This morning I asked the tree trimmers that were on our road if I could pick up the wood that they were cutting. They said yes, and here's one of the loads of wood that we got.Hurray for free firewood!
Firewood!
This morning I asked the tree trimmers that were on our road if I could pick up the wood that they were cutting. They said yes, and here's one of the loads of wood that we got.Hurray for free firewood!
The LaSalle Bank Do-It-Yourself Messiah
Thursday night our family along with about 65 other friends, rode the train into Chicago to the Civic Opera House to sing Handel's Messiah along with about 3,000 other people! The event was the LaSalle Bank Do-It-Yourself Messiah.
The orchestra and soloists were on stage, and the choir was us, the attendees! Maestro Stanley Sperber was our director. We did our best to stay together with the orchestra, but in spite of our best efforts we were still off at times. As a matter of fact, I don't think we've ever been more off before. I'm not sure the exact cause of this occasionally extreme division, but it was still a lot of fun.
On another note, I might add that I think the soloists were the best they've had!
Here are some pictures from the evening.
Getting ready to head out!
Many thanks to Michael Stallings and the use of the Millennium Falcon, in which seven of us were safely transported to and from the Crystal Lake Train Station.
Here comes the train!
Surprisingly, we showed up just as the doors opened and we were still able to get a seat all the way in the front! Here we are in the opera house lobby waiting for the doors to open, so we can find our seats.
Yeah! We got six seats in the very front row! Here's a picture looking back from our seats during the intermission.
On the far left you can see the bass soloist singing "The Trumpet Shall Sound". I am so glad that they had the trumpet soloist come to the front during that piece. They both were incredible!
Ahh, another one of my favorites, the tenor and alto duet "O Death, Where Is Thy Sting?". I might add that (as you can see in the picture) the alto part was sung by countertenor - Brian Asawa.
The orchestra and soloists were on stage, and the choir was us, the attendees! Maestro Stanley Sperber was our director. We did our best to stay together with the orchestra, but in spite of our best efforts we were still off at times. As a matter of fact, I don't think we've ever been more off before. I'm not sure the exact cause of this occasionally extreme division, but it was still a lot of fun.
On another note, I might add that I think the soloists were the best they've had!
Here are some pictures from the evening.
Getting ready to head out!
Many thanks to Michael Stallings and the use of the Millennium Falcon, in which seven of us were safely transported to and from the Crystal Lake Train Station.
Here comes the train!
Surprisingly, we showed up just as the doors opened and we were still able to get a seat all the way in the front! Here we are in the opera house lobby waiting for the doors to open, so we can find our seats.
Yeah! We got six seats in the very front row! Here's a picture looking back from our seats during the intermission.
On the far left you can see the bass soloist singing "The Trumpet Shall Sound". I am so glad that they had the trumpet soloist come to the front during that piece. They both were incredible!
Ahh, another one of my favorites, the tenor and alto duet "O Death, Where Is Thy Sting?". I might add that (as you can see in the picture) the alto part was sung by countertenor - Brian Asawa.
Driver Returns On Foot
Wow! Talk about a lot of snow! Two Fridays ago the plan was for me (Jonathan) to pick Jeremy up from the Mechanic at 8:30, and drop him off at his house on the way to Rockford. Well, as you may have guessed that didn't happen. I was allowing an hour and a half for me to get to school (due to all the snow), but I didn't even get out of the driveway until 8:45 (I'd been trying to get out since 8:00). When I finally got on the road, the snow was so deep that I couldn't drive more than 25 mph because I was going sideways half the time. Rte. 173 was a mess, occasionally I saw the two yellow stripes in the right wheel rut, but most everywhere else I'd guess that the snow was about 5" deep of heavy, packed road snow. Needless to say, I decided not to go to school.When I finally got into Harvard fifteen minutes later (that's about five miles, and I've gotten there faster on my bike), I had already passed one snow plow that was in the ditch (I think he missed the road), three cars in the ditch and one pickup truck stuck in the middle of the road.
The snow was falling so fast that my windshield wipers were clogged with snow, and the side windows were continually being covered with snow, so when I actually got to the mechanic I passed it by accident because (due to the limited visibility) I just didn't see it. I ended up driving the whole way home at about 15mph with my head out the window because the windshield wouldn't stay clear. I really felt like I was in a boat because with the engine speed going up and down spinning the wheels on the snow it sounded like a boat, and with the car sliding around it felt like it too.
With Rte. 173 being as bad as it was, we decided not to try to take my car down our road, so Jeremy dropped me off at the end of our road, and then drove my car back to his house. Thus I enjoyed a 1 mile walk through the snow in the middle of a snow-storm on the way home from what would have been school (just like the old days right?).
During my walk home I did get a call from a friend saying that RVC was closed. So much for what they said about community colleges never closing due to weather. :-)
We ended up with +16 inches of snow that day. Now two weeks later - it's all gone...
Will we have a white Christmas? We'll have to wait and see.
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