Self medicating

The weather here has been unusually cool and wet. Folks who have been here a long time say it's the coolest July they can remember. I'm OK with that--hot and steamy are not my thing. The downside is that mold and pollen counts are crazy and my sinuses have been on overdrive. I've managed to keep it under control, mostly, with allergy meds but I've had a hard time with post nasal drip most of this month. It had the potential to be a serious issue this week. My throat was heading from scratchy to raw, and the Dudley's Rush Farewell (For A While) Gig is tonight.

Luckily I run across useful information when I'm studying. When I got home from work Wednesday, I went to the garden and picked a half-dozen sage leaves. They went into a teapot with boiling water, steeped for 20 minutes or so, and voila--sage tea. It's not something I would sip for pleasure with a good book. It's better hot but drinkable cool. Three pots of tea in two days seems to have done the trick. I still have the post nasal drip but the sage soothes the throat and inflamed tonsils, so I'll be able to sing tonight.

Disclaimer: As with everything, moderation is the key. I know, most of you reading this are American, and moderation is hard, but it is possible to over-due sage. Pregnant women should avoid the tea because large doses can cause contractions. If you have chronic conditions for which you take medication, run herbal stuff past your doctor to avoid interactions. "Herbal" and "natural" are not synonyms for "safe": Hemlock is an herb, and arsenic is natural.

Run-by posting

As usual, it's either full speed or full stop around here. I've been in full speed mode the last couple of weeks. I haven't quite figured out why, but all the fun things cluster on my calendar, causing me to have to work around things or decide what I'd rather do and what I'll have to miss. This is one of 'those' weeks.

This afternoon I'm working at the church for our youth fund raiser. Since I'm a Youth Group Parent, I'm expected to help out with the fund raiser. Lucky for me, the Day Job has done the appetizers for the last few years (most of us go to the same church). Appetizers get us in and out before the dinner gets under way, so while other parents supervise serving or clean up, we get to pack up and go out for a drink!

Tomorrow is the big Dudley's Rush concert we've been preparing for since November. It's part of the Fine Arts Series our church does every year. We've tried to tell them we're not exactly 'fine arts'; more like Arts and Crafts. The board insisted that they wanted us this year, though, and we're happy to oblige.

The timing could be better for me, of course, because if it weren't for the other obligations I'd be on my way to a rendezvous in Georgia right now. Not that I want to set up in this lousy weather; it's stormy all the way from here to there right now. This is the first rendezvous we're doing without Dad, so I've had to be very diligent about packing. I've also been working very hard to fill out Eric's wardrobe. He had enough costumes for a long weekend in warm weather. He needed more clothing to be out for a week, and he needed warmer clothing since it will be cold at night and potentially cold during the day. After my week in Florida this year I've learned the value of wool and layers. Anyway, we'll leave as soon as I get home from the concert tomorrow and stop in Chattanooga overnight so we can get into camp before lunch on Monday. We'll pull stakes next Saturday and get home Sunday. The camera battery is fully charged and I'll have a camera phone with me, so hopefully I'll have more pictures to post this time.

All that, plus the day I lost to a migraine this week, is why I've been scarce around here lately. On the plus side, I've proven that peppermint essential oil rubbed on the temples relieves headache pain. I should be back to full stop soon so I'll be around more. I hope...

Still around

There hasn't been much of note going on around here lately. I've been doing stuff around home, harvesting tomatoes like crazy from my garden and dehydrating them. My first class is done and I'm working on the second. Books are on order for the third. It's a joy to be studying to gain knowledge and not studying to maintain my GPA. (It's 4.0 right now, by the way!) I've been writing, but taking the time off when the Boys were here put me behind and I haven't caught up. It's something I need to get a grip on because we're going out of town next week for a few days, which puts me in a similar situation--little or no writing for several days at the beginning of the month.

Today I realized that my idea of seasonal is apparently different from the world's. I went shopping for simple cotton dresses for when it's really hot, and hiking boots for our vacation. What I learned is that girls don't hike in the summer. I did look at men's boots, but I need a 6 and the smallest I found was a 7. I may be hiking in running shoes next week. I also learned that natural fibers are not "in" and polyester is not a option in the heat. Dudley's Rush performed in an outdoor festival yesterday and the top I was wearing was a polyester/spandex blend. I was so hot! Honestly, if it hadn't been for the fact that I got to sing bluegrass I'd have been downright cranky. Even after I cooled down I still had to take a shower to wash the salt off my skin. Natural fibers are a deal breaker!

So that's pretty much what's going on around here. What's new with you?

Dooley meets the Von Trapps

Dudley's Rush had a gig yesterday afternoon at the local art festival. We considered it quite an honor to be invited and were thrilled to close the festival on the main stage.

Before the gig, though, there was church. Our choir usually sings a total of ten to fifteen minutes, give or take, through the service. Immediately after church, Dudley's Rush was rehearsing downstairs. That went from noon-ish to almost two. Then we loaded up the church bus and went down to the festival, unloaded, and waited for our turn to go on at three.

The weather was almost ideal--sunny and breezy, and they had a tent up to keep us all out of the sun. We had a nice crowd and sang almost non-stop for almost an hour and a half. We had a good mix of gospel and hillbilly; "Every Humble Knee Shall Bow" was offset by "Dooley" and "Old Joe Brown." We followed "Where the Soul of Man Never Dies" with "Boney Fingers." We were all pretty tired by that point, after having sung for the better part of six hours.

That's when we realized that the pubs had apparently been doing brisk business. Just before our last song, a guy in the crowd yelled out, "Hey! Sing Edelweiss!" We thought he was joking and had a nice chuckle. It was one of those 'but seriously' moments. We were wrong--he really wanted us to sing Edelweiss.

I'm sure it goes without saying that while it's a lovely song, there is no Bluegrass anywhere near it. "The Sound Of Music" wasn't even filmed in Southern Austria! Our intrepid leader loves a challenge, though. She played a few chords on her guitar, sang a couple of bars away from the microphone, made an adjustment, and said, "Capo five--key of C!"

*L* So our Bluegrass band sang Edelweiss--twice, and the audience sang along. We launched right into our last song, and he kept shouting requests as we left the stage. We escaped before he yelled out, "Freebird!"

It was coming, I'm sure!

Benefit concert video

I don't think I mentioned in the last post that a couple news stations came to the Benefit. Here's a story that ran last night on KSDK news. Naturally I have it taped, too. Yeah, I'm that much of a dork! Jeez, we had fun yesterday!

The power of suggestion

Middle of last November, I was rehearsing with Dudley's Rush. We were wrapping up when one of the girls asked if anyone thought we should do a benefit concert for a local police officer who had been shot in the face in the line of duty. We all agreed it would be a great idea; the family was sure to have a lot of medical bills because the officer's injuries were quite extensive. He'll need several reconstructive surgeries and rehab because he lost his sight.

Fast-forward to today, a bare two months later. I spent the entire day at church, starting with worship, moving into rehearsals, and then the concert. During a little piece of down time I noticed a little boy from our congregation setting up a table with a basket of rubber balls and a big jar. He was selling the balls to raise money for the police officer. He'd been to another benefit a couple weeks ago and raised $119.50. I bought some balls for the cats and told him he needed to break $120.

We had five music groups, different kinds from Bluegrass to Barbershop, and the concert was a total of 1 1/2 hours. The church was packed. We had more people than on Christmas Eve and Easter. The sanctuary seats about 500; we might have been able to get a half-dozen more in if we'd had to. I was floored when the pastor announced that we'd raised over $7,100. I'm still floored.

And the little boy with the bouncy balls? He blew his record away--$205.

It's a rare thing to have something that big come together in less than two months, especially considering the holidays were stuck in the middle. It's magical, miraculous. We had over 500 angels in our church today.