I haven’t blogged for a couple days so here goes. Eileen continues to need TLC. I signed her out of all choir activities for a while (at her request). I came home from church yesterday and offered to take her out to eat and then shop for shoes. But she demurred. She knew that I was pushing myself on a Sunday afternoon to do that and she decided not to ask me to do so. She would go alone to buy shoes.But after lunch she changed her mind. Daughter Sarah would be glad to go shopping with her after she arrives from England.

I need to do some work today on rearranging the anthem schedule for the choir. I made an overly ambitious initial list of anthems for the fall. I have had to readjust several of them to make them more doable. In addition, though we have some new people, overall attendance has been erratic. Nothing to do but adjust the anthems. I’m hoping to do some of that today from home. I’m thinking of more part singing, probably SAB would be best since I have had only bass singer (bless him) for the last few meetings.

I was thankful for my new approach to my work yesterday (improvised preludes/postludes biweekly). The morning Eucharist was a breeze. The last minute anthem introduced Wednesday went well. I tempered my improvised prelude and postlude with silences after the gospel and a small silence after communion. These are times I sometimes insert a clever improv.

The silence was timely as Rev Jen used the old Testament story of Esther to talk about the divisions in our country at this time, directly referring to the Kavanaugh hearings last week. Though she did this, it was admirable the way she was constructive and helpful. Good sermon. I approached a Republican in our midst after church to chat him up. These are bad times in America. We need each other more than ever.

I’m only five chapters away from finishing Woodward’s Fear:Trump in the White House. What is emerging for me is a portrait of a president who views everything in the world from the point of view of cutthroat business practices. It helps explain his continuing preoccupation with tariffs and taxes. What a country.

Daughter Sarah and granddaughter Lucy get in a taxi in the wee hours of tomorrow morning, local England time. I know these trips can be arduous, but I think having her and Elizabeth and the grandkids around for this time of mourning is exactly what Eileen needs.

NYTimes: Yo-Yo Ma Wants Bach to Save the World

Bach and Yo-Yo Ma. What’s not to like?

Lindsey Graham’s Brett Kavanaugh rant, and history with Trump, explained – Vox

Vox is a left leaning web site. Despite that, it is plausible that Graham’s recent mysterious partisan rant was a job interview with the sitting president. What a country.

NYTimes: James Comey: The F.B.I. Can Do This

Comey is problematic, but he seems sane compared to current leadership.

NYTimes: Trump Can’t Win the War on Demography

It continues to occur to me that it is the simple changing face of America which challenges the unabated sick racism of our heritage.

I put this book on hold at the library this morning. Ibram X. Kendri footnotes it when he suggests that Teddy Roosevelt gave the “White House” its name after inadvertently offending racists by inviting Booker T. Washington to a sit down dinner at the site.

I want to find more corroboration of that notion but flipping through this book.