Friday - United Way Day of Caring

A day away from the office at the United Way Day of Caring.

We have been fortunate in the past few years that the volunteer opportunities for the DoC have taken place, not only in our town, but also very close to where we live. This year, we were at the Oak Grove Nature Center, near where we live. This was a good opportunity for Lisa, since they have trails and gardens which are a part of the facility. These are used as teaching aids for children, and as a part of the summer camp that runs each year.

This year, we had a bit of a challenge. Lisa (as the coordinator) had met with the overall coordinator for the Lutz Museum, but he did not have complete information for the tasks we were to complete for the day. When we arrived, we actually met with the site facilitator, who had a different list of things to do. This wasn't really a problem, except that we usually staff based on what needs to be done. We have a number of very talented individuals on the team, and if you want something, built, torn down, painted, repaired, or tilled, this is the team for you. Unfortunately, our big task was counting, stacking and distributing newsletters for the museum. It's not that it wasn't a necessary task, just that it wasn't the best use of the available resources. Additionally, we were to paint the porch of the facility, but they only had regular latex exterior paint. For the high traffic floor of the porch, this was not a good choice. When I explained the problem with that paint to Nikki (the facility director), she mentioned the fact that they had to paint the porch three times that summer. I explained the need for a true floor paint, and what happens to latex when it gets damp (it softens) and when lots of dirty feet walk on it (you end up with dirt impregnated latex paint).

Afterwards, we head over to another site (actually one of the guy's houses) where the "after party" was being held. They had been building a 40 station fountain for the Hartford Marathon this year.

Home after Dave's - Lisa to doggie class and me to work with Chris. We spent our 90 minutes working on the first section of the Bach Two-Part Invention #6. Very good work, and we approached playability of this first section. I think this and #13 will form a good part of our work when it's the two of us, with some repertoire work.