Collies

I’ll take the first two, but you can keep the ugly one.

Fiascos, Health, Mobility, Personal

I am at eight weeks post-surgery, and I’m now permitted to do a little bit more.

1. I played my first church service last Sunday (and had a great time catching up with friends), and 2. I taught an hour’s worth of piano lessons yesterday. A nice, slow start.

3. I got very lucky this morning.

I’m groggy in the mornings, even without major painkillers. So, I’m very careful. I wear slippers with some tread into the bathroom, I make sure I always have a hand on a pole or a niche while I’m in the shower. I step in and out very carefully, holding on. But today?

Today, a blowing fan got me.

Fall is close, and temperatures have been dropping into the 50s at night. It’s been cold in the morning. I got out of the shower today and realized the blowing fan was pointed directly at me. Freezing, I took a few steps away — off the rug, and onto the hex tile some of you probably remember I layed a few years ago.

O

Of course, I ended up on the tile floor. I was flat on my back, which happens to house my recently-operated-on tailbone. I don’t know how I managed to land completely flat, but whatever Deity arranged it, thank you. If I had landed on my butt, this would have been a very, very different story. I’m fine, albeit a few steps backwards in the pain department.

I’m sure you expect our loving dogs ran in to see what the commotion was all about. Eli barks if he hears a footstep; nevermind 180 lbs. of adult human hitting the floor. Nope. Not a creature was stirring. Thanks, dogs.

Higgins and Eli

O

Historically, when I’ve slipped and landed flat on my back (winter ice, usually), I’ve started to laugh. I mean really laugh. For some reason, I’ve always done it. I laughed today, staring up at the exhaust fan. Which is filthy.

However, I now have a strong health reason to order a re-do of the bathroom with vinyl plank. (Wink.) See how that works?

Sun, Sand, Movies, and Manageable Nature

Musician, Travel

First of all — Curse you, Netflix and Amazon Prime for fixing it so your films cannot be played via a projector. Good. I got that out of my system.

I just had the best day yesterday. No pain all day, no issues other than fatigue.

I’m working hard on my silent film scores. I’ve finished the Chaplin two-reeler and started the Harold Lloyd short! Then … Nosferatu!

(Gratuitous dogs photo.)

O

We now know surgery will be early July and eight weeks recuperation after that. Then I want a vacation after recuperation. I have something specific in mind.

It’s funny how I arrived at this.

In the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, there was a short scene shot on a sandbar well out into the ocean somewhere, about ankle deep. I remember seeing the film at an invited premiere because Jonathan worked for Disney at the time. I saw that sandbar 15 years ago, and thought, “I want to go there.”

And I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

I found a specific bay on Bermuda that I really like. I’ll think about it.

Tobacco Bay, St. George’s Island, Bermuda

In the Studio

Musician, Personal

One of my older students asked me yesterday what my studio looked like. I’m sure he was imagining the puffy egg cartons on the walls, a rolling desk chair, a gigantic mixing board, and a plate glass window.

We had been talking about recording, and he was interested in what I am doing right now, so we’d had to listen to the track I’m working on (“Saint Clement’s, Forestbury“).

At one point, I guess it must’ve been about 15 years ago, my studio did indeed take up a small room of its own — a full-size digital piano, a smaller controller keyboard, digital sound modules in a rack, a mini disc deck (and before that, a DAT deck), a big lunky computer, etc. I still use versions of all those things and more; but as we know, electronics have gotten much smaller and much more powerful. I use an iPad Pro, an Akai MK3 mini, and a Sennheiser condenser mic.

A picture sounds 1000 notes, so here is a photo of my studio and workstation these days; including my recording engineer, Eli.

No vocals today, so we didn’t have the mic set up.