We’ve been pushing to leave earlier than ever and finally set the date for Thursday, November 18.  We hoped that the roofers would have finished all the major work on our roof and Carol had one more medical appointment that morning.  Carol took the Tow’d to the appointment and I was to meet her there with the coach and hook up for travel there.  That part worked out great, the medical facility was on the way out of town and the timing was fine.  The roofers were held up by delayed delivery of skylights and lousy weather.  As I pulled out of the driveway, they were setting shingles under a gray sky that threatened rain.

I had changed our mailing address to Livingston, TX as Escapees is reputed to do an excellent job of mail handling for RVers.  I had my doubts about our local post office and they did not prove unfounded.  I sealed the mail slot so no mail could be delivered, also no inserts, chinese restaurant menus, or HOA communications.  Our neighbor called two days after we left to report that the post person could not figure out why the mail would not go through the slot!  Called the USPS LOCAL office and were told, “oh we will start it today” They never checked the system to see that it was supposed to have started two days previous.  AAaargh

So we are away and crusin’ south on US 15 headed for I 81 through bands of rain and chill.  As I come to the turn from 147 to 15 at Tedd’s Landing (if you have never driven the route, you are blessed) there are two lanes for the left turn and I see that all the trucks are lined up in the rightmost of the two lanes.  Silly me, I forget the simplest lesson from my safe driving course, which is always take the widest turn, and try to slip down the far left lane.  I have a stripe on my rearmost awning upright from the edge of the trucker’s mirror which I repositioned for him.  Fortunately that is the sum total of the damage, another service stripe.

The next day saw me attempting to die the rug red with some very nice red wine.  I was exiting a lay by on 250 in VA and the exit was partially blocked by a car for reasons I cannot imagine.  I went behind the car and and this put the left rear wheels on a small rise which rocked the back of the coach severely.  This is not the first time this has happened in 10 years, but it is the first time that a wine bottle hit the inside of the cabinet door just right to release the Velcro strap placed there to prevent just this occurrence. It dove onto the floor and knocked off the top.  Naturally stopping and then parking on a steep downgrade did nothing to keep the spill localized.  Somehow we got it cleaned up and through Carol’s diligent efforts there is no more than a slight blush where the wine concentrated.

Enough! 

For now we are happily ensconced in Dan and Malena’s driveway and here we will stay until well past Thanksgiving.  Then we will begin our move to the Southwest.

Bill, David, Alan and Bunny, we hope to see you all sometime in the next two weeks.

My birthday is past, the visits to family in Los Angeles and the visit of the Charlottesville family is far enough past that we have restored the house to a semblance of order.  I am ready to be on the road!  I call it “itchy tires” because they need to roll.

For those who keep score of my RV maintenance odyssey even sitting in storage has resulted in some work.  I decided that I had to have a flat screen, HD, TV in the front cabinet to not watch.  This new one weighs 12 pounds vs the former hulk weighing in at 70 pounds.  I am less afraid of its falling in our laps on a rough road than the old one.  It also uses LEDs for the back light which will draw much less power, should I turn it on.  I should even be able to run it off of battery in the desert.

Just last week the coach was in again.  This time for a major recall on the brakes that I have been waiting for for two years.  Of course the pads had 73,000 miles on them and were not included in the recall.  Another ouch.  I am hoping it is now ready for the road. 

We still have a weekend drive to Shelburne VT to spend with my sister Sandy and David and family and a flying weekend to Sarasota FL for a Bar Mitzvah.  In the mean time we are waiting for the roof on our house to be replaced, again, if the weather will only relent. 

I WANT TO BE ON THE ROAD!

Oh, yes, I am retiring.  I have some work to do to make it complete, but my life insurance license is a thing of the past, on my birthday yet.  I expect to keep my securities license for a few more months and then that will be gone too.  Not sure how I will adapt to giving up those emblems of my work identity for the past 36 years.  So far I am fine with it.  I am even giving up the CLU ChFC after my name, time to take on a different identity. 

I am ready to be on the road!  My tires are itchy.

Happy New Year, L’Shanah Tova!

I could not keep writing and posting with everything hanging in the balance, so there has been a longish silence.  I have a post about a bike ride that has been pending for a month, will get that up real soon.

I seem to have been restored to my former good cardiac health, one remaining test to be sure in October, but my workout regimen and our long walks satisfy me that everything is ticking along just fine.  I will take the tests to satisfy the medical records (and provide another boat payment for the medical staff – small boat in any case).  I had my second cataract lens surgery on 8/31 and have been told that everything is healing fine.  As I type, my reading glasses are laying along side the computer.  I am told to use them as little as possible.  Reading the NY Times with good light is just fine, but books have smaller type and the light is a bit poorer late at night when my eyes are closing.  I am in better shape than when the summer began.

As we pass through the High Holiday season, I’ve blown shofar for two services already, we look forward to visits from my sister, from Dan and family and any RVers who are passing through Rochester.  Carol is looking forward to Brighton High School Class of 1960 reunion at the end of September and two weeks later I will be seeing many of my Monroe High School Class of 1960 friends.  Since the schools were rivals in 1960 and Carol and I knew many people at the rival schools we will attend each other’s reunions.  Of course I have been gathering with the Reunion Committee from my class frequently as we have worked to put it all together.

By mid October we should be ready for a break.  Our departure to the south is planned to get to Dan and Malena’s for Thanksgiving.  If we can get there a week early so much the better.  We will eventually depart from there for our annual southern and western jaunt. 

oops, I guess I didn’t make it clear.  The TEE was good and they shocked me back into rhythm and I left Strong with my heart pumpin’ the way it is supposed to.   All that remains is follow up to be sure it holds.

Although it is still July – the 31st – as I write it will be August before I post this. 

As those of you who have been reading know, I had cataract surgery on June 29 and was scheduled to have the second eye done on July 20th.  What I didn’t remark on, at the time was the immediate follow up to the first surgery.  As we prepared to leave, the nurse handed me a copy of my EKG from the surgery and said my internist was expecting me at 12:30!  The short story is that during the surgery they saw a change in my EKG and there was now am atrial flutter showing where one had never existed at any time in the past. 

I have spent July undergoing testing and waiting for this that or the other.  The next step in on Monday August 2 and if you are reading this I got the expected result from the cardio conversion I am hoping to undergo Monday afternoon.  I will have one more test, a Transesophageal Echocardiogram, and if that is good I will be treated to a “reboot” of the cardiac electrical system.  If it works out, the flutter will be gone, I will resume long, fast walks and the second eye surgery will be planned for the end of August.  If it hasn’t worked out you will not be reading this and there will another post with humorous wisecracks about how my heart flutters for Carol.  and I will await the next steps in repairing this anomaly.

Finally, thank you to all who knew I was facing this and have taken the time to email/text/call to offer me prayers and wishes for swift recovery.  I have been buoyed on the love and caring of friends and family.  I look forward to a quick recovery and I plan to be at the gym for my daily workout tomorrow and the rest of the week. 

I still need to demonstrate that my heart will stay with the revised program on its own so I can get my other eye done and prepare to roll Gee 2 this fall. 

Carol has been, as always, my strength and support through this and I hope the strain has not been too great on her.

This is not something that I had any expectation I was headed for this summer.  Last winter, as we turned east, I noticed that someone seemed to have blurred all the highway signs.  I was sure that the signs were wearing out, the reflective material was falling off, for some reason I could no longer read them until it was almost too late to make the exits.  Fortunately  the GPS was giving plenty of warning and Carol was on duty as navigator when I was at the wheel.  When she was at the wheel I did not have to worry about reading the signs, too much, besides I have the small binoculars handy to read ahead.

I’ve had the first eye done Tuesday, two weeks after the first diagnosis.  The other eye will be done in three weeks.  It will be a while before  have the full benefit of the new lens since it is capable of accommodation and some healing and practice needs to take place before I will experience that.  already, as so many have said the distant vision is wonderful and the colors have changed.  This is all the more apparent since both eyes were in about the same condition so I have a clear A-B comparison. 

I cannot talk much about the procedure as my primary memory is staring into a white light and at some point asking Dr Lindahl where he was in the procedure, at which point he said the lens had been removed and he was preparing to insert the new lens.  My next memory was Carol coming to get me out of the recovery room. 

Runnin’ out of steam

It is Sunday afternoon and I am resting at home and trying to catch up with life after taking the last nine days off.  Somehow I never even got to track our peregrinations from Friday Night so here goes, from memory.

We started at Montage again to hear Brad Shepik.  Enjoyable, long wait in line, we were very near the front when we arrived.  The music was excellent and we were rocking along with it until we both felt it was getting a bit repetitious.   So we cut out and headed over to Xerox Auditorium to hear Little Red Suitcase.  This was a WOW for us.  Two nicely matched voices with some really weird instrumentation including penny whistles, a slightly out of tune old accordion and others including a piano with various things stuffed in the strings to alter the sound.  We really enjoyed them and even thought about coming back for more, but there is already not enough time to hear everything we want to hear.

We went off the reservation a bit (half a block) to Spot for dinner.  Carol found a lovely salad, something she had been dreaming about, and I had a nice sandwich.  It was a change from food on the street.  We went on to the Big Tent for Djabe.  There were no seats to be had so we stood at the rail behind the sound setup and enjoyed the show from there.  A big treat was John Nugent’s joining the group with his sax for a couple of numbers.  He is great with the sax as well as at promoting jazz in Rochester. 

We still had some hearing left so we decided to venture back into Abilene for Bryan Lee & The Blues Power Band.  We got there in time for front row seats.  Carol could not sit still so she went to stand further back in the crowd that assembled.  Seated where I was it became apparent that loss of hearing was not going to be a joke.  At one point I shoved my fingers in my ears and my neighbor, seeing this, took out a bag of fresh earplugs and offered them to me.  Gratefully, I stuffed them in my ears and enjoyed the rest of the set immensely.

Timing was good when they wrapped up  and we headed over to jazz Street for Abbots Custard for Carol and popcorn for me.  The street was swarming as the early show of Jeff Beck had let out and the 11 PM show was filling.   We strolled up to East Avenue and the closing strains of Booker T & the MGs gave us a following wind as we began our walk home.

Add four to the count.

Saturday we set out early for the walk to Montage, again, to for Ibrahim Electric.  We met many of the same people in line that we had met before and some new people.  The activity level on the street was high as it appeared that the forecast storms had decided to go elsewhere and it was a warm, balmy evening.  There were now two stages on East one at Chestnut and the other at Alexander.  With East Ave closed off from Goodman to Main there was a lot of detouring for drivers.  Even walking we eventually had to detour to get home.  Ibrahim Electric were electrifying we stayed in our seats from the first note to the last and then begged for more.  When we recovered our breath we headed out the door and over to Java Joe’s for sandwiches.  Carol went to look elsewhere, but could not find a salad nearby so joined me for a veggie sandwich. 

Having eaten too fast we headed over to Lutheran Church of the Reformation (to give them their full name) to hear Mikko Innanen & Innkvistio.  They had had airline luggage issues and were missing their CDs to sell, a trombone and the synthesizer player’s pants – he was in shorts.  The trombonist also plays sax, very well, and they revised their program and did some improvisation to take advantage of the equipment they had.   At the end of the set we quick timed over to Christ Church to hear Dennis Rollins Velocity Trio.  We hadn’t planned it, but this was the last Club Venue we were to hear and what a way to go out. All three performers were engaged and alive to the music.  There was no sitting still for any of us and the hour flew by far too quickly.  As we headed for the door we both realized that we could not possibly go on to another venue for the 10 PM show.  We had hit the wall together and we wandered the streets of the festival, basking in the heavy bass of the three street stages and the big tent without really engaging any of it.  We met friends all doing the same thing.  Some people were talking about asking the promoters to add a tenth night next year for the tenth annual XRIJF.  I don’t think I could take it.

As we headed out East Ave we got closer and closer to the Alexander street stage with Smash Mouth.  I can vouch for it’s being loud with lots of bass.  We put in our ear plugs and detoured up the alley a half block before Alexander and worked our way over to Park Ave where peace and quiet reigned.   We got home and collapsed. 

It was a GREAT Xerox Rochester Jazz Festival.

The count: add three more venues, total 7 since night 7’s total count of 33.  Grand total of 40 venues in 9 nights, all for $105 each.  This was a great entertainment bargain, the greatest I can imagine.  We won’t forget and look forward to attending again.

A Ramble

Carol had a certification course at LifeSpan that ran until 5 so we agreed to meet at Harro East keeping up the Cuban theme we have been following, she joined me at the usual table in plenty of time to hear Pablo Menendez & MEZCLA a Cuban group here on a Cultural Exchange.  Although they suffered from the Harro muddy sound we enjoyed the set and stayed for most of it. 

We rambled over to Xerox for the early set of Joyce.  Her singing was very nice, but how much Portuguese do I need/want to listen to, besides some interesting music was to be expected at the Lutheran Church.  So we strolled over there, with a stop at Java Joe’s for sandwiches to fortify us for the rest of the night, to find the hall filling, filled, no seats available downstairs and we decided not to give up our SRO spots to explore the balcony.  Rather than my writing at length about the pleasure of the session  with Palle Mikkelborg just read Jeff Spivak’s column in the Friday Democrat & Chronicle.  We stayed through the entire set and were slow to leave when it was done. 

But leave we did.  We wandered past  the festivities on Jazz Street bypassing the jam in front of Java Joe’s this time down the alley to get on over to Christ Church to hear Get The Blessing, yet another great show.  I must admit that the names they give their pieces left one thinking about more food.  They played pieces called, Sushi, Doughnut, Starfish, you get the point.  The music was better than the names.

At 9:30 it hardly seemed likely we would get seats for Joe Locke Group Featuring Vocalist Kenny Washington in Kilbourn, people had been in line since before 9 for the 10 PM show.  We were going to walk by anyhow so we walked in the door and ended up getting seated before the show began.  It was a great show and Kenny Washington sang up a storm while Joe Locke and the group played their hearts out.  It was a great finale to a wonderful evening of music.  Check out Spevak’s column linked above.

The count: last night we were at 28 shows, we appear to have attended five shows on Thursday bringing the total to 33.

No ideas for tonight, yet.

A mish mash!

Our trek to the Festival started out all wrong.  As we discussed whether to walk or drive I decided to copy all of the document files (My Documents) from Carol’s computer onto a back up external drive the reason is a whole other story.  It went far faster than I expected and when I checked, the entire My Pictures folder was not on the external drive.  It also had vanished from the computer!  Yeah we have backups up to January, but there have been backup problems and time gets in the way and . . . The computer is now at Microworx for restoration. 

We drove!  our first stop was Rochester Contemporary (in the midst of the Festival area) for a private party put on by City Newspaper to thank advertisers and others associated with the paper.  We decided to walk over to Xerox Auditorium where Rochester/Roland All-Star Accordion Jam! was on.  We figured it was different enough to be worth a listen.  Start with false advertising.  Joseph Natoli took the stage and spent 30 minutes demonstrating the various tricks an accordion mashed up with a synthesizer could do.  There was a bass, drum kit and another accordion on stage, but no evidence of performers.  I know what the instrument sounds like and can appreciate it.  I know what a synthesizer can do and can enjoy it.  But I came for Jazz and got what amounted to a sales pitch.  Onward!  I have no idea or interest in what might have taken place in the last half of the hour.

We walked into Christ Church where John Taylor was playing solo on the piano and stayed for the rest of the set.  We hustled on over to Lutheran Church for the Nordic Jazz Eivind Opsvik Overseas was doing unnatural things with a guitar, bass etc.  It resulted in some interesting music.  The reviewer in the Democrat and Chronicle described the the departure after the first number as Lemmings, we breasted the tide and found good seats and stayed for two numbers.  We left at this point because Hackensaw Boys were performing at Abilene the Americana venue.  Our interest was aroused because they are from Charlottesville, VA where our son Dan and his family live and participate in the music scene.  I called him to get his opinion of the group, which was very high, but he was a bit surprised that they were performing at a Jazz Festival and that we were going to hear them. 

We heard the last three numbers of their first set and really enjoyed them.  I must go out and get a hubcap and two number 10 cans for my percussion outfit now.  The real miracle is that I can still hear this morning. 

Where was I? oh yes out on the street between Harro East and Abilene and getting hungry by now.  We headed for jazz Street (Gibbs Street in case you forgot) and the vendors where the chill wind and feeling of rain was keeping the crowds down a bit.  This made buying some food easier and we sat on the curb and ate while the line for Steve Turre Quartet in Kilbourn Hall grew and grew behind us.  For some reason we didn’t get in the line, but went over to the Big Tent to hear Das Contras a Scottish Quartet who really put out some great sound.  We waited through the half hour break and listened to the beginning of their second set.  During the second number a very drunk woman from the audience clambered up on stage and threw her arms around the neck of each of the musicians in turn.  It was amazing that they were able to keep on playing without a missed beat, including the drummer who played through an extended, rousing, conclusion with her hanging on his neck.  Security finally arrived to guide her back stage and hopefully to recovery.

We had not yet had enough so we walked over to Kilbourn for Steve Turre Quartet (see above).  There is a wonderful review of the performance in the D&C and I agree with Jeff Spivak entirely on this one.  Turre concluded his final number at 11:15 and then was headed back out to do another when we left in total exhaustion. 

OMG I just counted up the venues and see we made it to 6 of them and that doesn’t count the entertainment at the party and we started on the street late.  By my count we have listened to 28 groups so far and there are still three nights to go. 

I may update this post later with a plan for tonight, although if you compare my plan for last night with the actual you will see we can’t even count on starting where we plan. 

Hop, Skip, Jump.

Some how we could not get a good map of what we planned put together before hand.  Carol had to meet me there while I held a place in line so we agreed to start at Montage where Miami Sax Quartet was performing.  We like the performance so much that we stayed right there through the set which ran a bit late. 

We left and decided to go to Rochester Club Ballroom where the Sicilian group was just wrapping up, but the food and service were reputed to be excellent.  We never found out.  As we arrived the group was just finishing up and the temperature in the room was so cold I developed goose bumps.  Carol started shivering so we left, the various alligator items on the menu did nothing to encourage us to stay.  We found what to eat on  Jazz Street.  Carol at Ludwigs and I had a Jambalaya plate from a stand.  We hopped over to Lutheran Church to catch the end of the set of Samuel Hallkvist Center which turned out to be very exciting and very avant-garde, too much so for a lot of people. We enjoyed but did not make it back for a full set.

We  skipped down the street to Abilene where Rosie Ledet & The Zydeco Playboys were performing in the tent over the parking lot.  Lots of beer, lots of people and great Zydeco music.  We stuck out the balance of the set and were really moving with the beat by the time they wound it down. 

On the way back to Jazz street we stopped at the Big Tent to hear Alison Brown Quartet.  Click on the link to learn more about this really bright banjo player.  We never got seated, but I am not sure we would have stayed in our seats in any event.  This was not Jazz, but it sure was great and there was a lot of jazz in the performance.  We loved it and stayed all the way through.

Jumped on over to Max for Bill Dobbins Trio with Chuck Israels & Rich Thompson.  This was very cool jazz.  The audience seemed to be mostly musicians.  Members of the Eastman Jazz Ensemble were there as was Hilario Duran who had played at Max the night before.  We stopped to talk with Jack Presberg the doctor with the best piano Jazz hands around, at the next table.  We had had maybe too much up tempo and rousing music and after 45 minutes we decided that tiredness and the hope of Abbots Custard warranted a slightly early departure.  Abbots was already closed 🙁

Haven’t plotted out tonight yet.  We have a City Newspaper party at Rochester Contemporary Art on East Ave so we may not get into a 6 PM show unless the rain holds off the crowds.  The phone is on except when it is off for shows.

Late add of proposed map: Christ Church at 6:45 Lutheran Church at 7:30 Big Tent at 8:30 Montage at 10 – go home at 11 and start all over tomorrow