3 November 2013: Sunday ... day has started well with dad eating and now resting ... the Cream of Wheat and the tea have been consumed

I realize now, what at age 56, what a great doctor my father is. I complained about some right calf pain and asked about a deep vein thrombosis and if it could cause that type of pain. He said it might and asked to examine by leg. Climbed onto the bed and swung my leg onto his chair and he checked my pulse (strong) and then carefully probed my calf muscle for an edema or phlebitis. None found. But his exam was gentle and thorough, much like the myriad patients experienced when he was their doctor. He has a way about him that is authoritative and comforting. Why am I only feeling that now. I'm certain, and I do believe, that I've experienced it many times. Perhaps now I'm just more synched into him as HE needs my care. 

Wonderful service today at UUSMC by a member, formerly very active but less so until this service today, her first initials are the puzzling, M. Q., and she spoke about change and how we adapt to it. How it's so necessary to see the silver lining in the ever-present and unremitting process of moving forward and evolving. We can lament and be morose and by our attitude, lose out on the opportunity to better a situation. Hers is that she has to sell the 200-acre farm that has been her family for generations. Older siblings, who own the property, want her to sell and she must. It is heart wrenching for her but it will go to a neighbor who will keep it intact and she will secure a 2-acre property, willed to her by her grandfather, that will be a piece of the paradise that she is giving up.

I sat with Linda and sang familiar hymns. She loves my voice and I must say that I was in good voice as I sang to the music of the Clarion Brass, members of the Church playing trumpet, French Horn, baritone horn, and trombone. They weren't great but they were good and although loud, basically in tune, led by the excellent playing of music major Gordon Roth, who is also a fine singer and very knowledgeable of music. He definitely knows the bass clef.

 
The 4th of July in Hockessin, Delaware — with Kristen Tosh-Morelli, Wendy Myers, Steve Cook,
Matt Hoopes, Brian Hanson, Claire Guise, Tom Hartline and Gordon Roth in Hockessin.

Came home to make lunch for mom and dad, walk the dog, and get some eats in me to, prior to calling and then picking up Linda Lucero for a concert of the Serafin Quarter, University of Delaware's quarter-in-residence, at the Gore Recital Hall, this afternoon at 3 p.m. On the program was Jennifer Higdon, Mozart, and Dvorak. We made it downtown Newark in time but we, and that included about 5 others, middle aged classical music lovers, could not find the recital hall. It was not in the education building on the green, Gore Hall, where only classrooms existed. We got help from a knowing bicyclist who pointed us over to Amy E. duPont Hall and the music department. We had to travel through the Loudis Building and out to where the marching field use to exist but now has been built into a performance area. We again got directions and made it to the hall just in time, with our tickets, as the musicians, Lisa Vaupel, 2nd violin; Lawrence Stomberg, cello;  Kate Ransom, 1st violin; and Esme Allen-Creighton, viola; walked onto the stage. It could not have been scripted any better. We sat and the music, literally, began. And what great music it was ... such an ensemble, such a sound, such an acoustical dream venue.