I'd like to thank everyone who has come along with me on this journey - I've definitely broken my personal blogging record with 48 days straight - and special thanks to all who have told me how much they've been enjoying reading each day's entries. There are obviously days where I have lots of time to craft a well-written post with insights and a little eye-candy, while others are so jam-packed with activity that it's all I can do to give a quick run-down of the day's events and a quick snap of something that represents the spirit of the proceedings. Today was pretty busy and tomorrow will be doubly so. This'll be short.

Day 2 of the 3-Day Intensive was a good one, lots of lights bulbs illuminating. I have a basic idea of where each class will go, but will take a different tack if a student asks a question, or something occurs to me. In a couple of sessions, I re-arranged parts of the song we were learning in order to provide a more pleasant playing experience. In one case, I actually figured out how to smooth out a particularly difficult phrase in the tune "Apple Blossom," which is a nice, small victory by itself!

In between sessions, I AirDropped the video from the iPhone 7+ and iPad, transferred it from the internal drive to the 5 TB external drive (my Macbook Pro's internal drive is only 256 GB, and about a 100 GB is system data), imported the files into Final Cut Pro X and let them transcode while I taught. After session six (three more to go), I laid them all into new projects, color-corrected them and then let them render, a process that takes anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. In the middle of all the rendering, I finished Friday's Dulcimerica, downloaded a series of photos taken a year ago at the fest of two rare Alvarez tenor ukuleles that belong to Rick Thum. I'm putting them on eBay and will extend the bidding to those who are at the fest. These are #1 and #2 - the only ukuleles that Alvarez ever made. I'm thinking a collector, or a supreme uke fan, is going to want one or both of these. They're fabulous instruments.

The Squirrel's Nest, just getting warmed up for the week.

While the last batch of video was rendering, I went over to The Squirrel's Nest for a little bit. This is a collective of the hottest players at the festival and they also know how to have a lot of fun with blingy hats, disco balls and wild antics. I've grown to love this motley crew and all of the great musical fun we've shared over the years and it's so tempting to leave all of this production work until next week so that I can sit, pick, hang out and enjoy their company.

But my goal is to render as I go - I can't slow down and let this video work get bunched up in the pipeline, I'll never catch up and maintain my self-imposed deadlines if I don't stick to the plan. This is being responsible. This is keeping focus. This is to occupy Monkey Mind. Only when I finish the work can I go out and play.

I've still got to post the eBay listings, finalize some resources for use in my workshops this week at the ODPC Funfest, which starts Thursday, prep product for set-up tomorrow, print out materials for the final three sessions, print out my materials for the week, attempt a run to the Dollar General to top off my PayPal, join Rick's jam and help lead the mountain dulcimers and hope for some aerial photography opportunities while the skies are still clear and the wind is calm. There are rehearsals to be scheduled too.

And sometime this week, I'm gonna get a butterscotch malted from Mishler's Drive-In. And for that 30 minutes that it's in my possession, I ain't doin' nothin' but hittin' the straw and chillin'.

Vendor set-up begins early in the morning. I may wait till lunch to get my tables situated. The dawn just might bring some choice flying weather.

Day 49

Day 48: Interstate Tour 2018