A Rainy Day in Sutter Creek, or

   

     With practice comes improvement. I have heard "Practice makes perfect." I have also heard that perfect practice makes perfect. I understand practice makes better. A question is what to practice, especially when you aren't playing anywhere. Anything and everything. Variation, accompanied by a routine, that's what you want to practice.

     Distractions are everywhere, that's as sure as Death and Taxes, unless you live in a sensory deprivation tank. Who does that, anyway? Shut yourself away from others, or find a mute that all but entirely deadens your sound. Yes, I am being preferential to trumpets or other brass instruments that use mutes. Amplified instruments may use practice amps and a headset. Better to get together with other musicians and play.

     I really enjoy that kind of practice, or playing in public often enough, where band practice is at performance standards. Still, solo practice is still necessary. Hmmm, meanwhile, what am I doing? I am sitting here typing, starting to feel guilty and kind of hungry. Get practicing, Scotty.

     I think I will have my deferred breakfast, then practice. Nope, it's lunchtime already. Sure, there are a lot of leaves to rake along the property, but that will keep. Leaves will lie there and collect friends.

     Thanks for stopping by.

Get Married in Sutter Creek, CA? Why Not?

If you have ever been to historic and scenic Sutter Creek, California, I am sure it has made an indelible impression on you. If you have not had the chance to visit our idyllic town, please make the trip. You won’t regret it. Many storefronts and houses are unchanged form their original 19th Century condition. Of course, you see the new and the old, side by side, wherever you go, but the Gold Rush origins are there. 

On September 10, 2016, I had the honor and privilege of officiating for Wendy McCulley and Tom Powell’s wedding at The Park at Hanford Courte, an almost hidden gem on Sutter Creek’s Hanford Street, also known as old Highway 49. Steven Desedare has a beautiful park setting, complete with a waterfall at the head of a tree-lined area for at least 100 guests. Please visit his website at: http://www.hanfordcourte.com.

The couple, their family and friends were wonderful, fun and honest people. No tension or pre-ceremony anxiety hung over the wedding party, nor was it in the air over those in attendance. Wooden fans were provided for the guests, who used them to cool themselves, although they were in shade, by the time the music started. The day’s heat had flirted with a 90-degree mark, which made me glad to have chosen a gold sharkskin suit over the black wool suit. The wedding party and I were in full sun, until just after the ceremony ended, but that didn’t spoil the mood. This was a joyous gathering.

Signs plainly marked the way to the area, where we held the ceremony, instructing the guests to “Pick a seat, not a side.” There were no signs of sides I could see, so keep in mind, how useful these wayside markers can be. It was a very nice touch, if you are, or someone close to you, is artistic. 

The roles of DJ and Photographer were filled by friends of the couple, which is both meaningful and a possible price point, especially, since you are familiar with the quality of their work. This eliminates the process of shopping for and interviewing candidates to take on those jobs. Less work, less stress, right?

The chairs, tables, dishes, and flatware were provided by Party Smart Rentals of Sutter Creek. They offer so much for any event. I probably left out something they provided, but they will cover the bases. You can find them on Old Ridge Road in Sutter Creek and at http://www.partysmartrentals.com.

The appetizers, beverages and meal were served by John and Sina Hanning and the crew from Sina’s Backroads Cafe and WRP (which stands for We Roast Pigs) BBQ and Catering. Visit Backroads Cafe at http://sinasbackroadscafe.com, and I dare you not to get hungry visiting WRP, when you visit John at http://weroastpigs.weebly.com. I did not get to the table to sample the delectable appetizers, but the dinner was pretty amazing. Barbecued chicken, pulled pork, cole slaw, macaroni and cheese, beans, rolls and butter. I am sure I forgot something, but it makes me hungry again, just trying to remember everything. 

To wash it all down, there was Firestone Walker 805 on tap, Prosecco, local red and white varietal wines. Of course, there was bottled water and non-alcoholic beverages, too, for those, who chose not to limit their responsible drinking. The coffee was excellent, and that leads me to the cake…. Oh, the cake!

Ingrid Fraser, amazing artist and personal friend, maker of exquisite desserts, again came through with a delicious 3-tiered cake, with butter-creme frosting, with roses cascading down the side of the cake. The top tier was boxed for the lucky couple, and I did partake of the second tier, which was chocolate with butter-creme and raspberry filling between the three layers within that layer. I did not sample the bottom tier of the cake, but Ingrid’s carrot cake is phenomenal. If I saw the photos correctly, the bottom layer was carrot cake. Look up Ingrid at http://ingridscakes.com.

The evening shaped up beautifully. It wasn’t a hot evening, so people were more comfortable, dancing, reminiscing, having a great time, celebrating the reason why they were in such a beautiful place together. Tom and Wendy. Thank you, Tom and Wendy. Many years of Happiness, Love, Good Fortune, Fun, and more of all the reasons why you were attracted to each other, all the reasons you made two lives become one.

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This has been another adventure of the Rev. Scott Fritz, Amador County Wedding Officiant. Please visit me at:

https://www.facebook.com/cutomweddingsbyrevscottfritz/.

Cheers!

Psychic, Powerless, Another Afternoon's Job Search

Here I sit, not broken-hearted,
Came to find work,
And only, well, found distraction.

You would think that having the house to myself would help me dive whole-hog into a productive search for gainful, full-time employment. Music usually helps, so I have a Pandora station playing on my iPod, while I look through employment boards and sites (He's going for distance, he's going for speed...), hoping to find a creative and challenging position, where I can further use and hone my talents, striving to better myself, while being a valuable member of a team (If we win, you must take your sorry ass to Hell...). Well, I got the music in me, and it is more engaging than the search for the dream job.

Let's turn and face a painful fact: the dream job is that rare animal, and many folks will only catch a glimpse of it. Is it that some of us did not have a vision of our adulthood, propelling us along a path, which led us into self-fulfillment, incomparable bliss and a comfortable lifestyle? Not counting myself among the demographic, who focussed on that dream job at a tender age (A quarter of my life gone by, and I met all my friends online). These are very driven people, who sacrifice and plan with a singular purpose, to reach that peak. I might have just slighted myself. Go figure.

I have had rewarding experiences with a number of employers: moments, where I solved a customer's dilemma, experienced being part of teams at the completion of various difficult projects, seeing admiration on the faces of onlookers, and performed work, where discussing tasks in technical language caused uninitiated listeners' eyes to glaze over (or maybe that's just how I communicated certain processes to others, especially if you asked one of my past Sales Managers, and that wasn't a lyric). Funny, how some of those jobs have been on-call, volunteer, temporary or term-type positions.

Of course, you don't stay employed by complaining about frustration and a lack of fulfillment. The reason that you were hired was because you were qualified and made a positive impression (I'll wait to the day's end when the moon is high, and then I'll rise with the tide with a lust for life...). How you stay employed is largely up to you. Eventually, the work term ends, or that volunteer position does not turn into a paid job.

Meanwhile, the phone rings, giving me the opportunity to substitute teach later this week, followed by a call from my son, saying he is about an hour away. The dog wakes up from her nap and comes over to me for a couple pats. I could weigh under-employment against unscheduled, free time and solitude against the company of others. Half-full or half-empty? Neither is empty (If he thinks too long, whole globe is in peril. If you don't shed a tear at the end, your heart's sterile). I continue my search, so I off I go.

Haunted?

I took my son recently to the U.S.S. Hornet for an overnight stay through his scout pack & the museum's Live-Aboard program. We were informed that the old aircraft carrier has the reputation of being haunted. Here's where a number of people cross their arms & start rolling their eyes. Others start shifting their feet, look uncomfortable & change the subject. We thought we would give the historic vessel a chance, and decided to make the trip to Alameda, CA for the overnight stay on Nov. 14.

The afternoon & evening was fun, with tours after the orientation. There were numerous combat & rescue aircraft, a flight simulator, which was very popular with the kids & adults alike and numerous other installations, showing naval & the celebrated ship's history. Actually, the flight simulator was more of a gantry platform, with the hydraulics, a screen & a mock-up of a space shuttle passenger area, much like Disneyland's Star Tours. Fun, but you were not in control of the craft. Anyway, the evening was otherwise uneventful. Around 10:15 pm, a number of the kids & their parents went to the fo'csle (forecastle, you know, the enclosed area at the bow of the ship) for ghost stories, but when they docents started talking about happenings near our berth near the torpedo shop, several people in our group and from other groups left the area, to spare their children a case of the night terrors. I had to escort a couple of the scouts back to their parents, then returned to hear the stories with my son. He thought the stories weren't so scary, while some of the kids, who didn't stay past the first several minutes, thought it was the scariest stuff they ever heard. Were we at the same story session?

My son chose a top bunk to sleep in, and a few of his friends selected top bunks nearby. As the night wore on, the other boys moved to bunks, not at the top level, because the word was, that the top bunks were haunted. When my son remembered his night's sleep, he said that he felt something tousle his hair, then some time later, something poked him in the back of the head. He was going to reach out & slug his pal Jacob, who he remembered had selected the bunk nearby, but then remembered that his friend moved to a bunk, closer to his parents. My son then went back to sleep, with no further interruption.

I was selected for the 4:00 to 5:00 am watch, with Jacob's father. We went to the Chapel of the ship, where we were to begin our watch. It began, simply enough, but as we sat in the chapel, I heard a noise coming from inside the next room, which was the Chaplain's Office. The sound was like someone drumming their fingers intermittently across the wall; not exactly a rhythm, but, still rather deliberate sounding. Steve, the other dad on the watch heard it, as well. One of the docents came by the Chapel to check on how our watch was going. The docent was not aware that the next room was the Chaplain's Office and said, after I asked about the room, that the Chaplain's Office had not been opened for some time. The sound repeated a few more times during our watch, then subsided.

I returned to my bunk, in the berth across from the hatchway to the Torpedo Shop, hoping to see some unexplained activity in the room, or in the Torpedo Shop. No luck, and I went to sleep. I awoke to the sound of a voice over the ship's loudspeaker, saying, "Now hear this: Reveille, Reveille!" There was no bugler on the ship, and I had not brought my bugle or trumpet, so I couldn't play the part as ship's bugler for the stay on the ship.

After morning mess, I returned through the lower deck passageway toward the ladder to go aft tomeet up with the rest of my son's Cub Scout pack. I went by the Sick Bay, saw that it was not cordoned off, meaning that it was not off-limits. It was not lighted, though, so I still wondered, whether I was supposed to be there. I stepped inside the hatch, walking about 3 feet in the passageway and notced that it was about 5 to 10 degrees colder. There was plenty of ventillation, and the area of lower temperature was actually farther from the hull. There was no visible reason for it to be any cooler in that area. I went walking around the Sick Bay, in the dark, hoping to see something that was not on your average tour, especially, since it was self-guided and by flashlight. Other than the cold spot, there was nothing out of the ordinary about the Sick Bay. Makes me wonder, how it would have been during the night. Perhaps on another visit? When I mentioned the cold spot in the Sick Bay, I was informed that the Sick Bay was another area of noted activity, since they did everything from dental exams to major surgery in there.

Having so many experiences in a 24-hour period makes me want to visit other haunted places. It could be a new hobby. It could turn into something bigger. It could be folly, or it could be a hoot...

Swine Flu? Just Eat Your Carnitas.

Not to trivialize the unfortunate folks, who have succumbed to this virus, but why are we verging on calling it a pandemic, when the plain, old influenza virus, in its many incarnations takes out the same number in casualties, only weekly? Surely, it cannot be to assist the people, who better our lives (& their bank accounts) through pharmacology, on, no. In this world, there cannot be winners, without losers. The folks, hoping to avoid getting sick, purchase innocculations, which may or may not stave off the Swine Flu, while certain people in the pharmaceutical & medical communities collect the $200 per test, which take a week to get the results. Doctors still recommend you get the shot. Meanwhile, the illness itself may take that long to go through your system, in which case, you may develop your own antibodies, or die. Thank you, drive through. The flu shots, which are annually available, are usually several strains behind, remaining popular among the elderly, children, immuno-compromised & generally concerned folks.

Then, there are the people, who further perpetuate the fear, by trying to tie things together, like eating pork & the Swine Flu. Wow, How many people stopped eating chicken because of the Avian Flu, or going to Legionnaire functions because of the Legionnaire's Disease? Now, the toll of losses for the Pork Industry is around $1 billion. Incredible, what unschooled, yet skillfully cultured fear can accomplish. I would like to see what the disease-to-diet correlations are, if there have been any statistical studies to show, just how these things, which should have no relation to each other, save 1 word in a name, can have such a profound impact on the world of industry.

How about some other thoughts on this?

Be As Greasy As You Want To Be

Let's face it; whether you wear a pompadour, have a flat-top with the sides long (a.k.a., fenders), have a D.A. or have Baby-Bangs (we all love Bettie), you need pomade. Some people like the Dippity Doo kind of gel or mousse, which dries to a crispy or bullet-proof helmet. That's all well and good, if you intend on forgetting your Kevlar hat, before you dive into the trenches, but you have to wash out all that clear glue before you comb it back to Done.

I have made my own pomade, which I have used for 4 or so years now. I do not use any petroleum products to make my Greasy Tiki Pomade. The natural ingredients I use to make my pomade are food-grade, and organic, if at all possible. The first batches I made were incredibly stiff, so I referred to that as the Cadaver-Hold strength. What I use now, you don't have to heat with the blow-drier or put on the heater to melt before using. You just scoop out about a dime-sized portion, rub it between your palms and apply it as you would your usual product.

It's not water-soluble, so the rain won't make you melt or get your duds all gluey. It will get you through a weekender or whatever, without having to wash it all out and start over; just run the comb through it and go, go, go.

My pomade is in 3-ounce cans, which last a month or two, depending on how much you use and greasy you wear your hair. Who knows, if you really wear it slick and smoothed to a high-gloss, you may use more. Start out with a smaller amount, to see just how greasy you want to be.

Be as greasy as you want to be, with Rev. Scotty's Greasy Tiki Pomade.

Drop me a line and be one of the greasy!

Visit me at: https://www.facebook.com/RevScottysGreasyTikiPomade/