BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Jun 26 - 09:24 AM

My wisdom teeth have to come out.
The procedure has been scheduled for mid-August.

My dental check-up this year revealed that one lower wisdom tooth,
which came in crooked anyway,
has a large cavity on the side of the tooth facing out into the cheek.
Very difficult spot on which to fill the cavity, way back in the mouth.
No other cavities or decay.
So, all four have to be extracted.

I'm not looking forward to this at all.
But it has to be done.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jun 26 - 10:00 AM

Good luck with the surgery! That's a rite of passage for many teens and early-20-somethings, keb, but I imagine there's no time of life when it's easier. Mine were taken out when I was about 21 and I went to my Mom's house to stay for a couple of days after (the dentist being in that town). I had to take myself back to the dorm at college in order not to starve, my youngest brother ignored the notes on the soft food in the fridge I'd picked up for the healing process.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jun 26 - 11:45 AM

The thread about the Limelighters and if they were classically trained has reminded me of a young woman I met years ago in a remote logging town in the North Cascades. I used to go out with a group of fellow Forest Service employees (we lived in a crew house - not much chance to cook except on a hot plate) to regular meals at one of the two restaurants. The one we favored had a waitress I got to know over the summer. Her social worker husband ran a youth camp up the valley, so when he was hired, it turns out she had to leave her job in musical dinner theater in Seattle. That tidbit stuck with me, and one crowded evening in the restaurant we were celebrating a birthday, so I asked her if she would sing Happy Birthday.

None of the others knew what I knew, so were puzzled that I made the request, but she stood back, put down her order pad, and belted out an operatic soprano ornamented version of Happy Birthday that brought the place to a standstill—you could hear a pin drop. Eyes opened, jaws dropped - and I think from that point on, her activity and appreciation in town soared.

She was staying out of trouble, but was lost in the generic "waitress" skill set in people's eyes. I hope after that she got into some good trouble.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Jul 26 - 09:23 AM

My elderly next door neighbor walked into his driveway at ~ 3:30am yesterday and fell, breaking his hip. A man walking his dog three hours later found him and rang the bell to alert the wife who was just getting up. Hip surgery yesterday and we'll be paying a lot of attention, helping him with the rehab so he survives this injury.

As the mangled saying goes - there for the grace of dog. . . I've kept my dogs in at night the last few weeks before I train the new one to the Invisible Fence collar. That fall would have been on the opposite side of the house from what the dogs see, but I wonder if they might have heard him and made a fuss? I get up when there is a cacophony to see what is up. What if, what if, he still would have fallen. Sigh.

Stay safe out there everyone!

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Jul 26 - 04:11 PM

I live near the Tanglewood Festival which happens every summer and is mostly about classical music, although they book appearances by popular musicians like James Taylor, probably for the money. The big feature of the Tanglewood Festival is the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which leaves Boston for the summer in order to perform at the festival. There is also the Tanglewood Music Center; this enterprise provides fellowships to young musicians: pianists, vocalists, and orchestral musicians. The fellows often get to perform with established classical conductors, and of course they get to be around the BSO.
Back in March, all heck broke loose with the BSO. The Board of Trustees, and the CEO, announced that they would not renew the contract of Andris Nelsons, the Latvian conductor who is the BSO's music director, when the contract expires. There is some essential disagreement between the CEO and Nelsons, no one is certain what as there is a non-disclosure agreement of some kind in effect. But the orchestra raised hell; no one had consulted with them about the conflict between their conductor and their CEO, and they were furious. Every time they performed with their conductor thereafter, they took to wearing red flowers as a gesture of solidarity with the conductor. Some of them went to the press and belly-ached about the situation, which was not all right with the trustees and the CEO, of course. Even the New York Times has weighed in on the situation, and for what it's worth, the Times music critic is anti-Nelsons and wants him to hurry up and leave already.
Now it's July and the Tanglewood Music Center holds a formal assembly for those fellows, the young musicians, at the beginning of the festival. It is customary to have opening remarks presented by first the CEO and then the music director of the BSO to the fellows. So the CEO comes out and finds himself looking at a sea of black punctuated with red. All of the TMC fellows are dressed in black T-shirts with legends expressing their solidarity with the orchestra and its conductor; and they are all wearing red flowers, just as the BSO does.
The CEO makes his little speech, to tepid applause. It is now his duty to introduce none other than the conductor. So he makes the introduction, and the conductor walks out on the stage. All the fellows jump to their feet and give the conductor a standing ovation that lasts almost ten minutes, before the conductor even opens his mouth. Welcome to Tanglewood, everybody.
Somehow the festival will get through this highly-charged atmosphere up until the final concert in August, at which they always perform Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with all its poetry about brotherhood. I'm going to a TMC fellows concert on Sunday evening that will be a "Liederabend", all about German art songs, and will feature the singers and the pianists -- none of the orchestral music fellows. Perhaps this little concert will not be so politicized, we will see.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Jul 26 - 04:40 PM

Correction to the previous post:
I wasn't at the assembly I describe. I got the account from a close friend who was there.
And it seems that "ten-minute ovation" is not accurate. I have just viewed another account, by another person who was there, which said that the standing ovation lasted one minute. My bad, I think.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jul 26 - 09:41 AM

keb, how are the rehearsals going? Here's hoping you continue to find good trouble. :)

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jul 26 - 11:35 AM

Last year the Texas Hill Country (in the middle of the state) had record flooding and at least 130 dead in July 4 flooding. This week another huge slow-moving storm is passing over the region, with as much to 20" of rain forecast for pockets where the storms hover. Houston, San Antonio, and to the Uvalde area. Though it isn't mentioned, this storm will likely cause a lot of flooding in Coahuila, Mexico and out in Big Bend National Park (if it were to wash away the yahoos who are preparing to deface the park with "border walls" I wouldn't mourn. They should know better.)

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 15 Jul 26 - 05:55 PM

SRS, I hope the flood situation does not get dangerous. It's scary preparing for it and also stressful during the clean-up afterwards.

I had a good day yesterday. A group of my friends caught up with one of our music friends from our music session group which has been going for over 40 years. He was a member for a few years and then moved back to Ireland. He visited a couple of years ago and then arrived again this week for a holiday. We had lunch and then played some music in a local Irish pub, thanks to the generosity of the pub manager who allowed us to play there.

My music playing has been almost non-existent since some personality clashes with two of the later additions to the group so to play music again with some of the nicer members yesterday was a dream come true.

The Irish pub has a music session once a month and in big news for me, because I have never done this in all the decades I have been going to those sessions I - [drum roll please!] - took my harp to the last two sessions and attempted to play along with some of the tunes. It was fun and maybe the loss of my attendance at our music session group was a big push for me to take the big leap and show up with my harp. It's on again this weekend so I will see how it goes this time. I can only get better but it is a challenge. (Note: it is also a challenge manoeuvring through the people, tables and chairs with a smallish but heavy harp and other essentials.)

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Jul 26 - 08:44 PM

Good for you putting yourself in the thick of things with your harp and so forth. You are brave!

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 17 Jul 26 - 01:02 AM

Thanks keberoxu. :-)

I wouldn't say I was brave. I just finally decided I couldn't live a full, happy, healthy life without playing music with other people so I had to bite the bullet and lug my heavy, unwieldy instrument out of the house and into the pub.

We used to go busking every now and then. That was fun. I really miss that too.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 17 Jul 26 - 12:39 PM

The Canadian wildfire has made it to the East-Pondian TV news: spectacular footage from inside a long-distance (?) railway engine which got caught in the middle. I'm amused that the smoke has reached Washington DC, but are any of you over there affected?

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Jul 26 - 01:34 PM

Yes, the northern tier of states from west to east is getting the smoke and ash.
I have a friend in Michigan where the ash has been especially bad.
Here in Massachusetts,
we had one day where the sky stayed yellow all day and you could smell the smoke.
Today, though, skies are blue and clear.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 20 Jul 26 - 02:00 AM

And here is Gracie Fields bringing you the latest news from Helen:

Here are the lyrics

The room was packed with very loud musicians having a whale of a time, playing very fast. I managed a few chords here and there but the sound was totally lost, "So I took the darned thing away!"

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Jul 26 - 10:46 AM

What a wonderful song, Helen! So sorry about that outcome.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 20 Jul 26 - 01:55 PM

Thanks SRS.

Yes it is a great song. I heard it decades ago and loved it, but then it popped into my head yesterday because it was so relevant.

I might have to take up playing the banjo. LOL

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jul 26 - 12:15 PM

Preparing to renew the passport and making sure I don't end up with one with the felon featured anywhere in the document.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Jul 26 - 05:42 PM

fingers crossed!

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Jul 26 - 08:20 PM

Following on from my post about the Tanglewood festival, and the troubles surfacing there.
I have now been to two lengthy concerts by the Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center. Neither was politicized or polarized by orchestra-versus-management controversy. The fellows simply got on with the business of making music, and most of it was fairly good. Some of it was very good indeed.

My amateur chorus, however, is included in a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert on Friday, August 7. It will be a sold-out event because cellist Yo-Yo Ma is performing, and he is a solid favorite at Tanglewood every summer. We help open the program with a six-minute piece by Faure, the Cantique de Jean Racine; then the big instrumental pieces follow.
I'm a little apprehensive about this event for more than one reason. There's a lot of pressure on my amateur group to perform well before thousands of people, with a major orchestra, a thing that has never before happened to this group. Perhaps there will be less polarization because the conductor is not the controversy-ridden music director, but a guest conductor who is French. And then we have to sing this piece in French, which is not our native language -- we've been drilling on French diction something fierce -- for a French conductor. To my ears our French singing is earnest in effort but not all that French in results. What will the conductor make of us? Our own music director will join in singing in the chorus with us for the performance, in the bass section.
Not exactly staying out of trouble, this event.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jul 26 - 09:20 PM

You'll all be buoyed by the energy and excitement of the event and outdo yourselves - it'll be great!

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 24 Jul 26 - 01:25 AM

Wow! Being a part of an event featuring Yo-Yo Ma will be fantastic.

I saw him on one of the last episodes of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He was brilliant, and he also seems like what we call here in Oz a "good bloke" i.e. a genuinely nice person.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 24 Jul 26 - 05:12 PM

I know you'll all think "so what?" but it is 7 am and the temperature here in Newcastle, NSW Oz is 5.5 deg Celsius but the feels-like temp (based on wind-chill factor) is -0.1. OMG. That is the coldest I can remember here for many years.

But, how is JennieG feeling up on the Tablelands north of here? It's -5.7 deg C but feels like temp is -8.7 C.

Yes, it's the middle of winter. Yes it's supposed to be cooler but this is out of my comfort zone. I'm even considering breaking out my long woolly overcoat which has been tucked away for maybe 20 years. That's desperate! For me, anyway.

:-D

I have been watching a Dr Michael Mosley series on beating old age called Michael Mosley Secrets Of The Superagers. I look at him and get so sad, thinking of him taking a long walk in the middle of the day in Greece during a 40-something degree C heat spell. He died and was not found for a few days. Change the title of the old song to Mad *Docs* and Englishmen Go Out in the Noonday Sun.

I've watched every one of his shows. He was amazing and insightful, very good at explaining complex medical concepts, brave enough to try out possible treatments. One of my life heroes.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Jul 26 - 06:17 PM

I live very close to Sydney Harbour (too many buildings in the way to see it) & when I woke at 7.30 the temperatures were 6.8 & 1.5! When I went to bed at 1.30 it was 8.9 & 4.30. A woollen blanket, woollen shawl & 80% down quilt were not enough so I pulled on my full length fleece gown - admittedly my window is permanently open about 6", & I don't have a heater or electric blanket. Piling on clothes always works here!

Soon after I woke the crazy surfer was giving his weekly report - water was warm (18C) & the apparent temperature (aka wind chill factor) on the beaches were similar to Sydney Harbour - wetsuits were definitely necessary. Some even crazier surfer rang in to say he didn't need his on his beach but I can't remember where he surfed.

I worked in Library & Info Services of the Weather Bureau in the 70s & 80s & remember when Wind Chill Factor first hit the press & public consciousness, can't remember what year tho.

sandra (toasty)

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: JennieG
Date: 25 Jul 26 - 12:45 AM

Indeed, Helen....it was a tad fresh this morning. Tamworth's minimum temperature - recorded at the airport weather station, we can see the airport from our front verandah although we are much higher up the hill - dipped to -6, the 'feels like' was -9.5.

A day for staying home and staying inside, but it was my quilt group's AGM so I had to get out and get going. The coldest morning of the year, and our meeting was in what is probably one of the coldest buildings in Tamworth.

Tomorrow's forecast is for a positively balmy -2.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 25 Jul 26 - 06:00 AM

I remember the earl Wind Chill Factor publicity. Someone pointed out that it's only accurate for a nudist standing in a cornfield, but it's better than no measure at all.

Back when I had a short-wave receiver, the US weather forecasts used to mention "dew point". Is this what we now hear of as "wet-bulb temperature"? The English tradition is for relative humidity; the conversion equations are nontrivial.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Jul 26 - 10:45 AM

Wet bulb is literally that. A sling psychrometer is a double thermometer in which one glass tube has a fabric wick on the mercury or alcohol case. I was a fire lookout back in the day when you had to take the readings by swinging a sling psychrometer hard to generate a cooling effect with the wet bulb to get the temperature reading from the evaporation. Check it several times and when you reach the lowest temperature on the wet bulb it is recorded along with the regular air temperature on the dry bulb. There are charts for determining dew point and relative humidity (we called in the readings and someone did the math at the fire camp headquarters). This was how they determined if the conditions were right for prescribed burns or if we were on a fire and determining if conditions were improving or getting worse.

A hygrometer measures relative humidity. Dew point is where condensation occurs on chilled surfaces.

Find it all at Wikipedia.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 25 Jul 26 - 01:03 PM

Thanks for the link, Stilly. I remember reading Simply Ages Ago^† about direct measurement of dew point, using an apparatus (some ancestor of the chilled mirror dew point hygrometer, perhaps?) involving bubbling air through a thimbleful of alcohol; the test was said to be very sensitive, but that necessarily meant that it was an absolute bar steward to get the reading before it had whizzed by.

† It's entirely possible that the physics text book was older than I was.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 25 Jul 26 - 11:56 PM

Thanks for the weather update, JennieG. My Hubby had been living in Armidale for a few years when we first started going out so he knows how cold it gets around that area. He used to drive to different surrounding towns for his work so he sampled all the weather variations in all of the seasons.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: JennieG
Date: 26 Jul 26 - 12:33 AM

Helen, back when I was young and silly (and slender....sigh....) I was keeping company with a bloke from Guyra. First time I ever saw snow was on a train trip from Tamworth to Guyra in winter; the train had paused at Woolbrook to let a train pass on the other line, and it was snowing. People were getting off our train to play in the snow.

Yesterday morning when it was so cold there was no "wind chill" to factor in, because there was no wind! It was just very very cold.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 26 Jul 26 - 03:50 AM

JennieG, I've said this before on Mudcat many years ago, but the only time I have ever seen snow was on a trip back from a week of classes in my mostly external studies librarianship diploma down in Wagga. We drove back through the Snowy Mountains, and OMG look, there is snow!! :-)

From memory we also saw a wombat waddling through the snow and I am fairly sure I have a photo of that somewhere in my stack of hard-copy photos. (Note: I obviously need to use my librarian skills to catalogue my hard-copy photo collection. LOL)

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Jul 26 - 07:04 AM

Jennie likes wombats! I recently sent her a pic of a wombat I saw at Bundanoon which is south of Sydney, near Canberra & it gets cold there.

I also have a photo of a young wombat (bigger than a cat) in my photos - it was orphaned & brought to the National Folk Festival about 20 years ago by it's carer from WIRES. Naturally it attracted attention & I had custody of it for a while the carer went to another concert. When she returned the MC reminded people it costs to look after rescued animals & passed around a mug & she got lots of money.

sandra

ps the Bundanoon wombat was an eraser that had escaped from someone's pencil box, but I have seen wombats in the area over the years when I've been to the annual dance weekend.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: JennieG
Date: 27 Jul 26 - 02:21 AM

Sandra, I remember the festival wombat - it was the cutest little thing!

One of the festival co-ordinators is a wombat rescuer.

Helen, that would have been so good to see. About 20 or so years ago we were driving along the road into Wilson's Promontory when the car in front of us slowed, so did we....the reason was the biggest, blackest (they aren't usually black, Wilson's Prom wombats are very dark, much darker than in other places) sleekest wombat we have ever seen, strolling along the road as though he/she owned it.

Which he/she probably did.....

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Jul 26 - 06:08 AM

little?????

it was big, not something you could put on your lap (ouch, broken legs!) & cuddle. I can't find it's photo, all I can assume is I didn't scan it, & it's somewhere around. In recent times it was one of the reproductions of past festivals decorating the Session Bar.

wombat facts

largest living wombat it is being cuddled, but it probably didn't stay cuddled for long!

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: JennieG
Date: 27 Jul 26 - 05:53 PM

Sandra, a fully grown wombat can weight 38-40 kgs. I don't think your furry friend was that big!

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Jul 26 - 07:41 PM

well, THEY said it was the biggest one ...