dear diary, yesterday was Maundy Thursday


I found this poem when I was looking for an illustration to begin this post. Can’t find an attribution. I like how it uses poetry to explicate the basic ideas of Maundy Thursday. I like the idea of picking glass from a bloody foot after a fight and the fact that the Mom retells this story after dinner (like Eucharist, get it? get it?)…..

anyway

Kind of a busy Maundy Thursday for me. First a ballet class in the morning, then a long wait in the doctor’s office for my four month check up.

Yesterday was a good check-up for me. I have lost a significant amount of weight at my doctor’s request. She asked me to lost ten pounds and yesterday by the doctor’s scales I had lost just under twenty.  More importantly my blood pressure was low. So that’s good.

I have a good doctor, but I take responsibility for my health. I have lived hard and don’t expect to have a long old age. I have a bad heart. My mother’s brother died in his sleep at 57 from a heart attack.  Life is a  terminal business. As they say, no one gets out alive.

So when a doctor tells me to lose weight, I give a try. But I told her yesterday that I see these measures as somewhat staving off the inevitable. My blood pressure will get harder and harder to keep low as I age. I told her if I live long enough I will probably get prostate cancer. Statistically I understand that most males die with prostate cancer developing in their body if they live long enough. But it’s not necessarily that cancer that actually kills them. My doctor agreed with this.

In the meantime I had that rare doctor appointment in middle age where I didn’t leaving feeling like I’m not taking of the old bod.

Afterwards I grabbed some groceries including some gin and vermouth. I planned to have a post service martini, which I did. In an attempt at moderation,  I have quit stocking gin and vermouth in the house and only drink martinis when Eileen and I go to eat. But I knew that I would be exhausted and not want to go out after the silly service and would still like one.

Came home and put away the groceries. My oh my, I am quite the domestic. Exercised and then read until time to walk over to church.

The service went well. My work is challenging because its form has changed drastically. No time for a thorough pre-game rehearsal since people don’t come anyway. This limits the material. Usually one tries to develop a choral sound through discipline. This is not working with my current situation. I did over ten arrangements for my little instrumental ensemble to help lead the singing last night. They were easy but I tried to make them interesting and enhance the situation. Again, I wasn’t really challenging the players due to minimal prep time.  It all went pretty well.

I find the personalities at work challenging. Fortunately my profile is pretty low. I guess it helps to be invisible. Invisible is how it feels when people you are working with don’t look you in the eye or speak to you.

So one more service of Holy Week done.  That’s good.

Today I coast a bit. Nothing really scheduled this morning. No classes or tasks other than doing the bills. I meet with the boss at 1:30 to talk about this evening’s service.

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Rebuilding Japan: Special scorn for ‘flyjin’ foreigners who fled country – Telegraph

This has been a terrible but amazing time watching the Japanese go through national trauma. Their resilience is inspiring. Their tragedy heartbreaking.

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Steve Lehman, Saxophonist, at Le Poisson Rouge – Review – NYTimes.com

Another musician to check out. Fortunately this is a review not an obituary. I did check Billy Bang from a couple of posts ago. His story is inspiring. His jazz is solid but didn’t draw me in to purchase his recordings or listen more to him. I feel that jazz is a bit like blues. It mostly keeps saying the same things over and over. Doing these genres is fun. But it takes something unusual to draw me into new material.  Lehman sounds promising.

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On Stones in Japan, Tsunami Warnings — Aneyoshi Journal – NYTimes.com

So they have these stones some of them four centuries old demarking a line you might want to live behind if you want to survive a Tsunami. wow.

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Gut Bacteria Divide People Into 3 Types, Scientists Report – NYTimes.com

Blood types. Now gut types.

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2 thoughts on “dear diary, yesterday was Maundy Thursday

  1. Keep up the excellent weight loss. I met with my doctor on Wednesday morning and continue to lose weight. I have another 30 to do. This will take me to 170. I would love to have a G&T as well. I do think that life is connected to how you think. You seem to exercise your brain every day and all the time. Seems to be working great. Hope you have a good Easter.
    Ray

  2. Ray,

    Thanks for the encouragement! I know that you have been working on your health. Glad to hear it’s going well. Sounds like we weigh about the same now. My wiifit plus thingo keeps telling me how obese I am and how I need to lose zillions of pounds. I’m satisfied with the rate I have losing….. not sure I’ll make its recommendation…

    Best wishes to you and fam this Easter!

    Steve

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