9 November 2013: Saturday ... that's why there's no PT on WACG ...

It's a brilliant day and it is moving fast as 9 a.m. approaches and dad rests behind me, making comforting breathing sounds (he says he slept 9 hours last night, he so needed it), on the bed in the TV room and I need to get Dancer outside. The air was chill earlier, before sunrise as I saw it as I exhaled but it will warm considerably today. It's going to be a gorgeous day.

Addendum: Why I remember these important events of the day on the day after, I do not know, but I made my first call to the 24 HR line for Delaware Hospice. It concerned the care of my mother and not my father. Mom decided to take a bath and I drew the water and thought she could do for herself. I checked that she was OK and then attended to some items, one of which included working on the computer (a charge leveled by my brother and indeed, may be true, despite my disputing it, but I was in the TV room when I heard dad taking care of mom after her bath ... she has a fungal infection that has caused a rash and it needs attention, really, as it smells to high heaven, but he can't do this care anymore so thus the call to De Hosp ... I spoke to a wiry and bouncy Hispanic woman, I think, on my way to get a bone for Dancer and a checkup date at the local vet hospital, who told me and recited my message to our case manager, Beth Kincaid, which will be handled on Monday ... we need a CNA to help mom with her bath, at least once a week, and an RN to change the bandage on her rash. There is a possibility that they can handle this concern, despite the fact that she is not THE patient in hospice, her husband is. We shall see.)

Addendum: On a related care note, dad was having a little respiratory difficulty. We did a pulse oxygen and it registered in the 90s, but I started him on the supplemental oxygen and when I went to change the tank I found that one that I brought from my room was empty. (I learned from RSA person, who I called, that they can leak out over time. It had been about a year since they delivered this oxygen. I did find one that was filled, figured out how to affix the guage and then let loose the gas -- WOW!!! what force as it blew off the urinal from the table above onto the floor. Well, the client is mom because, as dad told me, rather surreptitiously, you need a doctor's prescription and a pulse oxygen in the 80s to get the respiratory service covered by Medicare -- dad has neither of those requirements to receive the breathing assistance -- ... regardless, they will be here on Monday to replace the tanks and check the ones we have. 

Today is the 64th birthday of Randy Raymond, recovering from bariatric surgery, and Nicola Dovey, whose age is younger and I am not privy to, but it is also, more importantly, the 75th anniversary of the “Kristallnacht” attacks, which mark the unofficial start of the Holocaust. Here is the link, provided by findingDulcinea and it's e-mail about daily history:  http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/November/Kristallnacht-Attacks-Mark-Unnofficial-Start-of-Holocaust.html

                 A ransacked Jewish-owned shop in an unnamed German town, November 1938.

I had this wonderful exchange with a FB friend, who I don't know personally, who shared the above link and this story (Dad is sleeping soundly behind me.):

Thank you Susan for sharing this link, which I just read to my father who was 10 years old when this occurred in neighboring Holland. All the best, rudy

9:33am

You are more than welcome. I have a very large, extended family in Germany. Although they were not Jewish, one of my great aunt's had a developmental disability, perhaps CP, although no one really knows. She lived in an institution. Our family knew a doctor who had inside information on when the Gestapo would be arriving to take people away. For a time they were able to move her from place to place to keep her safe, until one day they did not get word in time and she disappeared, forever, just like so many others. What evil, evil people.

Oh, my gracious. This is the POWER of social media Susan that you can share a stunningly moving and heart wrenching story like that with me. I am honored, touched and of course, close to tears. Be so well and thank you for sharing so eloquently such a family story.

As the day moves forward and dad rests behind me, I played this YouTube audio recording of Dylan Thomas reading his famous poem about his father. The poet died 60 years ago at the age of 39.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mRec3VbH3w

A reading of 

"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"

 by Dylan Thomas.

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dad was asking about this artist, who I bought a CD of and which I can't locate at present but I did find this YouTube link to this piece that dad will recognize, immediately, from 1935:

Louis Davids - Als je voor een dubbeltje geboren bent...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9dLCg1cDjU

Had an amazing FB conversation with Mike Kelsey, my old and older, High Alpha at Lambda Chi Alpha, who is extremely well read and mentioned this book and a search brought me to this New York Sunday Book article from April of 2011. It was one of the many books he mentioned in his post revolving around my post for the 75th anniversary of Kristellnacht in Nazi Germany, 9 November 1938.

The book was Dancing In The Glory of Monsters ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/books/review/book-review-dancing-in-the-glory-of-monsters-the-collapse-of-the-congo-and-the-great-war-of-africa-by-jason-k-stearns.html?pagewanted=all

DANCING IN THE GLORY OF MONSTERS

The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa

By Jason K. Stearns

380 pp. PublicAffairs. $28.99.

21 October 2013: Beautiful Monday morning listening to Benny Goodman and am just lovin' it ... dad is sleeping now as I type this subject header at 8:10 a.m. ...

I am in 7th, no make that at least, 10th heaven listening to my old LPs of Benny Goodman and his extraordinary big band. What a sound. Those velvet saxes and the crisp brass and can't forget the percussion or the vocalists, all incredible ... such a signature creation by a genius of American jazz (a true taskmaster, I've been told, much like James Brown but look at the results ... Arturo Toscanini was the same demanding artist). 

http://www.discogs.com/Benny-Goodman-And-His-Orchestra-This-Is-Benny-Goodman/release/1126304


He, Ossip Gabrilowitsch,  married the daughter of Mark Twain, Clara Clemens, and they had one daughter, the last lineal relative to the famed author and humorist. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9Uhp5u8MIA 
The above YouTube link is to his own composition recorded in 1925. ("Ossip Gabrilowitsch was born in St. Petersburg (Russia) on January 26,1878. He was a pupil of Anton Rubinstein and won the Rubinstein prize at the age of 16. He later studied in Vienna with Leschetizky. It was during this period that he met a fellow Leschetizky student by the name of Clara Clemens,the daughter of Samuel Clemens(aka Mark Twain). They were married on October 6,1909 in Samuel Clemens home in Connecticut. (I once read an amusing article about Samuel Clemens'interaction with Leschetizky.Fortunately, Leschetizky had a good sense of humor).Gabrilowitsch made his first American tour in 1900. His repertoire included the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto and later Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto. However, it was the music of Schumann and Brahms (as it was with his good friend Harold Bauer)that he advocated. His performance of the Brahms and Schumann Piano Concertos were concidered to be definitive. In 1918, he became the musical director and principal conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He remained in that position until his death in 1936.Unfortunately,except for the Schumann Quintet Op. 44,his recorded legacy is devoted to miniatures that he regularly programmed. After his death Bruno Walter wrote,"Ossip Gabrilowitsch was a born musician. Music for him was the element of existence.In him reigned the spirit of song.He drew from the piano a truly lyric tone and perfect legato. The title of 'poet of the piano' surely belongs to Gabrilowitsch.") 

Just pulled this book off the shelf in the TV room, probably hasn't been removed in years or ever since it was placed there (dad said he was reading it recently) ... my husband Gabrilowitsch, by Clara Clemens. Dad tells me the pianist, composer, and founder of the Detroit Symphony, had a spat with Toscanini over a certain concerto, Concerto #2, Opus 86 by Johannes Brahms ... their views of the work in Toscanini's opinion were too "divergent" according to Sachs in his bio on AT. Toscanini performed the work, one time only, the next year with Robert Casadesus (sic).

Robert Casadesus (April 7, 1899 – September 19, 1972) was a renowned 20th-century French pianist and composer.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1822721.My_Husband_Gabrilowitsch

Uploaded on Mar 10, 2011

In this performance dating from 1905, Ossip Gabrilowitsch (1878-1936) performs Chopin's Mazurka in B minor, Op. 33, No. 4. The music you hear was recorded originally on piano rolls and reproduced with the assistance of a Welte Vorsetzer in 1962-63 on Steinway Concert Grand No. 261. This recording is from the LP that you see above, one of three discs in a collection entitled "Legendary Masters of the Piano," issued by the Book of the Month Club Classics Record Library series in 1963.

This Mazurka is one of ten pieces that Gabrilowitsch recorded in July 1905 for the Welte Vorsetzer.

To read the liner notes, which describe in great detail the Welte Vorsetzer and how it came to be used for this recording, please visit this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMK3qY...

Flonzaley/Gabrilowitsch -- Schumann Quintet in Eb Op 44, Mvt 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBrcidGKHXI

Another eyeopening quartet from the early part of the 20th century, known by dad, the Flonzaley Quartet, here playing with our man of the day, married to Mark Twain's daughter, Clara Clemens, Ossip Gabrilowitsch. 

Posted this photo of the kids and Nanny almost 20 years ago, I guess, at her apartment hugging together. Such a meaningful image. It was the only time they met each other.
 

Sold my Dodge Neon SXT this afternoon to a nice young lady who earned her stripes at Enterprise and got hired by webuyanycar.com as its branch manager and did a capable job of covering all the bases for the sale of my car ... I wrote on my gmail contact list:

10/21/13
"She negotiated, quite skillfully, the offer and eventual sale of my Dodge Neon 2005 SXT with 96,000 miles. The initial offer was $1460 and after all the inspection of the vehicle conclude (I was brutally honest about all the nicks and bumps on the vehicle). Found out, after a vehicle check, that the car had been in a rather serious accident in 2007 where the left side was severely damaged and had to be repainted. They did a good job repairing it. I never new. 

Well, when all the figuring was done, Beth came up with the amount (determined by others who were texting and messaging her throughout the deliberative process) was $1085, non-negotiable or at least, that's what I found out when I suggested perhaps $1200. I wasn't in the mood to banter and realized that other locations were 30 miles away at the closest to buy the car, so I accepted to amount and signed my signature and printed it, too, a number of times."

19 October 2013: Saturday as Bach Double is playing downstairs with Dad listening to Oistrakh record, salad/carrot to Mom for bfast joke ...

Today is Chris Senge's 39th birthday,

 
in reality, according to the Bible of Facebook.

Jackie Calmes, NY Times White House reporter and fox.

Made a FB post of the words below and a link to Washington Week in Review. 

Jackie Calmes, liberal-leaning NY Times' journalist who appeared on Washington Week in Review with Gwen Ifill last night as I watched the program with Dancer in the middle and mom on the right, goes back to Tom Foley days in 1994, when the then Speaker of the House, for 5 years and a 30-year veteran of the House from Washington, was unceremoniously voted out of office. Amazing facilitator who had regular meetings with the minority leader and they even exchanged offices during the week. Talk about bipartisanship. We may never see that again. The people are the lesser.

Dad is sleeping and snoring, blissfully and thankfully, as I maraud over FB sending off friend requests to people associated with UUSMC and listen to the audio classical cable channel and the English Concert Orchestra conducted by the longtime collaborator and husband of Joan Sutherland, Richard Bonynge. 

LEWISBURG, Pa. — World renowned chamber orchestra The English Concert will perform on Friday, Feb. 22, at 8 p.m. at the Weis Center for the Performing Arts at Bucknell University. There will be a pre-performance talk with artistic director Harry Bicket at 7:20 p.m. in the Weis Center Lobby.

Australian conductor and pianist, Richard Bonynge, with Dame Joan Sutherland, his wife.

He continues to sleep, oh what a gift, as the music plays and I have researched, through the Kelly Blue Book web site, a price for my Dodge Neon. It looks promising but I won't print while dad sleeps that would be mean. Did have a meaningful exchange on FB with Frank McPherson, the brilliant digital entrepreneur who has been hired by Apple and will move, unfortunately, his beautiful family of wife and three children, all stalwarts in the UUAC religious education wing, and head West. He wrote: 

Rudy,

I appreciate your invitation to your going away dinner yesterday. I apologize I was unable to attend as I was on the way back from a job interview in Cupertino. Best of luck in Delaware, Frank.

Thank you Frank for your kind wish and hope the interview went well. I've heard of Cupertino.

about an hour ago

I don't like this "driving out west" talk Frank. It means, unfortunately, that you are taking your incredible family, I presume, with you. Augusta UU Church is going to miss you terribly. In safe and wonderful journeying,

rudy

9:02am

Thank you, Rudy! We are sad to be leaving Augusta, but excited about the journey and the opportunities waiting for us. Cheers,

Frank

You are so welcome Frank ... happy travels and wherever you wind up, that place and those people will be greatly rewarded by your presence. Be safe and be loved, rudy

Chat Conversation End

Seen 9:04am

Won the bet, sort of, with dad. (It was for $5 and I didn't collect but he did come out

and view the results, dispassionately, nice to see him outside, he was frail and walk

carefully). He was doubtful that the Toro leaf mulcher would work on the entire

yard. Well, I didn't do the whole yard but I did finish the gutters and deposited some

nice mulch, about 8 bagfuls around the yard. It's quite a machine once I got

Home Depot to help me to separate a part and get the thing working. The manager,

with gorilla arms, took it apart for me. 

Guess I got the red version. 

The dinner at the Cronin's house on Charleston Drive went splendidly. The cheese dip, courtesy of Norma Clara Nyhoff, was a big success and the 9 of us had a wonderful dinner (Judy and Dick Cronin, Frank MacArtor, Jeanne and Brian Hanson, Judy and Tom - ? - Pappenhagen, and Anne - ??). Just a lovely evening of spirited and engaging conversation.