A busy day and a sad night

Nicole and I spent the day working outside - mowing, cutting tree limbs, beautifying the yard. We added window boxes to the screened in porch and re-potted several plants to let them stretch their arms and legs in their new homes. We rediscovered the garden in the back yard after removing an acre of weeds and were pleasantly surprised to find many of the vegetables and flowers still thriving.

We tried to go see an open house of a beautiful old Victorian but strangely it had been cancelled so we snooped around the house and peered in the windows anyway. A nice dinner with friends and a glass of wine and a movie, then off to bed. An exhausting but rewarding day.

5AM the phone rings - which can never be good news. Nicole's grandfather had passed away about an hour before at the age of 90. He was a big strong man even in old age: a flight instructor for the military after WW II training pilots on B29s who then went off to bases in Germany. One day he and a friend decided to have a little fun and they flew a plane under the Golden Gate bridge. Luckily he knew the right people, and didn't get thrown out of the Air Force and rose to the level of Captain. He left the military when his parents got sick and came back to run the family farm, leaving behind a career that inspired him and defined him. Wish for Ray the best for all that he sacrificed, not just because he served his country but for his own personal dreams set aside and the family that grew because he came home - including Nicole.

Be gentle - It's my first Blog

I have had many careers and many ambitions, but other than a run at poetry in my youth, I have never thought of writing until recently.

A short history: I have a degree in vocal performance, but have worked as a fast food cook, pizza maker, computer lab monitor, auto parts salesman, waiter, mechanic, record store manager, temp, receptionist, secretary, and finally many incarnations of jobs in Information Technology.

I seem to have a habit of taking on too much, but I am seemingly unable to decide which portions of my life to set aside in favor of the others. I am a father of two, almost a husband again, a teacher both privately and at a university, a singer, a techie, and a graduate student.

Now why with such a full plate would I start a blog which may end up stale, much as my two websites are? Good question, and I hope the answer is an unfulfilled desire to put something down on the page (cyperpage that is) that would mean something or at the very least give me the feeling of releasing my inner writer. I realized years ago I have only a small gift at poetry so I gave it up, but there is a writer sneaking around behind the ghosts of the mechanic, record store manager and waiter and I have to give him a chance.

So here is my first blog - a run on sentence of 39 years compressed into 5 paragraphs. Let me spice it up a bit with some life updates: I am 45 days away from my second marriage, and in another month I begin my second year of graduate school, as well as moving away from a quiet summer load of 3 students to a full load of Saturdays at the university (5-7 students) and 4-6 private students.

You may wonder why the blog address is tenorforhire and yet I am babbling about my life outside of music. No worries there - being a tenor I will inevitably rant on and on about singing, teaching and graduate school.

One last note here - my daughter is 7, and just yesterday she starting riding her bike all on her own. Hurray!