Apart from the what are now considered normal pandemic restrictions and social distancing, it isn’t often I feel confined. But confined I am today. There was a threat last evening and earlier this morning of freezing rain. The incommodious prospect is to me anathema; it strikes at the heart of my metaphorical materialism – vehicular transport. Fortunately the forecast has since altered to rainy conditions at above-zero temperatures for the next twenty-four hours so it looks as though the wave of ice crystals has been avoided. It has yet succeeded to dampen my cathartic bicycling spirit. It is nonetheless a fortuity. I have a legitimate interruption to my harnessing Protestant Work Ethic. Today is clay in my hands, an open and unlimited satisfaction. To celebrate I have made a triple-strength espresso; I’ve had a late morning brunch sans bread (some of that lingering delinquency); I’ve secured about my aching knees the Mueller Advanced Patella Strap; and, I’ve settled upon the stuff I’m putting into the car for our upcoming hibernation.
It is for me oddly an unaccustomed pleasure to have an entire day to myself to do precisely what I WANT to do as opposed to what I HAVE to do. Obligation is never without its consequences. Escaping the imperative – howsoever trifling – is luck. Meanwhile the noon hour TYLENOL® 8 HR Arthritis Pain Caplets have kicked it. If it weren’t for my liver I’d eat those things like candy.
TYLENOL® 8 HR Arthritis Pain Caplets provide fast-acting, temporary relief of minor arthritis, osteoarthritis and joint pain. Each caplet contains 650 mg of acetaminophen and features a bi-layer design with two layers of effective pain relief – the first dissolves fast and the second lasts up to 8 hours to ease minor arthritis pain.
It helps that we began our day today earlier than usual. The priority was thanks to a scheduled routine dental appointment at 9:45 am. We were underway by 7:30 am. The early advantage was however diminished noticeably by the interstitial news that we could begin packing for our venture abroad. Initially we had withheld the undertaking until our housekeeper had conducted her final visit next week. But she advised today by email that she would attend to the final housekeeping after we had left; and whatever may arise by weekly inspections thereafter during our absence.
This re-direction instantly triggered an unabashed curiosity regarding whatever I had harboured in the closet following our last return home from Longboat Key in March, 2020. It proved to be an amusing endeavour. It was speedily apparent that I have a weakness for modern technological devices. The toys (iPad, Bluetooth radio and the Bose and Haram Kardon portable speakers) are coming with us! By contrast we’re leaving the electronic piano in the apartment. And the shearlings. But not the silk scarves.
In accord with my overall appeasement today I have rediscovered a talent I haven’t visited for years; viz., Lucio Dalla. I have tranquillized myself throughout much of the day with both his old and new productions. Like other successful artists, his exotic renditions are nonetheless fraught with meaning and influence. I have as a result traveled astronomically between ancient personal recollections; inspired in the meantime by the novelty of his compositions.
To confront any possible resurgence of predictability and its related sinews, I have greedily transformed my heady musical glamour to Apple Music for a collection called “Favourites Mix”, an astonishingly apt algorithm partly predictable though otherwise intriguing. As I write I have heard – and enjoyed – a group of artists previously unknown to me; namely, Cappella Amsterdam.
I presume this tarsome domestic account sufficiently captures the honey-flavoured nature of my afternoon. I can presently think of no other circumstance to overshadow the supreme delight of the current atmosphere. Nor is it pure imagination. Each day as better than the last (if you must know). But I am not always so impossibly positive; hence what I perceive to be the singular character of the day! And all without leaving home!
Miserere (full title: Miserere mei, Deus, Latin for “Have mercy on me, O God”) is a setting of Psalm 50 (Psalm 51 in Protestant Bibles) by Italian composer Gregorio Allegri. It was composed during the reign of Pope Urban VIII, probably during the 1630s, for the exclusive use of the Sistine Chapel during the Tenebraeservices of Holy Week, and its mystique was increased by unwritten performance traditions and ornamentation. It is written for two choirs, of five and four voices respectively, singing alternately and joining to sing the ending in 9-part polyphony.
