If you read yesterday’s blog, you might remember that I was planning to pick up my meds yesterday. I put it on my list of things to do. Eileen went off to have her hair done, something that is a relaxing thing for her. I went to the pharmacy to pick up my diuretic meds before practicing. The pharmacist informed me that my insurance had lapsed due to non payment. I would be able to purchase my blood pressure meds at cost if I wished, about $650.

I declined to do so and phoned Eileen who immediately began calling and complaining to our insurance company.

I then went to practice. When I turned on the lights in the choir area that I use to see my organ music as I play, nothing happened. I turned the organ on and that worked so we had electricity for that. I went to the light board in the other room. On the way there I flipped on a light I use to see the light board. Nothing again. I went down to the office and asked if we were having electricity problems. They looked at me with blank looks. I guess not.

I called the janitor who happened to be on the premises. He met me at the light board. Someone had turned off switches that were taped over and marked do not touch. O. Okay. That fixed that. The janitor asked me if I would help him move the piano up from the basement where we had the Maundy Thursday service. I agreed.

Unfortunately when we moved it into the church area, one of the wheels came off taking with it a chunk of the piano. Yikes. I have never thought much of this piano which was picked out by a college teacher. The exposed wood on the piano revealed pressed board.

After talking with my boss and the local piano technician we contracted with him to put some other wheels on the piano that do not rely on being screwed into the wood, rather the piano sits on a little metal piece that has the wheels on it. He would get to that next week.

By this time, an hour had passed. Good grief. I sat down and practiced. it didn’t go particularly well despite my valiant efforts at playing slowly through the Vierne movement I had been working on pre-Easter.

Eileen texted me that the insurance people said they would have cleared up the confusion around my prescriptions by three pm.

But of course when we went to pick them up we got the same story from the pharmacist. Eileen called the insurance people on the spot and managed to clear up the situation.

I took my blood pressure at the pharmacy area in Meijer where we were. It was high (168/104). Great.

We came home and I took a pill. This meant I had only missed two days of pills. I wanted to exercise but wondered about the wisdom of doing so with elevated blood pressure. I took my blood pressure again at home and it had fallen 18 points on the upper number (the one that seems important). i exercised.

This was supposed to have been a day off for recuperating. Unfortunately it didn’t quite go like that. Today I have one ballet class. I have permission to skip the other two to do a funeral at church. Of course they won’t pay me for skipped classes. I work by the hour. My boss looked so forlorn (she buried a favorite dog recently) I didn’t have the heart to complain about this. Fuck it. I’ll still get paid for the funeral. And there’s no choir rehearsal tonight. Thank god for that.

Evelyn Starks Hardy, Founder of the Gospel Harmonettes, Dies at 92 – NYT

I admire the gospel singers. This woman sounds like she was important to the movement.