Enjoyed sharing a nice lunch with my youngest son in Atlanta and learned he has tickets to YoYo Ma tomorrow night at the Fox that his brother in San Francisco bought him for his birthday. I did not ask him if he had a date as I didn’t want to see him role his eyes at me again or embarrass him, but boy do I wish he has a date. One of the many things I do pray for (yes, I’m one of those mothers!) What a great kid.
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If you are practicing 45 minutes at a stretch, you deserve a tuned piano. For yourself, never mind who is listening. Yea, it might not stay in perfect tune, but I bet better than now in the near future. I bet it would make you quite happy.
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Great 4 mile walk at the beach today with 2 friends of almost 30 years. Then a nice long lunch outside to catch up with them even more!
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This morning I washed my hair. This afternoon we met friends for lunch at a local place overlooking the marina. Then we got gelato next door. Then checked out the new Shelter Island Friday Market, which was like a very mini version of the many major farmers markets. Only one stand with produce and mostly merchandise at the rest. So now we know.
Then we came home where our new cordless stick vacuum was waiting at the door. It only took a few minutes to assemble and hopefully it will inspire me to occasionally vacuum. I was very tired of our old canister vacuum which was a pain to push and had bags to empty and husband had patched the cord twice and the hose once. So I talked him into this and I’m sure he’ll have complaints but no worries. (I’ve started using “no worries” after our trip down under and it covers a multitude of situations.)
The rest of the day is just hanging out. Which reminds me, we were recently invited to an open house at the new neighbors in a couple of weeks. Among other things, they said there would be plenty of “hangs”. I never heard that before so looked it up and it seems to refer to social interaction zones?
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I worked my you-know-what off today!
After the usual morning routine (exercise for me and then me and the pup) I did a couple errands. Picked up some light groceries including a couple things to put on the grill do easy dinners this weekend.
About 12:30 I headed out and worked outside till 6 with a couple
Short breaks. We have had a lot of rain so today was dry and the grass HAD to be cut before rain again tomorrow. I’m cutting it twice a week at this point!
My neighbor, 81 and an avid gardener with a beautiful garden, is flipping most of her garden to native plants. Our local zoo has a crew that does these projects as part of their horticulture program. They removed tons of perennials this week and guess who got a bunch - me! Today I planted several peonies, astilbe , catmint, and Siberian iris. Lots of weeding to clear those areas to plant. These plants are like GOLD to me!
More to go but I was pretty spent. Cleaned up and then did a couple other outdoor tasks- got a couple pieces of outdoor furniture out and spray painted a plant stand to give it a refresh.
Local made hot dogs on the grill, baked beans and a vegetable for dinner. Read outside a bit and will finish Love On The Spectrum tonight and hopefully sleep well!
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I need to start playing again. The beautiful Steinway my husband inherited is just sitting there. 
We pay upfront for each year of tunings, every three months. I’m not sure what’s holding me back. Yes, I’m very busy, but I find time to watch TV! I know part of it is that I used to be able to memorize pieces without even trying, and now I can’t. But it’s OK to play reading music.
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Today is my day to do my share of opening our beach club. So DH and I will go down there with cleaning supplies, etc.
and I’m doing the laundry.
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Come back closer into town!!
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Start small. Sit at the bench for 5 minutes. Play for 5 minutes. Put yourself in its aura instead of just looking at it from afar!
Seems like a great transition activity or to take a mental break from work or stress.
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Paper shredding!!
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I try not to think about that. We have a lot more we need to remember in our day to day lives than we did back as kids.
One thing that helped me. When I sent a recording to my sister last year, she got all excited and wanted me to learn Mozart’s Sonata for 2 pianos K448. Someday we might play it together. But it is hard to find somewhere with 2 pianos to practice. (we did have 2 little ones together in our house growing up though! one of which is now mine. We also had a Steinway - now hers, as it should be!) Anyhow, she sent me the youtube recording of the Jussen Brothers playing it. OMG - I absolutely LOVE them now… BUT! I absolutely love playing WITH them. I put in my ear buds and play along pretending I’m them. I confess something I do - before and after, I will even do the great big very overexaggerated bow! But, it’s just so much fun to pretend that I’m someone great. And, you’re not expected to memorize stuff when you play with someone else!
I’ve since moved on to Schubert’s Fantasie in f minor - again, playing with those Jussen brothers. It’s a duet, so only 1 piano needed BTW - and it’s not that hard technically. But, it was written during Shubert’s last year of life - it’s so hauntingly beautiful - and I just think of him writing it while reflecting on his experiences during his life.
I don’t suppose your D would be up for playing something like that with you? It might give you a purpose to play and a chance to reconnect? Maybe even make a recording for your Dad?
And I do not care about being perfect anymore. In some ways, I think it sounds better. I play something like I want to. I don’t care if it’s over pedaled, not the right touch, I take a little longer here or there. Who the blank cares?! My cats? OK well maybe they do hide under the bed. (just kidding)
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After two fun Saturdays, we are having a normal one. Went to the gym - 30 min hard stairmonster/30 min hard spin bike/30 min of push-ups & pull-ups/15 min mobility work. Came back and played piano for 45 min. It’s funny, I thought that was pretty short. I can’t accomplish much in 15 min. One of my pieces is 18! But I also find after an hour, my brain does shut down.
After a frozen pizza lunch, we’ll head out of town to a used bookstore and then down the interstate to the big city to hit up Costco. I’m low on a bunch of things. Not sure if dinner will be there or back home.
Next weekend is the wedding!
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Today we’re off to services to observe the Yarzeits of both our fathers, four days apart on the Jewish calendar. Husband decided we should sponsor the Kiddush. So I have to go make myself look nice enough to both likely end up on the bima, and socialize more than usual.
This afternoon we’ll learn more about our new stick vacuum and decide where to store it.
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I’m still in Seattle with S2. We’re going to take a ferry and go to Vashon Island shortly.
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Walked around neighborhood this morning with H. Also washed & dried all our bedding (3 loads with mattress pads & blankets) and my lingerie. Made simple lunch and am trying to decide what to do about dinner—stay home or dine out. hmmmmm
Also made zoom meeting and sent out meeting notice for our meeting on Thursday. I had thought it was on the calendar but somehow it wasn’t.
While mulling, my sister invited us to join them at a taco place tonight and tomorrow we were invited to a kids birthday lunch. I guess we aren’t total recluses. Haha!
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I’m posting about my day as I lie here trying to wind down. Just got back from seeing Mamma Mia! with a friend. What a weird musical. Admittedly, I am not an ABBA fan, but so many people seem to love this movie/musical that I thought I’d give it a try and maybe it would give me a new way to appreciate these songs. It kinda did, but I felt like there was no character development. It was so farcical, which I didn’t know to expect.
I also made the Gyllenhaals’ banana bread recipe that was in the NYT a while back. Proved to be interesting. I would make it again but would do a couple of things differently.
That is all, aside from the usual. Well, that and I’m beginning to worry about dh’s driving. He makes the weirdest choices.
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When my family was here visiting, I asked my son to put on the side all the objects he wanted to keep. Absolutely nothing. As his wife said, he is a minimalist. So for the last few days, I’ve been packing up all his things, lus a dozen shoes I no longer need,to bathing suit coverups, 12 dresses and jackets. I’m putting them in the garage today for the neighborhood sale. I can’t get rid of a signed baseball in a case.
My pest control man noted that I had all the Harry Potter books, plus 2 more shelves of similar books. If they don’t sell, they will be offered to the library.
Then a nice lunch with GF. I’ll be ready for a drink. 
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Quiet day here! It’s supposed to rain so I won’t be able to do the yard work I wanted to do…but I’ll probably get some landscape cloth and mulch today in preparation for a day that isn’t bitter cold, or raining.
I’m going to try to do a water color that I tried last week. I think I can do a better job. Well…maybe…
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Not quite 9am and so far I’ve: done 30 min of German, vacuumed all the hardwood and tile area, vacuumed all the vents and in/under the grill of the refrig, scrubbed the areas under the cat boxes - towels that live under them are being washed, mopped the kitchen, sunroom, tile hallways, and scrubbed the top of my stove with the scraper thingy and also took off and scrubbed the knobs. It gleams. I love productive mornings!
Still need to finish Chom choming the one PITA sectional, bathrooms, laundry. Probably other stuff. Hope to play piano when h does his walk. Walmart after that. Then I will nap and read and do more language learning stuff. I also want to take away stuff to goodwill. The pile lives in our attic by the stairs. We always just chuck stuff there as we see fit, and when the pile is big enough, we take it away.
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