"There are 7 years in the making of a piper. . . .

. . .and at the end of 7 years he stands at the beginning of wisdom." So goes the proverb. It's been considerably more than 7 years for me and sometimes I still feel like I'm standing at the beginning. Yesterday I couldn't get the #$%& things to tune to save my life. This morning it was plug-and-play. Why? No idea. They're haunted. They have a mind of their own. When they want to tune, they do. When they don't, they don't.

On the bright side, yesterday was only practice and this morning was the annual Long Beach Police and Fire Departments' Memorial. I really enjoy playing for those events. It's a beautiful ceremony: drums, bugles, pipes, a 21 gun salute and appropriate speeches. The police and fire still know how to put on a grave and dignified ceremonial. Something our own church seems to have forgotten how to do. And there's another memorial tomorrow for the Sheriff's Department.

In fact, there has been a lot of good piping lately. I played for a bit of the 40th anniversary ball of the Los Angeles branch of the RSCDS last Saturday. Piping, dancing, a good meal, and I got paid. You can't beat that with a stick.