Talk about Holiday lost time …
In addition to losing time somehow in a misunderstanding with My Drive, as I told you, while trying to post the weekly blog, the one for last week did a runner. Mark helped me retrieve it from the cloud when he was here and I posted it then which is part of the reason this post is late.
Welcome to January …
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2 January started with a VERY red sky, so Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning …
The first result of the triple storms started wednesday night with rather heavy rain and strong wind which was over by morning with snow remaining above 4,000’.
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The streets in the Village are clear and no ice but leftover snow is slow in melting.
No one is complaining since it bodes well for a better snow pack and filling reservoirs. The Mt Ashland ski park had to close temporarily. They had so much snow it took time to groom the runs yesterday morning and there was a 15 car pile-up on the road from the Mt Shasta Ski Park yesterday evening.
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Had a fall last saturday.
I used some arnica cream on it just after I called John and Mark to report the fall. This morning there is swelling below my left eye but the lovely blue-black of yesterday is no longer there. Even not much soreness unless I press on the area. I tried to take a selfie so here is the beauty portrait.
I have a very small scratch on my face at the hairline on my upper left forehead on which I used my herbal healing cream and managed to get some of my hair caught in the adhesive of the bandaid.
The worse residual of the fall is a sore left shoulder which was bad at the midnight wake time. It is still sore but is no longer painful with the exception of some positions so as a doctor told a ditz who came to the office complaining of shoulder pain. The doctor asked when it hurt and where. The ditz replied “Right here.” and poked her shoulder with her index finger which had a long fingernail and the doctor’s advice was “Well, stop doing that”
Everything is moving so I’m sure nothing is broken. When I had a bone scan a couple of years ago it didn’t show any sign of bone thinning.
At that same time I had a scan of my carotid arteries and the technician said he wished his were as clear as mine.
So it would appear the only damage was to my dignity and to Jenny’s feeling of guilt because the fall occurred when I was turning to go toward the back door and put my hand in my pocket to get Jewel’s doggie treat and switched from a right turn to a left turn. I should have known better and remembered the traffic sign in Kansas which said “To turn left, advance 1 block and turn right three times.”
Lesson ??? Don’t try to multi-task when one of the tasks involves using my cane until I can get back to regular walkabouts and get my leg strength and balance back.
Was a little shaken and so, after notifying both John and Mark, I indulged myself in chips and chocolates and got in bed early.
I had planned to watch Die Fledermaus as Dad and I did on New Year’s Eve for so many years. I’ll do it next friday evening but without the chips and chocolate … well, maybe just some bedtime cocoa.
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On the 2nd I watched the Rose Parade from Pasadena. It was a joy to watch.
One or two floats covered completely with live flowers, leaves, seeds, etc. and created with volunteers exclusively. The float(s) were followed by a marching band, all from the United States and Territories, and an occasional horse group or organizations of some kind. I had a cousin who belonged for many years to a group called Los Cabelleros who every year (except Covid years) would ride from the Los Angeles area following the Missions trail north with stops at each Mission.
And I remember the year before a massive number of television cameras and one sided floats (decorated for maximum tv coverage) when friends and I staked out places on the sidewalk with blankets and quilts the evening before the Parade near an all night coffee shop so we would have good “seats” on the curb.
And so many other memories without expensive bleacher seating and nary a Broadway lip syncing star in sight. One exception was one state’s entry of a float with a state local singer, a band, and dancers (only on the television side).
Evaluation of Rose Parade vs Macy’s Parade … Rose Parade wins hands down even with the one-sidedness of the floats.
Then I watched my recording of the London Parade. Well to tell the truth I watched only the first 20 minutes of the three hour+ recording. Two voices who never stopped talking and only a couple of cameras which showed the same section of the parade from the two different angles so we saw the same part of the parade several times. The parade was composed of only American marching bands (the English sports don’t have marching bands … cricket, soccer (which they call football), rugby, tennis, fox hunting, golf, badminton, polo, and some others the name(s) of which I can’t recall none of which have marching bands. They do have bagpipe marching groups but the London Parade didn’t carry sound other than the talking heads so I turned the recording off and deleted it.
Of all the parades, London’s was by far the worse, at least for those watching it on the telly.
That left only the Vienna Philharmonic New Year Concert and the Opera on the to-be-watched list.
The Vienna Philharmonic was good musically as usual, but the talking head and the ballet company seemed to be better this year.
I remember when there were no women in the orchestra. This year I counted at least a dozen mostly in the string sections including one on bass viol. I have a cousin (female) who plays the bassoon so I look and listen for that instrument and saw a doppelgänger in that section. He was close to a twin of our NBC tv station’s weather reporter Matt Jorden.
And there are now a dozen girls in the previously boys only choir.
Feminism comes to a previously male bailiwick — the Vienna classical music scene.
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Remaining problem from the fall is still the left shoulder which had been minimally controlled by aspirin but is much better controlled and healing with the Advil which was brought to me last sunday.
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Went for a teeth cleaning last wednesday.
Fewer teeth than ever but as long as I can chop and chew I’ll have them cleaned every six months and put off false plates as long as possible.
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George and I had a habit of watching special movies at special times. One of those times was Christmas for which the movie was “Tales of Hoffmann”, an English film which George and I first saw a year before we were married. It featured ballet stars and operatic vocal stars done with minimal breaks in filming. As a result there were flubs which weren’t edited out as is done now by doing many takes until the scene was to the director’s satisfaction or else cut and pasted by film editors until it looked right.
As a consequence in the Olympia tale one dancer slipped but carried on as if he were on stage and never missed a movement. Another was as a dancer had to make a quick turn to his left and a piece of his head costume flew off and was left lying on the floor.
The second tale is of the courtesan Giulietta. There were two arias which you would recognize (the gondola lullaby and the baritone aria of the candle gems). One eye catcher was the descent down some stairs by the ballerina which captured George but no dancing flubs. However, two entire scenes disappeared between the original film George and I first saw which are not in the subsequent DVD copy we were able to obtain years later. Two really important scenes which were necessary to the plot line are the ones missing.
The last tale is Antonia. George and I found no flubs there. Even when I watched for the umpteenth time this last Christmas no flubs.
But one plot line I still miss was in the epilogue in which Nicklaus, Hoffmann’s companion in all the adventures, is revealed to be his muse.
I can only believe these missing scenes were lost during the storage of the film in the years it was not in storage and not in circulation.
I wish these scenes would magically show up somewhere.
The other holiday tradition movie is the performance of “Die Fledermaus” by Johann Strauss done in Covent Garden in 1984 and sung by Kiri De Kanawa as Rosalinda.
The original language was German, but this performance was sung in English, German, French, and a bit of patter. Full time fun includes an off stage tenor who makes his entrance through a window, a maid who tricks her way into a high class ball, a drunken jailer (who may well be my favorite ), a husband who philanders his way with a pocket watch which chimes, and some great entertainers at the ball (which included Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a DC performance many years later).
Now you know how I spend some time in my year’s end holidays and where to come if you want to join in the viewings.
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In closing …
You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.
— Martin Luther King
So, ‘til next week …