Our run of luck with the nice weather continues, interrupted only last Saturday when it rained all day. I spent a good chunk of the day doing origami. I completed the first successful single-sheet stellated icosahedron earlier in the week. I made out of a 19″ sheet of elephant hide. I unfolded and refolded the bottom and the lock several times, experimenting until I found an arrangement of the paper that worked best. The finished model is a bit squished, so Saturday I spend a bunch of time folding a new one now that I know how it goes at the finish. This one is out of 15″ mohawk skytone paper, given to me by my friend Madonna. It’s a very nice paper, a bit thinner than elephant hide, but just as strong and crisp, and in a variety of nice soft colors. This one is almost finished, just the final collapse to go. With luck it will be an exhibit quality model, just in time for this year’s OUSA convention.
Michelle came home from college Saturday. we immediately rebooted family game night. We also finally also finished Muppets Mayhem. Now Michelle is baking a cake. Nice ot have her home.
I got three bike rides in last week during the week. Then went for another bike ride with Jeannie Sunday morning, on the same pathway but this time starting in Yonkers. This time Michelle came with us. Jeannie thought her bike was too tall for her, so she tried riding Michelle’s. She thought that was too small, although Michelle likes Jeannie’s bike. (Michelle is about six inches taller than Jeannie, although they were around the same height when I bought Michelle her bike.) Anyway, Jeannie is now shopping for a new bike.
I went 12 miles although Jeannie and Michelle both turned around earlier. Afterward I came home and did a bunch of yardwork, including washing the Mustang and putting armorall on the new tires. Ah how it all gleamed, for one brief shining moment. I left it out in the driveway for a few hours and by time it was already dusted in tree pollen. Ah well. I also trimmed my hedges, which involved going up and down a ladder and swinging around a trimmer over my head for a few hours. By the end I was pretty tired.
In jazz land, Steve, the old drummer for my group Spacecats had to leave for health reasons. This was unfortunate because he was an excellent drummer, a great guy and a good friend. Luckily, we got a new drummer a couple months ago, and he’s been working out well. His name is Rick, and he’s a friend of our bassist Ken. He’s an excellent player, great chops, great groove, very responsive and energetic. He also writes, and is into alot of the same kind of stuff we are, not just jazz but fusion, rock, prog, and jazz-adjacent funky jam bands, and likes experimenting with bringing those sounds into the group. Last week our piano player Josh couldn’t make rehearsal, so we got together as a trio, sax bass and drums. It was super fun exploring different sounds and ideas. We did tune by Stone Alliance called Sweetie Pie for just such a set of instrumentation. Also ran Some Skunk Funk a few times, getting it fast and tight. I think it’s time to start looking for gigs.