Saturday and Summing Up

Good morning!

It's Saturday, cold and soon to be rainy (we're told by the computer). It's a good Lenten day to be summing up lots of things.

First, how have I done with my Lenten Resolve to play the piano a half hour a day? Pretty good. Only one day did I not play at all. That day stands out with a big vacant spot on the chart I made to X- in the good days.  I like to take the timer and set it at a half hour.  It's noticeably a chore, five minutes into the time.  Soon, however, one is deeply immersed into the process of reading and making the fingers obey. When the bell rings at thirty minutes, you realize the time's been nothing, and you could go on for hours. Given the strength.

I have decided to begin with John Thompson's Book Number Two.  What a comedown.  But--the pieces are tuneful, JT's harmonies beguiling, and they are harder than you'd think, if you try to play them following the instructions on the page.  Then I move to something else. Right now, it's Mompou's Chopin Variations.  Mompou is like John Thompson Number Two in that he's  deceptively simple at first glance.  But Mompou has more.  He's almost infinitely deeply pleasing in harmony and innovation. On some of those Chopin variations, you'd swear that, "Oh yes..THAT's the way it was meant to be!" as if Chopin tried but didn't quite make it.

In reading, I am reading two things. No, three.  I have the book club choice for this month, Divisadero, by Michael Ondaatje.  Am about one-fourth of the way into the book and he has not grabbed me yet.  When a quote on the outside of the paperback says that an author "rewards one as one stays with him," more or less, watch out.  That is less of praise than of warning. However, loving California, I'll stick with it.

Second book I am reading is by John Banville. It's Ghosts, a sequel to The Book of Evidence.  I have not made much of a dent in it yet as am busy in the physical world of sorting (which drives me crazy.) Sorting stuff. Sorting books.  Clothes. Too much.

The third book I am reading is by my silver and gold guy and its name is Heiland.  This book is sort of a macho self-indulgence, it seems to me, by a very very intelligent and well educated man. And, to its value, it is a statement of belief which is very admirable.  As a novel, of course, it is not good.  Because it is not even really a novel.  But people write all kinds of books and this book has some very interesting observations.  If I were a man, I would not be ashamed to believe in all of them.  But there is a line drawn there. I am not a man, and I cannot cross over that line.  Not because it's against women.  It's because women are not there much.

Yesterday I went with friend Margaret out to lunch.  We went to the Olive Garden, and I just loved my lunch.  Theo is not a fan of the Olive Garden, and does not eat pasta, (though he'd love to) so it's fun to go there with somebody else.  Margaret had a super-rich chicken dish of pastry, herbs, cream, and chicken. Yum. I had lasagna because I love it and it is difficult to make lasagne for one.  Olive Garden gives y ou a good salad, icy cold and crunchy, served in a cold bowl onto cold plates. Now, that is my reference for a GOOD salad.  I noticed that the portion was not as large as previously presented.  My lasagna portion also was noticeably smaller than in the past.  Let's say, previously you got 4x5, very tall, at least, with tons of meat sauce. Now, more like 3x4, not such deep layers, and really a rather sparse amount of sauce.  But it was good and I enjoyed it. I took half home, even so. And the prices have spiraled upwards. And we ordered dessert.  I ordered tiramisu, and Margaret had a sort of apple crostini. I took home half of my tiramisu too, and had it at supper time after  one heated tortilla stuffed with guacamole.  The calorie counts on those foods, now published by regulation on the menu, are astronomical.  So it's good to eat half of your meal at one meal and half later on.

I pray daily, momentarily, for Japan.  There is a sense of apocalypse in the news, is there not?  But I am mostly concerned with the elderly, and the baffled young people too.  Well, all of them. They are we.  We are they.   Prudencia.

 So, now I have summed up where things are at this time with me.  And with us, things are good.  Talks about death, old age, and all that.  Cheerful.  Then we snuggle down into clean sheets and comforters and sleep like cherubs.  . YAZZYBEL