Monday was a particularly grumpy day for both of us. Not sure what brought that on, but we moved through it and got on with things. It’s unusual for us both to be in sync with the grumps. The best I could do to cheer myself up was watch the Billions TV show and then listen to the podcast from the creators. There are so many clever references and nuances that I miss without the assist from the podcast.
Tuesday was a happier day and I got to go on a big outing. We tried a new coffee shop, Duino, which is close to home and turned out to be a good find. Nice seating areas, good coffee and yummy pesto and avocado toast. Their website describes Duino as a coastal town on the Adriatic coast of Italy – sounds lovely.
Diana had another outing to get her nails done. Thank goodness that frustration is behind us. She also went out on another run and is back to where we were when I became incapacitated. New territory ahead.
A guy who worked for me as a contractor for a few months shared his PhD thesis outline with me. He’s a great clarinet player and his work focuses on how to arrange full orchestral pieces for smaller, more financially viable ensembles. Here’s one of his first submissions featuring four bass clarinets and a contrabass clarinet (played by a lady in England). I think it’s very impressive that Michael was able to pull this together with everyone remote.
His PhD is through the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, and you can read his work at this link – quite interesting and thought provoking.
https://www.restructuringclassicalmusic.com
We had a new Linux systems administrator start this week and part of his biography indicated a new genre of music that he was enjoying – Kawaii metal. Of course I needed to sample this – entertaining for a few minutes before the headache sets in:
Tuesday was a busy work day as we released quarterly earnings on Monday after market close. The usual swirl of investor calls and company wide 
updates. In the evening we enjoyed a couple of music live streams – Hayes Carll followed by the Band of Heathens, who commented that they were seeing a lot of comments from people jumping over from Carll’s show – similar musical styles I suppose. Hayes was celebrating his first wedding anniversary and showed an album he had purchased on eBay so that he could play his wife’s favourite version of “Stand by Me”. I hadn’t heard Mickey Gilley’s version – quite schmaltzy.
You can watch the full stream at this link:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=2541791832740652&ref=watch_permalink
The Band of Heathens get more professional with their Supper Club each week. It’s been fun to watch them figure out how to put on a varied remote show.
I started watching “The Goldfinch” movie on Wednesday night. It flowed pretty accurately with the book from what I remember – that was a long read for sure. Nicole Kidman and Luke Wilson are quite good in the part that I watched. I’ll have to remember to go back and finish the movie.
I also watched Dan Rather interview Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. Not a particularly enthralling interview – I remember him having more to say. I did learn that the Tull song “Skating Away”, released in 1974, is about the dangers of global cooling. How things change.
Happy Hour on Thursday was as enjoyable as ever, with Damon being the trivia victim and everyone enjoying the silly Teams backgrounds:
Saturday was a very wet and gloomy day that kept us inside. The magnolias enjoyed the rain and are opening up nicely today. As I write this, Diana is back from her Week 5 run – 2 x 8min segments today. I’m so proud of her for keeping at it – she’ll be doing a 5K very soon.
I’m looking forward to watching the TaylorMade Driving Relief golf event this afternoon – the first live sports in months. Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson are playing against Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff in Florida.
My leg is healing well with very little pain. I’m able to put my weight on it with no issues but not allowed to bumble around without crutches – I was caught red footed in the kitchen earlier this morning.
We did some brief research on renting an RV this morning. The idea being that we could take a leisurely drive out to California to visit family as we won’t be flying anytime soon. A 30 ft home on wheels isn’t very expensive to rent. May be an option once I get an update from the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow morning.
I’m still slowly working my way through the Robin Williams biography. As a result of one of Diana’s organizing sprees I now have a stack of many more new books to read than I remembered having around.
This is the music that I should have listened to on grumpy Monday – I’m sure it would have helped. I really love the opening string chord progressions and Glenn Gould plays so effortlessly and with great spacing – quite different than most other versions.
From a completely different genre, but equally able to put a smile on my face. I don’t remember what I was watching that had this as the soundtrack. Give it a spin and transport yourself to a 1950s supper club:
And finally, the new Jason Isbell album was released this week. Here’s my early favourite. We enjoyed he and his wife, Amanda Shires, broadcasting from the new Brooklyn Bowl in Nashville on Friday night.