Eileen is canning up a storm.  This morning she is finishing up the roma tomatoes we bought on Wednesday. This is her second batch of tomatoes. The first batch was not roma. In addition to tomatoes she made a bunch of blackberry and strawberry jam. She is planning on making huckleberry jam as well.

I am working hard on “Mental Floss.” I’m not satisfied with my progress but I’m getting nervous about the difficulty. I keep thinking about the piece and coming up with ideas. This morning I did a full rewrite of the first version of it. Now I have a more or less complete sketch. I was surprised that it wasn’t as bad as I had thought it might be. I printed it up and will be working on it further both at the organ and on Finale.

While I was at the grocery store, I received a text that my copy of Edward Baptist’s The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism was on the hold shelf for me at the library. I stopped on the way home and grabbed it. I am looking forward to reading it and learning more about how slavery actually impacted America (and continues to do so until this day).

I still haven’t heard back from harpsichord builder, Chris Broderson. He is the second dude I have contacted about helping me finish refurbishing my instrument. I messaged him and just emailed him as well. Next step I guess is to call the phone number on his web site.

Eileen assures me that we can afford this. She has been talking to bat removal people. It looks like we have a colony and it’s going to cost as much as refurbishing the harpsichord to get them removed, probably about $2 K in each case although I only have an estimate from a builder who seems to have fallen off the internet and quit responding to emails. Not Broderson, the other guy’s name is Enid Sutherland. Both names were given to me by Professor Gregory Cowell.

 George Walker: Concise and Precise | NewMusicBox

This came across my Fakebook feed. I haven’t read it or listened to his music yet.