The Home Ownership Edition.
Thank you to one of my extra special readers for suggesting this song.
Production note: I’m switching to using SubStack for these emails as it give me more flexibility format and to incorporate media and greater easy-of-use for managing distribution.
Oh, the joys of home ownership, the American dream.
A million years, ago, when my first daughter was born, we lived in a co-op in White Plains, NY. From there we moved to a rental in Lafayette, Calif. where we had our second daughter, and then, from there, into a house in Dublin, Calif. I warned my ex-wife that I wasn't going to be able to perform the chores of home ownership due to my lack of skills and unmanageable torpor, so she was pre-prepared to organize decorators and contractors and get neighborhood kids to mow the yard and trim the trees. (There's nothing quite like watching a teenage boy standing on a step ladder waving a chain saw over his head to whack off branches.) It was during this time I read Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. The whole thing. I was busy.
Anyway, my ex-wife tired of managing the home and we moved to a posh condo in Pleasanton, Calif. Better schools, closer to our synagogue, and, as I mentioned, more posh. The condo was a good fit for us. Fewer chores. Now, I'm in charge of a home in Alma, Ark., that is old and needs maintenance. There's the door that the EMTs kicked in that needs a handy man to come over and repair the splintered frame. There's the banister that's a bit wobbly that needs to be re-fastened. There are the lightbulbs that need to be replaced and probably changed out to LEDs. I could probably manage that if I could be away from Mom to sort that out and do the job. I can change lightbulbs.
When I last wrote about it, I told you that we had to order a new washing machine. Well, I got a call from Whirlpool that we wouldn't be able to get the washer delivered until December 31st. That wasn't acceptable, so I called Home Depot to let them know that. I impressed upon the person on the other end of the line that we weren't buying a new laundry machine because we just wanted to. We were buying a new laundry machine because ours is broken and we really need it. We were able to sort things out, cancel the order for the Whirlpool and get a GE machine for less money with a delivery date of December 17. That's still a long wait, but it's better than nothing. I think Home Depot is doing a good job of making sure we get what we want as soon as possible. In the meantime, Mom and I went to the Lucky Ducky laundromat down Highway 17 do wash some clothes. No one there was wearing masks. While we were out, we stopped by the library to drop off some books and pick up five more Amish Romance novels for Mom. I also checked up on the status of an interlibrary loan for a book about the Iowa Writers Workshop.
While I'm waiting on that, I'm still reading Trollope's La Vendee. I'm also studying a Torah commentary I received this week, The Language of Truth translated and interpreted by Arthur Green from the work of Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger. I've also started reading Open Your Eyes by Rabbi Don Keilson who's pulled together a book on the teaching of Rabbi Avigdor Miller on the concept of Bechinah, seeing G-d everywhere all the time. I'm also reading selections from a book about German film, From Caligari to Hitler by Siegfried Kracauer. Krachauer was a pal of Theordo W. Adorno and Walter Benjamin and reviewed films during the UFA/Weimar era and successfully got out of German while the getting was good and followed the great German directors to the US. MoMA gave him an office and access to its massive library of film and sustained him during the years he labored writing this book. I've read the final chapter on Leni Riefenstahl because I've seen the entirety of Triumph of the Will and wanted to know more about how the film was made and its impact on German culture. I'll continue to dive into the book to read about the films I've seen and probably ought to see. The book is published by the Princeton University press and has some very good introductory material. The main part of the book is basically a photocopy of the original. I usually don't care for books like that as it feels like it was published on the cheap, the publisher didn't make the investment to reset the book into type. In this case, the production makes me feel like I'm reading an artifact from a different age, which is exactly what I'm doing. In my novel queue, I have New Grub Street by George Gissing, which is published as part of the Oxford World Classics series. I've read a lot of books in the series and am always impressed. In this case, Oxford decided to reset the entire book and I really appreciate the effort Oxford makes. Its books always has good introductory material and notes. This edition even has a map in it!
And I try to squeeze in some Hebrew study.
I'm watching The Crown and have made it to episode seven which features Helena Bonham Carter. I watched the episode while Mom naps or reads in her room. Episode seven is very dark. No spoilers. I have a bunch of movies in my queue including Mr. Arkadin, Enola Holmes, Ammonite, Mank, Tenet, and the documentary by Scorsese on the New York Review of Books, The 50 Year Argument. I'm also getting a copy of The Romantic Englishwoman. Tom Stoppard wrote the screenplay for the film that stars Glenda Jackson and Michael Caine. (I'm not listing the really trashy movies that are in my queue but I will fess up that I found a screen adaptation of Gor.)
Speaking of Tom Stoppard, Lincoln Center Theatre is broadcasting a roundtable celebrating that it's been 20 years ago when the three plays were staged. It's hard to believe it was 20 years ago I was blessed to see those three plays in a "marathon" production at Lincoln Center in it's Vivian Beaumont Theater. That was eleven hours that changed my life. Tom Stoppard tends to do that for me. The roundtable, which includes Stoppard, is set for December 17. I'll be there.
During the class I took on Psalms, I came across this note in the ArtScroll Tehillin on Psalm 150:
Man has dormant thoughts and feelings that can be brought to the surface through the medium of music. One who wishes to let his entire soul praise Y-A-H must arouse the soul's depths with music.
So, I've received some CDs that I'm enjoying. The latest one to come is Angele Dubeau and her ensemble, La Peita. It's a collection of work from Ludovico Einaudi and the CD is call Portrait. I was first heard Einaudi on the one of the contemporary shows on classical radio and immediately became a fan. This is the first CD I've bought of his music and am very much enjoying it. Another CD I recently acquired is Stewart Goodyear's For Glenn Gould. Goodyear is amazing and does an amazing job of paying tribute to Gould. The CD includes selections from Gibbons, Sweetlinck, Brahms, Berg and, of course, Bach. For a change of pace, I have Syd Barrett's Opel. Barrett, a founding member of Pink Floyd ended up flying to close to the sun while on psychedelics and never landed again. He was expelled from Pink Floyd. Barrett features as an important background character in Stoppard's play Rock n Roll. And then, for something completely different, I got the new release from the Sun Ra Arkestra, Swirling. I can recommend all these CDs.
Mom's been doing pretty well. The dementia medication she's on is suppose to slow her decline, not reverse it so I can't really tell if it's working or not. For example, she's still convinced that she's not living at home even though I've driven her around the house and the area around it so she can see that this is her home. Her diagnosis of integrative agnosia means that she can see her house, she can see all her elaborate decorations in the house, the neighborhood around her and still not sum it up in her mind that this is her home.
This week, we went to Mom's gynocologist regarding her incontinence. I was prepared for the worse. Of course I wasn't going into the examination room with her and I suspected that the doctor's examination might trigger an anxiety attack for Mom. She's very modest. I came prepared with some of her Xanax in my bag just in case. I had considered giving her some Xanax as a prophylactic measure, but passed on that as she was in a good mood and not approaching the experience with a sense of dread. The examination took quite a while and that made me worry. It took so long that I was able to read all the must read articles in the current New York Review of Books. Mom came out of the examination just fine and was smiling. Baruch Hashem. I bought her (and me) a chocolate malt for the car ride back to Alma and then we celebrated with a stop by Sonic for some cheeseburgers and onion rings.
I went to the dentist this week to get some work finalized and get a general examination. This all went well except we discovered I need some fillings replaced. My new eyeglass frames haven't arrived yet and Mom is getting impatient about that. She doesn't like my current frames. She thinks they are too small.
Overall, I'm settling in. We've gotten into a schedule. I get up around 6a, read the paper and reflect. Coffee and bagels at 7a. Listen to Morning Edition on the radio. Catch up on my email and blogs. Entertain Mom until she goes back to bed for her morning nap. I try to watch part of a movie until she wakes up and has a light snack. I entertain Mom. Perform infrastructure chores such as updating the calendar, cook, wash dishes, laundry, etc. Early dinner around 4p. Watch Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer on CNN. Mom gets tucked in, latest, around 7p. Then there's me time. I go to bed around 9p. Repeat. Attend services on Friday night. Attend Torah Study Saturday morning. Attend random synagogue events throughout the week.
I'm trying to expose myself to art as much as I can deep in the forest of the Ozarks. Good books. Good music. Good movies. I believe in the power of art to not just uplift us but to bring us closer to the Divine. I've always been an enthusiast for transcendent experiences and I'm taking them where I can find them. I hope you are too.
Until next time,
All my love,
brian.