Door update. Because of the problems getting the side door on, because, of course, the darn opening wasn't square and the floor height was a problem, it too them most of the day to get it installed. Today is round two with the front door and storm door.

Barb and Mike are arriving today. Expected ETA is 4pm. They will drive us to the cemetery. If they aren't going over to Sue's early, I will be driving her to the funeral home. It is less than a mile away.

It was nice weather yesterday, getting up into the 50s. Today is also going to be in the high 50s, but with rain. That won't stop the guys since the doors are protected under the porch. The cats and I will probable spent time upstairs and in the kitchen. I also have laundry to do.

Felt pretty decent yesterday. After I see the Cardiologist, I think I will try to make an appointment with a Gastroenterologist to take a look at this "large" hiatal hernia I have. That is not doing my GERD any favors.
Hope to get to the grocery store this weekend. I don't have much to get, but I will need bread and a few other essentials. If I know me, I will be adding more to my grocery basket than I go in for.

Nothing else of interest to report at the moment. Hope everyone is doing well.

I know what you mean, Jenny.  If the generations enjoying the "songs" of today actually DOknow and relate to this music, I find myself wondering how their minds work.  I am in awe of their technological abilities, but what happened to beautiful, soothing music?

We each of us belong to a generation, and mine is of the thirties and forties, mainly.  I find huge relief from stress in listening to Debussy.  Clair de Lune is definitely my speed.

Man coming to put in my conservatory ramp for my mobility scooter, he phoned and is coming tomorrow, this took me by surprised as originally not expecting him to fit this for five weeks at least...

Good morning ‼️ My "good" shoulder is feeling so much better thanks to the band-aid fix of steroids 🤪 Guess it is dumb to say, but I sure wish I had received this shot long ago😘

MARYPAGE, I am listening to Claude Debussy right now....one of my very favorite songs....Clair de lune🎹🥰 I often say, "if we were ever to come into a lot of money(🤪) like a lottery.....I would like a nice home with a area dedicated to a smaller baby grand piano that plays it self!  Bob says, "why, all you have to do is push a button on you phone to turn on Sonos, and music plays in every room of the house"! He is right, but there would be that added joy of SEEING it‼️ Then he adds, "besides, how would you dust it with your short arms" 🤪

JACKIE, how wonderful to read you are getting your ramp installed early‼️

MARSGAL, it just seems that nothing these days can be accomplished with out a hitch😩😡. I hope the front and storm door go on perfectly‼️

I have PT today again.  I look forward to less pain when working out to strengthen my new reverse shoulder🥰🥰

I wish you all a good day🌲

Jenny

Jenny, Clare de Lune was also my Mom's favorite. Debussy is one of my favorite composers. As pretty as Clare de Lune is, I generally go for the full orchestral compositions. My favorite Debussy is La Mer followed by Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.

Somewhat disappointed, it how I would describe the doors, well not the doors, the locksets I bought. I am having trouble locking and unlocking the darn things. I can get the key in and lock or unlock the doors with a some work, but I have tons of trouble getting the key back out of the deadbolts. The only one that isn't much of a pain is the regular door lock. The installer said the keys need to wear in a little before they work more smoothly, and that they work a little differently than old door locks. It appears that once the door is unlocked, I have to move the key back to another spot before I can get it out. This will take practice and some frustration. Not happy about messing around with the door knobs, especially if I have to deal with it after dark. Also, one of the bolts anchoring the front door handle is the wrong size. They have to find a size smaller to anchor it. Apparently, the doors were a little to large for the space and they had to cut more out around the opening and fix the uneven and not leveled bit beneath the door.

The other thing is that they were well into reinstalling my old storm door before I realized it. So were is my new storm door? They didn't know I was getting one. It is on my contract and part of what I am paying for. Bossman forgot to tell them. I don't think he ordered it.

Lastly, there is a transom above both doors. The one in the living room, sided over on the outside, has a valence that is now too long and interferes with closing the door. So now I still can't leave by the front door until I get something to replace the heavy valance above it. I may just have them remove the transom and drywall it, if that won't look stupid with the rest of the walls being plaster. I don't know why I didn't make sure that was part of the contract. Forgot, I guess. I can also find some wall architectural decoration to hang above the door which will cover it. The transom in the kitchen does not function. I tried opening it on occasion, but the thing is stuck. Not concerned about it.

The cats fared well during the whole process, but were getting a bit antzy in the afternoon when they decided enough was enough.
 

I am amazed at finding myself in a grouping of Debussy lovers!  How lovely. 

I also love Saint-Saens and The Carnival of The Animals.  Great Grandson Sam played The Swan for me on his cello at my 90th birthday celebration.  It was beyond gorgeous.

I wonder at the very different patterns and wirings of this generation's brains, as the music they love sounds like distressing noise to my ears.  I cringe!

MarsGal -  Reading about the problem with your doors - particularly the transoms, made me curious about modern day transoms.  I Googled for information, and found a number of good sites with pictures and descriptions.  I think the new ones look beautiful, and add lots of personality to a house or to individual rooms.  It would never have occurred to me to have transoms, if I were building or remodeling a house, but now I really like the idea of saving the old ones or adding them to a newer house. 

I like the old style that open, and allow air to circulate. I remember that we had them in all the classrooms in the elementary school  that I attended for eight years, plus kindergarten.    All doors leading outside or into  a hallway had the style that had hinges or chains that could be opened or closed.  Never thought anything about it back then, but would love to see those old schoolrooms again!  Here is a website on the history of transoms, that is interesting. 
https://www.wcmanet.org/transom-windows/

Mary Page -  I will return later to comment on my favorite classical composers.  It's already 8:30 here, and I need to put this computer to sleep for awhile, and eat some breakfast, shower, and get on with what looks like a busy day. 

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Can anyone sit still with that music playing?  My arms & body started swaying with the first notes. Thanks, Rick!

Marilyne, I also went to school in a very old building with those transoms. In face it had so much asbestos around the plumbing pipes it was a major concern when the building was torn down. Little did we know back then........

MaryPage, I'm interested in how you are doing with the new valve. You sound like your old self! 

Jenny, so happy for you that the shot helped. Sometimes it only takes "breaking the habit" of hurting and our bodies start moving in a normal pattern & takes care itself. I'm always looking for a sure-cure!

Mars-Gal, I am wringing my hands with your remodeling. I NEED to have work done but know how impatient I will be watching someone do the job "less than perfect". When Cas was alive we did anything needed, no kidding. I'm a pretty good roofer & can deliver a 4x8 sheet of Celotex in this Kansas wind and manage to keep my feet on the ground... but the feet are flying to keep up & not take off! I take orders real good, he did the thinking!

I started painting the dog's eyes last night but will take some patience. Been quite a while since my last dog portrait & even using some new brushes so a little uneasy about this venture. In between doing those 2 portraits before Christmas, I just gotta get out & put up some lights. Bought the remote yesterday to turn them off without going outside in my jammies.   

Jenny...thank you for responding, yes making my life a tad easier manoeuvring myself and my mobility scooter, been waiting a long time for this, and now i have it...

Rick -  I had forgotten about, "Street Scene"  (Clair de lune).   A beautiful, plaintive version, played by Jay White, on his sax.  I plan to look up other selections by him. 

Shirley -  How did we survive all those hazards in the 1940's?  Asbestos was everywhere, and we were likely exposed to it a lot over the years.  Yet, here we still are - 70 to 80 years later!     The thing I remember about the transoms in the classrooms, was when the janitor would come into the room to either open or close them, with a long pole.   My eyes were riveted on his every move, and I'm sure everyone else's were too.  I also remember watching the big school clock on the wall, as the minutes slowly ticked off, one by one, until the bell finally rang!

Jackie -  Glad to see you posting  here again.  Good that you finally have the ramp for your scooter, so you can get around on your own a bit more!   

QuoteRick -  I had forgotten about, "Street Scene"  (Clair de lune). "Street Scene" was actually the name of another beautiful peice of music. As I recall it was from the movie "How to Marry a Millionaire", and done in that movie by one of the then "Studio Orchestras"  A beautiful, plaintive version, played by Jay White, on his sax.  I plan to look up other selections by him. Jay white was an odd find. It doesn't look like he made many albums. Many years ago when I tried to find him on Youtube there was nothing. Luckily a fan from somewhere provided the Album "I Love". All selections on that album are great. Also included is "Laura", and "On The Trail" (of  Grand Canyon Suite), among others. The good news, --- I have that record. A 10" Vinyl. The cover is a little beat from 65 years of "hanging around"

MaryPage, Saint-Seans' Symphony No. 3 in C Minor and his Danse Macabre, are favorites of mine. Saint-Seans wrote so much that I have never explored.

Okay, so more of my favorites, all of which I used to play frequently:
Respighi - The Pines of Rome
Ibert - Escales
Manuel de Falla - Nights in the Gardens of Spain, La Vida Breve, Three Cornered Hat, Grenada, Le Cid, and so many more.
Of course lots of Beethoven, Wagner and Tchaikovsky.
Rachmaninoff - Isle of the Dead
There are more, but they are not coming to mind just now.

I really have to dust off my CDs and play some of these again instead of relying on YouTube. Some of these I have on vinyl but don't have a vinyl player any more. Darn that YouTube. It just got to easy to listen on there, but the ads growing number of ads are starting to irritate me. I have a 25 bay CD player, and now George's Bose after all.

I remember when Rhapsody in Blue was heard all down the airways and everyone was in love with the Gershwins.  I remember thrilling to Shostakovitch's 5th symphony and feeling the defiance and the sense of freedom he expressed, and paid for. How lovely was Brahms second.  I remember being mesmerized by how perfect "Daybreak" was, and you know what?  I STILL find it wonderful.  I have the Frank Sinatra version on my iPad.

I wasn't into jazz and stage music until recently, but Dad had a 45rpm of Slaughter on 10th Avenue by Richard Rogers that I would play over and over again. He had a few records, not many. Among them were the Can Can from Orpheus, Bolero (his favorite), The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Daphnis et Chloe and Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. So you know where I got my love of the classics at an early age, just as my love of books.

The funeral went well. There were only about 20 people at the service because Sue wanted to keep it small. One of Jim's jazz friends sang a tribute to Jim. Ronnie, Jim's best friend, started toward the podium to say a few words but had to turn back because he too upset to get out what he wanted to say. I found out after the flag ceremony at the cemetery, that the guys came all the way up from Andrews Air Force Base to do the flag presentation.

What is my foggy, foggy brain struggling to remember, MarsGal?  Something about Bolero actually being all about the sex act set to music?  Have I got that right?  Or am I thinking of some other composition?  Is that the one that starts out really slowly: ever so slowly, and winds up in a fast crescendo of musical notes?

Of course, I adore The Afternoon of A Fawn.

I always loved Jazz.  And Blues.  My favorite all time Blues piece was and remains Beale Street Blues.  Set in Memphis, to me it was always the epitome of what the Blues were all about.

The Arts are all to be cherished, but Music is the most amazing.  I sense its close adhesion to the mathematics of the universe.  I feel it is closer to "what it's all about" than any other form of expression.

My great grandmother took me to see a lot of great operettas when I was small, and they set me up for becoming an opera buff later on.  Oh my, but they were great!  My adoration of opera is because it has it ALL.  The stories, the sets, the characters and choruses, the great arias; I shiver at the memories accumulated. We lived in Northern Virginia, in Fairfax County near Wolf Trap Farm for the Performing Arts for years.  They schedule for the new generations, now: I see their ads in the newspapers.  But back in the day, I never missed an opera there.  Beverly Sills, Placido Domingo!  Oh My!  I enjoyed at LEAST three different versions of Madama Butterfly.

MaryPage, my sister was to Wolf Trap many years ago. She likes the stage presentations.

Bolero is actually a type of Spanish dance or dance move, not to mention the short cut jacket. According to Wikipedia Ravel was interested in rearranging or reinventing dance movements. Bolero was one of his efforts. It was one of the last compositions he did before he had to retire. Interesting to note that Anne Adams, who became a painter, also became interested/obsessed with repetition. Her painting,Unraveling Bolero, is her tribute to the piece. Both Ravel and she were eventually diagnosed with progressive aphasia. Here is an article about the condition from Brain, Volume 131, Issue 1 which discusses the condition using both the painting and the composition as examples. Fig. 2 is Anne Adams painting. https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/131/1/39/346188 Interesting read.

QuoteWhat is my foggy, foggy brain struggling to remember, MarsGal?  Something about Bolero actually being all about the sex act set to music?  Have I got that right?  Or am I thinking of some other composition?  Is that the one that starts out really slowly: ever so slowly, and winds up in a fast crescendo of musical notes?

Around my group Ravel supposedly was being influenced by a saw mill. It was told to us also that it is the longest crescendo in music. Never heard your reasoning.  But who checks. Just enjoy it.  IMHO it seems to captivate most of those who listen to it. Probably the increasing intensity of it.

I am rather overwhelmed by the brain information.

I did understand about the Spanish dance.

However, even The Washington Post had heard about the connection to sex way back in the nineteen seventies.  There are now heaps and heaps of articles that come up when you do a Search on the subject.

And speaking of the Seventies, I think Mrs. Strauss gave Wolf Trap to the nation back in 1971, or thereabouts.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1977/07/24/sex-and-the-single-melody/498b6e8e-05ab-4d22-b9ff-fff04951d15b/

MaryPage...I believe part of the reason it is known for the sultry overtones is its use in the movie"10"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au0Pp_9oQbo

Don, yes, I'd rather believe that the Bolero/sex connection was inspired by the movie which I have never seen, BTW. The bolero is a ballroom dance that is moderately slow and set to a rather strong beat. There are several different styles. As with a lot of dances, you can make it "sexy" by the dress/costume you wear and by emphasizing basic movements. You can check out the basics and see variations on YouTube. There are a few I wonder how they can even call them a Bolero dance, but I am certainly no expert.

The first I heard of it was a matter of being told; I cannot now remember how the subject actually came up.  Later, I read about it, probably in The Post.  The Washington Post.

Russian dancer and actress Ira Rubenstein commissioned Ravel to compose Bolero as a ballet score. Who knows how she intended to dance it. Anyway, here is Bolero with lots of pictures of Rubenstein. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxyNcnOaZTs

Getty images has a photo of Rubenstein's ensemble for Bolero performed at the Vienna State Opera in 1929 https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-dancing-ensemble-ida-rubinstein-in-the-ballet-bolero-by-news-photo/82094728 Sure doesn't look sexy to me.

I am learning all kinds of things about Ravel and Rubenstein, so thanks for bringing it up MaryPage.

Uh, oh. The cats are circling about. Must be lunch time for them.

I just took a look at the webcarm at Duluth Harbor, they must have had one whopper of an ice/snow storm. What I got to see was a blurry/wavy image of someone trying to clean thick ice off the webcam. The Marine Traffic site shows all the ships hugging the shoreline with not too many moving. Right now, The Soo Sault Marie webcam shows a blizzard in progress. I hope it all stays north. I still need to find someone to take care of the snow on my sidewalk this winter. I suspect I will be told by the Cardiologist this afternoon that I had best not do it anymore.

Good morning to everyone who is looking in today.  Welcome to a new week, and hoping it will be a good one for all of us.

Sandy -  Thank you for posting the song selections by John Denver. He was one of my favorites, and so sad that he died so young.  I also liked Glen Campbell, very much.    I love the lyrics to songs, and both of those men wrote some very thoughtful and enjoyable lyrics.

MarsGal -  I remember "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue".  A good instrumental, and a wonderful dance number by Gene Kelly and Vera Ellen, in the old movie, Words and Music.    One of my favorites of the technicolor musical spectaculars of the late 1940's.    it's a fictionalized  story of the songwriting team of Richard Rogers and Lorenz (Larry) Hart.  A very hokey story of their friendship, but entertaining none the less.  The music they wrote together was gorgeous. All sorts of song or dance numbers in the movie, featuring the stars of that era - June Allyson,  Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Mel Torme, Perry Como and Cyd Charisse.  The "Slaughter" dance was like a ballet, as I remember?    I usually watch the movie when it plays on TCM.  Possible it's available on Prime?     

Merry Monday,

I enjoyed the classical music discussion and recognized some of the pieces mentioned but had nothing to add.

Marsgal, I've noticed the heavy snow, etc. on the ship webcams, also.  Temperature is setting record highs here and we're officially in a Drought situation.  Outdoor Christmas decorations look strange mixed in with the orange/yellow leaves that are still on the trees.

Podiatrist told me several years ago "limited walking and standing" because of a structural foot situation that can't be fixed.  I asked him to define "limited" and he said, "No more than 2 hours out of 8."  I told him that wasn't even a good shopping trip to the Mall!!!!    Nevertheless, he was right and I've (somewhat painfully) learned to obey directions. 
That's hard in this age of everything being set up for walking.

Last week was Decorating; this week is Christmas Cards...and paying end-of-year bills  and 

Enjoy your day, Everyfriend.

P.S.  Marilyne, you posted while I was typing.    I love love love the old musicals - but have never liked "Slaughter On Tenth Avenue"  in any form so didn't particularly like the Gene Kelly and (was it Vera Ellen or Cyd Charisse?) ballet.

A good Monday HELLO to ALL🎄🎄

HAPPY HEAVENLY BIRTHDAY to Our NORM today🥰

Oh my, SANDY, did you ever make my day with your John Denver video❤️🥰. Thank you so much for sharing‼️  Now I have totally forgotten what else I wanted to comment on🤪🤪

CALLIE, I, too have learned that I must do what my body says it can do and just miss out on many activities that I just can not do🤪😩

My best to you all....enjoy your Monday.

Jenny

Marilyne, my TVWeekly tells me this is Ingrid Bergman week, Wednesdays on TCM.

BTW, I believe it was Cyd Charisse, Kelly danced with in the 10th Avenue ballet. Beautiful piece of music and their dancing.

I never saw anyone dance to Slaughter on 10th Avenue. Didn't know it is supposed to be a ballet piece. Can't imagine it, although I can see where some of it has a nice sway-like rhythm to it. Still, not my idea of ballet music.

Round one with the Cardiologist. Script for cholesterol med, scheduled for blood work in January, scheduled for stress test in February, after which he will figure out what blook pressure med to put me on. I have in the past asked my GP about in the past. He didn't think they were necessary which puzzled me. He seemed to think my Red Yeast Rice was doing an adequate job, I thought it was time to switch to a prescription. My blood pressure has been bouncing around for a few years now, but has been inching upward. I discovered that there is a newer way to evaluate cholesterol that is in favor these days, while my GP is still stuck in the old way, apparently. Even so. Lastly, he says to find someone else to do the snow shoveling this year. Easier said than done. Both my neighbor and I have tried.

I am checking out apartments again. There is a new Senior Citizens complex being built up the road from my sister's house. As with most of the Senior Citizens housing around here, it focuses on Assisted Living and Memory Care. What apartments they offer (in five versions) are tiny and look cramped. There are a very few that are for low income seniors around, however, I don't qualify now. Regular apartment rates have skyrocketed here, and none of them with accept more than two cats. One of the two that I think I can afford only allows one.