In which Chorus Talks Current Events

No Who's Up and Who's Down today; just a few idle thoughts about current events...

• On this week's story out of Austria: It does seem that every time I open a newspaper, a new level of horror has been reached somewhere.
  
• On the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints: It seems clear to me that there are things going on behind those gates that are not right. And the intervention of federal authorities last week may be the only way that appropriate action can be taken to stop those things from happening, and to take care of those who have been harmed. But I don't know how any community heals, or ever feels whole again, from having almost 500 children removed. I don't think that the anger from that ever goes away.
  
• On the growing food crisis: I am almost continuously reminded of what an amazing thing it is to be able to go into a store (the store of my choice) and select what food I want to eat that day, and then to select what brand or size or variety of that food I want... and to be able to make these kinds of choices in a world in which so many have so very very little, if any at all. It is mind-boggling disparity.
  
• On Miley Cyrus: I don't think the picture is that bad, and is, in fact, quite beautiful in a 15 year-old-girl kind of way. I would probably feel differently if it were my own daughter, however.
  

Hoping for you all, a peaceful day.

In which Chorus and WH "Communicate" ... or not...

WH and I, as most (if not all) married couples do, have occasionally failed to communicate effectively. Superficially, these failures to communicate centre around one of us mishearing the other, and conversations disintegrating from there. This morning was a good example:

Chorus: Honey, would you like coffee?
WH: Do we have any spare travel mugs?
Chorus: Yes
WH: Then no.

These kinds of conversations are usually followed by a long pause, after which the confused party tracks the other down across the 3 or 4 rooms through which the conversation has been shouted, and clarifies.

It does bring to the mind the granddaddy of all miscommunications, which occured some months back while we were watching TV one evening.

Here's how the conversation went to my ears:

Chorus: Honey, do you like your new clothes?
WH: Yes, I do! Do you like your new clothes?
Chorus: I don't have any new clothes.

Here's how the conversation went to WH's ears:

Chorus: Honey, do you like your nipples?
WH: Yes, I do! Do you like your nipples?
Chorus: I don't have any nipples.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG pause.

In which Chorus Has a Nightmare

Fuseli's The Nightmare 1781

On Saturday night, I had a nightmare, and it was a doozy. I often have very realistic dreams, and in the dreams themselves, I struggle to discern what is real and what isn't. In this particular case, I dreamt that I woke up, and I could hear somebody in the house. And as as the person walked through the house looking for me, the lights in each room were turned on, and then turned off, one at a time. That's all I remember, other than being completely paralyzed with fear.

Not. fun.

In other middle-of-the-night-related news, WH (he's back!!) and I were woken up last night by the soft, dulcid tones of Mama Cat playing the piano. (Pling! Plong! Meow!) I think that had I been by myself, it probably would have scared the pants off me, but as it was, it was very funny.

It is entirely delightful to have my husband home again!

In which Chorus has a quiet day

It's a nice day today... The sun is shining, and the snow is melting, and none of it is running into our basement (touch wood) and that makes it a good day.

I rose up this morning and putzed around getting the upstairs of the house cleaned and the laundry pushed along and the garbage put out etc. One of the advantages of having a small house is that cleaning doesn't take very long. I'm waiting for the piano tuner to arrive, and once he's finished his good work, I plan to work on some of the music for Chamber Choir and then take a walk and then maybe settle down with a movie this evening.

Mama Cat and Baby Cat have been immensely helpful this morning, but have tuckered themselves right out and are now sawing logs in a big way on the couch. This will help them regain their energy in order to help the piano tuner when he arrives. Case in point:

An Old versus Modern (or Postmodern?) Friday Five

Today, from Singing Owl at the RevGals:

Yesterday I had two separate conversations in which people were musing about how much change is occurring. The WW II generation, of which my mom is a part, went from horse and buggy to automobiles, saw the lessening, or even the end of many diseases, went from widespread use of kerosene lamps and outhouses (in the country, and most folks were rural)) to a totally electrified and plumbed society. The fastest means of communication was a telegraph. The second conversation--gulp--was about MY generation and how much change occurred in the last half of the 20th century. The person said his 13 year old had not seen a vinyl record album until a few days before, couldn't remember a time without cell phones, and on and on.
As for the questions!

1. What modern convenience/invention could you absolutely, positively not live
without?

I think I'll have to go with those who've already stated modern plumbing here. I know that some folks have done just fine with much less than modern flushing toilets, instant hot water, etc, but I'm not sure that I could.

2. What modern convenience/invention do you wish had never seen the light of day? Why?

Without a doubt, call waiting. I HATE CALL WAITING. I hate that moment when you're talking to someone, and all of a sudden there's a click or a buzz or a pop or a beep, and the other person says, "Oh, that's my call waiting; I should go." We reluctantly got call-waiting at home, because we needed three "features" and didn't want any of the others either, but I HATE IT.

3. Do you own a music-playing device older than a CD player? More than one? If so, do you use it (them)?

I have a portable stereo that I bought considerably more than 10 years ago that has a cassette player in it, but that's about it. Both my parents and WH's parents have wonderful collections of vinyl records that make me really want to get my hands on a record player. There's something so classic and wonderful about the hiss and crackle of the needle touching vinyl...

4. Do you find the rapid change in our world exciting, scary, a mix...or something else?

Oh, some combination of all of the above, I think. The potential to put technology to immeasurable good is very exciting, but I'm disheartened that that's not always the focus. In fact, how much bad we can (and do) put it towards is very frightening.

5. What did our forebears have that we have lost and you'd like to regain? Bonus points if you have a suggestion of how to begin that process.

You know what comes to mind first? And I think it's just because I had a conversation the other day about this very thing, but I don't think we do a very good job of building beautiful buildings. Our architectural style has changed so much and become so much less interesting, less artistic, less beautiful, and so much more industrial, square, bland... (with, obviously, some remarkable exceptions).

Who's Up and Who's Down

Who's Up? :)

1. Game Seven Winners: The teams that brought their lunchboxes, gave 110%, just wanted it more, had their back agains the wall etc. in decisive games in the NHL playoffs' first round: The Montreal Canadians, Philadelphia Flyers and San Jose Sharks.

2. Danica Patrick: With her win this weekend in Japan, became the first woman to win an Indy Car Race, officially dissipating any comparisons anybody might have thought about making between Ms. Patrick and a certain Russian tennis player of old. And honorable mentions to all the women who came before her, in all racing leagues!

3. John Smoltz: Last night, became the latest to be added to a very short list of MLB pitchers to reach an impressive 3000 strikeouts in his career. The more sordid and ugly sports headlines are these days, the nicer it is to see a story about a hard-working guy just playing good baseball for a long, long time.

Who's Down? :(

1. Game Seven Losers: The teams that were out-played, out-matched, stunk up the joint, gave it away, beat themselves, lacked playoff experience, etc. in decisive games in the NHL playoffs' first round: The Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals and Calgary Flames.

2. Hank Steinbrenner is following closely in his father's footsteps by meddling in the day-to-day on-field operations of the New York Yankees, remarking this week that changes needed to be made in the starting rotation. He even made a veiled and distant reference to his new manager as an Idiot. Welcome to the Yanks, Joe Girardi! These kinds of incidents make those of who hate the Yankees laugh and laugh and laugh.

3. Frank Thomas gets my idiot of the week designation this week, although I'm reluctant about it. Look, I have a lot of respect for Frank and for the great things he has done in a long career in the majors. I hope he gets elected to the Hall of Fame. But last week, he got benched, and instead of remarking on his pallid .167 average, on the need to hit better with runners in scoring position, on any of the elements of his poor performance to that date, Frank immediately tore into the Blue Jays, accusing them of trying deliberately to keep him from getting the number of at-bats he needed this year to secure a $10M bonus next season. So the next day, the Jays released him. I just wish that he had kept his mouth shut, and recognized that he needed to play better, that maybe, just maybe, he needed to EARN the $10M, you know, by playing baseball well, and stuff.

4. Poor, poor, poor John Arne Riise.

In which Chorus Skips Rehearsal

So, since last night, when I made it successfully to and from Chamber Choir rehearsal without undue difficulty on the roads, we have received another 4 or 5 inches of snow, and the wind has picked up still more, which has the effect of blowing the snow almost perfectly horizontally across the road. So I'm skipping Orchestral Choir rehearsal tonight; it's simply too stressful to drive through this stuff white-knuckling it the whole way, and that experience is not good for the spirits, I find. We are quite early in the rehearsal process for Orchestral Choir's next concert, so this is probably as good as it gets in terms of rehearsals to miss.

According to weather-related sources, this will be the worst of it (touch wood), and we should be seeing some respite, both in snow and in temperature, in the next 24 hours. I'm hoping that the major snowfall will have stopped by the time I get home tonight so that I can shovel without feeling as though I'll have to get up tomorrow morning and do it again. Maybe that's overly optimistic; I'm not sure.

Bad weather has this way of overtaking all other possible blog topics...