Stopped at City Hall Annex in Cambridge to look at Karl Baden’s “Mass Ave, Cambridge exhibit.
The details of this renovated building are nice.
Drive 80 mph most of the way. Stop at Lenox Outlet Mall. Muzak everywhere.
Finished fixing DOG website payment forms.
Breakfast at S & S with the Sunday brunch group.
Someone brought these artifacts from a 2003 show.
This is something capitalism lacks…
After lunch and return to Bill and Nancy’s, work on DOG website payment forms. Then the Super Bowl…….
Breakfast with Linda Larson. She was in very good form. Ending her poetry book series and moving on to a memoir. Also spoke about the Naming Project in which her suggestion of renaming schizophrenia as Altered Perception Syndrome is gaining ground. Helped her out after breakfast with some computer problems.
Putnam Square, Cambridge
Off to Salem MA for the Peabody Essex Museum. Main objective was an exhibition of Jacob Lawrence’s American Struggle panels. Not very persuasive.
Other work seen at the Peabody Essex.
Lunch at Turner’s Seafoods
Dropped off Esther. Went to another movie in Arlington. Just Mercy.
Mass Ave. Arlington near theatre/
Coffee before the show….
Arrived at Bill and Nancy’s at about 7:30.
Nancy not quite present
Got up at 5:30 am. Worked on updating DOG website for the next season. Then worked more on the timeline here.
Troubled left knee was concerning. But once I got going it proved to be just a little annoyance occasionally. Saif introduced the idea that I should be flicking my wrist during my ground strokes. I seem to have interpreted earlier instructions to indicated keeping the wrist immobile during the stroke. Flicking the wrist involved letting the racquet drop below the ball and the flicking the racquet in an upward direction as the arm carried through the stroke. Will have to work further on this.
Big revelation was the time we took with my serve. He pointed out that I am rushing the whole arm motion from then time I toss the ball in the air. Now that I toss the ball quite far up I can slow down my back swing and the wind up to only accelerate during the last quarter or so of the whole swing path. This worked wonders. I hit one ball after the other over the net most landing in very close to the service line. I also had time during the serve motion to think about where I was hitting the ball.
Held meeting with the mayor to provide him with an overview of library operations, future plans, and budget. He is very young, Emily did her usual good job. Gary Sheffer spoke about the History Room. Theresa Parsons chimed in; Bill Stenehjem was present. Toni Koweek represented the Friends and gave a longer than necessary description of their activities. Very good meeting. He is quite familiar with the library but hopefully this gives him a better view of ours issues and the overall program.
Went to Barnwood. Were horrified at the announcement that there was no fried chicken available. Did eat our dinner. Lots of chatter. Followed up with visit to Dave Drake at Swoon for drinks. Very crowded at the bar. Pauline and I talked about her billing practices.
We had a dinner for 14 people. Dave Drake cooked the duck breast and red cabbage. Karen made various dishes as did Mark. Anne Bertrand-Dewsnap made a desert, others brought wines and hors d’oeuvre. Ed, Meredith, Maggie and Parker came up from NJ. Ted and Anne came too. Pauline Decarmo, Susan???? Unfortunately none of Dave’s kids came.
Delayed a day by a snow storm in the Midwest, Karen and Linda arrived back from their soutern jaunt at Albany Airport at ~10pm.
Amtrak station, Rennselaer NY
Missed my tennis night.
Linda arrived barely walking and very nauseous. Either too many drugs or too few??? She wanted to go to a hotel rather than drive back to Hudson. I drove back to Hudson with her lying in the back seat periodically throwing up. Got her in bed…..
Late breakfast, Walk to Farmers Market. Talked with Jonathan about his global capitalism course. .
Kids leave for NYC
DOG gallery watching
Tennis with Ted Felt buoyant. Played very well
Drimks at restaurant in Athens where Dave Drake works great
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.
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.
