Sidewinders finale

Last night was less anticlimatic than I was hoping for, it being my last night to teach for Sidewinders.  I had purposefully told only a couple people that we were disconnecting from teaching there, and had sent out my weekly email to the 123 on my list giving only a vague idea that this was our last night.

There were six or eight of the old regulars there last night that don't usually show up anymore, so someone must have been spreading the word.  Marc C brought in two cakes to serve around.  Dan Johnson, the bar manager, actually was there and gave a nice little bye-bye speech.

Lessons were mostly line dancing, with a few sessions of 2-step and waltz for a couple of the new (but very old) dancers that have started coming recently.  I did a tip of the hat to Jerry Reed's recent death by workshopping the easiest line dance ever choreographed, "Amos Moses."  The other dances I workshopped and taught were "Jambalaya," "Bar Room Romeo (new to me)," "Simplemente," and "Ghost Train."  I even did a Basic square dance demo, since we had a square of dancers there.

So, some of the hard-core performance team members are going to take over the lessons on a rotating schedule.  I was a bit relieved to hear that, although I had approached them 2 months ago about taking over lessons and there were no bites on it then.  Although there are VERY few new dancers coming into the ranks, the manager feels the program is strong enough to keep support it.  And I'm glad.   It needs a breath of fresh air.

We found out that the manager closed the smoker's patio they had constructed last year after the smoking ban in bars went into effect.  I'm not quite sure why, but now there's a line of smokers outside the bar 25 feet away from the front door.  We think it's the scrutiny Sidewinders is under after the runover death in the parking lot some months ago.  I hope the police department isn't trying to shut down the last public gay bar in New Mexico that men are welcome in.

Danny and I going to find new participatory activities for Thursday nights, ones in which neither he nor I have to be the leader or focus.  Next Thursday, we'll probably scare Kris Jensen when we walk into her Advanced square dance night!

Sidewinders finale

Last night was less anticlimatic than I was hoping for, it being my last night to teach for Sidewinders.  I had purposefully told only a couple people that we were disconnecting from teaching there, and had sent out my weekly email to the 123 on my list giving only a vague idea that this was our last night.

There were six or eight of the old regulars there last night that don't usually show up anymore, so someone must have been spreading the word.  Marc C brought in two cakes to serve around.  Dan Johnson, the bar manager, actually was there and gave a nice little bye-bye speech.

Lessons were mostly line dancing, with a few sessions of 2-step and waltz for a couple of the new (but very old) dancers that have started coming recently.  I did a tip of the hat to Jerry Reed's recent death by workshopping the easiest line dance ever choreographed, "Amos Moses."  The other dances I workshopped and taught were "Jambalaya," "Bar Room Romeo (new to me)," "Simplemente," and "Ghost Train."  I even did a Basic square dance demo, since we had a square of dancers there.

So, some of the hard-core performance team members are going to take over the lessons on a rotating schedule.  I was a bit relieved to hear that, although I had approached them 2 months ago about taking over lessons and there were no bites on it then.  Although there are VERY few new dancers coming into the ranks, the manager feels the program is strong enough to keep support it.  And I'm glad.   It needs a breath of fresh air.

We found out that the manager closed the smoker's patio they had constructed last year after the smoking ban in bars went into effect.  I'm not quite sure why, but now there's a line of smokers outside the bar 25 feet away from the front door.  We think it's the scrutiny Sidewinders is under after the runover death in the parking lot some months ago.  I hope the police department isn't trying to shut down the last public gay bar in New Mexico that men are welcome in.

Danny and I going to find new participatory activities for Thursday nights, ones in which neither he nor I have to be the leader or focus.  Next Thursday, we'll probably scare Kris Jensen when we walk into her Advanced square dance night!

Time Warp

My parents had fallen into the 1950s trap of buying the Encyclopedia Brittanica, thinking that we'd all become geniuses by poring through those tomes.  Well, I didn't become a genius, but I did read through the many volumes as the years went on.  I loved the musty library smell of those now long-gone books.  I learned a lot from those books, plus the "Book of Knowledge" and all the annual add-ons my parents bought until about 1961.

Recently, I've noticed that when I google items online, the Britannica is one of the options to click on.  I've clicked on those links a couple of times tonight.  Very disappointing.  I get a notice that I get a "free pass" to read some skimpy material about what I was looking for and would be MORE than welcome to pay for more information on the subject.  No, thanks.  Wikipedia.org has all I need and more.

Could this really be the REAL Brittanica company that I first was enamoured of in the late 1950s?

Time Warp

My parents had fallen into the 1950s trap of buying the Encyclopedia Brittanica, thinking that we'd all become geniuses by poring through those tomes.  Well, I didn't become a genius, but I did read through the many volumes as the years went on.  I loved the musty library smell of those now long-gone books.  I learned a lot from those books, plus the "Book of Knowledge" and all the annual add-ons my parents bought until about 1961.

Recently, I've noticed that when I google items online, the Britannica is one of the options to click on.  I've clicked on those links a couple of times tonight.  Very disappointing.  I get a notice that I get a "free pass" to read some skimpy material about what I was looking for and would be MORE than welcome to pay for more information on the subject.  No, thanks.  Wikipedia.org has all I need and more.

Could this really be the REAL Brittanica company that I first was enamoured of in the late 1950s?