Special Treat

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My class in the geology of Pittsburgh took a field trip today to the top of the Cathredral of Learning, 40 stories up. The view was terrific, or would have been if the weather had been better. After many glorious, sunny days it was cold and gray today. At least it wasn’t raining while we were up there, so we did enjoy the view. But the big treat was the peregrine falcon sitting on the ledge watching us as we watched him. I took this quick shot of him. Topofcathedral001
As I was preparing to get a better one, someone else used a flash. The bird scolded us for almost half a minute and then flew off.

Art and more art

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Back in August, when I was very bored and volunteered for a great many things, I became part of a story-telling study. I don’t really know what they are studying, but the deal is that I go to five different public venues on five weekends, then report back and tell a story after each visit. I have been to the Carnegie Museum of Art, Phipps Conservatory, the Mattress Factory, and Frick Art and Historical Center. I still have to report back on my visit to the Frick, and I have one more visit to make. It’s been fun. I don’t think my story about the Carnegie was very good, but the Phipps and the Mattress Factory were fun. The show at the Frick is more than I ever wanted to know about Pre-raphaelite art. I hope, when I am finished they will tell me what they are looking for.
Daytoday012

Self portrait with red dots, at the Mattress Factory.

Busy Week

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Eli came back from Chili on Monday, and Renee came to visit on Tuesday. Also, my Osher classes began on Tuesday. This weekend is the crafts fair in Mellon Park, where I made 2 visits but only bought one thing. The jewelry was very tempting, but I have a large box full of jewelry I rarely wear. Most of the time I wear only earrings, and I seem to alternate amongst the same two or three pairs. So I resisted all temptation.
Eliandcharna

Eli and Charna

Medical Mishigas

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I got a bill from a medical management company for $1.79. Subsequently, I got a notice from Medicare and another notice from my medigap insurer that I would be billed $1.79. I don’t know what it cost to send out these notices. Some years ago I remember the figure was $2.32 for each letter. In any case, those three letters had to cost more than $1.79, but I sent off a check.

At the same time I received a threatening letter saying, in 8 pt. type that I put off reading until the last possible moment, if I did not pay a $70.44 bill within 10 days they would send the bill out for collection. I keep a spread sheet about what I owe and what I’ve already paid for medical care. It showed I had already paid the bill at the end of April using a credit card. So I called the medical office and said I would have to check my credit card statements. They assured me I had not paid the bill and offered me a 20% discount if I would pay it immediately. I did it, figuring I could always argue later.

So how is it that one office is willing to give me $14 off my bill while the other one insists, at great cost, on collecting $1.79?

Surreal Saturday night out

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I went out for dinner last night with some of the people from my Tai Chi class. There were ten of us, six born and bred in Pittsburgh. We went to one of the new nationally franchised fish restaurants. I generally prefer locally owned ethnic restaurants, and my dinner cost twice as much as I usually pay, but I expected that. The surreal began with the teacher coming over and hugging and kissing me. I always felt like she was barely tolerating me. Was I wrong?

I was seated between two Pittsburghers and across from another. The person across from me immediately declared she was very conservative. Apropos of what, I don’t remember, but it was a conversation stopper for me. The two on either side of me spent a lot of time discussing shopping. I knew I was in the wrong place when one of them, G., started talking about a great sweater place in Oakmont that had a good range of prices, from $100 to $400. She also said she likes wearing Ralph Lauren and DKNY, but she doesn’t have to buy Ellen Tracy or Dana Buchman for work anymore because she will be retiring in April when she is 62. She will collect Social Security and hopes to also collect disability because she has Parkinson’s. She works as a secretary for the county police in an office in a bad neighborhood. And she needs designer clothes. Am I crazy?

She also told me I lived in a bad neighborhood and asked why I moved there. I felt like answering, "because you don’t live there."

I ordered monk fish for my dinner. I have never been happy with the way I cook monk fish, although I always thought it had great potential. I wanted to see what they would do with it. Well, my dinner was good, but I don’t think it was monk fish. The texture was wrong. I guess I’ll have to try making it again.

I drove to this dinner with Grace, my Tai Chi class friend. We always have a lot to talk about and have a good time together. When we left the dinner I told her about my conversations and said I was bored. She got to talk to the other end of the table and was fascinated. G’s husband said he kept a gun in his car and that G had one also. Grace asked him if he went to a range and practiced shooting. No, he didn’t want to shoot it. He just wanted it for protection. No wonder G thought I should live somewhere else.

More volunteer work

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One of the artist’s groups here will be having a big show next year. I volunteered to help organize the entries, but wound up doing very little work. Most of it had been done before I got there–the only thing left was to look at the slides and make sure the were positioned correctly in the trays. This is an exercise every artist should take part in before they submit slides to be juried. Very few people appreciate the difficulties of judging artwork from slides. Each piece was supposed to be represented by one slide and one detail. Often the two slides were different colors, not because the pieces were different, the light used for the photos was different–flash, or florescent. Some of the pieces were positioned very badly. Often you could not tell the size of the object, if you could even tell what it was. When taking slides for artists used to be my profession I would try to convey the difficulty of judging from slides. I don’t think anyone believed me.

Back to the books

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Two of my new classes began yesterday–both about things Japanese. One is a small undergraduate course about Japanese culture. It should be fun. The other is a seminar about the state of the field of Japanese Art History. It’s possibly a little esoteric, but I think I will enjoy it. In any case I don’t have to do any work if I don’t want to. And both professors allow me to be an integral part of the class even though I am only auditing. Next week my Osher classes begin. (That’s the senior citizen stuff.)

Back to school

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I spent a good part of the last few weeks looking for things to do. I did a lot of volunteering, or trying to volunteer. It isn’t always easy. But today my efforts began to pay off. I am now a member of an advisory committee for the Osher program. My obligation is two or three meetings a year. I don’t know how much input I’ll have, but I get some inside dope about the program, which I love.

On Wednesday, I’ll start going to classes again. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll be taking more classes about Japanese culture, and I plan to take a drawing class. Maybe that will inspire me to do some artwork again.

Temptation

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I went down to the Strip this afternoon. At one time this was Pittsburgh’s wholesale food distribution center. Today it’s mostly consumer oriented, with lots of exotic, ethnic food. It’s almost enough to make me start cooking again. Since I don’t cook very much I only bought a few things. It’s hard to cook for only one person. I generally make too much, then wind up eating it for days; not a good thing.

There are bakeries, restaurants and coffee shops in the Strip. Enrico’s makes amazing biscotti; the smell is irresistible. There is even a lovely chocolate shop. This time I resisted all of the nosh, getting only an iced coffee and my few groceries. I finally decided I should try to loose some weight. My wonderful son-in-law, the geriatric specialist, keeps telling me about all of the studies about obesity. He’s very nice. He doesn’t tell me I should loose weight, just tells me about the studies. So I’m not dieting. That doesn’t work for me. I’m just trying to eat better, more fruit and vegetables, less of everything. It seems to be working.

It’s always the books

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When I left my 10 room house in Chicago I had to get rid of a lot of things, furniture, kitchenware, books. There’s very little I miss except the books. On Saturday I went to the Carnegie Museum of Art to see a show about Ansel Adams and a trip he took in Yosemite in 1936. It was a pleasant show–nothing extraordinary. But it raised some questions in my mind about his relationship with Georgia O’Keeffe, and whether he was already married at the time. I remembered a book I bought, many years ago, a guidebook to Yosemite written by Adams and his wife. I went looking for it, and of course, it was long gone. I don’t remember that it was anything special. And it certainly would not have answered many of my questions, but my sense of loss was palpable. Losing a book is almost as bad as losing an old friend.