It’s now August and I’m gearing up to head to western Massachusetts to play Don Pasquale in the Berkshire Opera Festival. Summer is always tough for musicians because its the off season for all the orchestras and schools and it feels a bit tight knowing I don’t have gigs happening regularly. It’s really been a struggle keeping my hand on the plow and managing to keep practicing in spite of the unknown. This unsettled feeling has led me to dabble a toe into the digital marketing world. So far I have listened to podcasts and started a free online class but I’m still unsure how to manage this site and insert hyperlinks. I think my photos have even gone away after switching the format. Blah blah, these things I’m sure will come the more toes I put into the internet. In the meantime I’m gathering courage to put up some youtube videos on brief how-to’s for technique on the violin. I have one now about shifting here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtx1yRoiQ9A&t=9s

Over the weekend V and I rode our bikes about 40 miles along the Athens Marathon route to camp at Schinias beach.  It was our first bike schlepp before our big planned Slovenian bike schlepp coming up at the end of July.  While camping across the street from a loud bouzouki wedding band, I dreamt of being late to orchestra concerts and not having the right shirt.