I was thinking a lot about pipes today. Here’s what came to mind:
How grateful I am to have been able to make some progress and get to the serious “learning stages” with this instrument
What a pleasure it is to have so many friends in the pipering community
David Quinn has earned my utmost respect, more respect than I have for any other man, for his skill and intellect
How much fun I had playing the beehive set today
What a great friend Skip Cleavinger has become
How amazing Patrick d’Arcy’s piping has become over the years
Gabriel McKeagney is truly a wonderful man and one of my greatest friends
Gabriel and Larry Dunn have done many great things for pipering in the US West that will prove to have far reaching even worldwide impact
C# really is the pipers pitch…and Cn ain’t bad either
Slow airs are best played slowly…and some reels are best played that way also
Davis Watson currently owns the very best reed I’ve ever constructed, a real gem, and I hope that it will continue to serve him well and have a beneficial impact on even those who will hear him play
That the pipers gathering in Atlanta in about 10 days will be a blast…many thanks to Gary White for his efforts
That the Cn session we had at Gaby’s this past weekend (6 chanters/ 3 sets going at one time) was truly a delight
I’ve got too much to learn to fool around with C&F any more tonite!!!
I have had to bow out thanks to outrageous fuel prices and an empty wallet. Sorry to miss this one, it would’ve been a pleasure to hear you pipe again Lewis. I hope you have a great time, and that the tunes are many and enjoyable!!!
I have had to bow out thanks to outrageous fuel prices and an empty wallet. Sorry to miss this one, it would’ve been a pleasure to hear you pipe again Lewis. I hope you have a great time, and that the tunes are many and enjoyable!!!
Bummer! We’ll miss your presence. Gas in Nashville is $3.50/gallon!! It has not fallen despite the fact that oil and gas prices have fallen considerably over the past few days and the refineries in the Gulf have been back on line for three days now…go figure! I estimated travel costs to Atlanta and figured it will cost me just $25 extra, this week over pre Katrina, to make the trek to Atlanta for the gathering so I am still planning to attend.
…and somehow #15 got cut off your list: what a good looking and talented bloke that tommykleen is.
How very true! Mr. Kleen, I regret that I did not send you a Happy Birthday note on our birthday. Happy belated. Going to Seattle in Feb?
Thanks for sharing the positive karma.
You are welcome. As one of you wrote and commented to me in private, pipes are wonderful…music is great…but its all about the people we meet on our respective journeys.
Here in Australia, petrol prices went through the roof the day immediately after Hurricane Katrina with our oil companies claiming it was a direct result of the storm. Must be a really fragile world. As of today they are still going up.
No, just a really crooked one. Oil reserves are being promised from countries all over the world to insure no interuption to supply. Oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico were back in production three days after Katrina. We are simply being screwed, and on a global scale, under the mysterious incantation of “oil futures”.
As luck would have it, I filled up the truck the day before Katrina, and through carefully cutting back my usage, still have half a tank left. Prices here seem to have peaked. They dropped down from CDN$1.33/L to CDN$1.15/L this morning. I will hold out until I’m running on fumes before I pay those prices.
Oils wells are up but gas wells are still down in the Delta. Trans: higher home heating bills this winter. If folks want to stay warm this winter…and not go broke…they will have to snuggle up more.
I expect a slight blip in the birth rate next late-summer/fall nudge, nudge.
The problem is not the oil from the Gulf but from the refineries that were put out of commission in LA, MS, and AL.
While huge planning decisions loom (should the Mississippi River be allowed to flow straight south and create a new port?, should homes be rebuilt in the bottom of the ‘bowl’?, who are the stakeholders for the rebuilding as 2/3 of the residents were not covered for this?, who pays for the cleanup - when the water goes down and toxic film/sludge is everywhere?, how does everything start up again? how do you open a school with no students or tax base, how will cops be paid?), the French Qtr, gambling, and the convention/tourism business will lead the way.
Insurance would have covered for the hurricane damage but not the failure of the levee system.
This one guy said the area of devastation is larger than the UK. That sounds large but all we got was a little hail out of the deal and it’s a two day drive at full speed to get there from here.
Everyone knows the harmonic resonances created by high winds causes the already refined gasoline in the huge, full tanks under the filling station to rise in value at the first puff over 60 knots 1500 miles away, like it did here.
Must be a really fragile world. As of today they are still going up.