It really fells like spring today, beautiful sunshine and warming temperatures.

Tough morning, headed up to the courts to see if they where ready. Still snow, really mostly ice, boy it was heavy heaving it over the fence. Got everything done except court six, unfortunately the melt form four will keep us from using three and four. Ran out of gas, I will be stiff tomorrow.

Boy’s basketball might get a reprieve. They got beat by Wayne on Sunday, but they may have used ineligible players in their previous game. We will see.

First tennis practice, 21 guys showed up. I know of two others, so I probably will have close to twenty this year. It looked like a good start. Hopefully they will continue to work hard.

My new lesson finally came for the dulcimer. Boy have I got a lot to learn: step ups, step downs, opens, flat picking. It should be interesting. Hopefully, my fingers can keep up.

It looks like another beautiful day. Keep melting that snow.

We were going to try to go to the pancake breakfast at Aullwood, but you needed reservations, so off to Bob’s.

Glued the next piece on the dulcimer. Now I am shut down until the shellac gets here. Hope it doesn’t take too long.

We went to see Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The  Lightning Thief. It was fun, but its not Harry Potter like they said.

Went to Sam’s and got all stocked up again, $200 dollars worth.

Worked on the dulcimer for a while. Getting the hang of it.

The sun is up and bright. Could be a good day on getting rid of a bunch more of the snow. I’ll be hiking this morning.

It was funny on my hike, I saw four dear bounding away and I saw two people whistling. I thought why are they whistling at the dear? Their dog was chasing the dear. Luckily the dog came back. I am not sure that would happen with all dogs. Saw a lady down the trail a little ways with a younger dog, again not on a leash. Let her know that she might want to put her dog on a leash unless she is positive the dog will come when called.

Started work on putting together the dulcimer kit. Doesn’t seem too difficult, but the directions are words with just one exploded view of the dulcimer. Not exactly what I am used to with directions for a model as they likened putting this together. Looks like there is going to be a bit more trimming that I expected. A little more art than science. It is going to take me a while to get this together, I had to order the finish I needed. They don’t sell shellac flakes at Home Depot. If I am going to go to the trouble of building this thing I am going to make it look as good as possible, even if it takes me a month to get this thing put together.

Worked on playing the dulcimer as well. My timing is getting better. I think this will be the key to getting stuff to sound right. Timing is also my problem on the piano. I would play the notes to a song and it would not sound like the song. When I finally get the disks that go with the song book I will be able to play along with it which will also help until maybe I develop the innate inner timing they talk about.

Watched UD boot another game away. This pretty much kills their NCAA hopes. To get into the NCAA they pretty much would have to win the league tournament. They play George Washington in the opener, at home, which should be winnable, but then they would have to beat Xavier again. Beating Xavier again is doable, but they have to find a way to be more consistent on offense. Actually winning the tournament in not out of reach, but again they need to find a consistent offensive rhythm. The NIT probably makes the most sense.

Sunny all day. I am loving it. Maybe the snow will be gone for tennis practice Monday.

I went to the courts this morning there is still quite a bit of snow, but I moved as much of the big stuff as I could, hopefully it will be enough.

Went out and worked on the apple trees some more. Pat calculated we have done 75 trees and have 27 of the dwarfs to go. Dan says we can work on as many trees as we want. Conservatively, you get a bushel of apples from a tree. I am not sure what we are going to do with all of those apples. Dan even wanted to know if I wanted some space for a garden at his place. Not sure I am up for that.

Looks like my lessons are finally on the way. The order rom Folkmusician is also on the way.

Finally a sunny day. The snow is going away. Goodie!

Busy day getting things set up for the bowling awards program. The basic certificates were cake, the GWOC ones were a pain, but they are done.

My dulcimer kit came. Doesn’t look harder than I thought. I went through the directions. I need to buy some supplies, but I think I can get it done. I guess we will see.

Worked on playing the dulcimer. I am trying to get my timing down. For me to get better and play things I don’t recognize, I have to get some better timing.

Judy is tired, so she is going to bed early. Dinner on my own tonight.

Since I am on my own I think I will start the Die Hard marathon.