Another musical afternoon

This afternoon I was at another choir performance. It was the annual brunch with a meal followed by the musical performance and silent auction as a fund raiser. This year they performed Brahms Liebeslieder Walzer Op. 52 (Love Song Waltzes). The choir sang accompanied by piano, as well as some solos and duets, and a piano duet. There was a couple dancing to some of the waltzes while the choir sang. One of the nicest waltzes was called On Danube's Border with the choir and dancers. They also performed this piece again at the end as an encore. I thought it was a very enjoyable performance.

Meetings, Meetings

I attended business unit meetings Wednesday and Thursday. I am fortunate I do not have to go to as many meetings as I used to, but I have sat through my share of lengthy boring meetings over the years. Several years ago at a meeting of our business unit I tried a change of pace from dry technical presentations with a presentation titled Meetings, Meetings: A Serious?? Guide to Making Meetings More Fun. Everyone was very amused - except for the vice president. He was definitely not amused. I just found a copy of that presentation.



The presentation was based on a book I have called Meetings, Meetings: How to Manipulate Them And Make Them More Fun by Winston Fletcher. I like some of the quotes from that book:

“One either meets or one works. One cannot do both at the same time.” Peter Drucker
“Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything” J.K. Galbraith
"If you can avoid a decision, do so. If you can get someone else to avoid a decision, don't avoid it yourself. If you cannot get one person to avoid the decision, appoint a committee." Sharu S. Rangnekar

Some of the quotes I called meeting mathematics:
“The usefulness of a meeting is in inverse proportion to the attendance” H.V. Prochnow
“The possibility of avoiding decisions increases in proportion to the square of the number of members on the committee.” Sharu S. Rangekar
“The length of a meeting rises with the square of the number of people present.” E. Shanahan
“The point of total ineffectiveness in a committee is reached when the total membership exceeds twenty.” Cyril Northcote Parkinson

I also recently saw an article in Popular Science called Make Meetings Efficient. It included links to some websites with help for managing your time in meetings, for things like online meetings or meeting scheduling. One I found amusing was called Get Me Out Of Here www.getmooh.com. You can set it up to call your cell phone at a prescheduled time, and then you escape from the meeting because of your so-called "important" call.

Attending meetings is sometimes unavoidable, but they can be more efficient - and more fun.

First Day of Spring

According to the calendar today is the first day of spring. The sunrise was 7:01AM and sunset is 7:10PM so we are past the vernal equinox with equal day and night. But so far spring looks a lot the same as winter as seen by this picture of our back yard.

One good thing is that we had a low of only -8C and were up to +3C, a lot better than the record low of -33 C for this date. And there should be more warmer weather to come. I am just hoping the snow will be gone by Easter which is 3 weeks away.

I have a daily journal with quotes at the top of each page. Here are a couple about spring:

Spring is wonderful. It makes you feel young enough to do all the things you're old enough to know you can't. - Franklin P. Jones

Spring is when you feel like whistling, even with a shoe full of slush. - Doug Larson

More Pillow Stories

I posted before that I was trying different pillows to see if it would help with neck pain and headaches. Elaine got me a Mediflow water-based pillow and I have been using it for the last two nights. It is made by the same company as the Chiroflow pillows that Mary and Chris got. I put the minimum amount of water in it to try it at the softest support. Mary asked how far my head sinks into it when it is the softest. I told her that is no problem because my head isn't very heavy. It pretty well floats on top of the water. Anyhow after the first two nights this pillow seems to be OK.

First Sign of Spring

I have been just working from home for the last while with the very cold weather, so I had not been into the office for quite a while. I pretty well went into hibernation. But this morning the weather was much better, -6C at 8AM and then going up to about +1C. So I went out to the office this morning.

When one of the "characters" I have worked with for many years saw that I had come to the office today he said to everyone, "It's the first sign of spring. Just like Groundhog Day. We know spring is here when David comes out and sees his shadow."

Great Grandparents

These are pictures I have of my great grandparents Samuel and Elizabeth Hingston. Samuel was born in the Whitehall/ Cunnamore area near Skibbereen Ireland in 1818 and died in 1888. Elizabeth was born in 1852 in Bantry Ireland and married Samuel in 1876. She was left to raise five young sons when Samuel died, with the oldest being 10 and the youngest (my grandfather) being 4 years old. She came to Canada in 1906 and died in 1926.

I don't know the years the pictures would have been taken but the upper younger one of Samuel could have been in the 1840s when the first photography studios were established in Ireland. This picture looks like it is printed onto the back of the glass. The lower picture of Samuel says it was by Lauder Bros photographers of Dublin. This studio was established in 1853 but the picture was likely in the 1880s.

Elizabeth looks quite old in her picture but she would have been only 54 years old when she left Ireland. She likely looks older by the style of dress and the type of picture.

You can see by the lower picture that Samuel was a large man. I previously posted about Samuel's brother John Hingston and the information about him was that he was well over 6 feet tall so Samuel was likely the same.

Jacob had Stones for a Pillow

Gen 28:11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.

I have been trying a different pillow each night to see if it helps me with pain I get in the night in my back and neck. I have been having headaches that seem to be related to soreness in my neck and shoulder. I told Elaine that my main problem seems to be that my head is connected to my neck.

She asked me how the pillow was that I tried last night. I said it reminded me of where Jacob used stones for a pillow. It was pretty lumpy.

Mary has been telling about the water pillows that she and Chris got from their chiropractor. Maybe I will have to investigate something like that.

One Day at a Time

We do have to remember and learn from the past. And we need to plan for the future. But sometimes we worry about "water that has already gone under the bridge." And we often worry about crossing bridges we may never come to. We need to a greater extent to live one day at a time. I think the words of this song* express this quite well:

One day at a time sweet Jesus
That's all I'm asking from you.
Just give me the strength
To do everyday what I have to do.
Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be mine.
Lord help me today, show me the way
One day at a time.

* Chorus from ONE DAY AT A TIME, SWEET JESUS by Marijohn Wilkins and Kris Kristofferson

New Haircut

The Blog Fodder was telling how he is saving money on his haircuts now. And Mary was showing off how cute her new haircut looks. Not to be outdone I got a new haircut yesterday. Mary was wondering if her hair looked better in front of her ears or behind. I am fortunate not to have any decisions to make about my hair.