Folker's Journal

5:44pm: I'm back
After 33 days on the road, I'm back in da Burgh. I put 8100 miles on my car. Great trip! Now to get to work...

11:42pm: Rocky Mountain National Park
I took a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park today. I lost the trail a few times and had to bushwhack to find it again. But I had a good time. I made it up to Baker Pass and the Continental Divide. The mountains of Colorado are gorgeous!

Now I've done everything I wanted to do on this trip, so starting tomorrow I've got nothing on my schedule except pointing my car eastward and driving.

10:19am: Red Dress Run
I drove to Salt Lake City in time to join their Red Dress Hash. (Becky helped my buy an ugly corduroy red dress in Mountain View so I could join them.) Red's appropriate, because it's University of Utah's Homecoming Game day, and everyone wears red. We ran aournd the stadium and through the areas where the tailgaters were partying. My bugle was much appreciated when the pack got split up. Afterwards we went out for pizza, briefly attended a party for someone who was leaving town. I was given crash space by Licks and Grim. Now it's morning, and I'll push on further eastward.

9:46pm: Leaving Becky's
I've left after a 5 day visit with Becky. More highlights of the visit:

I had lunch with Suzanne. I had never met her before, but Suzanne and Stefni were friends. Stefni used to visit the Bay Area every year around Thanksgiving, and on her last visit in 2007, she and Suzanne bonded. We had a very nice visit at a Thai restaurant.

Perry has just learned to ride a 2-wheel bicycle. Jay loaned me his bike, so almost every day Becky and I bicycled with Perry to his kindergarten, and returned in the afternoon to bike home with him. The Bay Area is great for cycling. It's mostly level, there are bike lanes everywhere, and motorists are used to dealing with bikes. One afternoon the three of us went on a several mile ride on the Stevens Creek Trail. Another day Becky and I spent the better part of an afternoon on bikes, going for lunch, then hitting several widely-spaced stores.

There's lots of dance activity here. Becky and I went swing dancing Wednesday night. If we hadn't been there, I might have attended Suzanne's International Folk Dance class the same night.

Becky and I went hashing Thursday night. Becky was once active enough in the Silicone Valley hash to become their Grand Mattress, but that was before Perry was born, and she only goes rarely these days. Suckin Up Spouse and Roids were there, and they say hello to Moon and Rex.

7:48pm: At Becky's
I'm at my daughter Becky's house in Mountain View, CA, with her husband Jay and 5-year-old son Perry. Here are some highlights of the visit so far:

A visit to the Farmers' Market Sunday at the Mountain View trail train station. Probably 100 vendors selling local produce, meats, flowers, bread, cider, wine, honey, etc. I don't think there's anything remotely like that in the Pittsburgh region. And it goes on all year. Becky says it gets smaller in the winter, but it's always worth going to.

Some friends came over to Becky's and Jay's to play Dungeons and Dragons Sunday afternoon and evening. These are the same friends I've met on previous visits. They have been meeting to play games for over 15 years! I think that's a really neat social circle.

Monday I had dinner with Hiram and Arden, long time friends of Stefni and myself. 38 years ago when I thought I wanted to get to know Stefni better, it was Arden I called to find out how to contact her. We talked late about our losses.

This morning I had a good run on the Stevens Creek Trail that runs from a couple of blocks from Becky's house out through the meadowlands to the edge of the San Francisco Bay. Boy am I out of shape!

11:14pm: Yosemite
Yesterday I drove from Utah to California, and today I took a hike in Yosemite National Park. It started out as an 8 mile trek, but as I went I found other places to explore, and I ended up doing almost 14 miles. I hiked from Tioga Pass Road up to and beyond Mono Pass, then partially backtracked and headed for the Parker Pass. I started at 9,700 feet altitude, and topped out at 11,100.

It was very different from Thursday's hike. Despite the longer length and higher altitude, it was not as difficult. The trails were well marked and easy to follow. The grades were walkable -- Thursday I needed my hands for climbing. And today's scenery was gorgeous. I hate to say it, but some of Utah's eroded badlands remind me of slag heaps or mine dumps in the Pittsburgh region.

I drove on to Mountain View, and I'm now at daughter Becky's home.

10:23pm: Hiking the Vermilion Cliffs
Today I hiked up a mountain and down again.

To get to the start of the hike, I needed to drive 5 miles down a dirt road. I asked at an outdoor store the night before, and the guy said the road was doable in my Acura if I took it easy. Well, I think he might not have been on that road recently. There were a couple of places where I had to carefully pick my way around the ruts and mud, and I bottomed out a few times, but didn't get stuck. There's now a big blob of mud on my front bumper.

The start of the hike was supposed to be from an old movie set. "The Outlaw Josie Wales" was filmed there, as well as several episodes of Gunsmoke in the 1960s. Only when I got there, all I saw was some concrete foundations, and a sign saying that vandals had burned the buildings in 2006.

The hike was about 9 miles round trip. There were no marked trails to follow -- it all involved route finding with map and compass. The first part involved walking up canyons along a river bottom that was mostly dry, but got rather muddy at times. I'm glad I brought along a good topo map, because there are lots of branches in the drainage systems, and my route finding required hiking up the right canyon. The next part involved a scramble straight up the side of the mountain at about a 45 degree slope, hopping on rocks and boulders. At the top was a mesa with good views all around.

If I were to hike more in this territory, I'd study geology. It's not like hiking in the East, or even California for that matter, where the hillsides are covered with vegetation. This is desert, and the bare rocks are exposed. Erosion takes place faster, resulting in more rugged territory. The guidebook I purchased named several sedimentary layers the trail went through, and I can see a distinct difference between Chinle rocks, and Moenave rocks. But there's so much detail I'm missing.

11:32pm: Page
I took the scenic route from Albuquerque to Page, AZ.

I visited the four corners monument, where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona come together. It was a ripoff. Three dollars per person to enter the site. The monument's nice enough, but that's all there is, if you discount the several dozen booths selling Navajo jewelry and other artifacts and souvenirs.

The drive was short enough that I made it to Page in time to explore the town a little. The Glen Canyon Dam is at Page, and I visited the visitor's center. The dam converts the upper reaches of the Colorado River into Lake Powell. It's good for water, electricity, and boating, but it wiped out some pretty impressive canyons.

I've lived all my life surrounded by trees and hills. So it's not often I can observe a thunderstorm from afar. Last Wednesday on my drive across West Texas on my way to see Miriam, I drive through the edge of a thunderstorm, then watched it recede in my rear view mirror, as I drove past another one, maybe 30 miles away. You could see the towering cloud peak and the dark underside. Today driving into Page I passed a thunderstorm only 10 miles away, close enough that I could see where dense rain was falling, and see lightning strikes from the cloud bottom to the ground.

11:40pm: Albuquerque
I made a longish drive from Venus, TX to Albuquerque, NM. It's just a stopover point on my way to Page, AZ, so I can do some hiking in the Vermillion Cliffs area.

The drive through West Texas is pretty boring. It didn't help that it was very cloudy when I started out. The clouds ended about Amarillo, and the scenery started to get interesting when I crossed the Texas-New Mexico border. The final push over a low mountain range getting to Albuquerque was rewarding.

It helps that I've got XM radio in my car. About half the time it's tuned to the classical music station. I think the programming on XM Symphony Hall is better than that on WQED-FM. They play a lot of chamber music. This morning I heard the Mahler First Symphony -- I think this is the first time I've listened to it in its entirety. When I'm not on the classical channel, I surf. I like music of the 40s and 50s, folk, bluegrass, BBC World News, NPR news and talk, and sometimes even contemporary rock n roll.

I deliberately picked out a motel in Albuquerque that was close to Old Town, the tourist district near downtown. I got to my motel about 7:30, and by the time I hit the Plaza Viejo, almost everything was closed. There were a couple of Mexican restaurants open until 9, so I got some dinner and walked back to my motel. So much for night life!

9:13pm: Leaving Miriam's
I'm finishing up 5 days with Miriam in Venus, Texas, about a half hour south of Fort Worth. We only got a little accomplished in terms of organizing her stuff, but we spent some quality time together just enjoying each others' company. Tyler joined us part of the time -- other times he was doing his own thing.

The weather has been miserable. Nothing but rain since I got here.

Saturday I broke away to go into Dallas. I went to a contra dance in the evening. When one of the musicians learned I was a fiddler, he graciously loaned me his fiddle, and I got to play a set!

On to New Mexico, Arizona, and California!

3:58pm: At Miriam's
It's neat having my own wheels. If I had flown, I'd be tied to a schedule. Driving keeps me flexible.

Miriam (my daughter) told me she had some free time now, and needed help moving into her "new" house in Venus, Texas. Miriam and Andy and Tyler lived in this house together before the divorce, then Miriam moved out and Tyler shuttled back and forth between parents. A month ago, Andy moved back to Pittsburgh, and Miriam moved back into this house, along with Tyler. Andy left the house a cluttered mess.

So there's been a quick change in plans. I'm in Texas now. California will come later.

11:55am: Interhash
I spent the weekend at the Interamericas Hash in Winter Park. It's the bi-annual convention of the Hash House Harriers in the Western Hemisphere, and over a thousand half-minds attended. It's 4 days and 3 nights of trails by day and partying by night. A cousin said to me last night after I got back, "I hear you were in a race." I had to correct him. A hash is a non-competitive run that's sometimes like an obstacle course. Saturday's trail led up a mountain via forest trails and bushwhacking, back down again, then had us wading through a wetlands in thigh deep water. Sunday's was really spectacular, up and down the ski slopes at Winter Park on foot. I love the punishment!

2:17pm: Judy, Mark, Sara
I'm wrapping up a couple of days visit with my sister Judy and her husband Alan in Boulder. My father also lives here, as well as my nephew Mark and his wife Sara, so I've been spending time with family.

Yesterday morning Judy and I hit the trails and did an 8 mile run on the Heil Ranch Preserve. Very pleasant.

Yesterday evening we went to hear Mark's band, Face, perform. They call themselves a vocal rock band. They sing a capella, performing covers of contemporary pop tunes. It's quite impressive to watch. Mark is their percussionist, and he makes amazing sounds with his mouth. He had one solo number in the show, and it's hard to believe one person is making all of those noises. You can visit their website at http://facevocalband.com/ . Be sure to listen to their sound clips. If you watch the video, Mark is the one singing the Pink Panther theme.

Sara is pregnant, and expecting in about 5 weeks. Only the baby isn't Mark's. Nor is it even Sara's. She's carrying the baby for a friend, Mindy. You can read her remarkable story at http://www.boulderweekly.com/20090507/coverstory.html. I saw Sara and Mark and Mindy and Forest all together at last night's concert.

Today is the anniversary of Stefni's death. I lit a candle for her this morning, and got a group hug from Judy and Alan while I cried.

So after I get my laundry out of the dryer I'll be heading for Winter Park.

1:23am: Music Museum
This morning I visited the National Music Museum at the University of South Dakota. It's an impressive collection. Two floors comprising 9 different galleries and several hallway exhibits. They have an impressive number of Cremonese stringed instruments (Guarneri, Amati, Stradiveri, etc.). Lots of ancient harpsichords, clavichords, pianofortes, pipe organs, and reed organs. A case full of harmonicas. A whole room full of guitars. A non-Western instruments room that includes an entire gamelan. Tons of American band instruments. Well worth the visit.

Then I put the peddle to the meddle and got to my sister's house in Boulder by 9 PM.

12:40am: Sousa archives
This morning I went to the John Philip Sousa Library and Museum at the University of Illinois. There were some old Victrolas, and interesting information about how Sousa and Alexander Graham Bell were on opposite sides of the fight to extend copyright protection to sound recordings in 1909. Other than that, there wasn't much to see. I only stuck around for about 3/4 of an hour.

I drove 9 hours to Vermillion, SD, and arrived early enough to take a run. I've done very little running over the summer, and I feel out of shape. I did manage to get in 3 runs last week. I'm going to try to get in 2 or 3 runs a week while I'm traveling. Of course, I'll be running every day at the Interhash, but I'd like to keep it up the rest of the trip.

10:27pm: Dayton
I spent most of the day at the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Bay in Dayton. It's a huge place. I spent almost 6 hours there, and there were portions of the museum I didn't cover. Most fascinating for me was the earliest history of flight: the Wright brothers through the First World War.

I dropped in on Mike and Jeannette. I delivered a pile of clothes Stefni wanted Jeanette to have. I didn't have much time to visit, but Jeanette told me all about her involvement in the Wild West Festival that's becoming an annual event near Dayton.

11:56pm: Road trip day 1
Today I'm starting a major road trip. The "main event" of the trip is the Americas Interhash, which takes place over Labor Day weekend in Winter Park, Colorado. My father and my sister live in Boulder, so I'll be visiting them before and after the Interhash. Then it's off to California, where daughter Becky lives, then to Texas to visit daughter Miriam. Along the way I'll be making some additional stops to do some hiking and/or backpacking, to visit friends, to play some music, or to visit the tourist attractions. I figure it'll take about 5 weeks. The only fixed time target is the Interhash. The rest of the time I'll be playing it by ear.

This morning was taken up with Jackie's funeral and a luncheon following, so I didn't get on the road until late afternoon. I began the trip wrapped in memories of Jackie and Stefni.

Heading west on I-70, I caught up with F. Stik and Pelvis in their VW van. Just as I was passing them, they suddenly pulled off to the side of the road. So I pulled over also to see what the matter was and see if I could be of assistance. Their dog had bumped up against the gear stick lever, putting the van out of gear, and the transmission made a noise, to Tom wanted to see if everything was OK. There was no harm done, so they were ready to shove off again.

I made it as far as Dayton this evening. I found out from Pelvis that Pittsburgh hasher HLT was at the Dayton Red Dress Run, but when I called him on his cell phone, it turned out the run was actually in Cincinnati, so I didn't manage to link up.

11:27am: Bye, Jackie
Jackie Bies passed away Tuesday. She was found to have colon cancer last March. Removal of a portion of her colon, and several rounds of chemotherapy did her no long-term good.

She was a neighbor and close friend for almost 30 years. Her kids and my kids went to Mt. Lebanon High School together, and played in Junior Tamburitzans. Every Christmas, Stefni and I had dinner with Jackie, her husband Dick, and children, Ann, Bill, and John. Whenever we traveled, we could depend on Jackie to come in twice a day to feed the animals and take in the mail and newspapers. And when Stefni was sick, Jackie would call every day to see how Stefni was doing.

How I will miss her!

1:06pm: Balkan Music Camp
I just returned from Balkan Music Camp. It was more difficult than I anticipated. Stefni and I attended this camp together every year since 1987. It's been 11 months since Stefni's passing, and I thought I had moved on past my grief. Well, the camp brought a lot of powerful memories back, and I spent a lot of time feeling sad and lonely. But I have lots of friends there, and I was able to talk to many of them about how I was feeling.

I had a great time anyway. The high points of the week were when I was playing music for other people to dance to. There's also a a late night kafana where I sat at a cabaret table eating, drinking, talking with friends, and dancing to some really great bands. I think the earliest I got to bed all week was 2 AM.

2:45pm: Bye, Dva


Almost 20 years ago, we found two kittens, Jedan and Dva, at a folk dance camp. Stefni was photographed wearing her black Sumadija costume, with the two kittens in her lap.

Yesterday, in preparing to sell the Sumadija costume on eBay, I dressed a mannikin to take photos. I had been referring to the old photos of Stefni to see how the costume pieces went together, so I was conscious of the coincidence when Dva wandered by, and I just had to take her picture with the same costume.

Today I'm packing for Balkan Music Camp. I'll be gone a week. The neighbors were supposed to come in and feed Dva while I was away. But Dva's been lethargic, and she hasn't eaten anything in the past two days. She usually sleeps on my easy chair, but this morning I found her on the floor in front of the chair. She simply hadn't had the energy to jump onto the chair.

I didn't want to leave a sick cat for the neighbors to take care of, so I got an emergency appointment with our local vet. He confirmed what I feared. Dva is the victim of kidney failure -- a common end for many old cats. Even if I were staying home, there would be no cure for it. With great effort we might have been able to stave off the inevitable for a week or two, but there seemed to be no point in trying.

I held Dva while the vet gave her a lethal injection. The end was very gentle for her. The staff of the vet hospital were good to me, allowing me to leave through a side door rather than through the waiting room with tears in my eyes.

11:43pm: Licensing MP3
I've been wanting for a long time to add MP3 capabilities to Intonia. Currently it works strictly with .WAV files.

I located a library of code in Java that will convert MP3 files to the format that Intonia uses internally. It turned out to be quite easy to add that library to Intonia, so I can now analyze and play MP3 files as well as WAV files.

However, the MP3 format was developed by the Fraunhofer company in Germany, and patented, and the Thomson company is enforcing the patent in the US. If I distribute a program that has MP3 capability, I'm obligated to pay royalties to Thomson. An initial check on Thomson's website indicated I'd have to pay 75 cents for each licensed copy I sold. That doesn't seem prohibitive, so I sent them an inquiry.

Well, it turns out that 75 cents is what it costs if I buy in quantity -- $15,000 per year gets me 20,000 licenses per year. There are various lower quantity levels available, but the cheapest one available to me requires me to fork over $5000 at the very start. For that money I get 1666 licenses at $3.00 apiece. They simply won't talk to anyone for less than $5000.

I briefly considered just ignoring the licensing issue, and staying under their radar. But I'm a software developer depending on trust for other people to pay for my product. I don't like Thomson's terms, but I feel obligated to play by the rules.

So for the time being, Intonia will be distributed without MP3. If I ever get to the point where I can count on selling 20,000 licenses per year (or even 2000 per year), I'll get in touch with Thomson again.

6:33pm: Two fiddle camps
I just came back from two weeks of fiddle camp.

Both weeks were at the Swannanoa Gathering, a series of folk arts workshops held at Warren Wilson College near Asheville NC. The first week was "Fiddle Week," where I took classes mainly in Old-Time fiddle, and the second was "Celtic Week", where I mostly studied Irish fiddle. In past years I've concentrated mostly on Scottish fiddle, but my opportunities for playing Scottish music in Pittsburgh have mostly dried up. So I'm trying to learn the styles that people actually do get together and play here, which is mainly Irish and Old-Time. ("Old-Time" is what people now call the Appalachian folk music from which modern bluegrass and country-and-western evolved.)

Terri took the bus from Pittsburgh to meet me at the conclusion of Fiddle week. In the weekend between sessions we traveled to the Grandfather Mountain Highland games, where we heard a bit of music and watched kilted Scotsmen toss telephone poles around. Sunday morning I competed in the Scottish fiddle contest. I didn't do very well, but for my own good I like to tackle something like that at least once a year.

The following week we were at Celtic Week together. She's both a flutist and a violinist, but she's new to the Irish and Scottish idioms. She was delighted with an unexpected opportunity to study the keyless Irish wooden flute.

2:16pm: Chamber music camp
I just got back from Play Week East, a summer camp for chamber music players. I spent a week playing the music of Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert. What I enjoy most about this camp is that quartets are assigned to work together for several days, to dig in, understand, and perfect a particular work. I had a morning group, which met for 2 and a half hours every morning for six days, and two afternoon groups, each meeting for 2 hours over three days. Then in the evenings, I found pick-up groups to play through quartets or quintets without really stopping to correct the errors.

I'm very attracted to chamber music. When I play in a large orchestra, I might be one of 6 or 8 musicians all playing the same part. It's easy to hide in a big viola section. In contrast, in a string quartet, everyone is playing their own part, and the success of the music depends critically on everyone's contribution. When things go right, it's a wonderful feeling.

I took my laptop with me to demonstrate Intonia to the other participants. I didn't get quite as good a response as I hoped, but I did manage to sell a few copies.

I've got other music camps planned for the rest of the summer. In less than a week, I'll be going down to North Carolina for two weeks: Fiddle Week at the Swannanoa Gathering, followed by Celtic Week at the same place. In August I'll be headed for Balkan Music Camp in upstate New York.

12:25pm: Yes, sales have improved
Over the past ten months, sales of Intonia have averaged 3 a month. In the first half of June, I've sold 8 licenses. It's gratifying to see that increased downloads lead to increased sales. I just have to wait a while for the increase to kick in.

But I'm going to have to do a lot more marketing if I want to recover the money I've already sunk into the project.

2:53pm: Where are the sales?
The June issue of The Strad magazine features Intonia as the "Product of the Month." It has a screen shot, and a short but very complimentary article. I'm seeing an increase in website visitors and downloads as a result.

The average number of visitors has gone up a lot in the past 6 weeks. Some of the reasons are advertising on Google, listing on download.com, discussions on internet forums, and now this article in The Strad.

The chain of events I'm banking on starts with attracting visitors to the website. A fraction of the visitors will download the software and install it on their computers. They can try Intonia free for up to 30 days. A fraction of those who try the software will pay me for a license key so they can continue to use the software after the free trial expires.

So visitors and downloads are way up, but the sales have not materialized. My rational self says I need to be patient. It's only 6 weeks since downloads started to rise, and it takes time for the downloaders to decide to buy. The numbers are small. If I only get 3 sales in a period in which I should expect 5, the difference is not large enough to be statistically significant -- it might mean something or it might be a statistical fluke.

So I'm sitting on pins and needles waiting. We'll see what the next month brings.