My birthday week

Hi everyone,

We now have all new doors, windows, and sliding glass doors on our condo, a necessary change to comply with updated Florida insurance requirements. For part of one day we were open to the elements while the workers removed one sliding door to replace the new one.

But we’ve been compensated by having ROBIN and JEFF with us for an entire week. They were here by tradition to help me celebrate my birthday, which they did in style!

The girl in the window

Hi everyone,

True to my word, I’ve taken some time off. But skip showing you this? Come on!

Back to work soon.

Tim Williams is in his prime!

Hi everyone,

Yesterday we celebrated the birthday of a special person in our lives, TIM WILLIAMS, our son-in-law. Tim and ROBIN have been married 38 years now and SANDY and I have loved every minute of having Tim in our family. Yesterday his mom and dad, CLAIR and FRED WILLIAMS, drove in to join us and his son KRIS rounded out the party. What kind of father-in-law allows his son-in-law to grill the burgers and brats? One who knows that Tim has few equals around the grill and is always willing to help. Happy birthday, Tim! We love you.

Happy birthday, dear Sandy!

Hi everyone,

Today is my sweetie’s birthday. She won’t tell me her age but I’m guessing in her mid-50s. Sometimes it’s better when you don’t do the math. Sandy, I adore you. Happy birthday!

Trying to get in tune

Hi everyone,

For no particular reason, I’d like to share a trombone poem with you today. I don’t remember when I wrote it or where it originally appeared. I might have written it specifically for SYLVIA VARDELL and JANET WONG for their book, The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School, published by Pomelo Books in 2013. At some point I made a video of the poem with SANDY playing the role of my music teacher. She was a natural. Of course.

In the School Band

I play a slide trombone,
My teacher says I’m flat,
I’m not as good as I’d like to be,
But there’s nothing to do about that.

I play the slide trombone,
At least I’m not the worst,
I’m one chair up from the guy who’s last,
Twenty-five chairs from first.

My teacher says I’m flat,
I sound all right to me,
First chair practices every night.
When does he watch TV?

I’m not as good as I’d like,
A trombone isn’t easy,
Even guys I like a lot
Say I make them queasy.

I play a slide trombone,
My teacher says I’m flat,
I’m not as good as I’d like to be,
But there’s nothing to do about that.

(c) 2013 David L Harrison, all rights reserved