Rainy day. Hoped to get in a hike, but when I looked at the weather it said rain all day. I should have used the window method. Rain was pretty spotty and light. Could have gotten one in.

Worked on the dulcimer for a good part of the morning. I really like what I can do with Bile Them Cabbage Down. I have been able to use the special stuff Siefert showed in his lesson. Wish I had a better feel for them in other types of songs.

Went to Riley’s for dinner for Dave’s seventieth birthday. Got in some nice zings on the “old fart.” We also watched a couple of movies. One of them was, Men Who Stare At Goats. Not the best movie, but some of it was funny and since it had a military base I was able to give Dave crap.

Nice day today. Greg and I took a hike at the Narrows in the morning. I was surprised at the standing water on the trail in some places. The last real hard rain most of the trail was in reasonable shape. The only real soft places were where the springs leak out. But there was standing water along the section of the main trail that parallels the Cold Spring Trail. I was really surprised it had water since the was no water at all with the last rain. The other place that was a veritable river was the piece of the Big Woods Trail that runs along the river. We decided to dub it Gregory Creek.

Lowered the bridge a little on the dulcimer to get the strings close to the nickel’s thickness they are supposed to be from the frets. I have to say, it seams to play easier. Though it may all be in my mind.

Judy’s cousins Cathy and Peggy were in from Boston, so we had a little get together here. Showed Cathy the dulcimers and she noodled around on them a little. With all of her fiddle experience it wont take her long to really get the hang of it. Syd played, Bile them Cabbage Down and I played back-up for her.

They were right. After all the rain the snow started, almost two inches, Roads were a little slippery, Judy got a two hour delay. I was not so lucky. Hopefully this will be the end of snow for the season.

Pretty quite at work. Kevin now wants to put together a coach’s handbook. I gave him all the research I did last year or the year before. He should get what he needs from the various handbooks that I printed out. Some of them are way to complicated and long, but he should be able to sift out what he needs.

It was a little chilly at tennis practice, but with the sun out brightly it din’t feel too bad. I wish the guys would push themselves a little bit. They seem to be satisfied where they are currently. I have to keep telling them to try new things and get out of their comfort zone.

They said it was going to rain today, it took a little longer than they said, but its really been coming down. No tennis today.

We had a Athletic Council Meeting today. Educators are rude and overbearing. They don’t listen to anyone else and talk over each other. If they don’t think you’re agreeing with them they just talk louder. It’s amazing.

Finished the dulcimer today. Sounds good, just a little different tone than the other one. I still need to do some fine tuning. The bridge needs to be lowered a little to make the action a little better. It shouldn’t be too hard to do, but you have to sand the bridge down. I just have to be careful not to sand it down too much. We will see.

Turned out to be a real nice day. It got over 60. We may not be so lucky tomorrow, they are talking about rain most of the day.

Got a bunch of little stuff done at work. Nothing big, nothing exciting.

Played Stebbins in a scrimmage. We won 3-2. Went about the way I expected, We won both double and third singles. The third singles and second doubles both went three sets. Ryan at third singles lost the first set and took the next two. Patrick and Evan won the first and third. Was able to make some good points because of the loses at one and two.

Put the wax coats on the dulcimer. So if I get time I will finish up putting the string on it and hopefully will sound real good. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

U.D. blows by Illinois, if they hit their free throws in the last two minutes it would have been a real laugher. The announcers couldn’t get over U.D.’s speed and athleticism. If they could just shoot like they did tonight they probably could play with any team in the country. It will be interesting to see if U.D. can keep up the intensity and offense they have shown the last few games.