What day is this?

 A friend recently commented to me that, now that she is retired, she has trouble remembering what day of the week it is.  Then today my west coast brother, who is also recently retired, sent me his daily text which began with 'happy Tuesday.'  Not an unusual greeting, except that today is Monday.  

Lucky for me, I always know what day of the week it is.  Not because I'm a genius or anything but simply because we have, on our bedroom wall, a truly magnificent clock.

Here's a picture of it.  It's about 6x8 inches. My wonder spouse has had this clock for a long time (since before we were married).  It not only shows me the day, the date and the time, it also has these nifty little messages like morning, afternoon, evening and pre-dawn.  It's also light enough to be easily read in the middle of the night.  Those of you of a certain age will understand why I might be looking at the clock in the middle of the night.

In case you're interested in owning a whoopy doo wonder clock of your own, my spouse did some research for my friend and found this model available: La Crosse Technology C86279 for $32.67 through Amazon. It's actually one step better than ours because it will 'spring forward' and 'fall back' automatically.  Obviously "new and improved."

More music...

 I guess this was our weekend for music.  After the Phil last night my wonder spouse and I spent two hours this afternoon listening to a piano concert.  Today's concert came with a free lunch which was nice.

The artist was Jeremy Filsell and he was amazing.  He has been playing piano since he was ten years old, won many, many awards and traveled the world performing.  His bio filled a page and a half of the program in very fine print.  He's done it all (at least in the world of piano and organ music).  One bit I found interesting was that he lived in Windsor Castle for nine years as an alto lay clerk in the Queen's choir at St George's Chapel, Windsor.  

His recordings are widely available but I like to see my music as well as hear it.  I would much rather sit in the audience seeing and hearing a musical performance than simply listening to a recording.  That's why I enjoy going to the philhamonic so much.

In the case of Mr. Filsell, part of my joy and awe came from realizing that he was playing the entire concert from memory, no sheet music anywhere.  And we are not talking easy little ditties here.  He entertained us with selections from Chopin, Debussy, Leighton and Liszt.  My favorite selection was Liszt"s "Piano Sonata in B minor, S.178."

All in all, a remarkable end to this very musical weekend.

an evening at the Phil....

 This evening's philharmonic concert had several interesting parts.  It opened with a fun little five minute piece by Lili Boulanger called "D'un matin de printemps."  I'm pretty sure that is something about an evening in springtime but my high school French is quite rusty.  It was a lovely piece.  I was sad to read that the composer died when she was only 24.

Then came Edgar Meyer's "Violin Concerto."  The solo parts were performed by violinist Eric Silberger who was absolutely sublime. This was definitely my favorite part of the evening.

After the imtermission we heard "Rondes de printemps, No.3" from "Images" by Claude Debussy and a Piano Trio by Ravel adapted for full orchestra.  Both pieces were beautifully performed (I especially enjoyed the harps) and my spouse said that the Ravel piece was his favorite part of the program.

I guess you could sa there was something for everyone this evening.

Spring time

 Happy first day of spring.  Spring officially began at about 10:40 this morning.  My west coast brother made sure I knew that in addition to being the first day of spring today is also "Alien Abduction Day," "Snowman Burning Day" and "National Ravioli Day."

My wonder spouse and I had noodles, but not ravioli for supper and I wasn't able to find any aliens to abduct.  I wouldn't mind a little green ET running around the place but, alas, no such luck.  

I would never attempt to burn a snowman, although the 70 degree, sunny day we enjoyed today did a great job of melting away the last lingering little piles of snow around the neighborhood.

We did however put our snowman away, wrapped carefully and put on a shelf in the basement.  He has been standing on the table in our foyer since before Christmas.  He will be back again next winter, but right now all my thoughts are on spring.  I must find something springy to take his place - maybe an Easter bunny???

eye glasses...

 As I think I mentioned in a previous blog, I have been wearing glasses since I was seven years old.  This means that I know what it should feel like when one puts on a new pair of glasses.  First there is a little pause as your brain gets used to seeing things more clearly, and then you just wear and enjoy your new glasses.  In recent years all of my glasses have been no line tri-focals which have worked very well for me.  I can drive safely, I can work on my computer, I can read, I can even put together jigsaw puzzles.  In other words, I can see to do whatever needs doing.

That's how it should be and that's how it has always been for me until my newest pair.  Don't get me wrong.  I've had three other pairs of glasses from this same eye doctor and all have worked very well for me.  

But when I put on this new pair of glasses they seemed fine at first but then I realized that i couldn't see to drive unless I slid the glasses down on my nose and looked through the top quarter inch of the lens.  I also realized that when I looked across the room, any room, at home it was blurry.  I went back and the nice technician adjusted the frames so they fit differently on my face and ears.  This seemed to help but not really.  I tried again, still no better.  So I made an appointment for this afternoon and went back to see what else could be done.  After two glasses gurus looked everything over it was determined that the lenses simply didn't line up correctly with my eyes.  In other words they agreed with my diagnosis of the situation.

So now I am sitting here typing my blog wearing my two year old glasses and managing pretty well.  My new and improved lenses should be ready in ten days.  If you hear shouts of glee you'll know that they are working as they should, and I'll know that it's ok for me to be driving again. If instead you hear gnashing of teeth, I'm not seeing well and I'll know that another trip to the dentist (see yesterday's blog) is required.  Stay tuned.

new tec....

 I went to the dentist today.  This is not something I would usually write about but I'm intrigued with his new equipment.

I went to the dentist because my left jaw has been aching for a couple of weeks and had finally started bothering me enough that I decided I really must do something.

They took an xray, then the dentist massaged my jaw and pressed on certain points watching for my reaction when he hit the spots that really hurt.  He found them all.  Then he gave me some advice "Don't open your mouth too wide, eat soft food, and take small bites."  All of which I had already been doing because it just felt better.

Then, and this was the exciting part, he zapped me with his brand new lazer.  My nurse told me it was his new favorite toy.  My dentist referred to it as his magic wand.  It was a very nice treatment.  He zapped me repeatedly from outside and inside my mouth.  It was a very warm, not too hot, feeling, and very relaxing.  Not at all what one expects in a dentist's office.  It didn't make any noise at all.

That was several hours ago and, while my jaw is still a little achy, it feels considerably better than it did before my appointment.  My wonder spouse assisted me in following directions by cooking noodles alfredo for supper, soft, easy to eat and delicious.

I'll be going back for a follow up treatment in two weeks.  Is it weird to look forward to going to the dentist?

It's all so green

 I hope you all have had a pleasant St. Patrick's Day whether you are really Irish or only a little Irish like me.  My west coast brother suggested that today I should go looking for shamrocks and four leaf clovers.  That got me wondering if there is a difference.  

There is indeed a difference.  A shamrock is a three-leaf clover and is used as a symbol of Ireland and Saint Patrick.  The name comes from the Irish word seamrog which means little clover.  The three leaves represent the Holy Trinity. 

When I was very young our yard had lots of clover growing in it and we would search sometimes to see who could be the first to find a four-leaf clover.  Everyone knows that four-leaf clovers are lucky.  I did not know until this evening that only one in 5000 clovers possess the extra leaf.  No wonder our searching took a while.  The four leaves are said to represent faith, hope, love and prosperity.

Unless of course you grew up in the country like I did and belonged to a 4-H club.  The 4-H symbol is a four leaf clover with an H on each leaf.  The H's stand for Head, Heart, Hands and Health.

None of which has anything to do with Saint Patrick's Day but it has been fun to remember.