh to herself but this morning I'm OK with it.
If I am indeed going back to Brazil next year I'd like to have some very basic Portuguese skills. So I'm going through Duolingo lessons online, something also best done at Starbucks. It's better than nothing and it's free (a big plus). But I hope other language programs give you a little more to work with. I wish there was a vocab list I could turn into flash cards, an explanation of verb declensions, and an easier way to hear word pronunciations (which are beyond weird in Portuguese). I'm going to keep working with it hoping that at least some of it sticks. I'll also see if I can find a basic vocab list for flashcards.
If this does me any good I may spend the money to do one of the more developed language programs when we get closer to a next trip.
We're in for a hot week. By Wednesday we're going to be in the low 90s and stay there through the weekend. MoHo gets pretty hot, especially now with the diseased trees removed and thus no shade from the afternoon sun.
Next weekend is also County Fair weekend here at a site just 5 miles from us. Think Woodstock with "alternative lifestyles" added in large measure. And traffic. And stoned hippies looking to crash anywhere they can find a flat spot to lay their sleeping bag.
We may head to the coast for the day Friday. Saturday is the big Semi Truck Function in Junction (City) 10 miles to our north. They have loads of custom semi's and a variety of work trucks that are all tricked out. It will be beastly hot (mid 90s) but if we go in the morning it will be OK. And like Duolingo it's FREE.
For nodding off programming after we finished lunch we "watched" a PBS "Live from Lincoln Center" episode featuring a pianist named Lang Lang. (Chinese?). He played a Steinway. Instead of the typical grand piano collapsable support for his music it had a much smaller version that held an iPad. You could see that the iPad had his sheet music and that it changed pages as he played.
Cool.
So was there someone off stage remotely advancing his music?
I run three days a week, go to the gym on alternate days, and take Sunday off. After the obligatory nap I decided it was too nice to spend the rest of the afternoon in my recliner so I went out to move firewood from one of the several rows out by the goat pen into the woodshed in anticipation of next winter.
It seems wood piles are ideal sites for hornet nests. I tried three different rows of stacked wood and was met by a swarm at each.
Hose down the wood, quickly load up the wheelbarrow, take it to the woodshed for stacking, repeat.
This may best be done in the early morning hours, eh?
Two meetings at the church offices tomorrow, one at 1 p.m. and another at 2 p.m. The first is about music and the second involves the possibility of doing some teaching.
I need wisdom and grace.
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