Kinda quiet.  I know I don't play near as much, or think about mandos, or post about mandos, or read about mandos in winter as in summer.  I ski two to four days a week from early Dec through early April.  Skiing is my first love and I work at least two days a week as a ski instructor in winter.

Wondering what other peoples' seasons of mando are.  Ya'll play more in winter when there's not much to do but sit around the house or more in summer with outdoor jams, sitting on the beach, going to festivals?

I know I'll have more to say about mandos come April but right now I'm thinking how to set an edge into hardpack at the top of a turn on steep and then manage pressure efficiently through the turn so as not to chatter my skis at the bottom of the turn.  Yeah, I'm a ski-geek.  My moniker on the ski forums is "learn2turn".

Unfortunately, this time of year I've got about 1% Rh in the house.  I get sparks from the linoleum.

Thus everything remains cased unless I'm playing, and while it's still everyday, I'm sometimes too lazy to take another gun from the arsenal to work on and that affects creativity and drive.

I started coaching High School girls softball and right now we're in Intermurals. Tryouts in a few weeks and then games.

So I'll be busy until May. Not sure I want to practice on the bus to games, don't think the girls will appreciate my bad playing.

All mando all the time.  Being in Florida, I pick year round inside outside wherever.  

Played this past weekend with a buddy of mine.  Have not played sice the Super Bowl.  Felt good to play again.  Work and other activites have my time right now.

found a luthier a couple minutes from my house, droppin the mando off tonight, and should have it back in 2 or 3 days.. hopefully i'll be startin "live" lessons next week!

Keith

Nice to hear you found a luthier close by.  Good luck with learning from another human being.

Back in the late 1980's and early 1990's before I decided to get a couple of college degrees at age 42, I was writing music for dance, theatre, and chamber groups. I decided a month or so ago to get back to that work; I haven't touched an acoustic instrument since January.

I have a choral work based on the Tao te Ching about 2/3 completed; I hope to finish that up, continue transcribing and arranging some of my electronic theatre and dance works for string quartet, and then get started on some new projects. It doesn't look like I'll get to the mando for quite a while, now.

Recognizing that there's a few weeks to maybe a month a ski season left, I actually practiced for a couple hours this weekend.  

Normally in winter, I just play.  No time to both play and practice and I burn out if I practice without playing.  

Shortly I'll have time for both.  So it's time to slow down and try to play right for a while.  Then after a spell start banging loud and singing bad and having fun (which is pretty much all I do in winter).

I found it interesting that now that Spring is here, the mando is getting more attention.  I just put new strings on it and am finding it enjoyable.  For one reason or another (I'm not sure why), the mando was not enjoyable to play this winter.  It felt like a job you just don't want to do.

Yesterday was closing day at the ski mountain where I work.  Skied 2/3rds of the day and then we had a nice end-of-season party on the ski-school deck.  I might ski one more day up north but that would be it.

I started playing a bit more in the last few weeks in anticipation of maybe starting to hit the jams in a couple weeks.

There's been five feet of snow in northern New England since April 1.  Headed back up to Maine tonight for some skiing this weekend.  Sunday was going to be the first jam I attended since last fall but, hey, it's not every day that 99% of the trails are open and in primo shape in mid April, it's hardly ever this this good in mid-season.

We could get a Nor'easter Monday that will be heavy wind and rain in Boston but might still be snow up north.  I may be headed back to Vermont next weekend.

So, ski season's the Energizer Bunny this year and I probably won't get to a jam to May.  Oh well.  You put boards on my feet and snow on the ground and I could care about little else.

So skiing yesterday was awesome.  If this storm turns out to be snow up North, I gotta figure out how to let the wife let me slip off next Sunday for yet another ski day.

Were gitten' this Nor-easter tonight into tomorrow in Boston that's supposed to have winds 20-25 MPH gusting to 50 MPH out of the east with driving rain and temps in the 30s.    

You know what's tomorrow?  The Boston Marathon.  Can you imagine running 26miles into wind and rain like that?  I bet 1/2 the people won't finish and they'll be carting off a bunch with hypothermia.