Christmas was full of joy and love this year. First of all we are all healthy except for a few people I love and adore, and those
people are in my thoughts and daily meditations as well as my prayers. You know who you are and please know that you are loved and needed...
Sorry about posting the "bad picture" twice! Dhaaaa, must mean something.
Today was "boxing day" in New Zealand. England, Canada and other parts of the world call the day after Christmas Boxing day... thus you get rid of the boxes that protected gifts.
I was given a fantastic gift. It is a a piece that goes under your fitted sheets on a bed. Made from down and some synthetic
stuff... You do not fight a lumpy mattress. It caresses your body as you sleep! Also a Pendelton 100% wool blanket. It has images of the Tetons and it came with a pillow cover! The prints are beautiful and it is so warm to sleep under. Okay, so I will spend most of my holiday in a bed sound asleep under the Tetons!
Must practice my piano for a while before bed. I am working on the beautiful Reflets dans l'eau from Images book 1 by Debussy.
Also, some Bach (Always) and trying to do a bit of oil painting... writing and walking walking walking. Love my walks.
Hope all had a glorious holiday. The New Year will be the beginning of a new year which I pray brings peace and love to the entire universe we all share and live within.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Been a rough year!
Any one that reads my blog I wish you a very happy holiday season and most of all laughter, love and light in the new year.
Will write soon.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Monday, December 07, 2009
I thank my lucky stars...
Everything was flowing like honey... smoothly. We printed out our boarding passes on Southwest Air, checked luggage and had ample time to rest, play on computer, drink coffee. Checked the gate number C-18, but we did not have the 'over 60' eye glasses on and read the gate number as C-13. Yes, we sat there writing e mails and catching up on news. Flight was called... Flight such and such leaving from gate C-13 for SEATTLE WA!!!!!!!!!!!! Nearly died. Read the boarding pass: Gate C 18 for LAX!
Ah, we missed the flight! Southwest had us on a plane to Las Vegas then into LAX within 5 minutes. Everyone on the Las Vegas flight were starring at us like we were the dumb asses that we are. Landed in Las Vegas, then flew into LAX. Once in LAX everything was great.
Air New Zealand is next door to Southwest Air Lines, so no need to walk miles to INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL. Walked down to baggage claim and realized I had left my backpack on the seat in the security section. OMFG! I could not get back into the secured Southwest area. First of all I had NO ID. My backpacks are like limbs on my torso. The backpack had my Mac Computer, my Cell Phones, ALL OF MY BLESSED MONEY, ALL OF MY IDENTIFICATION: PASSPORTS, DRIVER LICENSE, CREDIT CARDS, BANK NUMBERS AND ALL OF MY CONTACT INFORMATION AS WELL AS MY CHECK BOOK. My heart turned to stone and dropped like a missile to the bottom of my feet. I ran hysterically into the check in area for Air New Zealand.
A gorgeous black woman was helping people through the lines... nudging them gently along. She immediately picked up on my angst.
"Can I help you sir, you seemed distressed" "Lady you have NOT a CLUE about HOW DISTRESSED I AM!" I proceeded to explain my predicament. She told me to stay where I was and she would go up to the gate and see IF she could retrieve my backpack.
The minutes went by like hours. I thought she would NEVER, EVER, RETURN TO WHERE I WAS STANDING wringing my hand and looking out the sliding glass doors that open onto a busy street. I thought to myself: "This is it! Simply walk out that door and wait for a roaring bus, step in front of it and end this entire drama."
My 'Black Princess' arrived by my side. She asked IF, possibly there was something in the side pocket of my backpack. I blurted out a hyper YES! a banana. With the word banana she handed my by backpack with everything still inside it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I know why some people pee their pants when they are happy beyond words.)
This is the second time in my life a black woman has saved me from killing myself!
Once in NYC when I was about 21 I took a train up into the Cloisters for a rehearsal. I got on the subway and after what seemed hours I was the ONLY WHITE MAN ON THE TRAIN. I was in in Harlem. Back then the subways were VERY SEEDY and many bad things happened to people that were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Looking out the window of the train I read "HARLEM". I got off the train and to an extremely naive Mormon boy all I could see was an ocean of eyes and teeth! My body began to shake. A black woman was on my right side dressed in a red wool coat and hat. She clutched my hand, leaned into my ear and said: "Boy, you be LOST???!!!) I nodded a feeble yes as visions of my standing naked in a boiling cauldron drifted through my brain. She gripped my hand harder and said for me to follow her.
Then, I really thought it was over. I wanted to cry, I could not stop shaking and it was time in my short life that I honestly experienced the meaning of being "helpless." (I have a marvelous painting in my bedroom by a wonderful artist titled
that very word: HELPLESS!)
She walked me under the tracks to the other side of the rails and said: "You gotta go back into Manhattan boy! You get on the first train going this way." I said "thank you Mame, but please, oh please don't leave me until that train arrives..." She held onto my hand and within minutes the train arrived.
To this day I bless that woman. She knew how frightened I was and I am sure she had been frightened the same way somewhere sometime in her lifetime.
I so wish I had asked her name and address. I would have sent her roses for as long as I had enough money... The same situation applies with the beautiful black woman in LAX. I did not get her name or a contact number! She saved me from a terrible mess.
I did not sleep on the flight from LAX to Auckland NZ. I even took sleeping pills, two glasses of wine, tried to listen to music and meditated. Simply too tired from all the DRAMA.
I know there are "drama Kings and Queens" but I can usually hold my own amid any situation, however... this time my mind kept playing scenes from years and years ago regarding how many times a person has helped me sail through a predicament beyond my control! Our lives are watched over by many many forces.
I do thank my lucky stars for my guardian angels!
Ah, we missed the flight! Southwest had us on a plane to Las Vegas then into LAX within 5 minutes. Everyone on the Las Vegas flight were starring at us like we were the dumb asses that we are. Landed in Las Vegas, then flew into LAX. Once in LAX everything was great.
Air New Zealand is next door to Southwest Air Lines, so no need to walk miles to INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL. Walked down to baggage claim and realized I had left my backpack on the seat in the security section. OMFG! I could not get back into the secured Southwest area. First of all I had NO ID. My backpacks are like limbs on my torso. The backpack had my Mac Computer, my Cell Phones, ALL OF MY BLESSED MONEY, ALL OF MY IDENTIFICATION: PASSPORTS, DRIVER LICENSE, CREDIT CARDS, BANK NUMBERS AND ALL OF MY CONTACT INFORMATION AS WELL AS MY CHECK BOOK. My heart turned to stone and dropped like a missile to the bottom of my feet. I ran hysterically into the check in area for Air New Zealand.
A gorgeous black woman was helping people through the lines... nudging them gently along. She immediately picked up on my angst.
"Can I help you sir, you seemed distressed" "Lady you have NOT a CLUE about HOW DISTRESSED I AM!" I proceeded to explain my predicament. She told me to stay where I was and she would go up to the gate and see IF she could retrieve my backpack.
The minutes went by like hours. I thought she would NEVER, EVER, RETURN TO WHERE I WAS STANDING wringing my hand and looking out the sliding glass doors that open onto a busy street. I thought to myself: "This is it! Simply walk out that door and wait for a roaring bus, step in front of it and end this entire drama."
My 'Black Princess' arrived by my side. She asked IF, possibly there was something in the side pocket of my backpack. I blurted out a hyper YES! a banana. With the word banana she handed my by backpack with everything still inside it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I know why some people pee their pants when they are happy beyond words.)
This is the second time in my life a black woman has saved me from killing myself!
Once in NYC when I was about 21 I took a train up into the Cloisters for a rehearsal. I got on the subway and after what seemed hours I was the ONLY WHITE MAN ON THE TRAIN. I was in in Harlem. Back then the subways were VERY SEEDY and many bad things happened to people that were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Looking out the window of the train I read "HARLEM". I got off the train and to an extremely naive Mormon boy all I could see was an ocean of eyes and teeth! My body began to shake. A black woman was on my right side dressed in a red wool coat and hat. She clutched my hand, leaned into my ear and said: "Boy, you be LOST???!!!) I nodded a feeble yes as visions of my standing naked in a boiling cauldron drifted through my brain. She gripped my hand harder and said for me to follow her.
Then, I really thought it was over. I wanted to cry, I could not stop shaking and it was time in my short life that I honestly experienced the meaning of being "helpless." (I have a marvelous painting in my bedroom by a wonderful artist titled
that very word: HELPLESS!)
She walked me under the tracks to the other side of the rails and said: "You gotta go back into Manhattan boy! You get on the first train going this way." I said "thank you Mame, but please, oh please don't leave me until that train arrives..." She held onto my hand and within minutes the train arrived.
To this day I bless that woman. She knew how frightened I was and I am sure she had been frightened the same way somewhere sometime in her lifetime.
I so wish I had asked her name and address. I would have sent her roses for as long as I had enough money... The same situation applies with the beautiful black woman in LAX. I did not get her name or a contact number! She saved me from a terrible mess.
I did not sleep on the flight from LAX to Auckland NZ. I even took sleeping pills, two glasses of wine, tried to listen to music and meditated. Simply too tired from all the DRAMA.
I know there are "drama Kings and Queens" but I can usually hold my own amid any situation, however... this time my mind kept playing scenes from years and years ago regarding how many times a person has helped me sail through a predicament beyond my control! Our lives are watched over by many many forces.
I do thank my lucky stars for my guardian angels!
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Antelope Island... Tabernacle... New Zealand
Arrived in Auckland November 30th. Loving each and every breath I take in this wonderful place. Still getting the house set up with groceries, digging belongings out of storage that need to be placed in drawers, on walls, in cupboards... gardens look great.
Our Land Lady set up a veggie garden for me! Russian Red Tomatoes, Blood Beets, herbs, all kinds of lettuces. Roses are in bloom and the pansies are grinning from ear to ear. My studio is up and running so lots of music, practicing, reading and messing around on my computer. I do love my MacBook Pro. The ONLY way to GO!
I grew up near the shores of the Great Salt Lake which is the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River. The lake is a remnant of pre-historic Lake Bonneville, which covered more than 20,000 square miles during the Ice Age. Four distint shorelines from the lake may be seen from Antelope Island and include Bonneville, Provo, Stnsbury and Gilbert. Great Salt Lake is currently 75 miles long by 28 miles wide covering 1,700 square miles. At this level, maximum depth is about 33 feet. Size and depth vary greatly with seasonal evaporation and precipitation. Salinity level ranges between four and 28 percent compared to the ocean at three percent.
When I was a little kid in grade school we were taught to observe the LINES the lake had made upon the Wasatch Range. There were actual horizontal lines along the face of the mountains east of the lake. Recorded depths of the lake on the mountains as it evaporated, altered it's levels beginning in the ice age.
One of my favorite natural events of every day life are SUNSETS. They haunt me like mountains. As a child and later young man I never missed a sunset over the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island. Antelope Island is in the middle of the lake. I've seen lightening strike the island and set it into flames! The Island comprises 28,022 acres, and is 15 miles long and 4.5 miles across at it's widest point. Frary Peak is the highest point on the island at, (get this) 6,596 feet above sea level. Get high up there without the help of drugs!
The oldest rocks on Antelope Isaland are some of the oldest found anywhere on earth! The Farmington Canyon comples, at 2.7 billion years old, is older than rocks found at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. These rocks, which are banded and controrted, comprise the sounthern two-thirds of the island. Antelope Isaland has 40 major freshwater springs found primarily on the east side of the island. These springs produce 36 million gallons ofr water each year that support the wildlife and vegetation on the island. Birds, Bison, Coyotes, Pronghorn fawns and bighorn sheep and yes, Antelope call this island HOME!
When the state of Utah built the first road from Syracuse Ut to the Island it was a gravel road. Often washed out. When the water erupts into white caps, the water is so heavy it can CRUSH, SMASH AND DESTROY anything in it's path! There were times I slept on the island and spent days alone hiking from end to end. Oolitic sand is unique to the island. These are round grains of sand that are formed when mineral grains of brine shrimp fecal pellets are coated by concentric layers of aragonite, a form of calcium carbonate. This is similar to how perals are formed. In the yearly 70's I hiked to the west side of the island. I was stunned at the sugar white beaches... glistening white diamonds of light. It was Oolitic sand!
My afternoon on the island was very emotional. Seeing how it has evolved into a State Park and yet the austire, aloof beauty and peace this island emmits is awesome! There are 8 magor islands in the lake, but Antelope is the diamond of islands.
Moving along, I and a friend drove to SLC to hear and see the Tabernacle Organ on Temple Square. I studied with Dr. Alexander Schriner when I was 11-12 years old. He taught in the Asembly Hall early on Saturday mornings I took a Lake Shore Bus from Sunset Utah into SLC. Walked over to Temple Square and had a hour lesson with the Greatest Tabernacle Organist ever to touch a keyboard!
The Tabernacle is an acoustic wonder of the world. It was also built with leather tongs holding many things in place and of course it was not built to withstand earth quakes. Thus, the Mormon Church has restored it and made it beautiful. I remember sitting inside this musical wonder of a building listening to the USO, daily recitals, and other events such as when President JFK came to UTAH!!!!!!! I used to place my feet on the floor, sqweeze my butt to the bench and revel in the vibrations the organ made, most of all when the organist would place his feet on the Bombard Pedals. OMG, my entire soul soared to heaven and I promised myself that I would one day be a Tabernacle Organist! They are doing the daily organ recitals again!
After a day of so many exciting and hauting events I crawled into bed and thanked God for my past life! Then to think I am so blest as to be able to come NZ. This is my 21st year!
Will write more later...
Our Land Lady set up a veggie garden for me! Russian Red Tomatoes, Blood Beets, herbs, all kinds of lettuces. Roses are in bloom and the pansies are grinning from ear to ear. My studio is up and running so lots of music, practicing, reading and messing around on my computer. I do love my MacBook Pro. The ONLY way to GO!
I grew up near the shores of the Great Salt Lake which is the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River. The lake is a remnant of pre-historic Lake Bonneville, which covered more than 20,000 square miles during the Ice Age. Four distint shorelines from the lake may be seen from Antelope Island and include Bonneville, Provo, Stnsbury and Gilbert. Great Salt Lake is currently 75 miles long by 28 miles wide covering 1,700 square miles. At this level, maximum depth is about 33 feet. Size and depth vary greatly with seasonal evaporation and precipitation. Salinity level ranges between four and 28 percent compared to the ocean at three percent.
When I was a little kid in grade school we were taught to observe the LINES the lake had made upon the Wasatch Range. There were actual horizontal lines along the face of the mountains east of the lake. Recorded depths of the lake on the mountains as it evaporated, altered it's levels beginning in the ice age.
One of my favorite natural events of every day life are SUNSETS. They haunt me like mountains. As a child and later young man I never missed a sunset over the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island. Antelope Island is in the middle of the lake. I've seen lightening strike the island and set it into flames! The Island comprises 28,022 acres, and is 15 miles long and 4.5 miles across at it's widest point. Frary Peak is the highest point on the island at, (get this) 6,596 feet above sea level. Get high up there without the help of drugs!
The oldest rocks on Antelope Isaland are some of the oldest found anywhere on earth! The Farmington Canyon comples, at 2.7 billion years old, is older than rocks found at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. These rocks, which are banded and controrted, comprise the sounthern two-thirds of the island. Antelope Isaland has 40 major freshwater springs found primarily on the east side of the island. These springs produce 36 million gallons ofr water each year that support the wildlife and vegetation on the island. Birds, Bison, Coyotes, Pronghorn fawns and bighorn sheep and yes, Antelope call this island HOME!
When the state of Utah built the first road from Syracuse Ut to the Island it was a gravel road. Often washed out. When the water erupts into white caps, the water is so heavy it can CRUSH, SMASH AND DESTROY anything in it's path! There were times I slept on the island and spent days alone hiking from end to end. Oolitic sand is unique to the island. These are round grains of sand that are formed when mineral grains of brine shrimp fecal pellets are coated by concentric layers of aragonite, a form of calcium carbonate. This is similar to how perals are formed. In the yearly 70's I hiked to the west side of the island. I was stunned at the sugar white beaches... glistening white diamonds of light. It was Oolitic sand!
My afternoon on the island was very emotional. Seeing how it has evolved into a State Park and yet the austire, aloof beauty and peace this island emmits is awesome! There are 8 magor islands in the lake, but Antelope is the diamond of islands.
Moving along, I and a friend drove to SLC to hear and see the Tabernacle Organ on Temple Square. I studied with Dr. Alexander Schriner when I was 11-12 years old. He taught in the Asembly Hall early on Saturday mornings I took a Lake Shore Bus from Sunset Utah into SLC. Walked over to Temple Square and had a hour lesson with the Greatest Tabernacle Organist ever to touch a keyboard!
The Tabernacle is an acoustic wonder of the world. It was also built with leather tongs holding many things in place and of course it was not built to withstand earth quakes. Thus, the Mormon Church has restored it and made it beautiful. I remember sitting inside this musical wonder of a building listening to the USO, daily recitals, and other events such as when President JFK came to UTAH!!!!!!! I used to place my feet on the floor, sqweeze my butt to the bench and revel in the vibrations the organ made, most of all when the organist would place his feet on the Bombard Pedals. OMG, my entire soul soared to heaven and I promised myself that I would one day be a Tabernacle Organist! They are doing the daily organ recitals again!
After a day of so many exciting and hauting events I crawled into bed and thanked God for my past life! Then to think I am so blest as to be able to come NZ. This is my 21st year!
Will write more later...
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