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Friday and Saturday
Flew to Sacramento Friday afternoon for an evening of calling. The IFR flight went well. It was very strange to "see" traffic on the scope and not be able to see it with my eyes! That was a new experience for me.
Once we arrived, the calling was smooth and the dancers were happy. There's an odd thing that happens as an evening of dancing progresses. At first, the dancers aren't used to the caller, and they can't execute the most basic things. After a while, if the caller doesn't get adversarial about it, there is a level of trust built up. They know what kinds of "trick questions" the caller is likely to lob at them, they're used to the style of music and the caller's pronunciation and voice, and they become more confident. Their competence increases. By the end of the evening, the caller can fire off much more difficult material and the dancers will happily do it. The dancers will go away saying "Hey, we got some challenging stuff tonight! That was fun! That caller is hard, but not too hard!" In reality, the caller adjusted throughout the night, and the forgotten early part of the night was dead easy in order to do the trust-building thing.
Stayed over for the night. There is a wonderful cat in residence, a skinny little shorthair named Mr. Beasley. He spent most of the night curled up against my side and purring. Mmmmmmm.
C4 dancing on Saturday went as well as could be expected. I'm learning with two groups, one on alternate Mondays at my house and one on irregular Saturdays in Sacramento. The Sacramento group has now brought me far enough that there is no danceable material available that is limited to the set of calls I know. We just dance C4 and I holler "help!" when we encounter something I can't do. Oddly enough, most of the things I hollered about really were things I'd never seen. I must be learning something! Anyhow, after six hours of this, my brain was toast. It's a frustration-provoking learning method. When they start the tape, I know I cannot do what is going to be called. I just have to do the best I can, as quickly as I can, and goof when I hafta. Still, I had fun. We had a very humor-filled, lighthearted group of people. That makes a big difference. :-)
The flight back was turbulent but clear. I can't remember what we did that evening -- probably both of us fell into bed in an instant near-coma.
Once we arrived, the calling was smooth and the dancers were happy. There's an odd thing that happens as an evening of dancing progresses. At first, the dancers aren't used to the caller, and they can't execute the most basic things. After a while, if the caller doesn't get adversarial about it, there is a level of trust built up. They know what kinds of "trick questions" the caller is likely to lob at them, they're used to the style of music and the caller's pronunciation and voice, and they become more confident. Their competence increases. By the end of the evening, the caller can fire off much more difficult material and the dancers will happily do it. The dancers will go away saying "Hey, we got some challenging stuff tonight! That was fun! That caller is hard, but not too hard!" In reality, the caller adjusted throughout the night, and the forgotten early part of the night was dead easy in order to do the trust-building thing.
Stayed over for the night. There is a wonderful cat in residence, a skinny little shorthair named Mr. Beasley. He spent most of the night curled up against my side and purring. Mmmmmmm.
C4 dancing on Saturday went as well as could be expected. I'm learning with two groups, one on alternate Mondays at my house and one on irregular Saturdays in Sacramento. The Sacramento group has now brought me far enough that there is no danceable material available that is limited to the set of calls I know. We just dance C4 and I holler "help!" when we encounter something I can't do. Oddly enough, most of the things I hollered about really were things I'd never seen. I must be learning something! Anyhow, after six hours of this, my brain was toast. It's a frustration-provoking learning method. When they start the tape, I know I cannot do what is going to be called. I just have to do the best I can, as quickly as I can, and goof when I hafta. Still, I had fun. We had a very humor-filled, lighthearted group of people. That makes a big difference. :-)
The flight back was turbulent but clear. I can't remember what we did that evening -- probably both of us fell into bed in an instant near-coma.