Sunday musings

Have you noticed how wonderful a drink of cool water, a ray of sunshine, a soft pillow can be? Two little twin boys running amok at the pool, uninhibited, totally in the moment are a joy to see and hear. Their mom chats away on her phone about parenting, and a relationship going awry, "that's not love." I'm totally eavesdropping with my bionic ears. It sounds like she's a terrible mom talking away for 1-2 hours straight, while her children run perilously close to the pool's edge, but she's not.

We are dialed down and mentally and physically preparing for an early departure tomorrow. Florida, you were perfect with your warm sunshine and fluffy clouds. The kids are more than all right. They are thriving in their environment, and we couldn't be happier for them. Perhaps the south is in our future.

Saturday

Pat says I am a triple threat. Blog, Facebook, and Instgram. I'm trying to post a little differently in each platform.

Hannah presented a paper on Persichetti and it was amazing. We are obviously not Musicologists and we may be a little biased but that girl holds her own and exceeds the noted faculty...she got the most questions and interest of the three papers we saw presented this morning. Kudos, proud MIL moment!

We caught some clouds today at Jacksonville beach. Lower 70's felt chilly.

Bye bye beach

Tonight we waited 60 minutes for a table at The Top, a very popular downtown Gainesville restaurant. Very nice bacon cauliflower soup, and the very best Key Lime Pie I ever tasted.

Art at UF

I suggested we visit the Harn Museum of Art today, and it was agreed. 

A couple a cool pieces and a lifelike statue I saw there. 

Here I am in what was suggested I ride in... I protested but the docent insisted...the struggle is real.

Eli making some tea and French Press coffee this morning. After a morning rehearsal, we will have all day together and the Gainesville Orchestra tonight...love me some Gershwin.

Whew I am up to date with my loyal followers. Go Gators!

Time Away (much needed)

On the road Wednesday at 4:45, near freezing rain, and still raining as we drove south and the temps rose the further south we got. 65 degrees at Montgomery AL. Serviceable and be bug fre Super 8:

Love this sixties furniture 

Some foliage in Tallahassee. Loving the unique fauna and high 80's temps!

Waiting for Hannah and Eli outside Pascal's, near UF campus. One of their favorite places. 

My Boys

This is Cal's second rap in memory of Adam. If he only knew, that's the sad part. Watching these videos is difficult yet reassuring. We were a normal family. As normal as we were, that is.

2.2.19

The lead up is always the worst, so 'they' say. Those who have experienced a significant loss. This week was a mish mash of emotions and feeling out of sorts. Today, was not so bad. Tip toeing around the topic. Heard from both my boys, sister, mom, various people through Facebook, and Adam's grandma Colleen. It's a hard thing to talk about, but we all feel it.

Three years ago, who knew we would spend the next three years wondering what went so very wrong in Adam's short 27 year life? Why didn't he reach out and ask for help? How could we not have known how serious his moods and situation were?

And so some days are like this. They are fewer and not as intense. 

When I saw this, I thought of Adam. When I see a certain bright star,
I think of Adam. 

Shoeless Joe

Over Christmas break, Eli picked up a very old copy (one of the yellow paged  paperbacks, but surprisingly not dog-earred) from who-knows-where of "Shoeless Joe" and left it here, partially read. It was published in 1982, and I suspect this copy is from that era. I ran out of books a week or so ago and started reading it. There was an old folded one dollar bill between the pages being used as a bookmark. So Eli.  The movie "Field of Dreams" is based on the book, and believe it or not, I have never seen it.

It's kind of boring, but it also has a nice feeling of following your dreams...totally unrealistic, but nice to think about. I don't know if this happens in the movie, but Ray in the book drives from Iowa to New Hampshire to take J.D. Salinger to a Red Sox game. They are eating together in a Greek restaurant outside Fenway and the following exchange occurs (Salinger has been a recluse for many years):

Ray: What...what do you do up there on your hill?

Jerry (Jerome David): I live. I write. I watch old movies. I read. I watch the sunset. I watch the moon rise.

Ray: That's all?

Jerry: That's all? Isn't it enough?

I really fancied this little tete a tete. That's pretty much what I do (except for the sun and moon things, though I occasionally catch one of these), and if it's good enough for Salinger, it should be good enough for me.