A week glides by quickly!

Well, here it is, Wednesday again! Dwayne Johnson was here with me a week ago; today it will be Fred Breunig, who has been here on a previous Wednesday - maybe in late February. Mike Mayer came by for a couple of hours last Thursday (4/10), Friday evening we did not go to Kathy Bullock's second rehearsal; we went to the first on Tuesday and enjoyed it very much, even though we knew we would not be singing in the concerts over the weekend. John was able to go with us to the River Singers concert only on Sunday, so that is when we went. Saturday was a day at home for me. Just as well, because we got several inches of wet snow late Friday night and early Saturday morning. It was John's 64th birthday (!!) but he was not available for a celebration, and the weather didn't cooperate anyway, so we did that Sunday- after the concert we went to Panda North - our "go to" restaurant for birthdays - for a birthday treat supper. Cynthia was on a trip with a friend, so she was not able to be with us. Saturday was also the day of Roger Brown's memorial service, my friend who had been a member of the retired clergy group. But because of the snow, I did not go. It was held at Centre Church, which does not have an ideal set-up for wheelchair access even without snow. So I sent several emails expressing my love and sympathy and regrets for my absence. I'll hear about the service from Bixby, Jeff and Lee tomorrow at our clergy group meeting. Last Sunday was, of course, Palm Sunday, and Ellen and I ended up going to Dummerston and singing in the choir, under Mary Westbrook's direction. It was a small choir, and Mary kept it simple - an arrangement of Ride on! Ride on in Majesty!. We will be at Guilford this week for Maundy Thursday (6pm supper and service) and Good Friday (noon service built around the stations of the cross). I lead the choir in Dummerston on Easter, with a rehearsak on Friday evening. After church, we'll go to Katie and Brendon's for Easter dinner. Life is full! We also have a new schedule at home. We are now both reading aloud every day - Ellen is reading a novel, and I am reading the Gospel of Luke. Ellen just finished reading Marilyn Robinson's Gilead.

Palm Sunday at Dummerston is also a special Boy Scout Sunday. Our pastor, Shawn Bracebridge, is also a Boy Scout leader, shown here in uniiform at the coffee hour after church.

River Singers chorus in concert Sunday afternoon, taken from where I was sitting.

Kathy Bullock, singing with the River Singers chorus. When they are singing one of her songs, she would be at the keyboard.

My plate of Mala Tofu at Panda North. I love this dish and always order it.

Enjoying our meal.

My 64-year-old son, John.

Another Wednesday guy

If you follow this blog, you know that for several weeks now, Ellen has done something out there in the world somewhere on Wednesday afternoons to give herself a bit of a respite. She doesn't want me to be alone for an entire afternoon, so she got word out asking for people to come stay with me, and many responded. One who has not come before - who in fact has never been at our house before - came this past Wednesday - Dwayne Johnson. Dwayne and his wife, Rachel, moved to Guilford from Iowa a few years ago and have become pillars in the Guilford Community Church. Dwayne is multi-talented, genuine and enthusiastic "doer." Dwayne heads the church's Building and Grounds Committee, and is constantly involved in projects and concerns with the physical plant and surroundings. He spearheaded the creation of the Guilford Community Park which now surrounds the church building and has made a beautiful and useful environment for the church which many people are now using. That includes the striking post-and-beam pavillion which is frequently used by the church, as well as by many others, and has frequently been pictured in this blog. Dwayne also revived the "men's breakfast" tradition, and 20 or so men now gather at least once a month on a Saturday morning to enjoy good food, fellowship and discussion of a topic Dwayne usually selects. On top of all that, Dwayne is a fine trumpeter. He will be playing the trumpet along with the singing of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus on Easter Sunday. His wife, Rachel, is an accomplished pianist and often is the accompanist for church services. They have been a wonderful addition to the life of the Guilford Church for several years. I was very glad to have the chance to have Dwayne sit with me in our livingroom and get to know him better. Ellen used the time to meet her sister for lunch in Turners Falls, MA, so a good time was had by all.

Dwayne Johnson, with Rachel (from his Facebook page). *********************** Wednesday evening, we had our last class session in Psychology on Zoom from Swarthmore College, led by Prof. Andrew Ward. This final session was on Clinical Psychology, particularly on the difference between Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, the former more Freudian, the latter more Jungian. That is an over-simplification, but it has some truth in it. It was a topic people could relate to, many having been to a therapist.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

We are in a spell in which we seem to be going out to some special event every day. Thursday morning we drove to the Country Diner in the Enfield mall near Bradley Field (CT) where we met my son-in-law, Rob Shay, who had flown in from Colorado to attend a conference dedicated to 17th Century music at Yale U. He had time to see us for a couple of hours before going on to Yale, so we met at the Diner for brunch. It was the perfect place - no one rushed us and I had two large blueberry pancakes, two eggs fried "over easy," and two strips of bacon, all delicious. We hadn't seen Rob for some time, years in fact. So there was a lot to catch up on. I was particularly interested in the work he is doing for Bärenreiter Publishers editing MSS of operas by Henry Purcell - Rob's academic speciality. He is currently working on King Arthur, a challenging project because the MSS are in more disarray than, e.g., Dido and Aeneas, his first project, now published. There are a lot of variants in the existing MSS, none of which were made by Purcell himself. So Rob has to decide what note to publish, and include a footnote. He is gratified that several well-known Europaean orchestras have recently performed Dido and Aeneas using his new score. It is demanding work, but he enjoys it. Here is a little quote aboutDido and Aeneas: "Probably no opera has received as much scrutiny note for note as Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Small in size, it nevertheless makes a great emotional impact and carries prodigious historical weight. However, a clear and complete picture of its origin, date, and musical score is bedevilled by a dearth of contemporary musical sources and archival details. In dealing with this state of affairs, Robert Shay’s new edition of Dido and Aeneas for Bärenreiter offers a model of clarity. Shay begins his Preface with the most succinct and lucid history to date of the ‘Origins of Dido and Aeneas’ (pp. iv–viii with full references). He weaves together the history of opera at the court of Charles II and modern theories on the date of Dido with the four earliest documents pertaining to the opera in the order of their discovery: the undated Chelsea libretto for Josiah Priest’s boarding school for girls, the epilogue by Thomas D’Urfey published in 1690 that was spoken at a performance at Priest’s boarding school, the libretto of John Blow’s Venus and Adonis for performance at the same school indicating its previous performance ‘before the KING’ (in 1684), and a letter written from Aleppo in 1688 asking whether ‘Harry’ had prepared a keyboard version of the overtures to ‘the mask he made for Preists [sic] Ball’, describing the overture that survives at the head of Act I in detail. Admitting that the ‘picture of Dido’s early existence thus remains shadowy’, Shay significantly concludes that while ‘circumstantial evidence’ points to a court origin, the possibility remains that the premiere of the opera ‘occurred in 1687 or 1688 at the Priests’ school’."

At the Country Diner with Rob. ************************************** Friday, we went to a concert given by Andy Davis at the Marlboro Community Center, which is the ground floor of the Congregational Church in Marlboro - a new venue for a concert because for decades, that space has been a play school. The concert was all songs composed by Andy himself. Some we had heard before, some were new. It was a delightful concert - Andy is a prolific composer and he is good! I got to see several people I haven't seen in some time. We had to navigate some steps coming in - not wheelchair accessible - but when we left, some men got out a portable ramp, and we used that.

Andy at his concert Friday. Saturday, we went to a concert Brendon was singing in - given by the Greenfield Commmunity College Chorus. That venue was new to me - St. James and St. Andrew Episcopal Church in Greenfield. It was very nice and we got there early and were right up front. The concert was of "classics" in music spanning several centuries: Di Lasso, Bach, Brahms, Barber, etc. Brendon had a solo in a spritual, Every Time I Feel the Spirit and he did well. The pieces were well-chosen and it was very enjoyable. The church was very accessible, which we appreciated.

Top: The GCC Chorus at St. James Church. Bottom: Brendon with some chorus mates.

March Madness disappointment

The TarHeels are done! After their heartbreaking loss to Duke in the ACC tournament, there was some question as to whether they would even make it into the NCAA Tournament. They did not get into it right off- they became a bubble team that had to play a "first four" game to be seeded in the regular brackett. They were given an 11th-seed and played 11th seeded San Diego State for their slot. They played brilliantly against SDS - one of their best games ever! So they made it into the brackett and then played Ole Miss, a 6-seed team, in Round 1. They were behind 21 (or something like that) at the half, fought back to within 2 points late in the second half, but couldn't make it into the lead and lost in the end by 7 points. Sigh! Many teams would have been thrilled to have a 23-win season, which they did, and get to play even one game in March Madness, but the Heels were hoping for better than that for sure. It was the last game as a "Heel" for R.J. Davis, their award-winning player who broke a lot of records in his career. At least he had the SDS game to go out on a high point. He's only 6'1", so he may not be big enough for the Pros. They'll have a good team to field next year, I think. They had 2-3 outstanding freshmen this year. Duke may well win the championship this year. We'll see.

UNC TarHeels Men's Basketball team, 2024-2025.

A new shower set-up!

Thanks to Andy Davis, we have a safer shower in the bathroom next to our bedroom. For the past fifty years, I have been showering downstairs. My study is downstairs, and my dresser and clothes closet are downstairs also. The shower downstairs is not in a tub, it is rustic stall shower we built when we built the house. It has not had any grab bars, but is narrow enough that I can brace myself against the wall. Since the advent of Parkinson's in my life, this has been workable, but has become increasingly problematic for two reasons: (1)I have come to live my life primarily on the main floor where the livingroom and bedroom are located. Taking a shower has thus involved going down the long stairway to the ground floor and back up again. (2) Standing while showering has become increasingly difficult. To "solve" this latter problem, I put a stool in my shower, and also put a building jack inside the shower that I could grab on to when getting up and down off the stool, and to steady myself while showering. That helped, but was not ideal. And it was still downstairs. I think I reported here that a few weeks ago I responded to an ad I saw on the internet for a walk-in shower upstairs. This involves taking out the tub and putting in a tub-sized shower stall which is easy to walk into and has a seat built-in and grab bars. A young man representing his company drove over from Albany, NY, looked over our situation and gave us an estimate. I was shocked by the price: $18,000 if we agreed to buy it that day. $20,000 if we bought it within 30 days,and $22,000 if we bought it this year. Obviously, there is sales pressure built into that three-tiered price system. But there is no way I was going to pay even the lowest price for a shower! Andy Davis was here when that sales rep made his pitch, and after he left, Andy said he thought he could do better. And he has. He has built a waterproof wooden bench that is built into the back of the tub and extends outside the tub so that I can easily sit on it, using the bathroom sink to brace myself as I get down and up off the bench - very much the way I currently use the sink to help me get down and up off the toilet. Once I'm on the bench, I can easily slide over into the tub. Andy installed a new shower head which is at the end of a six-foot-long flexible hose and can be hand-held while sitting on the bench. It has a "pause" setting, so I can easily turn off the water while I soap up. This means I can be seated throughout the entire shower. Ellen has to help me set the water temperature using the faucets and also adjust the shower curtain, which is fine. Otherwise, I can do everything on my own at my own pace, and do it feeling safe. And all for a few dollars! Yay Andy! This set-up also works fine for a regular stand-up shower in the tub. A grab bar in the tub would be useful - I think we can figure that out.

An example of the sort of shower I was being asked to pay $20,000 or more for.

The bench Andy built. It is handsome. It can easily be lifted off the tub and stored somewhere if needed. It has flanges that fit over the side of the tub so it is super solid.

The new flexible shower hose and head that easily reaches to the bench.

Scrabble game

Last evening there was nothng compelling on TV so we played a game of Scrabble. We both like Scrabble - we both are "word people" - and I think of Ellen as being the better Scrabble player. i very often have very bad luck in drawing letter tiles, most typically drawing lots of vowels. I remember a game in which I rhink I had four "e's" on my tray one point. But last night I had better luck, both in my draws, and in makng words. In one play, I drew a "q" and in the same draw, gor a blank tile. Thus I was able to use the blank as a "u," and was able to put the "q" on a double-letter space in a word that included a double-word space, thus making the "q" worth 40 points. I had some other lucky plays that gave me a final score of 314 against Ellen's 279, or something like that. Fun game!

Last night's completed Scrabble board. ******************* You might notice the word "Yo" in the lower left corner. I played that, and Ellen did not challenge it, though some might have. She was right not to - it is an acceptable Scrabble word, and I learned later when I looked it up that it is a particularly popular greeting in the Philadelphia area, which is where Ellen grew up.

A fantastic musical event!

Yesterday evening, we (John and Cynthia, Ellen and me) drove over to Bennington College to a concert put on by Alash, a group of four Tuvan Throat Singers who live in Siberia and are currently touring the U.S We met Mary Anderson (who lives in Bennington) there at the concert hall. The hall was packed, and no wonder; Alash was fabulous. They were beautiful and astounding at the same time. Throat singing involves making sounds one does not usually hear coming from a human. If you have no idea of what kind of music this is, here is a link to Alash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK0npp2NLaY John and Cynthia first met Alash nineteen years ago when they came to Bellows Falls, and they actually hosted them for an overnight in their home. So they feel a personal connection with them. It was a full concert with a lot of variety, and the audience was wildly enthusiastic. The concert was opened by a Bennington College group playing Turkish music - they were good, even though they have only been in existence for a month. I wasn't sure how easy it would be to get in and out of the hall in a wheelchair, but it proved to be okay. I would go again.

Top: Alash; Middle: The Turkish music group and Bottom: Part of the audience.

Alash - photo from their website. ****************** And here is a description of throat singing from the same source: "The Tiny Republic of Tuva is a giant when it comes to mastery of the human voice. Tuvan throat singers can produce two or three, sometimes even four pitches simultaneously. The effect has been compared to that of a bagpipe. The singer starts with a low drone. Then, by subtle manipulations of his vocal tract and keen listening, he breaks up the sound, amplifying one or more overtones enough so that they can be heard as additional pitches while the drone continues at a lower volume. Despite what the term might suggest, throat singing does not strain the singer's throat. The Ancient Tradition of throat singing (xöömei in the Tuvan language) developed among the nomadic herdsmen of Inner Asia, people who lived in yurts, rode horses, raised yaks, sheep and camels, and had a close spiritual relationship with nature. Throat singing traditionally was done outdoors, and only recently was brought into the concert hall. Singers use their voices to mimic and interact with the sounds of the natural world—whistling birds, bubbling streams, blowing wind, or the deep growl of a camel. Throat singing is most commonly done by men. Although custom and superstition have discouraged women from throat singing, recently this taboo is breaking down, and there are now excellent female throat singers too. A Unique Concept of Sound. The Tuvan way of making music is based on appreciation of complex sounds with multiple layers or textures. To the Tuvan ear, a perfectly pure tone is not as interesting as a sound which contains hums, buzzes, or extra pitches that coexist with the main note being sung. Tuvan instruments are designed and played to produce such multi-textured sounds as well." The various sounds a throat singer can produce are all illustrated on the website. Take a look: https://www.alashensemble.com/about_tts.htm