Thoughts

Future Classics

2009-11-22T07:19:12Z

For the second year I have been totally delighted by the "Future Classics" concert. This is the concert featuring new compositions by young composers chosen to collaborate with our Minnesota Orchestra through a fairly rigorous competition. This concert lets the audience not only hear some exciting new music, but also meet the composers and hear from them about their inspirations and other details re their compositions. This has become one of my favorite events. You can stream the concert starting the Monday after Thanksgiving on MPR's classical website.
There were some empty seats tonight. If you love music, this is definitely a yearly concert you might want to support. Tickets start at just $20 (less for students).

Birthday Wishes

2009-09-20T13:13:54Z

Happy birthday to you,davidscroth. I hope you have a great day.

Sarah Smiles

2009-09-19T23:10:36Z

Hey saracura, when I told Robert it was your birthday this weekend, he wanted to be sure to add his best wishes and to dedicate the song "Sarah Smiles" to you. He can't remember who did the song back in the day...he was in the army in the Vietnam war era when he fell in love with the song. As you know it was years later when he met and fell in love with our little Sarah-you. Anyway I send his "happy birthday" to you.

Birthday

2009-09-19T05:27:42Z

I just realized it's after midnight. Happy happy birthday to skylarker . Living situation is still tenuous, but let's get together and celebrate belatedly next month.

Yay, Hooray

2009-09-19T03:50:45Z

Got some good news. Healthpartners received my belatedly completed accident form and changed my responsibility for ankle surgery from $4406 to $50. I can deal with that.

Ankle broken, spirit survives

2009-09-15T21:47:41Z

Plain & Simple: I fell down a long stairway, crashed into a heavy door and broke my ankle on Sunday, August 2nd. Therefor I haven't ventured to any parties, rallied for any politicians, or shown up for any fundraisers since. I used the suggested furlough (to save other Hennepin Co. workers jobs) and some vacation time to cover those first three weeks. Scooter has got me to work since. Will find out Friday how much longer this will require attention.

Effectually: Took a while to get over hating myself for being broken. This happens to other people, not to me! I never get sick, get hurt, need care! I was just trying to work up to the point of going to the clinic for routine stuff which I had avoided for years. Won't happen now - I've used up all my patience for the ankle visits.

Figured it for a sprain and hobbled around for awhile. When I could not stand to put any pressure on the ankle/foot late on Monday, I made an appointment at my local Healthpartners clinic at Blaisdell and Franklin. Kept appointment Tuesday thanks to ride from bitwise and after 1 consultation + 1 exray (= 2 co-pays) was found to have broken ankle and sent to Tria Orthepedic south of some freeway in some suburb. They don't do this at the local clinic any more. (talking to another NP later, found that many services have been consolidated in the outer suburbs to save money. She had many Hopkins seniors as patients upset over such consolidation. She also needed to drive many miles each day to do a job which had once meant all day at one site, but now involved several hours at several sites.) Got there again thanks to bitwise. Confirmation of break, referral to orthopedic surgeon (appointment Friday - 1st available) and temporary cast (3rd co-pay). And crutches(4th co-pay)

On Friday, thanks again to bitwiseand tesla_aldrich I met with the surgeon who showed me ugly Xrays suggesting I would heal badly and have potential arthritis issues without surgery. I was very hesitant, but finally agreed having been assured that the recovery would take no longer with surgery and the plate would be removed in one year if it bothered me.(5th co-pay)

Surgery was scheduled for the following Thursday and I was outfitted with a boot. (6th co-pay). I meanwhile was required to have a pre-surgery evaluation to make sure I was healthy enough to undergo the procedure. I was again delivered to Park Nicollet thanks to bitwise and approved for surgery. (7th co-pay) Well, at least the doctor was adorable!

User picture above may not fully reflect the trepedation I felt going into surgery on Thursday, but I took it to reflect my last thoughts in case I didn't survive. My Robert took me to Tria for surgery early, early Thursday, and, actually, I could not have imagined a better surgical experience. Everyone I met was perfect, the drugs were so awesome that when I woke up briefly in the middle of the operation I was able to watch my ankle skin being pulled back and sewed...well then they noticed me watching and put me out again. I went through a short recovery period and, having lied successfully telling them that I would have someone to monitor me at home, was allowed to to go home with the incredibly patient (for this one he had to endure instructions even)
bitwise. I've lost count. I got painkillers too. Maybe two more copays?? Buzzed...

So I recovered at home having a perfect excuse for not doing anything. I thought I might accomplish something great, but no. The next Thursday bitwise took me to my follow-up appointment and then to LTC Wheelchairs to pick up my "roll-about" which has allowed me to get back to work if not to life. (2 more co-pays) Oh, Healthpartners, if they cover my cart, will only do so on a monthly basis. That extra 5th week my DR reccomends....

I'm still mad at myself. But perhaps this whole episode has made me more sensitive to the healthcare debate going on now. Why? Because I was late returning a questionaire sent by Healthpartners, They now say I am responsible for over $4,000 for my ankle sugery. At the last count, before my surgery, I was responsible for $136 in co-pays. This is in spite of the fact that my employer is very generous in providing coverage. It is painful for me to even look at what it costs Hennepin County to cover me. This ankle break has been a humbling experience because it has brought me to the reality that our perfect healthy lives can collapse at any minute. I have considered in the past how all that money that Hennepin County spends on my health insurance could be a pay raise and, since I never used the benefit, I'm just out what my employer paid my insurance company! If I were to be really selfish: we at the county have less choice in plans because our employer thankfully does not discriminate against persons with disabilities or preexisting conditions. I would be better off in another pool.....

All that aside, if anyone is still reading, this has been a long strange trip. I miss walking, I miss fresh fruit, I miss the Wedge, I miss kittens. I hate schedules, I hate planning ahead. I feel both powerless because of what I can't do and powerful because of what I have managed to do in spite. I'm really scared that this might change everything and determined to make that not so.

BUCKET LIST

2009-08-03T17:43:19Z

Book Nerds! Bucket list!
The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

Instructions:
Copy this into your NOTES or LJ. Put an 'x' next to those you have read. Tag other book nerds.
[X] 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
[X] 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
[X] 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
[X] 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
[X] 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
[X] 6 The Bible - God (the whole thing)
[X] 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
[ ] 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
[ ] 9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
[X] 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Total: 8

[X] 11 Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
[X] 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
[ ] 13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
[ ] 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
[X] 15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
[X] 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
[ ] 17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
[X] 18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
[ ] 19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
[ ] 20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

Total: 5

[ ] 21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
[X] 22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
[ ] 23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
[X] 24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
[X] 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
[X] 27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
[X] 28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
[X] 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
[X] 30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

Total: 7

[X] 31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
[ ] 32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
[X] 33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
[X] 34 Emma - Jane Austen
[X] 35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
[X] 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
[ ] 37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
[ ] 38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
[X] 39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
[X] 40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

Total: 8

[ ] 41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
[ ] 42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
[X] 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
[ ] 44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
[ ] 45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
[X] 46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
[X] 47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
[X] 48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
[X] 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
[ ] 50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

Total: 5

[ ] 51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
[ ] 52 Dune - Frank Herbert
[ ] 53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
[X] 54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
[ ] 55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
[ ] 56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
[X] 57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
[X] 58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
[ ] 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon
[ ] 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Total: 3

[X] 61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
[X] 62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
[ ] 63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
[ ] 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
[ ] 65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
[X] 66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
[ ] 67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
[ ] 68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
[ ] 69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
[ ] 70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

Total: 3

[X] 71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
[ ] 72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
[X] 73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
[ ] 74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
[ ] 75 Ulysses - James Joyce
[ ] 76 The Inferno - Dante
[ ] 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
[ ] 78 Germinal - Emile Zola
[X] 79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
[ ] 80 Possession - AS Byatt

Total: 3

[X] 81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
[ ] 82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
[X] 83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
[ ] 84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
[ ] 85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
[ ] 86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mxistry
[X] 87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
[ ] 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
[ ] 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
[ ] 90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

Total: 3

[X] 91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
[X] 92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
[ ] 93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
[X] 94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
[ ] 95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
[ ] 96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
[X] 97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
[X] 98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
[ ] 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
[X ] 100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

total: 6

GRAND TOTAL: 51

Happy Birthday

2009-05-17T05:52:48Z

I don't know if you ever check lj at this point in time, but just in case: Happy Birthday!!! to you pilotbill

I love local art

2009-04-28T04:51:39Z

I spent Saturday afternoon and evening at the Saint Paul art crawl. Lots of interesting, some delightful, some disturbing stuff. I love the fact that even without being rich I can support some local artists. I can't buy paintings for hundreds of dollars, but I can look and I can buy postcards and jewelry and pots.

I got some wonderful necklaces from saracura and my friend Rebecca Wood. (Sara, the Dragon feels so natural like it's part of me - a perfect fit. Like it was waiting for me). I have a beautiful painted leaf from Mike L. Meyer at soulbrush@g.com, my second peice of evla pottery - bowl great color glaze ( Michael Coon, potter store at 42 Dale St) and great tree branch postcards and a 3x5 Oak Leaf print from John Terwilliger-www.braindeadaesthetic.com.

Also lots more of interest. Couldn't afford but loved Adam Erickson's art. www.adamerickson.com

Concluded the evening at Rebecca's place in the Northern Warehouse. Good company, white wine, all's right with the world. (apologies to e.e. cummings)

Birthday wishes

2009-04-13T21:32:49Z

A very very Happy Birthday to you, Baron Dave!!

Happy Birthday

2009-04-05T14:06:50Z

A very happy birthday to mizlaurajean!! Also congratulations on your election to the Whittier board.

International Change Your Icon Day

2009-03-20T02:39:01Z

Well, that I can do. I cannot, however, read Russian.

Sort of wondering

2009-01-07T06:46:16Z

I know I am mostly personna in absentia here in LJ. I'm also ID'd as lurking here, reading your posts, but never responding. Guilty! OK True. But I love your pics, posts, comments etc. And you have all been so supportive in LJ. Now we all seem to be on Facebook. I joined to stay in touch with my very oldest friend whom my daughter found. And I just don't get it, just yet. Mostly it really annoys me, so if I ignore requests or do anything else accidentally or purposefully on Facebook that might offend.....I apologize. If you have any suggestions to make me less annoyed with facebook, that also would be welcome.

Whew!!

2008-08-26T07:14:47Z

As my daughter tesla_aldrich has sugested, it is in order that I update my living situation.

When I let her know the situation and asked to move most of my stuff to her garage, Tesla suggested that I retreive my rent check and move in with her for the time being. I called Loretta and arranged to return the keys and pick up the check at one PM today. End of possibly deadly adventure.

Now I have to undo all my address updates, etc. And I have 1000 checks with an address at which I will never live!
But I'll be safe. Thank you, Tesla.

Weird

2008-08-26T06:52:20Z

Strange the things you do when insomnia strikes....

So, 7ivy7, your LiveJournal reveals...

You are... 16% unique (blame, for example, your interest in really good cheese.) and 26% herdlike (partly because you, like everyone else, enjoy walking). When it comes to friends you are lonely. In terms of the way you relate to people, you believe in give and take. Your writing style (based on a recent public entry) is conventional.

Your overall weirdness is: 53

(The average level of weirdness is: 28.
You are weirder than 90% of other LJers.)

Find out what your weirdness level is!

I knew I was a bit strange, but this weird-wow!

Inauspicious beginings

2008-08-26T00:15:47Z

Today I went over to my new apartment to pay the first month's rent and pick up the keys. The managers, two lovely ladies who have tried their damndest to make the building a good place to live, took my check and went over the usual restrictions with me. I guess they have to do this to maintain their residence until they can afford to escape.

Then they told me what they felt was necessary to protect me, near as I can tell, from dying. Apparently this slum landlord cares so little for the wellbeing of his tenants, that he will find any way around necessary repairs. When heating season begins the building may explode. It nearly did last year and he still has failed to fix the pressure guage on the boiler.

The Ladies, Loretta and Mariah, are hoping to save enough to leave on November 1st. I should maybe be mad that they did not tell me this when I first came to look, but I have to also aknowledge the situation in which they find themselves. Both have health issues that make it impossible for them to work, so they are, at least partly, dependant on public assistance. Also dependant upon the little monthly discount that Mr. evil landlord gives.

At least I have a month to month lease, so all I need to do to move is give a 30 day notice.

This is only a scratch of the surface. They have told me much more which makes me fear to live here. Believe me, I don't fear drug dealers or crackheads, or random stalkers. I do not know how to deal with illegal wiring, broken dangerous furnaces, and the possibility that the building may explode and kill us all.

Now That

2008-08-24T05:21:52Z

Now that I've finally been able to post my last post regarding a sad situation, I feel I can comment, post etc. regarding everything else.

My apologies to everyone whose invites or inquiries or invitations I have ignored in the meantime, most especially to Miklos's 1st BD and to skylarker's games invite and saracura's party.

My beloved and dear departed little Ivy

2008-08-24T04:46:07Z

On August 11th I made the reluctant decision to put my 19 year old cat, Ivy, to sleep. I miss her so much. She was my little love kitten to the end, more and more affectionate as we grew older together. I hope my decision was the right one. I won't go into the medical considerations. We had so many years together, more than I even had a right to expect, but it is so strange to come home to a place without a cat - it's been 19 years!

Ivy was the very last of our amazing crew of 1989 kiittens. Several of you who have been our friends forever will remember our wonderful four. Our dear Iris died young, but tesla_aldrich lived with Marble, her "familiar" (yes I believe he was) until he was 17. My dear crazy, Marble's little brother, Kumquat was with me until just less than a year ago. He was 18.

So here is to our incredible, amazing, beloved kittens. Thank you for everything! I'll always love you. I wish that the "Rainbow Bridge" that others who have lost pets refer to and that our vet kindly includes in the sympathy card was real.

My dearest Ivy: 07/26/1989-08/11/2008. Forever baby kitten in my heart.

Quote of the day

2008-07-27T00:39:05Z

I love today's quote of the day and wanted to share with all of you: Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
- Terry Pratchett

I have to confess, this expresses the way I often feel about the information available to me regarding the wonderful things I can do with my computer. I would love to be totally computer savy but I have neither the patience nor the time to read all the helpful input I receive.

As far as I can tell I have several solutions to this problem:

1. Marry someone at least 40 years my junior who finds this is just life and deals with this intuatively because he has grown up with this stuff.

2. Annoy the hell out of my daughter and her friends who understand this because it's their job.

3. Stop playing online card games and actually learn about my Mac.

I'm favoring #1 but think this is most unlikely.

What really amazing is that co-workers and others my age (born 1947) think I'm the computer guru!

GD MF#%T**^cell phone

2008-07-20T17:11:32Z

I just had to straighten out for the umteenth time my dear Robert's cell phone bill from Sprint. The online account was not updated. His service was cut off because the last payment failed to post online even though it was actually recorded when we checked via phone. He will not quit this service despite the fact that their record keeping/accounting is suspect. He claims that friends who have other cell phone services cannot get the coverage which he receives.

I do not have a cell phone. What he pays for the two phones on his account is (to me) totally ridiculous. HELP!
Thanks for any info you can provide.

Apartment Hunting

2008-07-06T00:59:51Z

Due to my landlord's foreclosure situation, I need a new place to live in September, so I have been apartment hunting. I've seen several rather cute possibilities, but was really looking forward to viewing a third floor loft right across the street from tesla_aldrich. I so much wanted to like the place but just didn't. It was cramped, practically windowless and even though it included a second floor sun porch outside the back entry and did indeed have something roughly approximating a "cathedral ceiling", I think it would ill serve my occasional claustrophobia. Also, its climate controls consist of a window air conditioner and an electric baseboard heater. The landlady assured me that some of the radiant heat from the second floor would rise and that the highest monthly electric bill the current tenant had was $113.00! Guess that would explain the low rent. Sigh.

Now I'm sort of on hold until Monday, when I need to call the caretaker of the wonderful old building on 25th and Nicollet(1893 Fredric Kees & Franklin Long, architects-think city hall), to see if she is able to show me the actual apartment which will be available. I saw its back porch and the interior of her somewhat similar apartment last week, but she needed to contact the present tenants before showing the actual unit. I really hope it's worth waiting, as I'm risking losing a really cute third floor loft with its own balcony one half block south of the manor of mizlaurajean and davidscroth. Again, sigh.

Wish me luck.

Food for thought

2008-07-04T21:44:28Z

I have just devoured a bowl of the most amazing seafood soup. It was appropriately seasoned and lively. Wherever did you get this soup tesla_aldrich?

The soup leaves no room for denial as to what creatures died for my meal. It is both disturbing and slightly thrilling. I eat it with appreciation and reverence. It seems more appropriate to use the bivalve shell to scoop the liquid than to introduce a silver spoon, having carnivorously torn the meat from its home right down to the muscle which in larger species might be a scallop.

Some of my more squeamish friends will find this barbarous, but, having grown up on a farm, I knew the origin of our meat. I just wonder if I should find a way to contribute to the well being of exotic creatures from the sea as we did for the cattle, sheep, chickens and hogs while they grew to edible age.

Grandkittens

2008-05-25T23:09:36Z

So, I've been watching Dylan & Shadow, my daughter's kittens, this extended weekend. Of course they are both far different and exactly the same as my Ivy who is 18.

Tesla, they have demonstrably missed you, but also are not suffering as they have each other. They were very stand-offish at first, but now have accepted me enough to relax, curl & prrrr.
Shadow has "nom'd" on my laundry, my book(oops..the book you lent me), my hair, the bag I brought containing the laundry, the plastic wrapper on my artisan cheese..........

Dylan is guard-kitten. When Shadow & I were watching TV, his station was just outside our door. As long as we remained upstairs, the least noise downstairs seemed to be in need of investigation.

Shadow seems to want to nom. Very curious. I hope he did not suffer from my leaving my yogurt cup unattended. He licked it clean. He also fished the hair out of the shower drain this morning. Fortunately, I saw the results and was able to fish it out of the tub and dispose of a HUGE hair drift before dear little Shadow had a chance to deal with it himself.

Your bed is extremely comfortable. I think it is necessary to have kittens so as not to sleep through life. Dylan has extremely effective alarms. This morning he assured my awakedness by sinking his (very effective) teeth into my left heel.

colors

2008-02-15T09:16:53Z

Quiz Result: You are lightcyan
you are lightcyan
#E0FFFF

Your dominant hues are green and blue. You're smart and you know it, and want to use your power to help people and relate to others. Even though you tend to battle with yourself, you solve other people's conflicts well.

Your saturation level is very low - you have better things to do than jump headfirst into every little project. You make sure your actions are going to really accomplish something before you start because you hate wasting energy making everyone else think you're working.

Your outlook on life is very bright. You are sunny and optimistic about life and others find it very encouraging, but remember to tone it down if you sense irritation.
the spacefem.com html color quiz

hmmm oddly acurate... Thanks, Laramie

Thanksgiving

2007-11-23T06:45:56Z

We just had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The second annual Thanksgiving spaghetti dinner for Tesla, Eric & me. Our day began with a walk for my daughter and I to the market, the Wedge, enjoying the big fluffy snowflakes and conversation. We bought and brought home the missing ingredients for our dinner. Then I got to be the child watching the steps my daughter took to make the pie and helping along the way.

Next, Eric took us to see his new house, which he just closed on. We also got a little tour of the other houses in the neighborhood which he had viewed.

And then...... We all did what was needed to complete a perfect dinner and dinner was served and OH YES, it was perfect and fresh and so tasty. We all agreed that it was a Thanksgiving that couldn't be beat. Eric makes the best spaghetti sauce and Tesla makes an apple pie that is truly the best that I have ever tasted.