I had my second first piano lesson last week. My first first piano lesson was more than fifty years ago, in September 1964, when I was in the fourth grade. I don’t remember that first lesson specifically, but I know I took piano lessons for six years from that point […]
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Mary Poppins Returns!
I mentioned in a post a few years back that I saw the Mary Poppins movie in 1965, months after it came out, when it finally arrived in my hometown of Richland, Washington. I was in the fourth grade that year, and I went to the movie in the spring […]
Continue readingOld LPs: Finding My Youth and Throwing It Away
A few weeks ago my husband decided to give away all his unused audio equipment to Audio Reader, a service sponsored by the University of Kansas to provide radio for the blind and print-disabled. Audio Reader has a 24/7 broadcast of volunteers reading newspapers, magazines and books, and other programs […]
Continue readingSirius Driving
After my father died, I purchased one of his cars. It was a 2012 Mazda 5—nothing fancy, but I had a 2009 Mazda 5, which I liked. When I was out in Washington State to manage my parents’ estates, I drove my dad’s Mazda 5 between his house on the […]
Continue readingThe Awesome Wonder of Gravitational Waves
I don’t usually write about science, because I don’t know much about it. I haven’t taken a science class since Physics in my senior year of high school. What impressed me most when I learned about waves in that class was that wave theory explained music—why some chords sound wonderful […]
Continue readingA Tale of Two Kauffmans and Two Spirits
There are two landmarks in Kansas City named after city benefactors Ewing and Muriel Kauffman. Actually, there are more than two, but this post focuses on Kauffman Stadium and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, both of which are on my mind this week. The Kansas City Royals baseball […]
Continue readingMusic from My Grandmother’s Hands, and Mine
My grandmother’s red-lacquered nails clicked lightly on the keys as she played the piano. She played classical music and big band songs, her hands flying over the keyboard to bring melody and harmony from nothing. The taps of her manicured nails only added to the music in my young mind. […]
Continue reading‘Ode to Joy’ on Our Wedding Anniversary
I always assumed I would walk down the aisle at my wedding to the strains of the Bridal Chorus from Wagner’s opera “Lohingren” (also called the “Wedding March”). You know the one: “Here comes the bride, All dressed in white, . . . “ So imagine my surprise when I […]
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