Final Lap

My rehab from rotator cuff surgery goes well. My physical therapist is constantly amazed at my progress. Her comment this past visit was, “You continue to destroy all boundaries.” – meaning that I am progressing beyond what she expects from those rehabbing from my surgery. Had a post-op checkup with my orthopedic surgeon on Thursday and he said pretty much the same thing.

I mowed the lawn Thursday (yes, I have a self-propelled mower).  Did my PT exercises afterwards and my feet hurt worse than my shoulder after cooling down in the pool and icing the shoulder. Hate not being 100% but it gets better every day. Took the boat out yesterday down to downtown Fort Myers. It needed the exercise. Ditto for the Miata convertible, which I drove the other day for the first time in eight weeks.

In case you wondered, Tropical Storm Elsa was no big deal. We got rain. No wind, No storm surge. We did get got storm-prepared, and that’s a good thing. Now we have propane, gasoline reserves, generator backup, and supplies. We’re ready if something actually happens. But we seem to be in a good location for tropical weather. One of my neighbors, who has been here 30 years, commented that Irma was the worst he’d ever seen … and he lost power for about an hour.

Have been catching up on a lot of family genealogy, digitizing photos and documents. I also prepared dozens of Isaac motet editions for a recording session by Markus Utz and his Ensemble Cantissimo for an upcoming CD release for which I have to write the program notes. Hmm, better get started on that.

I go back to work after August 8th with no restrictions from the doctor. Looking forward to it, actually. Bored. As my shoulder has gotten more cooperative, I have slowly begun to catch up on all the household chores that fell by the wayside. I still have to hire out the hedge trimming and major lanai cleaning such as screen enclosures and fans.

Michelle just got promoted to a leadership position at the Florida Civil Commitment Center. She is now in charge of 7-9 other clinicians and is making the switch from being “one of the team” to being the leader of the team. Proud of her, but it will be some time before she gets a handle on balancing the work load and expectations and her own personal space.

I discovered that many of you have been sending emails to my email at this website. No problem, except that I thought I had set up a forwarding mechanism so all my email came to the same place. Nope.  So, I apologize for not responding to many of you for months because I did not see the emails. Mea maxima culpa…..

It appears that Florida is now the USA home of the Covid-Delta infection. Yes, I’m wearing a mask inside public places even though I’m fully vaccinated. Hope you all stay healthy. I fear we’re about to see a resurgence in this country, thanks to those who for political reasons have foregone taking precautions. Idiots. Smallpox and polio would still be here if this mentality had held sway in the twentieth century.

Best wishes from southwest Florida. We still love being here.

Light at the end of the Tunnel

I got a call from the Orthopedic Surgeon’s office today. They told me I could stop wearing the sling on Monday, the 28th. Hallelujah! This thing is like wearing a sweater – in Florida, … in summer. I am looking very forward to Monday. Physical therapy is going exceedingly well. I am regaining mobility in the shoulder and the therapist just told me to cut back to one visit a week until July, when we’ll be done with stretching and launch into strengthening (Oh boy….)

Meanwhile, this weekend Michelle and I are going on a daytrip to Miami to the immersive Van Gogh exhibit at the Olympia Theatre in downtown Miami. It’s probably hokey, but it’s an excuse for us to take advantage of what Florida has to offer. They limit the audience, so we are scheduled to be there at noon for a 90 minute event. We’ll get up Saturday morning and drop Loki off at the doggie daycare for play and overnight boarding and then drive I-75 south to Naples and then east (Alligator Alley) to Miami, getting there about 11:00 so we have plenty of time to find parking and stroll around the heart of Miami. After the exhibit we have reservations at one of the better restaurants downtown. We should be back on the road by 4:00 and home by 7:30pm.

We love living here in paradise.

 

Hope you are all happy and healthy. Stay in touch.

 

I’ll be boating again soon!!! 

On the Mend

For those who have asked, I am doing well. Computing is a challenge as I cannot use both hands – mouse is verboten. This text is laboriously being typed (with many bad words spoken aloud) with one-fingered left hand. My physical therapist is impressed with my progress and has cleared me to drive sparingly with one hand while keeping myself in my shoulder brace. This driving does NOT include my manual transmission convertible (!). At any rate, I do not intend to push my limits.

I’ve been incommunicado because at almost the same time I had surgery, Markus Utz received funding and green light for a series of concerts and recording sessions for my editions of Heinrich Isaac’s Choralis Constantinus motets, which have been my life’s work ever since 1982. He sent a list of motets that he wishes to perform and record and, of course, many were not in final form according to my latest standards. So I have been sitting at the computer with a track ball on top of a pillow (so my shoulder does not move) trying to work Finale with my left hand. Much profanity ensues….

But, Markus begins rehearsing this weekend and needed some music that I had not even begun. Then, he also got funding to add instrumentalists, so I am in the process of generating instrumental parts for the 22 motets in the queue.

The first recording session is early July. I would have liked to attend, but it is too soon after the surgery. Markus assures me that the process with extend into the fall and next year, so I am hopeful I can attend either a concert or a recording session. Meanwhile, he tells me that I am writing the CD liner notes (!). No pressure there.

Needless to say, I have done little else other than focus on Isaac. Poor Michelle has had to be my chauffeur until yesterday. Loki doesn’t get much exercise and the house is pretty dirty. I am (kinda) keeping up with laundry, but have had to hire out the yardwork.

Despite all that, the light is visible at the end of the tunnel. 11 more days in the sling. PT continues and I am scheduled to go back to work on August 8.  Michelle and I have managed to grab a few moments for fun. We went together for haircuts last weekend (I needed something that would not require using two hands. Check see the result at the right.) Then we stopped at a little hole-in-the-wall place next door to the hair salon for supper because it was pouring rain (Thank God, we need rain). King’s Kitchen, Fort Myers. Amazing service, amazing food. 

Next weekend we’re heading to Miami for an immersive Van Gogh exhibit. Drop off Loki at the kennel in the morning and take the 2.5 hour drive to downtown Miami. We’ll  take in the exhibit at noon and have reservations at a great restaurant for an early dinner and then drive back to Fort Myers and be home by 6:30pm. We LOVE living here.

So, Thanks to all of you who expressed birthday wishes. I’m older and no more wiser. Always happy to hear from you.

Summer Doldrums

In many ways, I am no longer the person I was. I was a visionary, administrator, choral conductor, and teacher. Now I am a budding sommelier, wine retailer, genealogist, and amateur musicologist who is dealing with the onset of old age.

Arthritis is a gift from both my parents, who I never realized were working through a lot of daily pain. Before I left South Dakota arthritic conditions showed up in spinal stenosis – for which I had surgery in 2017 – and also in the knuckle joints of my hands, probably the result of years of pounding the piano during choral rehearsals.

Monday I go into surgery for a rotator cuff repair. At this moment I cannot lift my right arm more than to a horizontal plane (I never realized how ridiculously right-handed I was until now). I could not conduct nor teach conducting at this moment if my life depended on it.

This condition can be blamed on many factors – 1) my work at Total Wine, which entails lifting/pushing many cases of wine; 2) my own yardwork/housework, which is quite strenuous, 3) working and playing with the Doberdork, which is active and arduous, although one would never know that from the image to the right, and 4) from degenerative arthritis growth in my shoulder.

It has been almost three months that my shoulder has not been right. I have not been able to do things without tremendous pain. And after the surgery I am likely to be even less that person until physical rehabilitation is completed. Those of you who know me will understand that this situation is not something with which I will happily comply. I will not be able  to  1) drive my sports car, 2) pilot my boat, 3) work at Total Wine, 3) do yardwork and gardening, 4) clean the house and do laundry, 5) go to the store, etc., etc.  I am hopeful that my desk can be configured in such a way that I can at least access the computer and work on such things as my wine professional study, Isaac motets, website, and genealogy. I will be in a sling that immobilizes my shoulder.

Ah well, perhaps God is telling me to take some downtime. It’ll make me appreciate what I do have.  It is annoying that it happens as the summer begins. It is the time of year when all the speed restrictions on the Caloosahatchee River are lifted because the manatees are far out in the Gulf. That means we can easily go by boat to downtown Ft. Myers (35 minutes) or all the way down to the Gulf, Ft. Myers Beach, Sanibel, Captiva, St. James City and other cool spots within 90 minutes. <sigh> Maybe Michelle will finally consent to learn how to pilot the boat (ha!) Can’t wait to see her reaction when she reads this.

Seriously, this will place a huge burden on Michelle because she leaves for her job around 6:30-7:00am and gets home about 6:30pm. And she’ll have to do many of the things around here that I usually do in addition to driving me to physical therapy. Here’s hoping that I recover quickly and can at least drive the automatic transmission car within a short period. It will be a fun experiment learning to do things with my left arm.

Here’s hoping you’re all doing well. Drop me a line or a call if you get a chance. I’ll probably be available!  🙂