Author Archives: markorton

9/23/2019 – UTMH and flower bed

Spent most of the morning and early afternoon doing UTMH chores. Shipped new conference backdrop and flyers to Chicago.

Then screwed together boards for first flower bed. Finished digging out the flat spot, leveling the frame, and then back filling with the excavated soil. Off to Lowes for 5 big bags of top soil – 2 cu. ft. Very heavy. Used some of the soil to fill in around the new stairs to the patio. More follow.

Steak for dinner. A rarity. Very good flavors. Cooked on thrill outside. Second time since last Spring. Sat out on action  for smoke afterwards.


8/2/2019 – house, work, tennis, HAL event, drinks

Friday

Saw a do-it-yourself video about a drop down work bench. Remembered there is a 60 x 36 table top in the barn. This will do just fine. Need to get piano hinges and other hardware. Also started adding a new light over door to factory that will come on with a motion detector.

Talked with Seth. Went over to meet with Luca ??, the young guy Seth has doing odd jobs. Chatted with him about plans he has to take a year off from college. Gave him the task of finding some healthcare logistics firms to handle our biometric devices.

Tennis with Ted mid afternoon. Played well. 

In the evening I went to the library for a concert, Music in the Stacks, given by Aston Magna.

The Schubert song cycle Die Schoenberg Mullerin was a forty five minute extravaganza of twenty poems about nature and lost love. Sung by a tenor Frank Kelly who had memorized the whole thing. Here is section of one poem as an example:

Everything was played on period instruments or reproductions of period instruments as in the forte piano.

Janissary bells. A fourth foot pedal actuates these bells.

The natural horn was amazing but also disconcerting with its muffled sound when the hand in the bell was used to change pitch.

 

8/1/2019 – prostate biopsy

Thursday

Went up to CMH and met up with Dr. Subudhi, the urologist. Karen went with me. The biopsy was moderately uncomfortable, but as expected it only took perhaps ten minutes of so. Went home and spent the rest of the day snoozing, reading, doing very little. Watched more videos about prostate cancer topics. Results of my biopsy should be available in a week. Then we’ll see what decisions need to be made.

I’m really annoyed with Seth because he told everyone at UTMH about the biopsy. I’ve received notes from Wexelman, David, Ole…. But maybe I should not be so annoyed since I also told David rather casually the other day in an email about scheduling some meeting.

Saw a video about making a drop down work bench for the barn. I can use the dining table we retrieved from the alley.

Made a tofu dish for dinner. Onions, green peppers, red pepper, bok choy, chopped tomatoes (canned), tofu, tikka masala sauce. Combined with leftovers. Bulgur, meatloaf, cauliflower and cheese.

7/31/2019 – HAL,UTMH, tennis, HAL

Wednesday

Early breakfast. eEllen Liburt came by to talk about her professional website  

Met with Bill Stenehjem about HAL board. He is mostly interested in programming.

UTMH – various with Seth.

Tennis with Ted. Karen is teaching her online course  

Met Dan Ronsani at library to talk about what he wants to do on the board,

Smoked some weed and had too much drink.

 

 

 

 

7/30/2019 – HAL, clean up, tennis lesson

Tuesday

Did some of the standing exercises with the exercise bands….monster walks….These Indian clubs showed up in the mail:

Ducked out of the UTMH team meeting today. Cannot stand the blather…. Caught up on HAL stuff. Set up meetings with board members…looked at ellenliburt.com website in advance of tomorrow’s meeting with Ellen. Spent time getting ready to transfer the new UTMH website to the domain. Also watched more videos about prostate cancer and treatments, especially robotic prostatectomies. Updated my exercise protocol pages.

Sudden, quite violent thunder storm with hail descended at about 1pm. Power went out. Took Karen to library on the way to Saugerties. Tree limbs and trees down over in Catskill.

Tennis lesson at 3pm. Worked on hitting backhand crosscourt. Spent a lot of time on crosscourt rallies, both forehand and backhand.  Ended with serve. Saif seemed pleased that my toss is finally high enough to slow down the swing of the arm and racket. Ted Dewsnap showed up for Saif’s next lesson as I was leaving.

Put a big pile of recycling out. Got rid of many computer boxes that have been upstairs in the barn for ten years. Started working on new motion detector light over door to office. Will come in handy when the shorter days return in a couple of months. 

Karen made a real meatloaf with a mixture of veal, pork and beef. Excellent.

More Boston Legal

7/29/2019 – exercises, puttering, HAL, nonfiction book group

Monday

After breakfast did exercise routine. Puttering. Created some questions for the book group meeting on White Trash. Karen was off in Cambridge at Soup Group. Greeted one of the 50 photographers in the gallery to see her work. Read more of Stalingrad.

Broke up the many computer boxes I had brought down from the 2nd floor of barn. First step in a clean out. 

Met with Emily Chameides at the library at 5pm. Talked through lots of issues. 

Nonfiction book group at 6 pm. 8 people attended despite promises from four or five more to show up.  Two new people: Anna Maria Assevero and Peter Daley. She has joined the library board. He is a friend of Erika and Nick from another book group. Good discussion.