More thoughts in the time of COVID-19 …
I’m late again. Sorry. Life seems to be conspiring against my timing lately. I’ll keep trying to make my self-imposed wednesday “deadline”, but if I miss … don’t panic. Just be patient and wait a week before panicking.
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Reason for this week’s “miss” was a toothache.
I had lost a filling and broken a tooth a few years ago (as a result of “primitive” dental work eighty years ago) and last week it started hurting, not all the time but especially with breath intake. I had neglected my mouth during the years I was spending all my time with George so having a “bad” mouth was no surprise (and here’s a senior citizen’s opinion) … MediCare should carry dental coverage at no extra cost since if your mouth goes, your overall health is in danger and that eventually means the need for increased medical care which means increased costs. So saving a dollar now means the need for spending possibly thousands more dollars later. Bad economics …
I started looking for a dentist. No luck.
Monday I was still having no luck.
Tuesday I found someone but they couldn’t get me in until the 3rd. However, since I impressed on them I feared sepsis, a prescription was called in to a local pharmacy. I had been having a situation with the local Rite Aid with prescriptions taking several days to be filled, and there was no way I wanted to wait to start fighting a possible abscess, so I tried the other pharmacy in town (CVS). I got a call that afternoon telling me my script was ready! Wow …
Wednesday morning I picked it up and started on a loading dose right away. And the office called that they had a cancellation for this afternoon. What is left of the tooth will most likely need pulling. I will get this posted, and continue the tale next week.
Oh well … Onward …
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Last saturday was interesting …
The air had been full of pollen (probably from the birches since it is too early for the conifers). Rain started before sunrise saturday morning which meant the slanted windows were patterned with rain runnels through the pollen settled there.
Then sunday we awoke to light snain … too cold for all rain but too warm for real snow. The sunday morning outdoor church service was cancelled.
Monday, tuesday, and wednesday were clear with rising temperatures. Maybe Spring is finally really here.
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I think I’ve told you this family is having housing difficulties. I won’t bore you with details, but things seem to be falling into place.
Everyone, please hold positive thoughts.
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The monday senior lunches at the Weed Community Center will be starting again the first monday in May. Of Course it will be on a restricted basis so it won’t be the same social gathering as it was before, but my two lunch buddies and I will be in the same seating group. First week’s lunch will be provided by Ellie’s, a good place to eat here in Weed, and will be chicken, pasta, salad, and a BIG cookie. Ellie’s does a good job. Not quite as good a job as the HiLo, but good. The HiLo is on the lunch rotation so it will be providing the eats in a week or so.
So instead, last monday I went out to lunch with my opera buddies. I had challenged them to watch the Bavarian Rosenkavalier, but by time they got around to it the free stream had finished. Too bad. It was a great production, very much out of the traditional way that opera is done. And it was done before an empty auditorium.
I hadn’t even thought about the audience. I am used to the Met’s regular, pre-COVID theatre HD shows which spend time, before the start and during the intermissions, scanning the audience (we once saw a lady holding up a sign which read “Bonjour Paris”), but when the streaming show began, no audience scan. I just assumed Europeans did their HD presentations differently or that the video had been edited. However, at the end of the performance I was shocked at how thin the applause sounded. Then, as the camera pulled out for the curtain calls, I saw that the only audience was the orchestra.
Amazing …
Those singer/actors were playing without an audience and they sang and acted their hearts out. I doubt they would have done better were it SRO. Such dedication.
I’m glad I got to see it. And I will never again be able to see Rosenkavalier in the traditional light.
~~~
Since we can all use a giggle …
As I have been sorting my life leftovers I have re-found several genealogically important pictures and some other items that I needed to send on to other folks. So, after I picked up my script for Amoxicillin yesterday, I went to the post office with three envelopes and a package … one to Redding, one to Idaho, one to Texas, and one to Indonesia. Poor, clerk. She was sort of new and those requests put her through the wringer.
They all contained irreplaceable stuff so insurance would be useless, and since the country seems to be suffering a spate of mail robberies, I insisted on registering safety measures.
(As an aside … never use clear mailing tape on any overseas envelope or package … the law requires opaque tape. Can’t imagine why, but it does.)
But back to the story …
It was darker inside than out (surprise?), so I took off my dark glasses in order to better see the interaction info on that little screen. But when I got back to the car, and settled into my seat belt, … no dark glasses.
When I had arrived at the post office, I was the only customer. When I left, a line had developed.
I went back in to ask if my glasses had been placed on the counter or aside anywhere and all those in line allowed me to skip ahead to inquire. I explained to the clerk and asked if she had found my glasses. Her reply was (are you ready or have you gotten ahead of my story?) “The ones on your head?”
I started to laugh. So did all those in line.
So, sheepishly, I said “It is wednesday, right?”
More laughs.
One lady said “None of us have ever done that.”
Another person said “I’m not sure. It was monday when I woke up this morning.”
So, in spite of my aching mouth, we all had smiles to start the day.
Mark called it “community building.”
~~~
But just one more thing about opera …
Opera this last week began with one by Philip Glass … Satyagraha.
I realize Glass is an acquired taste and I am grateful I accidentally met his work via a PBS program and acquired the taste.
This is only the second of his operas I’ve seen, but I’ve become a listener to other of his compositions. Did you know he did the score for the Hours, the film about Virginia Wolfe and those who read her work? Talk about mood music … it earned him an Oscar nomination, of which he’s had six so far.
But back to Satyagraha … the opera is sung all in Sanskrit (which none of the singers speaks) repeated and repeated in Glass’s minimalist style while the set and action tell the story. There are minimal English translations with projections onto stage sets and props as well as closed captioning. So the sets, actions, and music are the things on which to concentrate and sort of just let whatever words there are flow.
Satyagraha is based on Ghandi’s time in South Africa opposing apartheid and starts around those from whom he learned (Tolstoy and Tagore) and ends with one who learned from him (Martin Luther King). There was minimal staging with unusual props … similar to the use of jugglers in Akhnaten but this time with stilt walkers and huge paper mache puppets (each requiring 5 operators) and newsprint and postal wrapping tape … on an essentially bare stage.
I was left with a renewed affirmation for Ghandi-style of persistent non-resisting resistance and found myself wishing the young resisters of today had been exposed more to that style of seeking Justice.
I realize most of you will never see the opera, but I’m telling you about it anyhow since it was an experience which is part of what is turning out to be my COVID induced excursion into not-the-usual opera.
I might tackle Glass’s Appomattox next … or maybe watch Scorsese’s Kundun.
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I had some dark days this past week. Here, from an indigenous poet, I offer …
For times when life seems dark
And sorrow grows around you,
I bring you this thought …
Run with flames to light the darkness.
Anchor in the Earth like a tree.
Flow as the rivers and rise up like the mountains.
Life is bringing you surprises.
I send you this wish. It is named and brings to you …
Hope.
So ‘til next week …