A week and a half ago, I wrote about the current spate of renovations at my combined home/recording studio/concert hall. The past two weeks’ combined effort at taking up the old floor and insulation, as well as digging out the crawl space, culminated in a truly unique experience in renovations this past Monday.
I had scheduled for a local construction worker to deliver crushed stone this Monday. He also suggested he could bring one his compact excavator, with a scoop small enough to fit through one of the windows, to haul the stone inside. (Otherwise, he would have to dump it all outside for me to take inside a little at a time with a wheelbarrow.)
Fortunately – as well as, in no insignificant part, thanks to the invaluable help of two dear friends – I finished digging out the crawl space last weekend and got everything set up before Monday. I also managed to saw off the window frame’s centre support beam cleanly enough to be able to screw it back on afterwards.
Now, just take a look at this madness.
In all, I had around 8 000 kilograms (sic!) of crushed stone hauled into the stripped-out room. I must say, the man driving the excavator was incredibly skilled; not only did he deftly move the machine around without as much as touching any part of the window or wall, but in spite of his restricted movement space, he managed to toss the stone around a bit inside instead of simply dumping it straight down, making my job of spreading it all out a little easier.
It only took three hours to get it all inside, from about 9 in the morning to noon, all the while I was shovelling and raking like crazy, trying to spread as much of the stone out as I could. I still ended up with a huge pile by the window, but toward the end of the day I had spread more than half the stone over the uncovered crawl space.
For much of this week, I have been and will be busy with more cerebral and artistic work. Tomorrow and Saturday I will join the Erik Westberg Vocal Ensemble, which I join as a substitute tenor on occasion, for rehearsals ahead of a Christmas concert in Sundsvall in December with the Nordic Chamber Orchestra featuring a delightful blend of English and Swedish Christmas classics.
Also, I have had lectures on Video Game Music History at two different folk high schools this week – one today and one two days ago. Both were received quite well by the students.
The group I had today was the largest I’ve talked to so far about this particular subject, almost 40 students in all, taking courses in either Game Sound or Game Development. This group will only have two lectures, with the second coming up in one week. It made me really happy that students were excited after both lectures.
Next week, I also look forward to singing highlights from Handel’s Messiah in concert in Sundsvall. Other upcoming performances include Advent Sunday service at the Härnösand Cathedral and a Christmas concert with the Cathedral Choir later on in December. Lots to look forward to, in other words!
Not much in the way of composing at the moment, but there will be plenty more of that in the months to come. Ideas are brewing and plans are forming. I can already say as much as that next year will be a very exciting one.
And, on top of it all, according to the weather forecast, we will get consistent freezing temperatures – and snow! – starting next week. One can hope…