Ever Ready

M&D went to the first of three CERT training sessions yesterday. They came back with a backpack each full of equipment and information.

2008-03-30 Cert Training M&D

Garage Murals

On the weekend, we didn't have Flute Cocktail rehearsal so Mom and I thought we would go shopping. Luther agreed to drive us to Savers if we could go through the Corcoran Neighborhood and check out the murals, results of a couple of years of graffiti prevention work by neighborhood volunteers. Here and here are blogs with more info. The idea is to do something similar in Lyndale this summer, although on a larger scale, and restricted to private property. There already is a project for murals on commercial property that is being run by the neighborhood organization in conjunction with the Walldogs.

2008-03-22 Corcoran Murals

Spoken Word

I have a handful of spoken word LPs. Who knows what these are doing in my house.

The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart
Ike From Abilene, Narrated by Henry Fonda
Robert Graves Reads Selected Poems
The Dream Keeper and Other Poems of Langston Hughes Read By the Author
Martin Fierro, Poema Argentino, Narrado por Alcides Dorado

I think these last two might originate from N, who is in B.

If It Brings Tears To Your Eyes

I've been doing a little decluttering in preparation for our remodeling project. One thing we have is a lot of is LPs. A list follows of the LPs I have sorted into the pile marked "Latino."

Vientos Del Pueblo, Victor Jara
Grabando Exitos, Sonora Santanera
Canto Para Una Semilla, Inti-Illimani con Isabel Parra y Mares Gonzalez
Imagination, An Album of Instrumental Music, Inti-Illimani
Por Eso Luchamos, Songs of Salvadoran Struggle, Cutumay Camones
Ejemplar de Promocion (!), Mirla Castellanos (there are two of these and they are 45s)
Por Eso Ahora (side A), and Si Tu Te Vas (side B), Cuatro Cuarenta (this is a 33, or whatever the little tiny ones are called)
Francis En El Cuarto, Vol. IV, Francis
Canto Del Agua, Ihuaye
El Huerto, Rumisonko
Yo Protesto, Roy Brown
Rabo De Nube, Silvio Rodriguez

Weekend in Mankato

I spent last weekend in Mankato, taking the airport shuttle after work on Friday and staying at my friend Lois' house. We were roommates the first year I was in Madison -- let's see, that would have been the school year of 1981-1982. We've known each other since childhood and attended two schools together and Lois is an accomplished pianist, organist and singer but but we've never actually done music together. So this time I brought my flute and a bunch of music and we played and Lois coached me a little on voice. We went for a walk, went shopping, watched Sense and Sensibility, visited her mother, went to Palm Sunday services at Mount Olive, and met Laurie and Andy O. et al for lunch. It was a good time. Got back to Minneapolis in the middle of the afternoon on Sunday and found the solar cookers out in the back yard. Luther had made a nummy banana/peach muffin/bread. It was fabulous.

Solar Cookers in the Yard

Flute Choir Showcase 2008

Flute Cocktail performed at the third annual Flute Choir Showcase yesterday. Of the eight flute choirs performing, we were the largest. Last year, one of my brothers was our guest artist and my other brother happened to be in town to catch the show. This year, our guest artist was a fabulous jazz musician, a friend of the first brother mentioned.

Ceniza: December 1990 - March 1, 2008

Ceniza, our little gray kitty, is not with us any more. She was put to sleep yesterday after being diagnosed with kidney failure.

Late last week Luther noticed that she didn't seem herself. She hadn't been eating or drinking and she moved slowly and gingerly. So Saturday morning he took her in to Kitty Klinic. The blood test results showing kidney function were off the charts. He brought her home again until I got home from flute choir practice. We waited around for Steve, who was coming by to pick up our old wireless router, and found out from him where the emergency vet was. Meanwhile, Ceniza didn't move around much. We just tried to keep her warm. We couldn't justify letting her try to get through one more night, so we went.

Luther and I answered the ad I had found in Methodist Hospital's weekly employee newsletter on January 16, 1991, the day the first bombs of the Gulf War fell on Baghdad. The people offering the free kitties had the TV on, so, while we picked out our kitty, we could see the newsies covering the bombing. Luther (who can remember it better than I can) says Tom Brokaw (I think) had just gotten Walter Cronkite, of all people, out of bed to get his take on the situation. He was barely awake and had no idea what was going on. The people in the house smoked, and the smell of cigarette smoke was oddly compatible with all the bombing going on on the TV. I can't remember how many kitties there were, but, of the ones not spoken for, we saw one that didn't rough-and-tumble with the rest. She looked shy and cute. So we picked her. And we named her Ceniza for her color, and for the apocalyptic atmosphere of that night.

Ceniza's talents included the ability to say "beer!" and "what!?." She possessed a hypnotic purr. In one famous incident, Franklin Curbelo, attending a meeting at our house, heard her purring and said, in his thick Argentinian accent, "Eeet eeez making me sleeeeeepyyy."

We will miss having to jump up from the bed upon discovering that we have sat on the spot where she was sleeping comfortably under the covers. We will miss having to coax her the rest of the way down the stairs in the evenings after she has announced her presence by squeaking "what!?" from the landing. Of course, she was so shy that not many people besides us ever actually saw her. However, in the last month or so she was even becoming comfortable enough to watch TV in the living room with M&D, even if Luther and I weren't around. And she always recognized and responded to the voice of Luther's sister Deb who seems to be part cat herself.