Mostly Caught Up & Other Thoughts

It was a day to catch up on various projects:

1. Back up My Documents on my computer (1 CD)
2. Back up photos (11/27/04 - 11/27/05) on Jean's computer (1 DVD)
3. Kitchen clean up - dishes, sinks, stove
4. Go back to Staples and buy TurboTax Deluxe
5. Enter preliminary data in TurboTax (Federal)
6. Practice band music (holiday concert 12/20/05)
7. Apply bore oil to new clarinet
8. Have all rebates from Black Friday completed

All of the above has been done and I am pleased that what we will owe in federal taxes this year (due to my contracting income while still at my "old job") will not be major AND we get a $2,000 credit deducted from our income due to having bought a hybrid vehicle this year.

Yesterday I was asked to do special music for Sabbath School in 2 weeks. I thought "clarinet piece!" and went looking immediately for the church member who sits next to me and plays 2nd clarinet in community band, to see if she would do a duet on the piece that I played with Cheryl and her cello at the Surrey Filipino Church.

YES! She will play with me and was excited about making it a trio or even a quartet. She has the contact phone number for the 1st chair clarinet in the community band (retired lab tech from Stoneham that I knew when we lived there) and I contacted Allison. Allison is really interested in doing it as well!

So yesterday afternoon I arranged parts for 3rd clarinet and bass clarinet from the hymnal so that if we have 2, 3 or 4 clarinets we will have music to play. The bass clarinet part can be played by a soprano clarinet (which is one octave higher than a bass clarinet - same fingering: sort of like a viola-cello situation) but it would not sound as nice as if it were actually pitched lower. As in - a bass clarinet.

Of course, I had to see how the bass clarinet part sounded. This involved getting out the bass clarinet, playing it, oiling the keys, tightening the screws, and oiling the bore (which actually looked to be in very good shape with only one very slight check in the wood at a joint that is superficial and contained by a ring - it may even be old). So the bass clarinet has had maintenance done on it for the first time in 12 - 15 years.

The other thing that we (my Sabbath School class) are toying with is re-instituting a mid-week prayer service. The November 17 Adventist Review has an interview (Stephen Chavez with Frederick Russell, Baltimore, MD, USA) of how the mid-week prayer service has changed their congregation after he visited the Brooklyn Tabernacle mid-week prayer service.

That article in combination with this quotation:

"God calls for a spiritual revival and a spiritual reformation. Unless this takes place, those who are lukewarm will continue to grow more abhorrent to the Lord, until He will refuse to acknowledge them as His children."

"A revival and a reformation must take place, under the ministration of the Holy Spirit. Revival and reformation are two different things. Revival signifies a renewal of spiritual life, a quickening of the powers of mind and heart, a resurrection from spiritual death. Reformation signifies a reorganization, a change in ideas and theories, habits and practices. Reformation will not bring forth the good fruit of righteousness unless it is connected with the revival of the Spirit. Revival and reformation are to do their appointed work, and in doing this work they must blend."--The Review and Herald, Feb. 25, 1902 (Selected Messages, Vol. 1, Pages 127-128)[emphasis supplied]

suggested to my class that we need a mid-week prayer service desperately. We are praying that our pastoral staff will join us to help provide leadership.