Brad Sondahl's blog

It was our local winter Fun Fest today on Maine Street. You can see a young group of four trying to walk on two by four skis and getting their feet too far apart. The splits occured shortly thereafter... This would have been terminal if they were my age, but they bounced right up again... The helpful official in bright green is showing them where they want to go. The hill of snow was built for the event by two front end loaders. You can also see our signature teapot water tower in the background. We sampled all 11 styles of chili in the chili cook-off, and I got to try a laser guided air bazooka to knock over some plastic cups and win a paddle with rubber ball set... A splendid time was guaranteed for all...
    Looking back at last January's blog, there were also photos from this event, and an update on Maine Street. So here's the current state of Maine Street. The road work is done, and generally a great improvement. Cam's gallery went on-line and off Maine St, and 3 Funky Monkeys moved into her space, so the old Post Office is again empty. Otherwise the businesses are pretty much steady. At the cook off we learned today that Dave Esterly's father passed away today, who used to help in the hardware store for a number of years...

Jan. 30
You don't expect an inch of rain to finish out January, but we got at least that much yesterday. I didn't have out my dollar store rain gage out until coming home from the Symphony last night, at which point I put it out and there was over half an inch in it this morning. What I missed in the gage yesterday was rain for most of the day, including enough to make a 6 inch deep pool at the bottom of Seasons Hill that we had to gingerly drive through to get home. The irony of this rain is that the weather service predicted up to a foot of heavy snow for upper elevations, but only 1/10 inch of rain at lower elevations. I sometimes think they lack common sense...
    The symphony was very good. I was mostly lured there by the William Tell Overture, but also expected I'd like the Mozart and Beethoven. I'm definitely a dilitante classical fan--prefer strong familiar melodies over lush symphonic layerings (which the Beethoven Eroica seemed to have a lot of). We got there early, so we attended the pre-concert lecture, which immediately put me to sleep for a half hour, which was good because then I stayed awake through the rest. At the intermission I introduced myself to, and talked with, Spokane Public Radio's music director Verne Windham...

Jan. 31
    Yesterday I spent my first solo day at the ArtWorks gallery. It was mostly solo in more ways than one--I think 5 people came in the store during the day besides a few other artist members that stopped in. I must remember to bring my guitar next time to help amuse myself. I did bring my Kindle, but reading isn't the best way to spend 7 hours.
    Today I was back to glazing pots and firing two kilns and mixing two buckets of glaze. Having added one more line of glazes (the purple) seems to stretch the time needed to mix a batch of glaze by a bit, since there are 8 standard glaze buckets to use instead of 7.
   A month ago we determined that we needed to set an end time for the "homeless" people we invited in to our house. Due to the mild winter, they decided they could move back up onto their property in the woods. But with the warmer weather the back roads have all become sheets of ice, and the neighbor that would have given them a ride to their property said even chains on 4 wheel drive vehicles weren't viable. So we ended up paying for 3 nights in a motel for them near enough to the kids' school that they could walk there (after which time they will have to figure out their own strategy). They left our house in a very clean and orderly condition, with a lot of thank you notes left around.. It was an interesting, if challenging, experience.