UPDATE

It looks now like I will be able to go to Mark and Leigh’s the week of the fourth. Eileen hadn’t gotten out of bed when i wrote this blog post. She and Mark spoke last night. They are ready for us to come for the whole week so that’s what we will do if we can get Elizabeth to come and cat sit.

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I read recently that when one is old, one of the things one is sure of is that one did not die young.

I always thought that I would not live this long. Turning twenty was  a surprise, as were all the anniversaries thereafter.

Now I am 69 which is not old by American standards in this century, although that standard is apparently dropping as the life expectancy of white American males diminishes.

I find myself blogging earlier in the day. I have what I hope will be my last staff meeting at Grace this morning. I am actually drawing further away from the life of a church  musician daily.

I have been spending time with the Child Ballads.

I have always loved folk music. Now it interests me much more than hymnody or academic music.  You can define that last term for yourself if you want.

I was disappointed with my local library yesterday. I was sure they would have on their shelves some poetry by Brook Haxton, Kim Addonsio, and Hayden Carruth. These are all poets I want to read more of. There was a Collected poems of Carruth which i checked out. I was hoping for more.

Also, my grand daughters are reading a couple of books I don’t know and want to look at if not read: Normal People by Sally Rooney and  The Black Castle by Jeannette Walls. Neither was on the shelf at the library.

So I plan to interlibrary loan all of this, probably this morning if I have time.

I continue to spend time at the piano. Robert Schumann has been very satisfying to read, even though he can be very difficult. Also, I have been reading a bit in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book as I think about folk music. There are many settings of tunes from the time that interest me.

 I did enjoy browsing at the library, something I haven’t done much of in the past year. Of course I  managed to find a stack of stuff to take home and look over.

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SEE UPDATE AT THE BEGINNNING OF THIS POST

Elizabeth called last night to say that she can come and watch the cat the first week of July. Unfortunately, it looks like Leigh had rightly assumed we wouldn’t be coming and has scheduled lessons in the guest bedroom where we usually sleep. Hopefully we can go over a bit that week anyway. At any rate, I was thinking of asking Mark and Leigh to meet Eileen and me halfway between our  homes for a meal and some chat. I guess we’ll see how this plays out.

It has occurred to me to use this web site in my retirement. I have been thinking of organizing my compositions for my own amusement at this time of life. Putting them in chronological order. It might make sense to reorganize this web site and put them here. The website sorely needs reorganizing, but we’ll just have to see if I ever get to retire.

Yesterday while my wife was taking her daily walk, my blind cat attempted to leap up and join me on my dead mother’s recliner. Unfortunately, he didn’t quite make it. In the process of losing his balance he caught his left hind leg in the recliner apparatus and flipped over, sprawled on the floor and crying out.  I was afraid he had broken his leg.

I had to extricate myself from the chair without putting it upright position so as to not crush his leg. I carefully lifted my cat and gently took his leg out of the chair. I put him on the ground. After a moment he walked blindly toward the kitchen, no limp, no visible effects.

I was grateful. Now when he leaps up onto the chair, I watch him carefully and block the open mechanism with my leg.

I got up early this morning hankering for a shower. So after cleaning the cat litter which we now keep in the main bathroom on the main floor for the blind cat, I took a shower. Then I made coffee, did stretches, and my daily exercises.

After exercising I turned on the tap to get some water. Nothing. The water had ceased to flow. Yikes.

My wife got up also hankering for a shower. Unfortunately there was not going to happen until service was restored. Some time after i discovered it, a man in one of those orange yellow reflector worker vests knocked on my door and told me it was a mistake. The water should return in a couple of hours.

So Eileen and I had breakfast, played our usual four games of boggle. By that time the water was back on.

Eileen showered. I went to the grocery store and picked  up groceries and some food for our date day picnic by the lake.

The humidity has been dreadful. It has been in the nineties according to our humidity gauge. If it rains does the gauge go one hundred per cent?

Eileen decided that it was too humid to go sit by the lake today for our date day.  So we stayed home. I think we might go out Thursday instead.

I am adjusting to the idea that I am retiring soon. Today it occurred to me that retiring would in many ways return me to the hapless dude I was when I met Eileen. At that time we had lots of time on our hands to do nothing.

I can’t wait until that time comes again.