LDLR

LDLR - Labor Day Listening Room. 

In a previous post I described the basics of the Music Night organization, known officially as The Music Night Federation - MNF.  We even have t-shirts.  That post described the over 20 years of get-togethers to share music around particular themes and well, eat and drink.  There is another facet of the MNF known as a "listening room".  This usually involves a smaller group (4-6) assembling to share music more casually and yes, eat and drink.  Listening rooms occur on an ad hoc basis most often on Friday nights, do not involve a theme, and have very little structure.  They evolved years ago to address the needs of the more geeky members of the MNF who need a fix to hold them over between the formally scheduled Music Night parties.

With the acquisition of our family cottage in Greenbush, the listening room concept was taken to a new level with the inception of the LDLR.  This involves several families converging on Wiser Times for a long weekend (before all that renewal stuff - see previous post) to celebrate the end of summer with a mix of music, beach activities and yes, eating and drinking.  We held the 2012 version of the LDLR this past Labor Day, and it was a blast.

Things got rolling Friday afternoon with the arrival of two families, the Wyatts and the Reinharts (the latter with their rolling vacation home in tow) and our elder daughter Christy.  Once everyone was settled and the post-dinner cleanup was complete, the music got underway.  In previous LDLRs, the music didn't commence until noon on Saturday, to allow all participants to arrive.  But we were quickly informed that our thinking was so 20th century.  In the opinion of the representatives from the next generation, time was a-wastin'.  So the kids led us in a preliminary two-hour set Friday night.

An explanatory note is warranted here.  The way the LDLR works is that all attendees draw cards to establish the order of play.  Then in turn, each person is responsible for an hour of music of his or her choosing - no restrictions.  The music sets this year ran from 10:00 am until 10:00 pm Saturday through Monday, an extended schedule from the past.  And there are speakers in the living and family rooms, on the deck, in the gazebo, and for good measure there is a portable speaker to cover the beach or the barbecue area as needed.  The LDLR is not for the musically faint of heart.  You really have to want to be there.

The music resumed at 10:00 am on Saturday as scheduled.  Two more participants arrived in the early afternoon, Linda Crandall and her son Tommy, to bring our total to 11 counting three Burks.  The weather was fabulous with sunny skies, warm temperatures and a very swimmable Lake Huron (by most accounts only two ducks on the official four point duck system).  The day included studious creation of playlists by those whose turns were coming up, beach games, water sports and some rock hunting (as well as a lot of football and baseball watching in the background - volume on mute, of course).  We capped things off with a delicious barbecue chicken dinner with all the trimmings around the big table.

 

 

The music continued on into the evening, while a couple of our in-house photographers captured these shots of the beach just after moonrise.  

 

 

Saturday night wound down with a high-stakes game of Mexican Train (all 13 rounds) which sapped the remaining energy from anyone who had any left.

On Sunday, the festivities picked up right where they left off and hit their peak of 14 players with the arrival of the Dyles and their "adopted" son Reza, visiting from Germany.  I also accompanied three quarters of the Reinhart clan for our annual nine holes of golf after which the kids, Justin and Miranda, tried their hand at "white water" lake kayaking, as shown below.

 

 

Not to be outdone, Jim Wyatt and I did our best to defend the honor of the senior generation by flashing our canoeing technique.  But we had to make a beeline for shore when the capacity of the canoe was overcome by the foot-and-a-half rollers multipled by the on-board tonnage.  We took on a little water, but we made it although we were stroking so hard our life vests came unzipped (that's our story and we're sticking to it :-)
 

 

 

Sunday evening flowed into Monday with the music, food, drink and fun continuing.  By late Tuesday morning, the music was over, the food and drink had been consumed and the players had headed back to the big city.  Wiser Times had morphed back into its old serene self.  

 

But it was fun while it lasted.  Thanks to all who attended and made the weekend a huge success.  I'm already looking forward to next year.