Author Archives: markorton

7/28/2019 – tennis, dinner with Sue and Mark Haven

Sunday

Woke up at 5 am. Got up and read more of Stalingrad, coffee, breakfast.

Cindy Weisbart appeared for breakfast along with Karen. Got NYTimes on paper.

Left to practice serve at 9. Probably hit 250 serves. Big focus on tossing the ball very high so that I have to delay my swing and hit up on the ball. Making progress with both flat and slice.

Did gallery duty.

Cindy left for the train at about 1pm. We jumped in car at 2:30 after Pauline Decarmo showed up for gallery sitting. Stopped at Pondside Nursery to consider plants for the backyard just behind the new sun room which ironically receives almost no sun at the level of the plants. Helped by older woman who had taught at Hudson High for a career then went on to teach remedial English at CGCC for another 20 years. She knows Joan Damiani.

Left for Sue and Mark Haven’s house in Lexington, NY in the Catskill Mtns. Since we weren’t due there until 5 pm we drove beyond through Wyndham, Prattsville, Grand Gorge, then to Stamford before tracking back to Lexington and dinner. Excellent time with the Havens. Looked at the vegetable garden in raised beds. Not much there due to hedgehog rampages. Maybe my thinking about a raised bed should focus on flowers? After all we can get excellent veggies at the farmers market here in Hudson every Saturday.

Combination of conversation about aging, photography, children, current politics and good food. Returned home as sky darkened with brilliant red sunset behind us.

7/27/2019 – breakfast, shopping, tennis, reception

Saturday

Up early for breakfast at Bob’s. Shopping. Tennis with Ted. Already in high 80s. Cindy Weisbart arrived about 3:30pm. Karen cooked her famous “sesame chicken egg roll in a bowl”

Reception for 5th Annual Group Show – “50 photographs, 50 photographers, one video…” A mob scene. Very hot and stuffy. Paula Tognarelli spoke at some length. Fortunately Karen interrupted her to get an explanation about some malfeasance at another gallery that she was speaking about.

Paula Tognarelli and Steve Gentile

7/26/2019 – yard work, work, tennis, Rhiannon Giddens

Friday 

Raked yard. Checked on sun coverage for possible vegetable garden next year. Hung last of the pictures for the annual group show. Cleaned up storage rack in side room. Threw out boxes from barn storage.

Talked with Linda Larson at length. Possible laptop purchase. New poetry book. Also Harvey Meyerson who is back in Silver Spring. His recovery is quite slow. Keeler mob will be at Bantam first week  of August.

Karen left at noon for her Woodstock photo group.  

Tennis at 3:30 with Ted. Ended just after 5 with set at 8-7. Wrist felt much better.

Went to Albany for concert at The Egg. 

7/24/2019 – PT, work….

Wednesday

Corey Smith, physical therapist and sports trainer who I have worked with at CMH PT on Fish and Game Rd. several times over the past three years, showed up for a private session. I wrote him earlier about what I felt my objectives are:

Here are a few thoughts about what I’d like to accomplish.
 
Get into an every other day morning routine of exercises focused on balance, flexibility and strength. 30-40 minutes would be sustainable. I want to use a floor mat and simple tools like rubber bands and small weights. Develop a set of routines that will hit the major components of the body in a rotating cycle.
 
Do these objectives fit with your private practice? I might guess that I would need three or four sessions to get started. Then occasional tune-ups. Obviously I am open to your direction and expert advice.
 
So we got right to it. We used the exercise bands I had purchased earlier and he brought along a couple of extra toys, Indian club and exercise balls. I took notes and we took pictures so that I can remember what to do. I turned these into a document:
Now I just have to actually carry through on this exercise program.
 

UTMH

Met with Seth to prep for the meeting at 3pm with David and Cameron. Two topics: Troy Web and Ole Breuning (see Friday 7/19/2019). But, first, Seth needed to talk about his conflicted feelings about spending so much time at this point in his life endlessly working on things that may not interest him so much any more….. This is a conversation we seem to repeat regularly now. Then we got to the Troy Web mess. David and Seth confabulate the need to move on in development work with the earlier contractual commitments they made to TW for a share of revenue. At any rate I got Seth to come up with a framing statement to contain the discussion. This will be especially valuable for Cameron who is not up on all the details.

Met for an hour withSeth, David, and Cameron. Finally resolved to pay TW what UTMH owes under the contract and initiate the SaaS development project. Also, importantly from my perspective, they agreed to retain Michael Queralt and the Nicaraguan guys for the work on a future state map. David never brought up Ole. Don’t think he forgot. He and Seth are avoiding the unproductive situation with Ole. Perhaps there is also a deeper relationship between Ole and Cameron than I know about. I kept quiet.

7/23/2019 – house, work, tennis

Tuesday

Mike Herman sent in a proposal for a new patio to replace the rotted wood deck. We met and confirmed the design. They got right to work. The existing wooden structure had been built ten years earlier directly on soil without any ventilation. It was completely rotted out. Pancho and Jerry suggested a masonry patio to replace it. Obviously this would never rot. $4000.

Demolition

UTMH team meeting. Conversation with Ball Assoc. about PR. More with David Ackerman. 

Doubles. Weather pleasant. Played extremely well. Lots of good exchanges at the net. Felt very active and engaged. Partnered with Joe Delamorte, Ted, and Paul Ambrose. 

7/19/2019 – house project, work

Friday

Pancho and Jerry were back at the work at the front of the house at 8am sharp.

UTMH, met with Ole Breuning at Rev. He posed his usual complaints about why he couldn’t sell to home health agencies. Also proposed that the new website should have a sign up for a demo that would lead back to him exclusively. As always he is charming. Warned me again about Wexelman’s supposed malfeasance. At the end of the day I wrote a memo to David and Seth outlining reasons that they should let Ole go. None of these should surprise them. Just trying to stimulate some action.

Weekly telecon with Troy Web. I did the Russian translations of the RPM app. Spoke with Matt Almeida.

 

7/18/2019 – house and NY Rural Water Association

Thursday

As usual for them KASHINC arrived at 8am sharp to begin work on the fence on the front of the house.

Mike Herman’s crew included Pancho who we know from his work on the underpinnings of the front of the house and the sun room project of two years ago and new people Jerry and Mike’s daughter Michaela. Jerry is Mexican but clearly born or lived in the US since early childhood, his English is native. 

Pancho repaired the bricks in Bruce’s house next door. They made short work of tearing down the old stuff and erecting three posts in concrete for the new structure.

Missed tennis lesson. Met with Seth and Michael Lutman to discuss NY Rural Water Association project. Went there and ran through the work flow again. 

7/17/2019 – work, house

Wednesday

UTMH meeting with Michael Queralt about possible new approach to software and platform. Very interesting. Reveals more about how Troy Web may not be keeping up with technology. Talked with Anita Harris in the afternoon.

Received text message from Mike Herman that they would come over tomorrow to take down the rotting fence in the front.

7/14/2019 – tennis, pig roast, DOG, drinks with David Drake

Sunday

Oatmeal for breakfast. Sunday NY Times on paper. Ellen Feldman.

Tennis with Ted at 11am. Played quite well. Won set 6-1.

The wrist somewhat less troubled. Got to focus on remedial work to get it back in shape. Watched lots of YouTube videos about wrist pain yesterday. Clearly I am suffering from DeQuervain’s syndrome. Found diagnostic maneuver that demonstrates this. Eichoff’s Test. Lots of approaches to resolving this problem. Cold, massage, stretching, strengthening….

Drove out to Claverack to Anna (Rachminov) and Allan Chapin’s estate for a Bastille Day Pig Roast. Multiple barns, huge house. Two pigs roasted. Lots of people we didn’t know. Karen spent a lot of time talking with a new person Catherine Dodge Smith. She has a complicated history as an actress then photographer, journalist, activist. I caught up with Carol Rusoff and her 12 yr old grand daughter.

Got back to gallery by 4pm. Guy came in gallery looked around and then came back just before closing to buy a piece of fabric art.

Drinks at Swoon with David Drake.