April joins the previous months in having a nice assortment of activities.
April 7 was Arizona Gives Day. According to the website arizonanonprofits.org,
"Arizona Gives Day is a statewide, 24 hour, online giving campaign. Arizona Gives Day is a way for people to find, learn about, and contribute to causes they believe in. Arizona Gives Day provides nonprofits with a way to share their story and engage the community through a unique online giving platform." I donate monthly to local charities, and made my donations this day to add to the effort. My first donation was to the Flagstaff Friends of Traditional Music, one of the organizations in which my fiddle teacher is involved. As of last year, I've decided to make a donation every April in honor of Dad and Mom. I took advantage of this drive to boost my donation to the Sunshine Rescue Mission, which had someone matching donations. This is a significant event, with an impressive statewide total raised of:
$2,042,075.00
One has to accept the various markers of the passing years, so on April 10, I marked turning 60 by.....getting a shingles vaccination. Mayoclinic.org says this:
" Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash. Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus — the same virus that causes chickenpox. After you've had chickenpox, the virus lies inactive in nerve tissue near your spinal cord and brain. Years later, the virus may reactivate as shingles. While it isn't a life-threatening condition, shingles can be very painful. Vaccines can help reduce the risk of shingles, while early treatment can help shorten a shingles infection and lessen the chance of complications." I've heard people who've had shingles
say it is exquisitly painful, so I'm pre-empting that experience!
My violin teacher Emily has been encouraging me to play in the various recital opportunities that have arisen during my short-lived violin playing experience. I'd steadily declined, as I wanted the ratio of screech to something approximating music to change. That ratio has changed, and Emily more forcefully encouraged me to play at the April 11 recital. I did so. The recital was sponsored by the local studio she teaches with, Flagstaff School of Music. It was a very nice event, with ages ranging from about 5 years to my 60. There were two other adult women who played, one on cello and one on piano. All family members who attended were generous with their appreciation of all players. Ron went, and I invited friend Kim as well. Kim and I have had some discussion about "real people playing real music", and they both enjoyed that aspect. Kim was in fact so taken with real cello music played by real people that he decided to join in. He's acquired a cello, and has started lessons with Emily! Jumping the gun a little, we're already talking about playing duets!
April 12 Ron and I went to the Theatrikos production of "Funny Money".
Ron and I, as well as the rest of the audience, enjoyed this hysterical farce thoroughly.
April 17 we had a light last-gasp snowfall. Enough to make things pretty, but not enough to scare us with more winter.
My hiking companion, Lea, called with an open date for a hike, so we met at Munds Park for our first hike of the year on the Crystal/Odell Lake trail. It was a beauty, with great weather.
The Crystal Trail portion has been existence for years and is a favorite of local summer residents. Someone(s) have taken a bench to a viewspot about half way up, and this picnic table also made it's way up. The ammo box contains years of comment journals. Various miscellanea are attached to the tree, including a telephone....the Mountain Retreat sign is new this year.
As noted in the previous blog, on April 30 I enjoyed the 2nd Annual One-Woman Sprint Tri.
Though the Sprint Tri is the official end of my swimming season, my membership expires a few days into May, so May 1 I did my actual last swim of the season...meaning....SUMMER IS HERE!
“Ends are not bad things, they just mean that something else is about to begin. And there are many things that don't really end, anyway, they just begin again in a new way........"
------C. Joybell C.
