The music teaching business is almost completed for the school calendar year. I have filing to finish, bills to send out for summer lessons, and a two-day convention next week. I always look forward to our state conventions. (They understand me there.) Around 350 teachers of voice, piano, guitar and other instruments come together with music, guest speakers, teaching ideas, business strategies, an exhibit hall full of goodies and some convention food. We try to move it around the Twin Cities metro area so that every one is inconvenienced at some point; it only seems fair. Last year it was at the Mystic Lake Hotel and Casino, but the complaints about the smoke drove us to look for another venue.
I will be doing a presentation at the convention which I will share with you and I promise to take lots of pictures.
Until then, please let me show you more of the Midwest and our trip to Wisconsin. Since our last trip there, many more wind turbines dot the landscape near Fond Du Lac. From a distance they seem peaceful, and quite lovely. I am a big proponent of natural and renewable energy. But as we got closer, we could tell that not everyone was pleased with their presence. Billboards and signs in yards proclaimed, "Neighbors don't let neighbors put up 400 foot wind turbines". There is a heated debate that the flicker from the blades and the noise is unbearable and that the homes were here before the wind farm.
I have so many feelings about this and ultimately I don't live there, so I'm going to refrain from any statement. I will say that when I have seen wind farms in the past, they have been in more deserted rather than inhabited country areas like North Dakota, and the plains of Iowa, out of earshot. The light that flickers in this video would drive me nuts, I know. Oh yeah.
We see a fair amount of wind turbines in the west, but at least in my experience, I've never seen them anywhere near residential areas such as in this case. I imagine that could be a real point of controversy. Interesting photos.
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