Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Birthday celebration

Yesterday we celebrated my 66th birthday. Actually my birthday was back on March 8, but to celebrated my birthday we went to the Performing Arts Center (PAC) for a concert I wanted to hear. J bought tickets a few weeks back.

After we dropped off Jenifer and Luke, instead of returning home, we headed for downtown Tulsa. We had a nice dinner at the Hyatt Regency hotel. Next we went to the PAC and attended the "Ragtime for Tulsa" concert. Featured in this concert were Bryan Wright and Dalton Ridenhour.

The concert began with Wright playing Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag." He actually played it twice, first as Joplin wrote it, and then as Wright adapted it. After Wright played a half dozen rags, Ridenhour joined Wright on stage where the two played duets on two pianos, both concert grands. The performers had trouble with one note on one of the pianos. Ridenhour got out his tuning wrench on worked on getting the note in proper pitch. Following the duets, Wright left the stage and then Ridenhour played solo ragtime. Among the pieces he played were "Palm Leaf Rag" and "Gladiolus Rag." After fourteen rags were played came intermission, at which time the performers sold copies of their CDs.

After the intermission, Ridenhour played "The Harlem Strut," written by stride piano composer James P. Johnson. Other pieces by Jelly Roll Morton and Zez Confrey followed. Ridenhour played one of his original compositions during the second half of the show.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

The week in review

I will start back on Wednesday, March 12, which was a little more than a week ago. On that day I saw my optomitrist for an annual eye check-up. She was impressed with how well I could see, saying I was seeing with 20/15 vision, which is sharper than 20/20. I now only wear glasses to read. I have several pairs of reading glasses. You can get them for $1 a pair at Dollar Tree. I keep them scattered throughout the house so that wherever in the house I happen to be (at the piano, in the bedroom, in the back office, or the kitchen) there will be reading glasses nearby.

The next day I drove J to Sapulpa to a doctor's visit. After the visit, we stopped at a bar-be-cue restarant to get take-out pulled pork sandwiches. Love that pork bar-be-cue!

On Friday, Gail came over for our weekly duet practice.

Last Sunday following the church service, four of us stayed for drumming. We played hand drums.

Due to the weather, Tulsa schools were canceled on Monday. So there was no Reading Partners on that day. That evening, the Methodist Book Group met at the Methodist Church. There were just four of us there.

On Wednesday evening at 7 pm, we went to All Souls Unitarian Church and heard Dr. Gary McManus, the state climatologist, speak on climate change. It was the second of a four-part series on climate change.

The next day I went to the dentist. I had a great check-up. All looked fine.

The next day was Friday, March 14. We attended Tulsa Town Hall. The speaker was Mia Farrow. She told about being married to Frank Sinatra and later Andre Previn. She mentioned her relationship to Woody Allen, but did not dwell upon it. Later on, Gail came over for duet practice. We played through a new book of music I got on my birthday. It is a collection of duets from West Side Story.

There was a HAT meeting on Saturday, March 15. There were only five of us there.

Today the weather was miserable again, as it has been lately on Sundays. It was snowing and sleeting with the temps in the 30s. Only five people showed up for church. We decided to postpone our study of Zinn's A People's History of the United States. The speaker today was Joy Avery who spoke on beekeeping. She wore her beekeeper's outfit, complete with netted headpiece and equipment.

Later we went to a St. Patrick's Day party at the Methodist Church. Twenty people attended that event. We had a potluck dinner, and afterwards we had an exchange of white elephant gifts.

After we got home, we watched Cosmos, which was broadcast on Fox. It was the second installment in the series.

Sunday, March 09, 2014

Falling behind

I just noticed that the last time I updated this blog was February 22. But there has not been a lot happening to write about.

Because J has a number of medical appointments scheduled on Mondays, Gail and I have shifted our duet practices to Fridays for the time being.

The weather was so bad last Sunday, that I called off partipation of the Humanist group at church. There were only four people who showed up at Restoration last Sunday. The speaker would have been Marilyn Clarke. We have shifted her talk to Humanist Sunday in April. This was the third Humanist Sunday in a row that was affected by the weather. "Tuscon Toccato" will be the special music whenever Gail and I get around to playing it.

Also because of the weather, Tulsa Public Schools did not meet on Monday. It was another time I had to miss out on tutoring my third-grade student at Mark Twain Elementary.

Yesterday was my 66th birthday anniversary. We went to Denny's where you get a free breakfast on your birthday. After that, we went to Saied's Music where I bought a book of music. It was cold and rainy. We were glad to get back home.