In 2023 my vocal group, Bounding Main, lost its youngest member, David Yondorf. While he and I did not always play nice together his loss was earth-shattering to the group as a whole. If I recall correctly I believe it was only about six months from his oral cancer diagnosis to our burying him. It took us about a year to agree to hire a new bass voice, rathern than re-arrange our entire repertoire for four voices. Understandably, the Twins were in, what I refer to as, the Hamlet Conundrum. Essentially, is making a change going to be worse than the situation that one is currently in? After a few auditions and evaluations we brought on Patrick Knapp, Jr., not only a powerful bass voice, but also a former French horn player and a dental instructor at Marquette College in Milwaukee. He has performed with us all year in 2024, including a modest tour in the Netherlands and he has proven to be talented, eager to support the group and a nice fellow.
Predictably, the gig with NIJL was a bust. In the midst of the pandemic when the general public was not flying and the commercial aerospace industry was in dire straits, no airline or maintenance organization was willing or able to spend money on capital expendatures like maintenance platforms. After my one-year consulting contract came to an end we amicably chose to not renew it. As I've spent the majority of my work career in aerospace, I was unable to step into another opportunity. Fortunately, the only positive thing about my wife passing away was that I was able to take her Social Security payments until my own become available. Money is rather tight, but for now it is manageable.
I began writing a mystery novel of sorts just before my Maritime Music Directory International project took off. Since I have been assisted in the project by some generous individuals, I am hoping to be able to return to it no later than the first of 2025. It is set in my own town of Racine, Wisconsin, and it involves a faux detective agency on 6th Street, sunken ships, hidden locations and what I hope is a cast of engaging characters.
A few months ago my sweet, 19-year old cat, Azja, crossed the rainbow bridge. She was very dear to me and was a constant companion, particularly after Richelle passed away in 2020. Azja was suffering with some medical issues that made her day-to-day life challenging for her; I am very happy that she is now at peace.
Racine, WI 4/15/2021 - I am so very pleased and delighted to say that gig opportunities are returning for Bounding Main. We actually have several offers from overseas festivals as well as several for domestic festivals in the United States. After being quarantined for so very long it will be great to be able to get out to perform again. Go to Bounding Main to see more about my vocal group. We also have a YouTube channel that I've been working hard on. I've had a lot of great opportunities to take professional and semi-professional footage and assemble it into internet-ready music videos.
On the aerospace side I have been representing a marvelous company from the Netherlands called NIJL Aircraft Docking BV. They design and produce airframe access and fall protection stands for most of the world's aircraft, including commercial narrow-body and wide-body, military and corporate aircraft. These are structures that allow mechanics to get around on the outside of an airplane to work on it. With the pandemic going on and air travel being brought quite low it is very exciting to see the vaccines allowing for an increase in travel and business for our airline customers. There is a class of company referred to as an MRO - Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul. These are third-party companies that work to keep aircraft flying, typically for the owners of aircraft, whether airlines, leasing companies or military organizations. These are also very important companies and I will be attending a trade show that specializes in this kind of work. It will be the first one that I've gone to in over a year, since last year's event was cancelled. It will be good to not only get out of the house for a while, but also to revisit important industry contacts and friends that I've made over the decades that I've been in this business.
I don't want to dwell on the negative, but my loving wife of sixteen years passed away just before Christmas of 2020. I include this here because many of us have not been in touch as we might be and you should know this. You can read her obituary here. This has been a genuine struggle in all respects. Not being able to share this loss because of the pandemic has compounded the emotional gravity for me. I'm doing my best to regroup and find my life again, but it has been very challenging. Being able to be busy and see people again will certainly help. Feel free to drop me a line (to let me know that you're okay) at Rugglesby at Hotmail dot com.
