I received notice from my doctor’s office yesterday that my blood test results were “stable.” But that my cholesterol was still borderline high and she recommends increased exercise. So I increased my treadmill time by five more minutes yesterday. This puts me up to fifty minutes a day on the treadmill which includes a five minute warm up and and a five minute warm-down.
I listened to John Adams as I exercised.
His 1986 “Tromba Lontana” is one I quite like. (link to stream of entire piece, mp3 of excerpt ). Also listened to his China Gates and Road Movies.
Later I did some composing. I did two short settings of the Roman Catholic mass sections for my Grand Rapids Composer group. One “Lamb of God” and one “Holy, Holy.” They are still a bit fresh to share on the web site. The “Lamb of God” came first. It is extremely simple. I wrote the entire “Holy, Holy” as a melody with harmonies in mind. It wanders in key a bit which I quite like. Then I sat down and harmonized it in Finale.
It is fulfilling to compose. Relaxing too I guess.
I was discouraged that my cholesterol showed no change.
I switched to filtered coffee a couple months ago with the idea it might have an effect. So far, no effect I guess.
I also haven’t lost the weight I told my doctor I was going to try to lose. And I am beginning to have a bit of (athritic?) pain in my left thumb joint. Yikes. Getting old has its drawbacks.
I practiced my Dec 4 organ recital pieces in the order I am planning to perform them. Then came home and made a sort of squash hummus which is quite good. I played through John Adams’s China Gates on the piano as well some Mendelssohn and Schubert earlier in the day. Then Eileen and I went out to the pub for supper.
Then home to read about Ulysses. Quite tired last night. Today I meet with my boss, do some church work and then off to a long rehearsal tonight of Oklahoma.
But now I need to treadmill for fifty minutes.