general newsiness

Ray's back to vampire hours, for the most part. Between the opressive heat and his allergies, it just makes more sense. He's still able to go waterskiing and do other sorts of daytime activities if they're planned ahead of time - the resilience of youth an' all! He can miss a day of sleep and make it up later. Currently he's going to bed around 7am, which is kind of nice. We get to see him for breakfast.



Our lovely neighbors, Mirror and Shiloh, have returned from their summer travels bringing, among other things, wick-tape for Ray's fire staff. I think I listed Mirror as one of my resources in the "learning plan" - although not by name. He's our friendly neighborhood "Professional Juggler" who has been an invaluble help to Ray in learning to spin the staff, balance assorted objects, and work with fire. He's a long time busker, so in addition to technical assistance, he has lots of handy advice about such topics as schtik and patter. Ray's mostly not interested in busking at this point, but he's been pretty polite about not shutting Mirror down when he has something to say. I'm hoping Ray will feel confident enough in his fire twirling to bring his staff to the Live and Learn Conference in a few weeks. We shall see.



Saturday evenings, Ray has been going to the local coffee-house with George and our neighbors. Shiloh is a singer-songwriter and she and Mir and George often play a set there. Its not really the sort of music Ray is drawn to, but he seems to enjoy going none-the-less. I think seeing his dad perform is kind of novel to him. Its novel to me! I've seen him jam with other musicians plenty of times, but lately he's been getting on stage more and more, and not just as "the bass player". He's been singing and playing guitar and mandolin. Not really new for George, but something he hasn't done in years so I'm glad Ray's getting to see another side of his dad.