strings, gunshots, travels

i put fresh strings on my fiddle last night and a new battery in my pre-amp.. by all accounts that makes me ready to rock. i forget how amazing a new set of strings makes my instrument sound…. putting my playing on auto-improve just by $75 investment. i have been seriously considering taking my violin to a local luthier on the sunshine coast in the near future to get a good once over and have a growing hairline crack in the body repaired before it gets worse. it’s been ages since i have taken her in for a check-up, and at this age (250+ years) it’s stupid not to take care of small problems as they arise.

i woke up last night at around midnight with a start, and then shortly afterwards heard what sounded like a shotgun blast in the distance. this is not the first time i have heard gun noises since moving to the coast… i forget that the further you get out of the city, the more likely people are to be shooting at moving things in their yards at night. in the weekly coast reporter, the police file often has reports of gun shots called in by neighbours etc. it’s odd, and strangely non-threatening (unlike the few times i heard shots in east van neighbourhoods, which just seemed more menacing owing to the urban context).

having a hard time focusing this morning, probably as a result of fitful sleep, and also trying to figure out travel plans over the next few months. am working out the dates to visit bella coola in july, have to book a ticket to winnipeg for a union convention in august, and start thinking about the early fall canoe trip aaron and i are planning. i’m thinking a possible trip to victoria in june (which might be the last of the island trips until fall given the fact i need some weekends for camping and may also end up working in the interior during the forest fire season – i have signed up to do crisis comm as a federal communicator if things get ugly). in all, it’s shaping up to be an interesting summer if all plans go through as i want them to.

but so rarely they do…… we’ll see what transpires and i’m sure i’ll have fun no matter. in the meantime it’s work and union cases (i feel like i’m running a counselling service off the side of my desk this week)….. there just doesn’t seem to be enough time to do everything i want to get done!