It’s the day before Carl’s final Bach Vespers, and guess what we’re doing? Yup, working on the printed program! This morning, Carl said to me, “I can’t believe it’s the day before and the program is not at the printers yet!” It’s not that we didn’t start it in plenty of time — Carl typed the German text of the cantata a couple of weeks ago, and on Tuesday, I started working on typing the rest of the service order. Allen Bauchle sent us the congregational hymns in PDF format last week, and yet, it’s crunch time again.

I just got back from the copy shop and the booklets will be ready for pickup tomorrow at noon. I’m spending the afternoon writing out the keyboard continuo part for “Wie schön leuchtet der Morganstern,” from Cantata 37 which will be used as the introduction to the final hymn. We had a version of it transcribed for organ alone, but decided to use two oboes for the obbligato parts. After last night’s rehearsal, I decided I would be more secure by writing out the chords of the figured bass. Nothing like working till the last minute!

One of my blog “fans” told me yesterday that checking for new posts has become quite an addiction. The first thing every morning when she wakes up, she checks her email to see if I’ve written more insanity. (Yes, you can get the blog via email;  I also post them to my FaceBook page if you prefer being notified that way.)

I could say that writing this blog has become quite an obsession in itself! Every day I wonder whether there will be anything worth writing about, and how I could tie it in to goings-on with the LCH Music Department.

At my request, Bill Potter, our LCH webmaster, installed statistics software , because I was curious to know if anyone “out there” was reading it. Since January 1st, 2011 when we started tracking “hits” on the blog, I’ve been absolutely blown away to learn that there have been over 2000 views in just a little over six weeks!  And those views have come way outside of our LCH community. For example, someone in England commended me for my work with young organists. Many people apparently have searched for organist Marie-Claire Alain, and read my post about how she gave Carl and me a private recital at LCH. Others have searched for information about the Honolulu Symphony. And today, a childhood friend of Carl’s contacted us, saying that she had come across my blog and wondered if Carl and I were related. She hadn’t seen or heard from Carl since he was a four or five year old boy in Port Angeles, WA!

That’s the power of the pen, er, the computer keyboard for you!