I’ve been spending a lot of time writing about the outdoors, haven’t I? I don’t spend much time there – much less than most people here. Mostly I drive a desk during work hours, and then….?

Relatively few of my recreational activities work very well out here – running and flying are right out (though we do have a treadmill, and I understand that around January it gets warm enough to run outside). That leaves music, so I’ve been spending most of my post-work evenings in the well-appointed music room.

Startlingly, the other folks who show up there have a serious overlap with my musical tastes. Most of them are veterans, but they keep surprising each other, and of course, me. Two nights ago, Trudy said “You know, you’ve got a great voice for this Canadian folksinger I love – have you ever heard of Stan Rogers?” And Elissa: “So – there’s this duo I love, they’re called ‘Carter and Grammer’…” So I’m having a lot of fun.

Especially nice is that some of the OAEs have been playing together for years, and can latch onto each others’ harmonies like a limpet. And then everyone just joins in.

In the clip below, I’d been playing bodhran on St. Olaf’s Gate, but put it down to pick up my camera and capture a few moments.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=9Ou6tGQNuek]

From left to right, that’s Paddy, hard-core OAE who’s been wintering over since ice was invented, my co-worker Daniel, Mark, around whom the music scene here seems to orbit, and Julie the NSF rep, down here for only a few more weeks.