16 February 2014: Sunday ... Weekend Word Puzzle w/mom ... shaver on her chin ...

Jane Frelick's ***BIRTHDAY*** today!! ... she is 94 years young (b. 16 February 1920). 

She asked that I do it but I told her she could handle it, and she did, fine.
Got out the mirror so she could see her handiwork, which pleased her. 

We listened to the Word Puzzle on Weekend Sunday Morning Edition with Will Shortz, for the first time with mom (will make it a regular weekly event), and I, of course, thought of Arthur Hugh Shealy, Esq., and phoned him. He did not listen to it because he's in his 4th day of no power running his bed and getting heat with a generator. The clues were so clever, in the Shortz tradition: two clues for words with the second word have the first three letters of the first reversed to answer it (e.g., something that goes wild on the Internet -- viral; and someone who challenges you -- a rival ... the 9-letter examples were rowdiness and wordiness ... so ingenious this enigmatologist from Indiana University-?). 

Another first today: Not the call to Shellhorn & Hill because our heater has stopped (think we are out of fuel again (and we were, the service technician put 10 gallons of the reddish colored oil into the tank out back, 1/30th of the way full) ... they will service us in the afternoon when I'm back from church, but the need to shave and have hot water necessitated the daily ritual of my father, for years, of transporting the steaming tea kettle upstairs with the exact amount of hot water for the metal bowl by the medicine chest to be poured, steaming, into its confines and used, quite wonderfully, for his daily shave. I did it today and the result was successful. Thanks dad! 

Dancer is recumbent on her side and snoring, again, on the floor in the TV room. She loves to sleep and can do it on a dime ... such snorting and whimpering like sounds come from her. 

Great service at Church this morning. My first exposure to a tuba (Thom Remington) and harp (Margaret Love) duo. Margaret is director of the Associates, a small group of UU singers. She is an accomplished musician who directed the choir at First Unitarian of Wilmington for years in the 70s and 80s and plays a number of instruments. Her harp playing was superb but she is suppose to be a better organist. We meet tomorrow evening with Margaret leading us and Thom singing bass in the home of Joanne on Mercury Drive in the North Star neighborhood area. 

Margaret Love was superb on the harp, such artistry. 

For a number of weeks now, Charla Larrimore, a '75 grade of DHS (who I do not remember) and a graduate of Stanford University, who lives in Hawaii, has been carrying on this dialogue with me via FB messaging that concerns "fortunetelling" through words ending in "mancy". She is brilliant and funny and her last one, sent late this evening as I walked Dancer behind Mealey Funeral Home, is "pedomancy" or fortunetelling  by the soles of one's feet. My response, which is a given, followed.

Met and got to have a nice conversation with one of the "Y" trainers, Mary, this evening during an extended workout. She located my water bottle and said it was about to go in the trash. Later, I misplaced my workout sheet and clipboard, a common occurrence that I shared with her (years ago a photog had sketched a figure with my ID on it and the words, "looking for equipment (or something to that effect)". It hasn't diminished, e.g., my iPhone mania at least once a day and having to have mom's cell call me to find it in the house (go figure). Well, I digress, Mary is from Long Island, so I pulled up a Google map and got a taste of all the towns and parks and waterways (rivers and ponds) on the island and recalled the home of Nancy Johnson (Garden City). It is quite a spit of land with the upscale Hamptons along the coast, which were described by her. She has a daughter going to college in the city of New York, where she is perfectly at home. Nice person. Nice conversation.

How crazy for cats must one be before they're considered ailurophilia? I adore MY cat, but, of course, he's purrfect. We don't care for other cats, especially the 100 or more that hang at the dumpster--so afraid of falling there and being eaten by cats that I take Miss Cashmere with me and I give her the direction, "Watch my back. " Feral animals scare me. Here's the WFT, pedomancy: n. fortunetelling by the soles of the feet.

"Fear of being eaten by cats" .. hmmmm? ... there's got to be a term for that Charla. If not, we can come up with a neologism. "Fear of being eaten alive" is phagophobia but can also mean fear of swallowing or eating, too. But I digress, seriously, for it is onto "pedomancy", which makes absolutely perfect sense to me, for one should be able to tell the future from where one has been before and what better measure than our bipedalism. How human. And to be homophonic about it, they are the "souls" of our body.

11 October 2013: Friday, Caruso, Donizetti, Una Furtiva Lagrima, cream of wheat finished ... YouTube videos galore, Stacy/Mom shine

In the morning of this rainy Friday, two absolute, make that three, joys. Dad got some rest last night as I awoke him at 7:30 a.m. and he expressed great surprise at the lateness. Brought up his breakfast -- I had already fed and "drugged" mom by 6 a.m. -- and transported Mom's serving table to hold the cream of wheat (came out well this morning), which he ate, with abandon, but not the bananas, and he did drink the tea as we listened to first Pavarotti and then a 1904 recording of Caruso singing, "Una Furtiva Lagrima" from Donizetti's opera "L'elisir d'amore", 2nd Scene, 3rd Act.

"Caruso, possessed of a magnificent, expressive, tenor voice, combined with classic technique,
was a leading operatic star, and he was the first singer to be heard by millions of people
through the newly invented gramophone."

There will be a performance of this opera by the DelawareOpera tonight and Sunday afternoon at the Grand Opera House in downtown Wilmington and I've e-mailed Gail Emerson to see if she'd like to go, dependent on how dad feels, on Sunday. It would be great if he could make it, but I could still go with Gail on my own, I guess, just came to me, if she's up for it. 

Dad asked for Toscanini so we spent 25 minutes listening to an act from Aida with those singers (Herva Nelli, Richard Tucker, et al.) and the choir under the direction of Robert Shaw and that he exultantly proclaimed, walking downstairs ... 

"What a way to begin the day!", he said, after watching Toscanini on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUxpLI5DA3M

Weber Euryanthe Overture & Brahms Symphony No. 1 - Toscanini

Here is a link to the video that I took of Dad while he listened 

to the first movement of the Brahms 1st Symphony, which I then uploaded to 

to YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMVnYu67QBc

Mom got downstairs for the second time in three days, she had a styling

appointment with Stacy this Friday morning. We made it to the kitchen

with the seated wheelchair and portable oxygen and Stacy washed (got a

video of it and posted to YouTube), cut, and then styled her hair 

wonderfully. She looked great as the FB post shows below:

My  Facebook  post  read :
"Nothing like a wash, cut, and dry to brighten a spirit, even on a rainy, overcast day."

I took an over 8-minute video of the washing process and posted it on 

YouTube  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES_eBrOhLKk). It was wonderful.

 
Finishing up with a blow dry. Mom is in 7th heaven.

Great walk with Dancer in the early afternoon. She'd been 

deprived this morning because of all the activity, so she and I 

deserved it. Did the Carousel Farm, off the leash, and walk to

my alma mater. On the way, I petted a horse who came to me 

in hopes that I had an apple or a carrot. I had neither but

the horse let me pet it. Went for a little more than 3 miles, 

which surprised me but I got a good comment from Stacy in 

response to my weight -- you look good, thinner. Think it's the

walking each day 4-5 miles, twice a day. It's not too aerobic

but it builds muscle mass slowly and methodically. And it makes

you feel good. The comment felt that way even though I said I 

still had my inner tube. While walking, texted Stacy a few times

telling her that she was "undeniably, and even indubitably da 

BEST!" and also sent her the photo above the above, which she
responded to with an Lol and then later told me that the milk and
the carrots that she'd picked up at the store were in the fridge
and freezer,respectfully. I'd told dad before I left that Stacy
might be by with the groceries. "Do you need anything from the
store," she'd asked, earlier and I thought, yes, we're low on
whole mile and ate the last of the carrots, a new fav of mom
and dad, last night. She truly is fantastic!

                 

New connection with Chris Senge. We are Facebook friends and he 
has offered to use his video editing skills to put together a 
package, using my photos and videos, to illustrate the lives
of my parents. It is intriguing but don't know exactly what it
entails. Will work with it, though. Chris is a nice kid even 
if a little kooky in his Christian beliefs. His company is
SMC Senge Media Concepts, LLC and I went to the page and "Liked"
it. He's fast on the keyboard and ok'd my friend request 
posthaste. Details to follow.

Dad has stayed in his pj's all day, a "lazy day" he calls it
(I said he'd earned one after 85 years) but it's been a better.


day and he did eat some of the Dutch cookies (speculaas) 


and a few slices of Boar's Head liverwurst 
and some Tapioca pudding.               

An interesting amalgam, but any calories will do. I'm and
he's not particular. 

It's now, as I type this, pouring outside, where Dancer is --
there is protection and she does stay, mostly, dry -- the rain
pattering on the room and side of the house. A sound from the
past, reminiscent and familiar. We have had good rain and the
Mill Creek which I passed off and on Limestone Road was swollen,
full up to the banks but not spilling over. The walk was over
3 miles and I got a horse to come up to me -- they're so large --
and petted its head (always worry about biting but this one was
tame, looking for a carrot or apple).

They announced the Nobel Peace Prize today and this organization, 
OPCW,was named as the winner -- ORGANISATION FOR THE PROHIBITION
OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS (Elimination of chemical weapons stockpiles and chemical weapons production faciles subject to the verification measures provided for in the Convention.)                 

Linked onto e-mail from French language service, Yabla, and we 
watched and listened to vocabulary and some intriguing videos 
including this one detailing sites in Paris, starting with the
Eiffel Tower. He asked whether I remembered going up the Tower
when we traveled to Paris. I said I did and thought we went 
together but he said we brought the whole family.

http://french.yabla.com/player_cdn.php?id=1224&tlang_id=en

Time to say good night as Dad is resting and the rain is pounding
and Marli Stam-Schouten called to say she was bringing over 
some Dutch dish from her daughter's house. She said she had a
good umbrella. She will need it. 

-30-