Time with Tamar

Wednesday, we finally had a chance to spend some time with Tamar. We have been away so much, and been so busy, it hasn't happened much lately. But Wednesday, we went to her school and met her after class, spent some time with her there, then went for an ice cream treat at Herrell's, then went to the Feinland's home, met Ben, and went for a walk with Theo, and then finally took Tamar to her piano lesson, which is just next door to where the Feinland's are having a new home built. Then it was time for us to come back to Brattleboro for a concert choir rehearsal. We had a good time!

Tamar had fun on the tire swing at Hilltown School

One of Tamar's art work pieces was on display in the hall.

There are nice trails at Pathways where you can walk the dog.

        A great boulder for climbing

Tamar looking at the site where the foundation of her new house is being excavated. They hope it will be done by the end of the year.

Wednesday had a shadow over it - Ellen could not find her wallet. She missed it on Tuesday, and had retraced her steps over the past few days, both in her mind and in reality, and we had searched house and car carefully, but it didn't show up anywhere. We were about to start calling credit card companies today when our friend Eliza called - she had found it behind a cushion where Ellen had been sitting and sewing on Monday. Hallelujah! 

Happy Easter!

We've just come home from church at Dummerston. A lovely service, and the choir was especially fine this morning. We sang three anthems this morning: William Billings' Easter Anthem, the wonderful Dutch Easter Carol, This Joyful Eastertide, and Handel's Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah. Plus an Introit, Prayer Response, and Benediction Response. A lot of singing. They were great.

    Easter Sunday Choir at Dummerston 

            Easter lilies galore! 

Normally, we would have gotten up at 5am this morning, and gone to the Guilford church Sunrise service to lead music, but because I've been fighting a cold for two weeks, Lise let me off the hook, and we didn't have to get up until 7am. In an hour or so, we'll head down to Shutesbury for Easter dinner with Katie and Savanna. We had a meal with John and Cynthia Friday eve. Last week was a full week, as Holy Week usually is. Right now, we are listening to a recording of Handel's Messiah made back in 1985 by the Blanche Moyse Chorale in Brattleboro. Both Betsey and I are singing in the Chorale, and the soprano soloist is a young Dawn Upshaw, just before she became a Met star. It is a magical performance in every respect. The choruses are awesome! 

Getting by

Well, I made it to Dummerston  Choir rehearsal last evening. It was a wonderful rehearsal, plus Ellen fixed a great little supper beforehand, and everyone was there (10 of us in all), and we had a good discussion of the whole issue of hymnody in the church (essentially a discussion of what the right balance is between old, familiar hymns and new, unfamiliar hymns, esp, what role new, unfamiliar, unsingable hymns should play in the church's repertoire (if any!). We are anticipating the fact that our beloved pastor, Susanna Griefen, is retiring on May 15th and we'll be dealing with a succession of people filling the pulpit. We thought it would be helpful to provide them with a list of hymns the congregation loves to sing, and some general suggestions on hymn selection. So we're going to work on that.

I came home pretty wiped out. It doesn't take much. I'm getting by just doing what  I have to do. 

Out of commision

The last few days I've been dealing with a bug of some kind. Congestion, coughing, runny nose, sneezing, etc.  Not the usual start-in-the-head, move-to-the-chest sort of thing, but more the opposite. I've been in bed most of the time since Tuesday. I made it out to lead choir rehearsal last evening, and got through without much coughing, but then when I got home my nose started to run like crazy. So today I'm in bed staying warm again. Bummer! So much I want to be doing!   

Alone

Tonight, I am home alone. A rare experience. Ellen left early this morning to  drive to Philadelphia to attend a funeral for her friend, Janet Mustin. She will spend the night with Wallace and return tomorrow (Monday) evening. Saturday evening, she and I drove to Northhampton to borrow the Feinland 's Toyota, so I would have a car today. We set our clocks and didn't get to sleep until after 3am, DST. Up at  6am. Short night!  I stayed up when Ellen left this morning to work on Carmina Burana, and then went to church in Guilford. The choir sang Bobby McFerrin's Twenty-Third Psalm, and Durufle's Ubi Caritas, two favorites. I stayed after church for a presentation on a book by Robert Putnam, titled, Our Kids: The American Dream In Crisis. One of our lay leaders, Dunham Rowley, made the presentation, and tied it in with issues we are facing with the children in our church and the local community. A really important issue.

After church, I came home, fixed one of the lunches Ellen lovingly prepared for me before she left (as she always does), did some more music practice, talked on the phone with my friend Paul Jones, who lives in D.C., and then hightailed it back downtown to Centre Church for a dramatic presentation, by heart, of the entire Gospel of Mark, by the minister there, Bert Marshall. It was powerful. Bert answered questions afterward, and then, John and Cynthia (who were also there), and I got supper together at the Coop, and I went to the Carmina rehearsal in Putney. It was for men only this time, working on the In Taberna movement, which is basically a bunch of drunken medieval monks singing their hearts out-quite fun to sing! But, boy, there are a lot of Latin words, and they are sung at breakneck speed. 

After that I came home and watched a fascinating Rick Steves program on The Holy Land, which covered Israel and Palestine in some depth. He said afterward that he had tried very hard to create a program that was fair to both sides, and that since both Israelis and Palestinians (some, not all) had been angered by the program, he figured he had probably found the middle ground. He was brave to attempt it, and it gave a very vivid and intimate glimpse of life in that very controversial part of the world. 

Now it's time for bed. It will feel lonely! But it's just for one night. 

Yesterday, Ellen and I found time for a walk, and were surprised to find a Witch-Hazel bush in bloom, though I guess some species are winter-bloomers. I'll close with that:

Witch-Hazel in bloom on Black Mtn. Rd.

A little set-back

Yesterday, Ellen woke up with a terrible migraine headache and spent the day throwing up! It is so rare to have her be that sick, and there wasn't much I could do but keep her supplied with fresh, cool washcloths and a clean bowl! But it eventually subsided and by late afternoon she was able to drink a bit of sweet tea, and a little later tolerated a piece of toast. She slept pretty well and today has been up and been her usual self, and we even took a walk.

Meanwhile I worked on Carmina Burana and plan to go to rehearsal Sunday night. I also listened to the ACC Tournament on my cell phone and had the fun of hearing North Carolina defeat both Pittsburg and Notre Dame resoundingly, playing at the top of their game, pretty much. Tomorrow they will play Virginia for the championship, and then it's on to March Madness! Go Heels ! 

We're home!!

We are home! We arrived yesterday evening, just in time to go to our River Singers rehearsal - in time, actually,  to get a bowl of soup before the rehearsal (a fund-raiser for the church where we rehearse). We had listened to the River Singers songs in the car as we drove along, so the fact that we had missed the first rehearsal was not painfully obvious.

Our drive from Bath, NY to home was lovely. We stopped at the Penn Yan Diner for breakfast - a favorite stop in the Finger Lakes Region and a town I lived in from 1967-69 - almost 50 years ago! It hasn't changed that much, really. Sort of amazing.

                                    At the Penn Yan Diner

Then we drove along the NY Thruway while we listened to lectures on Questions of Value and I read aloud from Dr. King's writings, this time his talk about W.E.B. Du Bois. Very interesting and informative. It inspired me to want to read DuBois - I think i read parts of The Souls of Black Folk back in the 60's, but I have not read has major work, Black Reconstruction. 

We stopped for rice and beans at Popeye's in Troy, NY, so we hit all our favorite spots.

This morning we took it easy. Now I'm at the pool, Ellen is shopping, I just picked up our held mail. Tonight we will rehearse Rachmaninov's Vespers. The temperature is in the 70's - incredibly warm for this date. We are pleased that Bernie carried Michigan yesterday.

On Our Way Home

We are in Bath, NY this morning. We drove quite a distance yesterday, arriving at the Super 8 in Bath at 11pm last night. We left Bartlett at about 8:45a.m., we went in circles for a bit in Indiana where I-80, I-90 an I-94 all get twisted into a pretzel, and the signage is not great for which lane you need to be in, we got to our favorite eatery in Oberlin, OH, the Alladin,  at about 4:30p.m., had a very nice, early supper, and then went on to Bath. The reason we went so far is that we are trying to get home in time to get the house heated up while we go to a River Singers rehearsal. I downloaded and printed out the music for River Singers in Bartlett, and we can listen to the music in the car, and so be a little bit of on top of it -we missed the first rehearsal last week.

I am also looking at the music for the Rachmaninoff Vespers, and Orff's Carmina Burana, both of which are in the works back home.

As we drove along, we finished the Cultural Intelligence course lectures and now we've started the Questions of Value one, which is basically a course in Ethical Theory, something I used to teach, so its interesting to see how someone else does it. We slept well last night, and are doing well.

Big day

Today I spent the morning in bed. Not sleeping. Talking on the phone and downloading music. Peter Amidon, back in Vermont, wanted to talk about the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Guilford Church (in 2017), and especially the idea of updating to the present the history of the church that I wrote and published back in 1999  (titled Safe Thus Far). There was a lot to discuss, and I think - or at least hope - that this time, several people will be involved in the effort.

I also talked for a while with a friend, Dr. Paul Jones, who is a pediatric psychiatrist in Washington, D.C.

Then I downloaded .pdf files of music for the current session of River Singers, so that if we make it to the rehearsal Tuesday night, we'll be prepared. I also downloaded MP3 recordings of the same music so we play them in car and get familiar with the songs as we drive home.

Ellen, Maggie and Jerry, meanwhile, went to a neighborhood "moving sale." A family moving and selling virtually everything really cheap. Ellen bought 3 sets of queen-sized sheets and a table lamp, all for $11! 

Then, we picked up our friend, Carol Plagge, and went to lunch at Alexander's. We've done this several times now, and always enjoy it. Carol is moving into a senior independent living complex in April. It will be smaller but on the ground floor. After lunch we went to look at the building. 

                       Lunch with Carol at Alexander's

                  Looking at what will be Carol's new home

We got back to Maggie and Jerry's just as family started gathering for the pizza party. Peter, Suzie, Daniel and Becky - my brother Stewart's four children, all came, plus Dennis, Suzie's husband, and Damon and Tristan, Peter's sons, and Samantha, Tristan's wife. It was a wonderful and lively gathering. 

Another feature of the evening is that it was my mother's birthday. She would have been 115 years old, if alive (she died in 1967). Her birthday cake and a photo as a young woman adorned the table. This is the sort of thing my brother's family does, and I love them. 

            My mother's birthday cake and photo

Finally, the TarHeels played Duke on their home court tonight - the last game of the regular season. Remember that heart-sinker a couple of weeks ago when they lost to Duke by one point? Well, tonight they won on Duke's court by four points! Sweet revenge! They are ACC champs. Now there will be a post-season ACC tournament and then, of course, March Madness. They could go all the way. Not impossible. 

A head-scratcher

Here is a phenomenon we have encountered before in the Midwest - Regular gas costing 30 cents more than Super Unleaded. Why? We never see this  back East. And both 87 octane. It has to do with Ethanol, but I don't quite get it.

                                              ???

Fort McPherson National Cemetery

Tonight we are at Jerry and Maggie Hochberger's home in Bartlett, IL. We arrived at about 6:30p.m., had a nice supper of various items from a local Polish Deli, visited, watched an old episode of LaVerne and Shirley on TV, and now everyone has settled in for the night. We drive today from Council Bluffs, IA, after a pretty restless night in a motel there. It was a relatively uneventful trip today, good weather, no stops except for gas and snacks and a stretch or two. We listened to the final lectures of the course on Cultural Intelligence, which proved to be quite interesting. I read aloud from the collection of M. L. King, Jr.'s writings (edited by Cornel West), this time a piece titled The World House, a plea for the urgency of world-wide peace and understanding and an end to the global evils of racism, poverty and militarism. As relevant today as it was when it was written in 1967, only more so, but also sadder because everything King predicted would result from inaction then has come to pass in spades fifty years later, plus the situation is now vastly more complicated by the additional evil of the impact of global warming due to fossil fuel consumption. We also listened a good deal today to NPR, which never fails to be interesting.

Yesterday, as we drove from Boulder, through Nebraska, to Council Bluffs, Ellen asked if I could find an interesting place on the map where we could get out and walk, and I said,  "Well, at the next exit at Maxwell, NE, there is the Fort McPherson  National Cemetery." So we exited, and it was a discovery. It was a perfect place to walk: it was lovely, quiet, we were virtually alone, and there was much of interest. Over 10,000 veterans and their spouses are buried there. There is something uniquely affecting by the sight of uniform white grave markers laid out absolutely evenly spaced in long rows. At first, it seemed to be the invariable rule that the male's name (usually the veteran) was on the east side of the marker, and the female's name - the spouse - on the west side, but closer examination disproved that. In one section, it was just the reverse, and we soon saw that in many cases, the female was the veteran, not the male. In some sections, the markers were spaced such that there would be room for two caskets, but in others, they were so close together, there could only be room for one or two urns. The cemetery was established in 1863 - the first burial was of a U. S. soldier who was guarding the construction of the railroad through Nebraska, who was killed in an attack by Native Americans. We saw his grave. But I would estimate from our perusal that 80% of the graves were post 1990! Many we saw were post 2010. So this is still a very active cemetery. Any U.S. Veteran and his or her spouse, from anywhere in the world, is eligible to be buried there, free of charge. Plus dependent children, and in some cases other family members. 

I wondered if any of my father's "congregation" from WW II, men in the 1314th Engineers Regiment, all of whom were African-Americans, might be buried there. Were troops segregated in life, integrated in death? I guess my question might have been answered when I learned later that scores of "Buffalo Soldiers" are in fact buried there  - the name given to the freed slaves who fought with the Union Army in the Civil War. 

                                          Fort McPherson National Cemetery

                                                          Another view

                                        Very closely-set grave markers

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is mounted near the visitor's center at the cemetery.

Birthday dinner out

After a Downton Abbey marathon this afternoon in which we watched five episodes (!), Ellen, Betsey and I hurriedly got our act together (we got absorbed and lost track of time), and met Rob and Katie in Boulder at the Spruce, a very nice restaurant in the Hotel Boulderado, one of the historic buildings in Boulder. Very special ! Rob and Katie drove through some very snowy, unplowed, white-out conditions to get their ski area today, and it was cold and windy, but they had a good ski day nonetheless.

           Ceiling of the lobby at Hotel Boulderado

             An historic water fountain in the hotel

                       In the Spruce dining room

                              The skiers-Katie and her dad

                        The birthday boy and his beautiful wife

                        The birthday boy and his beautiful daughter

A very special day! I am blessed! 

Happy birthday to me !

Today is my birthday! Wow! It is a beautiful day in Boulder today. It is very windy but sunny and mild.  Rob and Katie are skiing at Winter Park Ski Area today. Betsey, Ellen and I are home and will be doing a Downton Abbey marathon. We 'll meet for a birthday dinner this eve - place to be determined!