Sideroads and Scales

Today was really the last day of holiday with my old parents.  A peaceful day of re-heating leftovers and practising slow scales.

And I also decided to unpack some of the archival boxes to get both of my parents thinking about their accomplishments and histories.  I have started a rudimentary website to collect the stories and hoping that my gifted mother will write the full story of her life.  She has lived in the shadow my log-building superstar father and I continually remind her that her story is valuable and important.  I piled manuscripts, radio scripts, photos, magazine articles dating back almost 60 years... and my mother began to remember her vital contributions.  Now I just have to figure out how to run the Google-supplied website thingy.

Dad is surrounded by his work, but even he needs to be reminded of all that he has accomplished (here is a recent article from the local Parry Sound magazine, Sideroads) Today, he reviewed the 7-part video series that he created in the 1990's as a sequel to his books and teachings.  He realized anew that this material is interesting to people, and his gifted caregiver is going to study the videos and start building in the spring (Linda is a long haul trucker, machinist, carpenter, seamstress and many more things).

As I push forward in my life, it is very important to revisit the past.  It is important to me to see my parents remembering the value of their own work.

And it is important for me to play scales!  As silly as it may sound, it is my foundation and security.  Playing slow scales(+ scales in 6th and 3rds) has helped me get rid of some niggling tendonitis that developed from some enthusiastic weight-training.  It is better to actively fix something rather than passively wait for it to go away, but aches and pains aside, it is always always good to review basics. Scales are always the best way to measure distances and build strength.