The Week the Wesley Went

Now say that ten times fast.....


Yep the mice are playing, Wes is at Camp this week.

While he's out pretending to work hard with The Captain and Mr. Walters at Lake Diefenbaker Piping and Drumming School, we still had to run practice.

It actually went incredibly well. Now there's a reason for that.

Perhaps the most unsung hero of our organization is our Pipe Sergeant. Cam Ballantyne has been with the band.... well.... a long time... and his years of experience, and un-real ability to adapt to the ever changing piping world have made him indispensable in our circle.

In a band full of wonderful, yet periodically noisy people, you barely ever hear a peep out of Cam. Until something needs to be said. Then in his worldly, "every word counts", manner he explains exactly what needs to be said.

He and Wes are the perfect team. They're polar opposites of each other, however they have the same vision of our pipe band and Cam always finds a brilliant way to sum up what Wes is talking about in 5 words or less.

Now obviously if Cam and Wes are a good pair then Cam and I work great together. For a man with a thousand times my experience, Cam has never, ever, questioned my musical opinions.... He shows me the same respect as everyone else on earth. So on Tuesday when he said "what do you think?" I simply said... "let's play it again" and away we went.

Cam is the reason our band walks with the confidence we do. Our success, even in dark days when our Pipe Major's health was less than shining, Cam led us through, and we stand behind, and beside him, just like Wes.

Now he's called practice on Saturday for 9 am.... I suppose given Cam's rural mentality it could have been worse, but try telling that to some of the guys :)

The only real trick for me is watching his foot tap as his camouflage disappears into whatever he's standing near....

Helluva guy that Cam!

Until Saturday!


Sean

World's Count down... uh.... 24 days til we're on the plane!!!