Tuesday and I wake with my partner left for work. I do my rituals including my vitals, all good there. I get up and dress then fix a quick breakfast. Having cleared the kitchen I turn my attention to the long neglected guitars and banjo sitting patiently in the library/music room which is now actually my eldest daughters study as she ploughs her way to a doctorate. I tune the my instruments up and then spend a lot of time playing them and finding out what I can still and what I can no long manage. As my hands stiffen with age and lack of practice I am surprised to find that the Stratocaster is the easiest to play because the action is low on it and has a narrow neck which is easier to barre across. I polish the instruments and order new covers for two of them as they are getting tarnished as they are at the moment. By the end of the morning I am out of finger skin so return them to their home in the library. At some point I need to plug the Strat into the Peavey amp and indulge in some nosy practice.
I make lunch and then Amazon deliver my new Loops. They are a form of ear plug that that attenuate the background sounds so that conversation in noise areas is easier. After my experience at the weekend when I got overwhelmed by the crowd noise at the Murder Mystery evening I thought I would give Loops a try. My choice is to ft the smallest ear piece as my right ear canal is very slim and it turns out a good choice. I will get the chance to test them out at the Opera tomorrow night. The hope is that I will cope with the pre bar crowd better than I did on Saturday.
Well the time for indulgence is over. Oh! Before I forget it is National Unicorn Day, something that has appalled at least one friend. I get the kitchen done and cleared the recycling before getting the bins our for tomorrows collection and notice as I am doing it that my front garden is a swath of forget-me-nots. A blue sea of small blue face like flowers covers most of the beds as the bulbs push into the sky. All of this is self sown, clearly nature knows what it is doing.
The afternoon passes as I try to ensure my poetry numbering is up to date. For some time I try to find the words to acknowledge the poems I have written in the past which have gone for ever but do not succeed, instead I fill the squirrel feeder with the newly arrived peanut supply. I always find a period of concentrated “puttering” always helps. The evening arrives with the return of my partner from work. I am hoping for reading and football time this evening but I’m not sure it will turn out like that.
In the end I get to see football but also a film with opera singing at its heart. It has warmed me up for tomorrows visit to the opera. I take my night chemo meds and retreat to bed or read briefly and then endeavour to settle into a nights sleep.
