Drums, Please...

TheBoy is in Fourth grade. He's more than halfway done with his elementary school career, and has started (as I've mentioned previously) to exhibit signs of growing up. Fourth Grade is a Very Big Year - this is the first year they receive actual letter grades (A,B,C, etc.) rather than the previous NAPO method (Needs Improvement/Adequate/Proficient/Outstanding). The sports teams are more competitive, keeping score and following the rules of the games more than ever before.

And it's also the first year they can lessons for a musical instrument.

TheBoy has, of course, chosen "percussion", and if you notice a striking similarity between the name and a method of igniting gunpowder to cause destruction and mayhem, give yourself a gold star. He'll be coming home with his very own drum kit, a single snare drum that he will use to practice, practice, practice until I start wearing my Peltor muffs around the house 24/7. If he gets really good I may move to Peru. I imagine that he chose "percussion" simply because "jackhammer" was already full.

I kid, I kid. I'm excited for him, albeit a little apprehensive about the noise. Musicians run in our family, with my uncle as the music director for a local high school and numerous great uncles who have performed in amateur bands through the decades. I played guitar back in high school, a million lifetimes ago and certainly haven't retained anything, but I remember the days spent down in the basement with me, the songbook, and my Harmony acoustic learning fumbling my way through the latest hard rock offering. If nothing else, this will be his introduction to the arts, a first tentative step towards his adult years and appreciation for more than the latest pop drek.

I imagine it will also result in my getting some vastly improved hearing protection, too...

That is all.