The latest on Madam X

Took my mom to the doctor yesterday to go over all the recent testing that she has been subjected to. Things are looking pretty good for the most part, and this is the last week for the visiting nurses. The only real concern was that she had lost 7 pounds since the last visit, which was less than a month ago. She's now weighing in at 104 fully clothed. She was disappointed by this, as she feels that her appetite is good and that she has been eating quite a bit. I suspect part of the weight loss is as a result of her increased exercising. She has been walking at least 2 miles a day (not bad for 94 and a half), and it seems that she is living the perfect weight loss lifestyle. Unfortunately, she doesn't have it to lose! The nurse has suggested that she start loading up on the carbohydrates, which makes sense to me.

Darn this healthy eating!

Sunset over Mt. Rubidoux

...as seen from our room.

Tax time!

Yes, it's that time of year! We made our annual pilgrimage down to southern California to meet with our tax guy, and took the opportunity to meet up with some friends and family. We listened to my "twin brother" Ignacio play the Paraguayan Harp in Montecito while meeting online friend Sue for the first time, had lunch with friend Paul in San Bernardino, met up for coffee with professor Fred and his wife Barbara in Riverside, had dinner with my niece Liz and her husband Arnie at the Mission Inn (pictured above) and had breakfast with my college roommate Jim and his wife Roberta in Pasadena.

The weather was lovely, and we had quite a relaxing time. Getting out of town is good for the soul, even when you live in Paradise!

Ahh, Bach!

Saturday was our first chorus rehearsal for this summer's Carmel Bach Festival. It went very well, despite the absence of our new chorus master. Poor Andrew Megill got caught up in the winter weather in NJ, and his flight out to be with us was canceled. He even tried to rebook through Baltimore, but the sleet was so bad that it was not possible to drive there in time to catch the flight.

The assistant chorus master, Camerata director John Koza stepped in and handled the rehearsal, and we have made some very good progress in putting together the St. Matthew Passion.

Friday evening we drove up to Capitola to meet my daughter and her intended for dinner at Shadowbrook. She is back from Ohio for spring break, and they are trying to finalize the arrangements for the wedding. I am very proud of them for taking responsibility for it, and am delighted that they have found each other. They are a good match, and we had a most enjoyable evening.

Miscellania

St. Mary's had a Vestry retreat over the weekend at the Church of the Good Shepherd in the Corral di Tierra area. They let us use there facility in exchange for our letting them come in and have there retreat at our facility. It was nice to have the change of scenery, and the weather couldn't have been nicer, with blue skies and temperatures in the 70s. The church is nestled in a valley among the oak trees, and has a small hill as its back yard. During the lunch break many of us took a short hike to the top, and were rewarded with the above view looking over the hills of Laguna Seca and Fort Ord all the way across the bay to the Santa Cruz mountains. It was a very relaxing and restorative time.

I went to see the radiation oncologist again last week to tell him of my decision to have the implants. The next step is to have some testing done to make sure there is no problem with the urinary tract that would rule out such a procedure. It is not something that the patient is normally aware of, but can be very problematic if not identified prior to treatment. The encouraging thing was his characterization of my tumor as "minuscule with a small 'm'". Stay tuned!

My mother seems to be doing somewhat better. She has been taking walks up and down our block every day, and I even got her to the grocery store on Monday. At first she protested, but once she got inside she had a ball. Everyone was glad to see her (she is quite an institution there) and she was able to pick out some things she had been wanting but had been able to describe correctly to allow someone else to get for her. Case in point - Bok Choy. She kept thinking it was Endive, and would be so disappointed when we would pick up the one she had named instead of the one she meant! The visiting nurses and physical therapists are still coming on a regular basis, and she takes all of the exercises they have assigned her to heart. She is a real fighter, that's for sure.

Last night was the first Camerata rehearsal for the May concert. We will be singing (among other things) an arrangement I wrote of Idumea, so I am very excited about that. The program is very different from what we usually do, with lots of songs in the folk and patriotic idioms. It is going to be a lot of fun.

Motherly news

Things are going better with my mother at this point. The nurses have been giving her regular care, and she now has a hospital bed, which allows her to sleep comfortably. However, she has not yet been able to return to her routine of walking into town each day. I am hopeful that she will be able to do so before much longer.

Yis'hak Adonai!

Or literally, "The Lord laughs!" From Psalm #2 and set in a most dramatic way in Leonard Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms." This was the featured work in our concert with the Camerata Singers this past weekend. We were joined by countertenor Christopher Fritzsche, formerly of Chanticleer. What a voice! His rendition of Psalm 23 was absolutely heavenly.

Our program opened with choral settings of Aaron Copland's "Old American Songs" - both sets. These are real gems. There are 10 different songs, each with a different character. We were fortunate to have a full orchestra for the concert composed of top quality musicians. Not cheap, but well worth it.

The final piece on the program was Randall Thompson's setting of the 23rd Psalm for chorus and harp. It is a lovely, flowing (overflowing, if you will) work that made for a gentle benediction after the fireworks of the Bernstein. We sang to a sold out house on Sunday, and the audience expressed considerable excitement about the concert at the reception afterwards.

It was an exhausting week, but in a good way. Thank goodness we had Saturday off!

Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow!*

Every so often a cold front comes through in winter, and we get a little snow on the local mountains. That's Mount Toro across Monterey Bay, taken from the eastern end of Pacific Grove. It never stays long, but it sure is pretty.

Wednesday was just a lovely day!

*(From the movie "White Christmas.")