Friday Drank our morning coffee and watched Annie and the squirrels. There are
always a few squirrels around. Red squirrels. They like the maple trees.
And the cottonwood trees. And the phone wires and the blue spruce and our
rooftop too. We have had as many as five squirrels in our yard at one time.
Annie’s job is to keep them all in the air at the same time. At least off
the ground, anyway. This morning was a record six squirrels. Squirrel
juggling. Six squirrels in the air at all times. A quick teleconference to present an audit report to a client board meeting.
This client is a Denver client, but they have board members all across the
state. So we have a phone meeting. I like it better when I’m in a room
with some people and a few others attend via conference call. It’s always
strange when I’m the one on the phone with no one else in the room. I don’t
get much feedback. There is a little shuffling of papers in the background.
Sometimes some muffled conversation I can’t quite make out. I try to speak
at an appropriate pace, and make appropriate pauses, but it’s so blank. It
illustrates how much we depend on expressions, gestures, and direct
interaction to pace a presentation. Off we go. On the road again. As we head down the road, Matt and Kari have
gone back to the Colorado River State Park outside Grand Junction in their
fifth-wheel to hang out there again for a long weekend. Sounds like sunny
hot weather for them. Here is my challenge for this weekend. I have been assigned the video
camera. I have been elected videographer. This would not be cause for
concern, except for having been assigned this responsibility at Jacob and
Yousun’s wedding. For that, I was unprepared. I had no experience with
video cameras. They handed me one and showed me how to use it. It didn’t
look too hard to use. Downright simple, in fact. Almost idiot proof.
Almost being the operative adjective. I went about my assignment thoughtfully, working to capture all the key
events from the best possible angles. I turned it off and on, zoomed and
unzoomed, recorded and paused. I did it all. I left, pleased with having
executed my task so well, considering my lack of experience. Later, I found
out the tape was blank. It’s not possible, but the tape was blank.
Somehow, I taped the entire event, without once properly engaging the record
feature. For this occasion, we came properly armed with our own video camera. We
bought our own, and made sure I was familiar with all the features. I know
I know how to use this one. Motorhome on the toll road, transponder on the dashboard, sixty-five miles
per hour, no traffic. An easy loop around to Interstate 76. Checked the
fuel while we were driving. The last time we tanked up was in Durango. We
still have half a tank. I like that. Out through Eastern Colorado towns. They pass quickly. Lochbuie, Hudson,
Keenesburg, Roggen, Wiggins, and Fort Morgan. Lunch on the road. Judy
prepared it while I was driving. We stopped in Keenesburg for a few minutes
to eat it. An eighty mile day. The motorhome parked next to the hog barn. A wedding
rehearsal. A rehearsal dinner. Lots of happy people. Lots of video.