Home Again

My return trip from Houston was a little more eventful than I would have liked. My flight was delayed almost an hour which put me landing with just twenty minutes to spare in catching my shuttle back to Chattanooga. We deplaned at the farthermost gate and I sprinted to the carousel to retrieve my luggage. I plucked it as tumbled down the conveyor belt precisely one minute after the shuttle pulled out. Oh well. I waited another two hours for the next shuttle which carried me the final two hours back home.

While hanging out in the airport rotunda a young man who turned out to be a percussionist noticed my trapezoidal case and said he couldn't help asking what it contained. I unzipped the case to my Masterworks Soprano hammer dulcimer and gladly played a few songs right there in the food court. I hope I never stop enjoying seeing the wild surprise of people who've never seen or even heard of this ancient instrument. I also hope he goes home and buys one and introduces it to someone else.

Since returning home I've done quite a bit more work on this web site - none of which you can see yet. The next noticeable change will be in the photographs section. I'm going to thin out some of the older Yanni tour galleries so I'll have room when the tour resumes in a few weeks. I'm also updating the look of the galleries to match the new design.

Thursday night I went to the workshop of my friend Dennis Schreiner where he and Phil Hunt are working on perfecting our lighted hammer design. I also took in a couple of long hikes this week. Check out the Photographs page for new pictures.

It is with sadness and fond memories that I also note the death this week of our nearly thirteen year old Australin Shephard, Tiffy. It was time. She leaves behind great memories of listening to her do her best to talk to us every morning, watching her pursue tenniss balls to the point of exhaustion, and trying to stem her passion about chasing and unfortunately somethimes catching UPS trucks. We'll miss her, but she certainly lived a good dog's life in the best meaning of the words. ¶ 9:02 AM