Right now, I’m sitting in my motel room in Florence, Oregon; tonight is the first concert of what really is a mini-tour, considering there are only two performances.  Actually, that’s not really accurate; there are also two school shows, the first of which is this afternoon.

Normally, we try to work our performances so that they make sense in terms of travel etc., but for this trip, there was no way we could do that; both concerts had to happen on two consecutive Fridays, in two separate states.  Jim and I had thought about flying home tomorrow, coming back on Wednesday for the drive to Idaho, but that would have been pretty tight as to scheduling, and would have made for a grueling week.  As a result, we decided to stay out here, and fly back a week from tomorrow (Saturday), the day after the concert in Lewiston.

It means hotel living for a week with no playing, but... it so happens that Florence has one of the best golf courses in the USA, Sandpines Golf Links, designed by Rees Jones, and ranked “best new course” of 1993 by Golf Digest.  So... we’re just going to have to suffer being away from home.  Just think, we could be back in Toronto, luxuriating in phone calls, academic responsibilities, and the day-to-day wonder of city living, but we’re stuck out here on the coast in a beautiful resort town, after tonight, with nothing to do but golf our brains out..  Oh well, I suppose we all have our crosses to bear.

For anyone who hasn’t logged off in disgust by now, I should explain that we flew out here on Wednesday because we weren’t sure whether or not we were driving the piano (there is already one piano in the hall), so we allowed for the extra time we might need for off-loading, etc.  However, the instrument had already been delivered, so we practiced backstage yesterday, albeit separately (the hall piano was in its storage room, and it would have been difficult to move; in any case, all we wanted was to run the programme by ourselves to keep our hands in shape).

We finished at 4:30, and given that there was still about two hours of light left... we booted it over to the golf course and managed to play 6 holes before it turned dark, the last hole played under moonlight.  Only a couple of crazy Canucks would golf in the dark, but there was something magical about it, on the wide expanse of the Scottish-style fairway, under a crescent moon with its bright companion Jupiter hanging nearby.

3:20 p.m.

We just finished the school show, and they were a pretty good group.  Jim and I always try to arrange to play for the kids if possible; they are our future audience, and the sooner they get turned on to music, the better.  Normally, we both talk to them, but since Wednesday morning, I’ve been fighting a sore throat that threatens to erupt into full-blown laryngitis, so Jim did the talking this afternoon.  We’ll see how I feel tonight.  The fact that there is a cold, blowing rain outside isn’t helping matters.

Jim just dropped off some throat lozenges; I hope they work. 
 

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