Beethoven Brakes and Beauty

Gosh, I let April slip by without an entry here - but what an April, turning 40. Although I did lots of blogging for KPAC and Composing Thoughts - check them out if you don't already!
Today I rehearse Beethoven 7th & Emperor Concerto with Mid Texas Symphony (I play 2nd violin) and then play a concert with UIW Orchestra (where I play very HIGH 1st violin) - Barber, Poulenc & Copland, a very nice program also. I just finished changing the passenger side brake pads and rotor on my Saturn. (the brake part of the title).
It took about 15 minutes this morning, once I was awake with coffee and cigar in hand, to do the brakes. While my dad and I don't see eye to eye on politics these days, when it comes to automotive work, we click. His dad was a mechanic, and my dad passed along all of his knowledge to us boys. When it comes to cars, my dad is aces. So with the past few days having lots of stress and health concerns, this morning was very enjoyable for my dad. In fact, I bet his blood pressure went down!
Last night I heard the San Antonio Symphony in a delightful program of Turina, Piazzolla and Rachmaninoff with a friend. She is young, gorgeous and fun. We've spent the last few days getting to know each other even more and it's exciting. (The beauty part of the title.) We really enjoyed the symphony program - with wonderful dynamic and tempo changes, the orchestra turned on a dime in Rachmaninoff's Third Symphony! I joked that I didn't know if Sergei (the composer) or Josep (the conductor) was more schizophrenic, with tenmpo changes that sped up and slowed down, giving romantic Hollywood sound and excitement.
Ertan Torgul was the soloist in the Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, and was stellar. He's the acting concertmaster of the SA Symphony, and a good friend. We joined him and the conductor with a few friends afterwards (they had dinner, we had dessert) for even more fun at Oloroso. I had mentioned to my date that we were invited to hang afterwards with the conductor and soloist, and later said, great, how am I going to top this?! (I'll manage, hehehe, I'm sure, I seemingly have great luck!) [pictured are Ertan Torgul and his wife Kim]
So now, I need to go warm up and practice both Beethoven and the UIW program. I'll carpool with another violinist (who is a great composer/preformer) who is doing both gigs.
But I plan to keep this up more often with updates - there is a trip Monday to NYC and West Branch Fishing lodge for AMC and WBIMF.