New Rainy Season Hobby!

Our 700th Post!  I wish it could be better or more profound, but what are you gonna do?!  We put them out as they come in...

One of Melinda's collections (ask her about chickens sometimes!), is that she gathered second hand musical instruments as décor for around the house.  We've got a couple guitars, a trombone, trumpet, sax and clarinet.  And there was a stringless banjo that caught my eye.  Now I played a little (full-size, actually) trombone while in jr high school, and I remember almost nothing about music, but our last trip here I dropped off the banjo for restringing, thinking I might like to take it up (anyone remember the movie "Harold and Maude"?).  Today I picked it up, signed up for my first 2 classes, and also got the instruction booklet (note it says "grade 1" on the cover!).  So about the time I go back to Arizona, I'll know whether or not A: I have any aptitude at all, B: It still interests me after a couple weeks effort, and C: If it serves any secondary purpose like driving cats, spouses or insect pests from the room when I practice!  It turns out it even fits into a guitar case one of the guitars lived in, so it may well travel on RAGBRAI with me.  As bus driver I've got time to sit in the shade practicing, so it might be fun!  Besides, during Arizona's Summer rainy season, astronomy is mostly out of the question, so it provides an alternate activity.