Tag Notes

But it’s not supposed to happen to me!

Michael 1 Comment

Well, it happens to the best of us. So they say. Who are these they? Are they the best of us so they would know? Or are they like me? Those who this always happens to. I don’t know what I want to write about. No, not I don’t know. More like I can’t remember. Like, since about 10 hours ago.

I should have sat down and wrote it then. It was really a great topic. And I had just the right approach for it. It was something that happens to all of us (what they say notwithstanding) and something that I know everybody out there in Blogworld wouldn’t be able to wait to read. But just what it is (was?) I can’t remember. Sigh.

I did what I always do when I can’t remember something. Retrace my mental steps of the Questionday. Most of the time it will jog the brain cells sufficient to loosen the elusive thoughts but not today. What did I do today anyway?

I think I first came up with the “Now that’s blogworthy!” moment sometime around breakfast time. Could it have been something to do with breakfast. Not likely. All I had was some breakfast sausage and scrambled eggs with an English muffin, buttered and jellied. Nothing terribly blogworthy at that meal although I did manage to turn scrambled eggs into a decent sounding post once. (While we’re in the kitchen, do they call English muffins just muffins in England? And if so, what do you call just a muffin there?) (Inquiring minds and all that.)

After breakfast I read the paper, answered some e-mails, watered the herb pots, and did a crossword puzzle. Actually, I did four crossword puzzles. Other than those, my morning probably wasn’t much different from anybody’s. And I know whatever “it” was, “it” wasn’t crosswords. Although blogworthy, those too have already been a subject of the RRSB. So, not there.

Moving on I paid a few bills, put a birthday card in the mail (real card, real mail), took a walk, watched a hockey game. Hockey’s a big thing for me. Autographed pictures, pucks, programs, banners, and towels all have found a home somewhere on my walls and shelves. License plates and bumper magnets grace my car and a season ticket pass keeps my driver’s license company in my wallet. I like hockey. I’ve even said that everything I know about being a gentleman I learned from hockey. But it wasn’t that either.

So, I don’t know what I’m going to write abou…….wait! Now I remember. I think I’m going to save that idea for Thursday and just call today a miss. Sorry, but I don’t want to go through this twice in one week. So, I’ll just jot that down on a little post-it that I can stick to the monitor right there. And, there. Thursday is all taken care of. Whew.

So. Now. For today. Well….Have a nice day?

The Music in my Mind

Michael Leave a comment

I can’t wait for spring. I really need a new diversion. This winter I’ve spent a lot of time in front of the keyboard. Not this one typing out these missives. The musical one. It’s a diversion that I’ve spent more time with than I have in years. But then, I have more time now than I’ve had in years. I have to do something with it.

I fiddled with the piano for the first time about 55 years ago. You’d think with all that time I’d be pretty good at it. Honestly I’m just ok. I know how to play the notes but that’s not the same as how to make the music. It must have been about 54 years ago that I said to myself, “Self,” I said, “you should take up the tuba where you only have to play one note at a time to be good.” Even back then I recognized the limitation of my short and uncoordinated fingers.

Instead of seeking out a used tuba to practice on (which in hindsight was a good thing I didn’t since most of the helicon style tuba are larger than me) I gravitated to musical styles that didn’t require 14 notes played to be played in unison.

Over the years I got very good at plinking out one or two notes with my right hand and running scales with my left, all the while filling in three or four other instruments’ parts in my mind. And as long as I was alone I was pretty darn good. So good that all I needed was the melody to a song and some time to noodle around until I was able to figure out what chords went with it. Then I could amuse myself for hours rarely ever striking more than 2 or 3 keys at once.

But then I came across that song in my head that try as I might I couldn’t find the right tones on my own. So I broke down and bought sheet music for it. And there they were. The notes that I was looking for. Lots and lots of notes. More of them on ledger lines than on the staff proper. Written in the key of A Flat. In 6/8 time. Allegretto. And that’s just how it sounded in my mind.

It was just that my body wanted to play it in the Key of C in common time and a bit more ritardando. Just like me. <Sigh> I can’t wait for spring.

That’s what I think. Really. How ‘bout you?