[Harp-L] what i did on my summer vacation

[Garry Hodgson <garry@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

just got back from our annual habitat trip.  great trip.  great weather, only hit 100 
once, mostly 95-ish,  but very humid (as always).  left NJ friday morning 7/13 for
Sumter, SC, returned sunday night 7/23. crashed on monday, bigtime.  
still recovering.

i mention it here because a number of you were active supporters, especially
jason ricci,  who played an amazing benefit concert for us that raised much of
the money we needed for the trip.  
http://www.archive.org/details/jrnb2007-03-10.flac16
others of you came to this show, or bought tickets despite living too far away
to come.  many thanks to all of you.  your generosity and support means a lot to me.

the site went from looking like this:
http://snarkus.com/images/Habitat-2007/Before-1.jpg
to this:
http://snarkus.com/images/Habitat-2007/Day5-1.jpg
in 5 long, hot days (typically onsite from 6:30 am 'til 3-4 pm).  
the woman on the far right is martha, whose house we were building.
her children are in there, too.  i'm the tired looking guy sitting on the 
ground in the orange shirt.  and the girl behind me in the dark green 
shirt with her leg painted white (don't ask) is my daughter erin.  this was
erin's 3rd house, my 6th, and the youth group's 15th.

i did get to play some harp this time.  one of the kids at a church
we stayed at on the road was a singer/songwriter, and we got to 
play a little together.  managed a nice "wish you were here", among
others, despite a lack of shared musical vocabulary.

i also found a peavey amp behind the curtains onstage at the church
we stayed at in sumter.  a little scrounging produced a vocal mic, and
i got to play amped.  great fun.

i brought copies of the aforementioned benefit show to give out as gifts
along the way, and the kids got a plug in for JRNB when they were invited
to speak on a morning radio talk show.  not to mention that everyone who
traveled in my van got a healthy dose of harp music.  doing our part on
the PR front.

i love this trip.  it means so much to the kids, and the families, and the 
community.  by the time i get home, i am *exhausted*.  but it's worth it.  
boy, is it worth it.

----
Garry Hodgson, Senior Software Geek, AT&T CSO

nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something.
do something.