I've been taking a lovely class about music. I don't have the same understanding of or love for music that I have for the visual arts. While I've always enjoyed listening to classical music I never knew much about it, or gave it much thought. This class has been wonderful. The professor, Flavio Chamis, used Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition to teach about orchestration, and West Side Story to teach about tritones and a little bit of music theory. I found it all very interesting but I must admit I find the computer program he uses for demonstrations even more interesting than what he is saying.

Today was a very special class. Our professor brought his wife, Tatjana Mead Chamis, a violist with the Pittsburgh Symphony, who played some of the movements of Bach's Suite for Cello, transcribed for viola and followed by improvisations by a jazz trio, which had been pre-recorded. Listening to her play, standing not 20 feet from me, was a wonderful experience. Equally marvelous is seeing the passion both she and her husband bring to their music. A great afternoon! 

I'm not complaining, but it seems strange to have Indian summer in November. I took advantage of the sunshine and warmth and went for a long walk this afternoon. I keep thinking I ought to start going back to the health club, but I'll just keep walking with this great weather. Tomorrow is supposed to be equally good. I'll go to Frick Park and see what the leaves are doing. Today I walked on Penn Ave., past the crows at the Target site. There are mounds of gravel on the site now. I wonder where the crows will go when they actually start building.

Did you notice: I have posted every day this week. Three more weeks to go. Hope I'll get more interesting.

No class today. Mostly just worked on the usual household chores: laundry, monthly gas fillup, small amount of cleaning. Went to the doctor this morning for a 6-month check up. I was pronounced a healthy 75 year old with a minor cholesterol problem. I've decided I will give up worrying about the cholesterol thing when I'm 80 and go on a diet of bread, cheese and fruit. The rest of my life can be short and happy.

This evening I went to a lecture about health care reform given by a very impressive professor-doctor. He had a great analysis of the complex problems plaguing our system including the fact it will never get fixed until we find some way to elect our legislators without requiring them to spend all that money to get elected. I agreed with everything he had to say, but he really had no fix for all the problems. It was pretty depressing.

I'm feeling much better today. Still look awful; the purple color is moving down my cheeks and around my mouth. Gravity, doing its thing. I just put my contact lenses back in. I've been doing without since Friday and getting along fairly well, but each day my vision has gotten a little worse. The contacts put pressure on my corneas and smooth them out. When I remove the lenses the corneas slowly return to their distorted shape. For instance, I see better at night after a day of contact lens wearing than I will the following morning. Yesterday I was able to go to my stitch class on the bus–no problem. I could probably manage to get to class today on the bus, but I'd like to do some shopping: that requires driving, which I'm afraid to do without the lenses.

The real problem is my glasses. The glasses are progressives and give me the ability to see from near to far. The contacts, like my eyes, are set for far. The glasses still hurt when I wear them. BTW, they came through this largely unscathed. Amazing! There is a tiny scratch on the left lens near the nose piece and the frames are slightly worse for wear. I think they should be readjusted, but not until all the swelling goes down.

I'm always amazed at how many ways I can find to waste time. Several times on Tuesday I noticed something seemed to be vibrating in my left breast, like a buzzer but without any noise. Weird, huh? It continued occasionally on Wednesday but seemed like nothing terrible. After I got in bed Wednesday night it occurred every couple of minutes and became very annoying. Also, I realized that it was inside my chest, not really in my breast at all. I immediately thought about my pacemaker. It's on my right side, but I know the leads go into my heart on the left. (I have no idea how this works). I remembered my earlier conversation with my doctor and thought about going to the emergency room. Too much trouble.

The next morning I called the doctor's office. They told me to come in and get a halter monitor and wear it for 24 hours. The buzzing stopped this morning, and of course, I felt fine all along. This afternoon I walked to the office, about 2 miles, and returned it. I'm sure they will find nothing. Another occasion when I should have used my better judgment and forgotten about what the doctor said.

My radio turned on at seven this morning, as usual, I got up, went to the bathroom, decided it was too cold to stay up, and got back in bed. It is usually warm when the radio turns on; that's one of the things that gets me out of bed; I don't like sleeping when it's warm. I didn't give it much thought, just burrowed under the covers and went back to sleep, radio and all. The radio turned off at eight and I just stayed under the covers, denying the reality of my cold house. I had some funny dreams, which I remembered. Usually I don't. I was sitting in a stadium with my cousin Kenny who kept handing me tissues to wipe my nose, and I was embarrassed about it. I guess it was so cold my nose was running. And I remember speculating about having lost the heat as part of a dream, but it didn't cause me any anxiety. That's really denial. I didn't want to deal with the whole thing. I finally got up at nine, called the landlord and it's fixed now.

The China book is ready to be printed. It has 163 pages with 318 pictures. I thought about uploading it here, but the PDF is 158 MB–more than I want to upload or you want to download. I am putting it aside temporarily to work on my upcoming class, and my income tax. When I get ready to print and bind it I'll post some screen shots of the pages and photos of the binding. In the meantime it's all on the other blog, including the photos I never got to post.

I have finished my syllabus for the first two classes, although I suspect some of it will run into the third class. I'll put it up on Silver Streakers in the next day or so. Today I had a chance to speak to two of my students; both are really thinking about commercial applications. That puts a different spin on the whole thing. I don't know any of the other people who have signed up for the class. I plan to contact all of them by email before the class begins, primarily to get them thinking about blog and domain names.

As I work on my China book some of the questions surface that I never got answered. This amazing structure, surely something from outer space, was visible as we drove to Famen Temple, outside of Xian. I should have asked our Chinese staff, but I had so many questions I forgot this one. Can anyone give me an answer?

I probably would have been there, freezing on the Mall, texting messages to my family back home. One of the virtues of age is that I no longer have this burning desire to be a participant; I am content to remain at home and watch on the television. I have done my share: I marched against the Vietnam war, over and over again. Amongst many other things, in 1968 I was in Washington to visit "Resurrection City," the demonstration encampment against poverty and in support of civil rights. Today I will stay home and watch and send my good wishes and hopes to the new President.

Cycas Revoluta, ready for winter, becomes sculpture, no longer a plant.

No plans for celebration tonight. Just the hope that 2009 will bring peace and joy. And I will try to stay in Pittsburgh for a while.